List of banned films
Overview
For nearly the entire history of film and movie production, certain films have been either boycotted by political and religious groups or literally banned by a regime for political or moral reasons. Paradoxically, banning a movie often completely fails to achieve its intention of preventing a movie from being seen—the publicity given worldwide to banned movies often results in it being given attention it might not otherwise receive.
With the advent of the Internet, the ability of groups or governments to ban a film is hindered. High-speed Internet access and better file compression give more people access to digital copies of movies that might not be available for viewing in theaters.
Banning versus censoring
Many governments have commissions to censor and/or rate productions for film and television exhibition. From a government standpoint, the censoring of films is more effective than banning, because it limits the scope of potentially dangerous or subversive cinema without overtly limiting freedom of speech.
In the United States, there has never been national censorship. However, currently the motion picture industry maintains the MPAA Ratings, which are issued to individual films submitted to the MPAA as a means of identifying those with content not considered suitable for children and/or teenagers. The MPAA system is purely voluntary, for both movie makers and theaters. However, almost all theaters in the U.S. use the MPAA system, and many will refuse to show films which are unrated. From 1930 to 1964 film censorship boards did exist on state and/or local levels in some venues in the USA. The MPAA attempted to satisfy requirements of these disparate boards by creating films the Motion Picture Production Code in the late 1920s, another voluntary system designed and implemented by the MPAA. Films were either approved or not under the Code, and those that were generally had little or no problems passing muster with state or local censors.
Timeline
Historically, possibly the country with the most banned films. The Queensland Film Office, for example, has banned at least 174 films since 1974. Australia's OFLC (Office of Film and Literature Classification, is responsible for much of the censorship, however each state and territory is free to make additional legislation. See also Censorship in Australia.
In recent years, only films claimed to glorify rape and paedophilia are banned, and in practice even these get a short cinematic run before the legality kicks in. Of course, broadband Internet access allows people who want to watch such films to do so.
- 1907 Victorian Chief Secretary bans screenings of The Kelly Gang in Benalla and Wangaratta.
- 1912 New South Wales police department banned the production of bushranger films.
- 1928 to 1941: Chief Censor Creswell O'Reilly and his board ban many movies in this period, including Dawn, Klondike Annie (starring Mae West), Applause (it contained chorus girls), Compulsory Hands, Cape Forlorn, The Ladies Man (sexual overtones), White Cargo (interracial theme), The Five Year Plan (discussed communism), All Quiet on the Western Front, Gang Bullets, Each Dawn I Die, Hell's Kitchen (three US gangster films), The King and the Chorus Girl, The Birth of a Baby ("not in the public interest"), Green Pastures, Susan and God (blasphemy), Reefer Madness and Of Mice and Men (sex and violence in combination).
- 1942 - The Monster and the Girl, The Man with two Lives, The Invisible Ghost, and King Kong, Frankenstein, Dracula plus their respective sequels.
- 1964 to 1970: Mr. R. J. Prowse is appointed Chief Censor and Campbell goes into the Appeals Board. During the liberal 1960s many more films were being banned including The Miracle, Viridiana, La Dolce Vita, Satyricon, The Silence, Blow Up and Zabriskie Point.
- 1971: Customs Minister Don Chipp begins the development of a new classification system, which includes the much-needed R rating for adult content. Movies that were once banned are gradually released. The X rating is later introduced to cope with the upsurge in hardcore pornographic films.
- 1976 Pasolini's Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma banned in Australia.
- 1984 (?): A governmental conference is held, resulting in the later abolition of X rated material in most Australian states. Ownership of hardcore porn remains legal.
- 1990: Gail Malone and the Queensland Film Board of Review, which had banned 174 films since 1974 (including Dawn of the Dead, Near Dark, Prison, Day of the Dead, The Toxic Avenger, Re-Animator are abolished when the new Labor State Premier Wayne Goss is outraged that the Board banned an already censored version of Bad Taste after a three-week run in cinemas. A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors was banned for a brief period, but later reased on VHS and DVD.
- 1992 The previously banned 1981 Chinese gore film Dr. Lamb is released with 11 minutes cut; its poster is banned.
- 1993 Australian ban on Pasolini's Salò is lifted.
- 1995 Twelve queer films banned from Tasmania's Queer film festival, including Spikes and Heels (about the Gay Games in New York, broadcast on French, Swiss, Belgian and US TV), and Coming Out Under Fire (about the discrimination faced by US lesbian and gay personnel during World War II, which SBS has just bought to screen on SBS TV). Other titles include What a Lesbian Looks Like, Mad About the Boy, 21st Century Nuns, Copycat and Sex Fish.
- 1997 Pasolini's Salò again banned in Australia
- 2002 Baise-moi (french for "Fuck Me") banned in Australia after initially being passed for exhibition with an R rating.
- 2005 Wolf Creek is temporarily banned in the Northern Territory to avoid influence during the trial of Bradley John Murdoch for murder. Currently it is set to be re-released in the Northern Territory in January 2006.[1]
Other films reportedly banned in Australia, but of unclear date:
- Final Exit
- Cannibal Holocaust
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (Released on VHS & DVD in 2005 but with an R18+ rating)
NOTE: During 2005, the OFLC unbanned a number of previously banned films including Cannibal Holocaust and New York Ripper.
- 1980: The Tin Drum is first cut, and then banned as child pornography by the Ontario Censorship Board.
- 1994: Exit to Eden is temporarily banned by the Saskatchewan Film and Video Classification Board.
- 1997: The theatrical and video releases of Bastard Out of Carolina are banned by the Maritime Film Classification Board.
- 1933 - 1945: Bronenosets Potyomkin (Battleship Potemkin), a film made by Sergei Eisenstein depicting the 1905 Revolution in Odessa, was banned during the period of the Third Reich.
- 1940s: The Great Dictator, starring Charlie Chaplin, was banned during Hitler's regime in Germany because of its satirical depictions of the dictator.
- Triumph of the Will, made in 1934 by Leni Riefenstahl, is nowadays only allowed to be shown in critical context, e.g. with introductory remarks.
- 1967: Ulysses, based on the book by James Joyce was banned until September 2000.
- 1971: A Clockwork Orange - since unbanned.
- 1979: The Life of Brian was banned in Ireland for 8 years for blasphemy.
- 1983: The Meaning of Life, another Monty Python film. - since unbanned.
- 1991: Story of Ricky-Oh - An ulta violent Hong Kong movie reminiscent to the Evil Dead and Braindead - since unbanned in 2002.
- 1994: Natural Born Killers - since unbanned.
- 1996: From Dusk Till Dawn - was banned until 2000.
To keep in line with the UK, the Irish Censor's also banned the same material passed by the BBFC (see recent bannings in the UK section).
Although there is a censorship board run by the government and in which a member is part of the Catholic Church very few movies were not released, a movie starring Anthony Quinn Lion of the Desert about the Libyan revolution against Italy and a couples of film concerning Italian war crimes during its brief colonial history. Almost all Pasolini's movies were banned for a while, but then released. Last Tango in Paris was censored for a while.
- 2004: The Passion of the Christ - however, the ban was later lifted to only allow "Christians" to watch the movie. No checks were done at screenings but tickets were sold through churches.
The majority of films passed legal in Malaysia are extensively, heavily cut, the films that are "officially" banned include:
- The Exorcist (1973)
- Saturday Night Fever (1977)
- Pet Sematary (1989)
- Schindler's List (1993)
- Babe (1995)
- Last Man Standing (1996)
- Babe: Pig in the City (1998)
- Blade (1998)
- The Prince of Egypt (1998)
- Saving Private Ryan (1998)
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
- Fiza (2001)
- Zoolander (2001)
- Auto Focus (2002)
- The Queen of the Damned (2002)
- Bruce Almighty (2003)
- Daredevil (2003)
- Homerun (2003)
- Underworld (2003)
- Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
- The Girl Next Door (2004)
- The Passion of Christ (2004) (prohibited from non-Christian viewers)
- Team America: World Police (2004)
- Sin City (2005)
- The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005)
It was shown at theatres and is available uncut on VHS & DVD. The film was held from release for a period of time. The title casing states that it was "Banned in parts of America", or "Previously Banned", probably a result of where the film which distributer the film was sourced from.
- The Pakistani government has banned the import of Indian films, leaving piracy as the only way to distribute them. [2]
- 1954: The film The Wild One was banned from distribution in the United Kingdom. It was un-banned and released theatrically in the late 1960s.
- 1968: Roger Corman's film The Trip was banned due to glorification of LSD. It was unbanned at some point but not released in Britain until the mid-1990s, by which time the youth subcultures depicted in the film were extremely dated.
- 1971: While not actually banned by the government, the Stanley Kubrick movie A Clockwork Orange was pulled from distribution until Kubrick's death in 2000. This unusual move was implemented after Kubrick received death threats and copycat criminals perpetrated crimes mimicking scenes from the movie. See also British Board of Film Classification.
- 1972 Last House on the Left Banned by the BBFC until 2002 in a cut form.
- 1974 Texas Chainsaw Massacre Famously banned by James Ferman. The reason for the ban is only known to Ferman himself but many suggests that it was very shocking at the time. Passed uncut since 1999.
Recent bannings include:
2002 Hooligans 2002 Love Camp 7
2005 Terrorists, Killers And Other Wackos AKA Terrorists, Killers And Middle East Wackos
- 1908: The James Boys in Missouri and Night Riders, banned in Chicago
- 1915: The Birth of a Nation banned in several American cities.
- 1926: The Crimson Kimono, based on a real-life Chicago murder case and political scandal, banned in Chicago.
- 1928: The Racket banned in Chicago.
- 1932: Freaks banned in Cleveland.
- 1967: Titicut Follies, distribution blocked by legal order, 1967-1992.
- 1987: Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, banned by court order
- 2002: The Profit, legal injunction preventing exhibition: April 2002-present
- 2005: The Interpreter was banned by a September 2005 interdict from President Robert Mugabe's Office, stating that the film is “mischievous” and a “subtle denigration of our head of State by the Bush administration and the CIA.” Screening The Interpreter may contravene Section 13(1)(A) as read with subsection (6) of the Censorship and Entertainment Control Act, and is in contravention of the Public Order and Security Act, which outlaws communicating statements deemed to undermine the Head of State.
See also
Further reading
- Forbidden Films: Censorship Histories of 125 Motion Pictures by Dawn Sova ISBN 0816043361