cleanfeed and wikipedia

[Ian Batten]

On 9 Dec 2008, at 17:57, Roland Perry wrote:

> In article <68826D7981AC40789841E61B1DFA060C@FortyTwo>, Brian  
> Gladman <brg@gladman.plus.com> writes
>> it is obvious (to me at least) that the universe of images cannot  
>> be objectively classified into the mutually exclusive categories of  
>> 'decent' and 'indecent'.   We don't even have an objective  
>> definition of these terms so we are lost even before we even start.
>
> So don't apply for a job rating cinema films (etc) then.

Which is notoriously subjective and full of all sorts of odd  
decisions, which is Brian's point.

For example, The Dark Knight was a 12A, while Blade Runner was  
recently re-certificated at 15, when the former would be easy to argue  
should be a 15 and the latter is by any rational judgement a  
certificate `less', not a certificate `more'.

The usual claim is that if the violence is obviously fantastic then  
that reduces the certification (hence, perhaps, DK being a 12A rather  
than a 15) and that you can have pretty well as much violence you like  
so long as it's not sexual in a film rated at 15.   Which makes the 18  
certificate for Sweeney Todd a bit tricky, given that everyone bursts  
into song every five minutes _and_ the violence is clearly non-sexual.

And they change over time: Apocalypse Now was an X, then an 18, but  
the Redux edit (longer, bloodier, contains shock new ingredient `a  
woman's voice') is a 15.   Don't Look Now and The Wickerman were a  
double bill at X in 1973 --- oh, to have seen them together on first  
release --- but are now only 15s on video and I _think_ also in  
cinemas when they're occasionally shown.   Even today they're all  
marginal at 15, especially Don't Look Now, where both the sex and the  
violence could be argued to justify an 18 certificate.

But Leone's masterpiece C'era una volta il West was released at AA, re- 
rated to 15 when the system changed and is _still_ a 15 on video, when  
it's hard to see that anything more than a 12A and arguably a PG is  
justified.

And they change by medium: Juno was released in cinemas at 12, but the  
DVD release is a 15.

And they require complex adjudication by strange people: the appeal  
for the cuts the BBFC required for a recent release of Last House on  
the Left (horror, blood) was heard by a panel including Biddy Baxter,  
erstwhile editor of Blue Peter.

ian