CENSORED – The Story of Film Censorship in Britain by Tom Dewe Mathews (Chatto & Windus, first published 1994)
In a recent essay topic for my advanced English language students, I asked whether the amount of violence in movies and on TV has a negative impact on young people and society as a whole. Almost to a man (and woman!) they responded in the affirmative, going on to advocate strict parental supervision and recommend greater censorship.
I found the tone of their answers quite depressing. They were unanimous in the view that rigorous controls had to be in place to protect impressionable citizens from disturbing images. They seemed oblivious to the fact that this would also severely restrict what adults would be able to watch.
It is one thing to argue that impressionable adolescents need to be shielded from extreme violence or explicit sex but why should consenting adults be subject to the same safeguards?
Tom Dewe Mathews’ thorough, if at times dry, account of what he calls “the murky processes and opaque aims of Britain’s film censorship” is peppered with such ethical dilemmas.
Mathews states in the introduction that he is opposed to censorship on the grounds that “films should find their audience in the market-place without intervention, and subject only to the laws of the land. While these laws may not be to everyone’s liking, at least they are open to public debate”.
I would go further and say that it is one of the duties of cinema (and any art form for that matter) to challenge values rather than merely sustain them. The fact that murder is illegal doesn’t mean that acts of homicide cannot be shown. Paedophilia, rape and torture are all deplorable but ignoring such heinous crimes won’t make them go away. Continue reading
