[Make Them Die Slowly]

Originally Posted by attackosaur

There's a great book about Mary Whitehouse consisting of archived letters. Really interesting stuff, if anyone's interested. It's called Ban This Filth!

Totally get why some folks aren't fussed about her any more. The past is the past and all that. But I do think it's worth keeping in mind, especially since few people seem to give a damn about censorship any more. It's just kind of accepted in the UK.

I've read through all the UK press coverage for Antichrist, Human Centipede 2 and A Serbian Film, and it's depressing how few people speak up when a film is cut. For HC2 and ASF, there was the Daily Mail, The Sun etc giving it their usually "Ban this!" nonsense, while The Guardian/Observer ran pro-censorship bobbins as their critics said "The BBFC are doing you a favour because these films suck." Even Kermode, who's published articles and book chapters with very anti-censorship views, can't be bothered if it's a film he doesn't like. (Watch him put on his anti-censorship hat again if a Friedkin movie gets cut.) There's an argument that it doesn't matter anyway, as you can get the uncut films online, but that's basically the BBFC acting as the advertising wing of the Pirate Bay. Maybe in the past this kind of controversy helped films, but now it must be absolutely crushing them because if they're cut then the majority of their target audience will just pirate it.

Sorry for the rant. One of my pet peeves is film critics who use the "I'm anti-censorship but..." strategy so they can endorse cuts to a film they don't like and still try to look cool.

You need to read some posts by Boo, he is our anti censorship pit bull.