The head of the Board of Film Censorship was interviewed recently. He explained that they are no longer seeking to censor any violence, no matter how extreme. A film like The Hostel (released in 2005 but there are plenty worse since) can be shown in mainstream cinemas and sold with an 18 Certificate in any video shop. The plot, apparently, (I have not seen it as I get scared in The Sound of Music) is of some young men who go on a stag night in Eastern Europe and end up being tortured to death in a dungeon – one with a blow torch being applied to his eye.
We know that the 18 Certificate is a fig-leaf at the best of times. Five year olds in dysfunctional families undoubtedly watch this sort of torture-porn. At the same time, an art-house film on general release cannot show an erect penis.
I don’t think you have to be the Archbishop of Canterbury to see that there is something sick and wrong with this. Why aren’t we more concerned and angry about this weird inversion of values?
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