Films that have been controversial - empire of the censors research

In the 70s films were censored in Britain more than anywhere else in the world. Times have changed because we do not censor a lot of things any more/we can get away with more things.

Films that were greatly controversial:

• Straw dogs - this showed a lot of violence as well as rape
• A clockwork orange - violence and rape. This film didn't require cuts, but people copied the character's actions so Stanley Kubrick took the film down
• Last tango in Paris (1972) - two scenes brought up controversy, uses butter and scissors
• The devils - nudity as well as religion issues 
• The exorcist - apparently someone committed suicide (a 16 year old)  one week after watching the film
• Emmanuelle (1974) - nudity and a lot of sexual context. There were rape scenes
• The evil dead 
• True lies - All cut heavily
• Martial arts movies were cut - if the weapon could be made easily, then the film was cut
• Scandal
• Henry - rape and extreme violence
• Child's play 3 - ultra violent videos will be banned - some people hadn't even seen it = wanted to "milk" the video
• Natural born killers (1994)

Why do the BBFC censor films - To protect people from copying things and harm from the film. Could change the viewers opinion about something in a negative way.

Why do we have certificates - Different age groups are affected in different ways

Is there any need for censorship now - The internet has completely messed up the idea of censorship. Can view it online. Different countries have different regulations so people can just download films.

Hypodermic theory - (don't confuse with inoculation theory) Have an audience which watch a film. A message is injected into the audience by the film, for instance smoking is good and violence is good. There can be positive messages. They can be both harmful and un-harmful. The audience will react in a certain way. The majority of the audience will believe the message and go through with it - it could be something as simple as "these sausages are the best sausages ever" and the audience will go and buy/eat them. But there are reasons to not listen to the message for instance, you are a vegetarian or for health reason etc - these are called filters. People have filters already that will stop them from taking in the messages. Certificates are put on because people of different age groups get different ideas and messages from different things - people don't have as many filters when they are younger.