Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

[philipdalton]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

I am racking my brains trying to think why youngsters would not be allowed to see the film Grease (which I assume was the original 1978 version of it) - I believe there is some mild bad language in the dialogue, and it was released as a PG (post-1982 at least), but even then I would still regard it as a family film which has been shown on BBC 1 in the afternoon or early evening, although one assumes that the duration was a lot shorter than its cinema version, and various scenes removed.

I know from watching the recent theatre production of Grease back in September that the dialogue does have mild bad language in it - as I have said before, I saw a matinee performance at the Leicester Curve and the audience had more sensitive types such as pensioners and school pupils (who were on a school trip to the theatre), and I believe that the dialogue would mirror image the film dialogue quite closely.

I know that Grease is quite a sexy film, especially with the Travolta / Newton-John songs performed, but I would hardly give it a 15 or higher rating uncut - I think that even a 12 would be exaggerating.

It is actually a known fact that Marie Osmond refused to play the part of Sandy in 'Grease' because of her religious beliefs. I can actually remember the Daily Mail newspaper publishing an article on the morally questionable aspects of the film at the height of its popularity.

[philipdalton]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

It is actually a known fact that Marie Osmond refused to play the part of Sandy in 'Grease' because of her religious beliefs. I can actually remember the Daily Mail newspaper publishing an article on the morally questionable aspects of the film at the height of its popularity.

The Daily Mail have always been noted for attacking the film industry as far back as I can remember. When concern over the 'video nasties' was at its height in the 80's they had a "Ban The Sadist Videos" campaign. The gory details of each of these films was described in full, which has often made me wonder if it was actually just a ruse to sell more copies of the newspaper.

[tex]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

I have been a little surprised to find that the film 'Kes' was actually given a 'U' certificate in 1969 despite containing the phrase 'hands off cocks on socks' and numerous uses of the words 'bloody', '*******', 'sod' and 'bugger'. At the time giving it an A certificate would have meant that no- one under 16 would have been able to see it unaccompanied, and so it was therefore considered unnecessary to classify it anything higher than a U. But the type of language used in it would be unheard of in a U film nowadays.

Although the current younger generation are often refered to as the "snowflake" generation they are exposed to much more bad language and mucky imagery than our generation were, there seems to be little censorship on tv these days except for the occasional warning ahead of the broadcast

[George 1978]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

I have been a little surprised to find that the film 'Kes' was actually given a 'U' certificate in 1969 despite containing the phrase 'hands off cocks on socks' and numerous uses of the words 'bloody', '*******', 'sod' and 'bugger'. At the time giving it an A certificate would have meant that no- one under 16 would have been able to see it unaccompanied, and so it was therefore considered unnecessary to classify it anything higher than a U. But the type of language used in it would be unheard of in a U film nowadays.

I was wondering whether it was supposed to be rude in a Carry On film sort of way?

[philipdalton]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

I believe the Exorcist was banned regionally

It was banned off the video shelves for many years in the UK because the standard required for home viewing was supposed to be higher than in the cinema due to children being able to access films in the home. In America there was some controversy about the film having an 'R' rating, which meant children could watch it provided they were accompanied by an adult. There was an X rating for films in the States but it was more associated with pornography than horror.

[George 1978]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

Talking about Carry On films, wasn't there some controversy with regards to Carry On Emmanuelle being released in cinemas?

[Richard1978]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

Talking about Carry On films, wasn't there some controversy with regards to Carry On Emmanuelle being released in cinemas?

Probably because of the name, I've never seen it but I imagine it was no where as explicit as Emmanuelle was.

[philipdalton]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

Talking about Carry On films, wasn't there some controversy with regards to Carry On Emmanuelle being released in cinemas?

There were censorship difficulties with 'Psycho' on both sides of the Atlantic but I won't discuss it in too much detail as we musn't delve too much into the 60's in this thread.

'Carry on Emmanuelle' was passed with a AA (14 years and upward) certificate without cuts.
'Emmanuelle' was passed with an X (18 years and upward) certificate with cuts but might be available completely uncut now, I'm not sure.

[George 1978]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

The Confessions films which starred Robin Askwith also come to mind - the TV listing guides gave them an 18 certificate when Channel 5 and Paramount shown them. Not surprisingly, there are shots of bare bottoms and even a "page three" angle of breasts seen in one of them. But I am certain that they made it into local cinemas when they were first released.

[philipdalton]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

I remember when 'Scum' was shown on terrestrial TV for the first time, on Channel 4 to be precise. I didn't see it then, I'm glad I didn't as I was only in my early teens at the time. It was reported in the Daily Mail newspaper that Mary Whitehouse had been up in arms about it. I remember a group of boys at the school bus stop expressing their sheer amazement at seeing 'bumming' shown on the small screen (they were referring to the homosexual rape scene). No-one was accustomed to seeing such things shown on TV in the early 80's.

[George 1978]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

The Norman Wisdom film What's Good for the Goose? I believe could also fit within that bracket - in fact, most Channel 5 films shown on Friday nights in around 1997-1998. Sally (or was it Judy?) Geeson appeared and I think that there was a "topless" scene in that as well.

Channel 5 used to show some of Sylvia Kristel's films as well - I don't think any film reels with her on them has ever made it inside a cinema.

[philipdalton]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

The first two films I can distinctly remember watching in the cinema were a double bill of two Monty Python films, 'And Now For Something Completely Different' & 'The Holy Grail'. Both films must have been A-rated back then for my parents to have taken me to see them, but the copy of 'Holy Grail' which I have on DVD is rated '15'. There is a certain amount of gory slapstick violence in it, but due to the frivolous nature of the film very few children would be likely to be disturbed by it.

[Richard1978]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

I think there used to be a loophole for showing films either banned or X rated in a private members club.

Some "art house" cinemas would claim to be a film society & charge a membership fee for viewers to watch films not screened at the mainstream cinemas.

I've got the feeling the "butchered" version of Caligula was screened this way, as Penthouse temporarily leased some cinemas just for it's theatrical run, probably charging a membership to get round the usual restrictions.

[Danniella]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

I remember when 'Scum' was shown on terrestrial TV for the first time, on Channel 4 to be precise. I didn't see it then, I'm glad I didn't as I was only in my early teens at the time. It was reported in the Daily Mail newspaper that Mary Whitehouse had been up in arms about it. I remember a group of boys at the school bus stop expressing their sheer amazement at seeing 'bumming' shown on the small screen (they were referring to the homosexual rape scene). No-one was accustomed to seeing such things shown on TV in the early 80's.

I remember watching some of Scum but i turned it off, not my kind of film, i was mainly curious.

[George 1978]

Re: Films given a different rating by the local town council than by the BBFC

Curiosity often gets the better of us when we watch films.