Does censorship actually work?

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Friday, May 8th, 2009 Subscribe To Our Feed

The issue of censorship came up for me the other night while i was watching Cannibal Ferox with some friends. While watching the movie it came to a point where the captives are going to be tortured or eaten by the cannibal tribe, the only problem is i cant tell you which one actually happened as the whole scene had been cut out. We had no clue what had happened to the captives, all we knew is it wasnt pretty -and we’d missed it in all of its gruesome glory, courtesy of the bbfc.

Do moves really need to be censored to protect us? Considering watching them now, more than 25 years on you have to wonder why they were taken seriously in the first place. Would the impact have been so great on society had we had been allowed to see these movies?

The 80s gave usthe video nasties act, not as people say, an attack on free speech, but for many of these films it was the best piece of publicity they could recieve. The movies live on through being banned; they obtain legendary status because they were banned, making people only want to get hold of them all the more. Looking at the films that are now coming out ‘Saw and ‘Hostel’, are they any different from what we were seeing from the likes of Driller killer and Cannibal Holocaust way back then? The ‘uncut’ dvd versions of these films come across more as a marketing ploy rather than general censorship.

Wii game Manhunt 2 was banned until the developer blurred out the killings scenes, which only made people want to play it -but the censors shouldnt have worried -after becoming bored with the kill scenes the game has poor controls and little replay value.

Censorship is supposed to ‘protect’ the public from devient artists -but shouldnt we have the choice over whether to view said entertainment for ourselves? Rather than cutting films to the point of being left with a unitelligible film because of the cuts. I leave you with a quote from the poster of famed banned movie last house on the left ‘remember: its only a movie.

If you remember the video nasty campaign of the eighties you’ll also remember Converse trainers -go here for trainers and some cool t-shirts.

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