Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

From 1913 to 1932 the BBFC published in its
annual reports a list of prohibited film content. Not a
code, these lists became known after 1916 as O’Connor’s
rules (after the new BBFC president T. P. O’Connor,
who presented a forty-three-point list). Subject to ridicule,
the lists were discontinued in 1932, with films later
judged on individual merits. In 1929, for instance, the
list included the prohibition of ‘‘stories tinctured with
salacious wit,’’ ‘‘sensual exposition of Eugenic doctrines,’’
‘‘women fighting with knives,’’ ‘‘libels on the British
nursing profession,’’ ‘‘provocative and sensuous exposure
of girls’ legs,’’ and ‘‘abdominal contortions in dancing.’’
From its beginning, the BBFC had an advisory two-point
certification system—the ‘‘U’’ certificate, which indicated
films especially suitable for children, and the ‘‘A’’ certificate,
which indicated films generally suitable for public
exhibition—and in 1921 these were formally adopted for
the first time.
There had been repeated debates concerning an
adults-only category, with proposals for an appropriate
certificate being made as early as 1921. In response to the
increasing number of American horror films, a new category
of film classification was created in January 1933.
The new ‘‘H’’ (for ‘‘Horrific’’) classification was purely
advisory and did not alter the admission procedures that
were already in place, still allowing children into the
films if accompanied by a parent or bona fide guardian.
This ‘‘horrific’’ category mixed horror films with nonhorror
films, such as Abel Gance’s 1938 antiwar movie
J’accuse! and a 1945 United Nations war crime film. The
‘‘H’’ became a film certificate only in June 1937, when it
was made the first adults-only certificate in the United
Kingdom (admission prohibited to anyone under 16).
In January 1951 the ‘‘H’’ was subsumed into the newly
created ‘‘X’’ certificate (admission prohibited to anyone
under 16; increased to the age of 18 in 1970; in 1982
replaced by a new ‘‘18’’ certificate). Arthur Watkins, the
secretary of the BBFC in 1951, described ‘‘X’’ films as not
‘‘merely sordid films dealing with unpleasant subjects but
films which, while not being suitable for children, are good
adult entertainment.’’ The BBFC currently operates eight
film and video classifications—from ‘‘Uc’’ (Universal, but
especially suitable for very young children), to ‘‘R18’’ (for
screenings in licensed sex cinemas, for sex videos that are
available only in licensed sex shops, and to persons aged 18
and over).
PRESSURE GROUPS AND THE MEDIA
Although government and local authorities are most
responsible for the regulation of movies, moral protest
groups can exert enormous pressure on a film that they
have deemed to be against their beliefs. National and
local elected officials, television broadcasters, and cinema
Censorship
chains have been targeted by organized campaigners who
write letters of complaint or form demonstrations outside
specific venues. The many pressure groups who have
targeted films have included the religious organization
the Festival of Light, which in the United Kingdom
argued that The Devils (1971) and The Last Temptation
of Christ (1988) were blasphemous; and family protection
groups such as mediawatch-uk (formerly the National
Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association, founded in 1965,
and led by Mary Whitehouse), which has campaigned
against violent films such as Baise-moi (2000). In the
United States, the gay rights group Queer Nation
(formed in 1990) attacked Basic Instinct (1992) as homophobic;
feminist groups such as Women Against
Violence Against Women assailed Dressed to Kill (1980)
as misogynistic; and ethnic protest groups have variously
picketed against the racial representations of Native
Americans in A Man Called Horse (1970), Italian
Americans in The Godfather (1972), Puerto Ricans in
Fort Apache the Bronx (1981), Cuban Americans in
Scarface (1983), and Asian Americans in The Year of
Living Dangerously (1982), Black Rain (1989), and
Rising Sun (1993). The popular press can be the most
effective tool in generating a moral campaign against a
marked film. Thus pressure groups have taken out fullpage
newspaper ads condemning a production. For
instance, the Catholic League advertised in the New
York Times against Disney and Miramax for distributing
Priest (1994), a film it considered blasphemous for its
depiction of sexual acts among members of the clergy.
In the United Kingdom the British press was central
to debates surrounding the cinema release of Crash
(1996), which The Standard and its reviewer, Alexander
Walker, pronounced as depraved. In the 1980s and
1990s, the main target in the United Kingdom was film
on video, reflecting the concern that the age of the viewer
within the home cannot be controlled (nor the power of
the viewer to replay or pause an image). Originally,
certification did not apply to video in the United
Kingdom, with no age-related limitations. In the initial
boom of the video age, from 1979 to 1982, many controversial
films slipped out on release with sensational
covers exploiting content in order to attract consumers
among a mass of video shop choices. It was the covers for
videos such as Lager SSadis Kastrat Kommandantur (SS
Experiment Camp, 1976) and Cannibal Holocaust (1980)
that drew attention to these films. This developed into a
moral panic orchestrated by the press and newspapers
such as the Daily Mail, with its ‘‘Ban the Sadist
Videos’’ campaign; in response, the Director of Public
Prosecutions drew up a list of sixty actionable titles, of
which thirty-two were to become banned films, including
the notorious titles—so-called ‘‘video nasties’’—I Spit on
SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM 241