British Board of Film Classification

Why has it been cut? Its only a PG right?
Is the DVD uncut?
I dont know if I want to record OHMSS as Radio Times says it "may be edited for violence" :(
 
But as I pointed out very early in the thread, and as someone else pointed out recently, this is usually down to the distributor rather than the BBFC.

Very few films are banned outright, and not many films need to have things cut to get an 18 rating. But the distributor will always have a target audience in mind. So, if for example they need to cut a few seconRAB to achieve a 15 rating, they'll usually do it. They could choose not to cut the film and have the 18 rating, but as that would damage the box office take, they will cut it and take the 15.
 
This isn't entirely due to the BBFC though. Very few films are banned outright, and almost all could be seen in their uncut form if the studio/distributor was willing to release it with a higher rating. But in many cases, that would destroy their box office takings, so they are willing to make a few seconRAB of cuts to secure a rating more in line with the audience they're trying to target.
 
Thats irrelevant to the fact that in the UK you cannot release an unrated film.

No films should be banned outright and no films should be cut to get an 18.

Distributor cuts for a lower rating are a separate issue which also happens in the US too
 
That rule about not being able to release uncut versions of films was abolished in 2008.

Only one supposed f-word was cut from Short Circuit 2. I say 'supposed' because you apparently can't hear it, but it shows up in subtitles.

The 12 cert was introduced in the UK and Ireland in 1989 for cinema, and 1994 for video. Groundhog Day was released on video in 1993. However, the DVD from the 2000's is rated Irish 15 too (like the video is), so it isn't a matter of 'the 12 cert wasn't available for the video', they would have given the video a 15 whether the 12 cert was around or not.

I have no proof, however I'll bet that Groundhog Day is an Irish 15 because of the attempted suicides, like you said. The IFCO (the Irish equivalent of the BBFC) don't like suicide scenes or references. This film (http://www.ifco.ie/website/ifco/ifc...6C2480257083005279A7?OpenDocument&OpenUp=True) was originally banned in Ireland until a suicide attempt was removed. It's an uncut 15 in the UK.
 
Generations DVD/Blu is uncut, always has been. But the BBC have always cut out Data swearing during the Enterprise saucer crash sequence. Don't think any other FTA channel has ever shown the film before CH4 tonight.
 
It's only a 16 in Ireland and both trailers are rated 12A. I thought it might have been a 15. If the distributors had submitted it to the BBFC earlier, maybe they would have had time to cut it for a 15?
 
There's a post on the Frightfest forum from a Frightfest representative who says

It is unfortunate that Westminster City Council made the decision to only allow the screening of this film with the BBFC's approval. We can understand their rationale, but their late request in this instance meant we had little time to submit the film to the BBFC and to then also wait for the BBFC's full and official response.

Regarding the cut requests, no scene is being removed entirely and the implication of everything will still be there. It will still remain a powerful film. We are still fully behind releasing this film in the UK later this year, but are sad that the cut requests came too late to us for us to make a suitable version of the film ready in time for the Frightfest screening.
 
The only film I can think of off the top of my head thats banned outright is Murder Set Pieces.(but there are more)

But there are others which are only available because they are censored.
Island of Death , I Spit On your Grave , House on the Edge of the Park, Death Wish 2, New York Ripper

Some films made in the 70's have only been allowed uncut in the UK within the last few years
 
Interesting point by Paddy C and ThatWasCool about the imitatable behaviour and the suicides, its interesting how attitudes differ so much. :)
Interesting they have a 16 in Ireland as well as the 15A.
 
Yeah, but the violence in that film was less to do with the actual plot if you get what i mean (i.e. random nameless bad guys killed by Arnie, it doesn't really matter who they are or how they died. You don't even realise that stuff's been cut until you see the uncut version). The stuff that they'd have to cut out of 'A Serbian Film' has actual plot resonance that drives the story forward, without it the film would just seem random and pointless, not to mention the metaphors within the film would be completely lost.
 
Ear claps , headbutts and other similar fighting techniques were a major no no for that pratt James Ferman who took his own personal opinion and forced it upon the country.

It was HIS opinion and HIS alone against the Nunchaka chainsticks that resulted in them being cut from every film they appeared in .
They were removed from a Pink Panther film . Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was cut aswell as lots of other films to remove every reference to this weapon.

Ex members of the BBFC have spoken out about Fermans various obsessions but such stupidity is not a problem today.

The removal of headbutts meant that the original release of Goldeneye was cut and new limits of idiocy were reached when Tomorrow Never Dies was forced to censor its soundtrack to soften the sound of punches and other blows to the body.

Lunacy.
Thankfully these films are now all uncut and all of Fermans lunatic pet peeves are all ignored now
 
It could be down to the distributor having not re-submitted the film for certification, so the Irish Censors just ran with the old certificate.

Some films are re-classified to a lower rating when new versions are released, for example when 'Alien: The Directors Cut' was released theatrically a few years ago it was only rated 15, but when it came out on DVD it was still rated 18 because the disc contained the old theatrical cut which had never been re-submitted.

I don't know if anybody else remembers, but before VHS went the way of the dodo, 'The Terminator' was rated 18 on VHS, while the DVD (with the exact same cover art) was rated 15. I can remember seeing them side by side in HMV once and thinking it was strange. Doesn't that contradict the old rule about the same film having different certificates?
 
Really - who cares about the BBFC.
They have not restricted me in watching any films I want uncut for nearly 20 years thanks to importing laserdiscs and dvd's.

I'd like to thank them for highlighting the most controversial stuff like Murder Set Pieces so that I know which films to buy to see for myself.

The only film they have banned in recent years that I bought and then sold on because I knew I would never see it again is Traces of Death.
Volume 1 was put in for a certificate and they banned it outright so I bought the boxset of 5 volumes.

I don't think it should have been banned but I did decide that watching genuine death footage one after the other for entertainment was questionable.

It's hard to see how the BBFC passed Executions when we see their views on similar material.
 
The Terminator was a strange one. WB put a 16:9 widescreen version through the bbfc and it got a 15, but they never put the fullscreen 4:3 (VHS) version through again, so it was still an 18. The bbfc considered different aspect ratios of the same film to be different works, don't know if they still do.
 
It's the random choices and hypocrisy that irritate me the most. Agent Cody Banks would've been a 15 for an ear clap, yet we can see a T-X punch her hand through the driver's rib cage *whilst he's still alive* in a 12A Terminator 3. Mental.
 
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