Film Censorship is for Everyone

The idea for the film, A Clockwork Orange, was originally submitted for review in 1967, when the movies original screen play was reviewed. The Boards initial reaction to the screen play was that a film with vicious violence and hooliganism would be unacceptable by the BBFC, even though the film was advertised at an adult audience.

Surprisingly with little script changes the final movie was classified with an original X rating later changed to an 18 rating when released uncut by the BBFC (A Clockwork Orange – Case Study, 2000). Another movie classified by the BBFC was 9 Songs, the film was given an 18 rating and was uncut. It was a landmark move by the BBFC because the movie depicted real sex.

The classification had received mixed reviews with many individuals praising the classification and other finding it inappropriate (9 Songs, 2007). These two films were aimed at adults and were not cut, however that is not the case with every movie reviewed by the BBFC. Films that have been aimed at an adult audience and were cut by the BBFC are 1995s Showgirls, 1989s Child’s Play, and 1982s The Evil Dead. All three of these films were advertised for an adult audience but the BBFC still deemed that parts of the films needed to be censored.

A Clockwork Orange and 9 Songs are used as examples in connection with the MPAA, OFLC, and BBFC’s classification and censorship procedures, demonstrate that the organizations are censoring film for all age groups not just for children.

If the classification organizations were censoring films only for children then movies targeted at an adult audience would be free of censorship, which according to the OFLC and BBFC are not due to the organizations ability to censor and ban material. The MPAA does not have the ability to out right censor a film but it can determine the appropriate content available for specific age groups by classifying film into a higher or lower classification group.