Film Censorship is for Everyone

It has been said that, “the primary objective of film censorship is to protect children from the damaging effects of horrific, sexual or violent images and ideas.” However, has the modern classification and censoring systems taken censorship further than children? Films classified for children are rarely censored unless images are believed to cause harm to a child.

Most films that are censored are aimed at an adult audience, thus the previous mentioned quote is untrue, for censorship is used to protect everyone from the damaging effects of horrific, sexual or violent images and idea. The images and ideas that are believed to need protecting from vary from classification system to classification system.

This variation is caused by cultural influences, governmental control and general public debate in conjunction with the classification board. Therefore every film will get a different classification and or different cuts pertaining to the country in which the classification is given. In the United States of America the classification of films is completed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA).

In Australia the Office of Film and literature Classification (OFLC) classifies and censors films and in the United Kingdom the classification board is The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). Each of these organizations aims at classifying film into age ranges, pertaining to the films content and appropriateness. However, the three organizations do so differently and with different standards.

The MPAA classifies films using a parent method, which means that every movie is classified by a rating board who members can “put themselves in the role of most American parents so they can view a film and apply a rating that most parents would find suitable and helpful in aiding their decisions about their children and what movies they see” (How Movies Are Rated, 2005). Thus, the MPAA is aimed at classifying films into appropriate content for specific age groups with a large concern of what parents want their children to see.

If a film’s target audience is a G rated audience and gets a higher rating than expected. The film maker then has the option of re-editing the film for re-evaluation. The MPAA in its self will not censor a film due to the film maker’s constitutional first amendment of free speech, but will suggest certain areas for editing in order for the movie to get a specific rating.

Two films, A Clockwork Orange (1971) and 9 Song (2004), can be examined closer in connection with the MPAA classification system. The Film, A Clockwork Orange was originally given an X rating (now NC-17) by the MPAA. The NC-17 rating is given to movies that the board believes most parents would find inappropriate for their children under that age of 17. The content of an NC-17 movie can be pornographic or obscene in connection with sex, violence and or drug use (What do the Rating mean, 2007).