Hello everyone!
The entire "movie violence" debate is resurrected every now and then but I felt like raising a similar but nonetheless different question: should we have any restrictions at all for what you can and cannot depict in movies, books or any medium for that matter?
I'm obviously not talking about snuff or anything like that but rather faked scenarios that nonetheless can depict well... absolutely anything. I find it strangely fascinating that a lot of humans are so drawn to extreme movies and I myself have seen some of the most depraved and sickening ones available. We're not talking sandbox nasties like Hostel and The Human Centipede; way beyond that kind of stuff. I never really enjoyed it, and as of now I've stopped watching it completely but it never ceased to amaze me that a lot of people actually take pleasure from watching such extreme depictions of sex, violence and everything that goes with it.
Is ANYTHING okay to depict in a movie or book? My reply would doubtlessly be yes. The human mind has conjured up some things I wish it hadn't but nobody's forcing people to watch it so I don't really mind. I do believe that things we see in movies and books affect us but, to quote Mark Twain:
“Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it.â€Â
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I'm against censuring.
Yes there are reasonable limits, such as snuff films.... Oh wait, I guess there is no limit there considering all the gratuitous violent films that end with characters dying in usually novel yet horrifying ways. Those are a form of snuff film, although no one dies (in real life).
Like you many things are not my cup of tea. Just because I don't want to see those things doesn't mean others shouldn't be allowed to.
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the OP's question is mute and dont care because there are more options today. Dont see how it would be possible to regulate access. An attempt will only force darker technology.
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Well I'm easily shocked or scared by what I see or read... Just reading the plot of 'The Human Centipede' a few months ago made me sick to my stomach. But I agree with the fact that it's not because someone can't watch such things that other people shouldn't be allowed to. In the meantime I'm wondering if people that enjoy that kind of stuff are completely sane or if they are some sorts of psycopaths. I'll never understand what's so enjoyable about extreme movies, especially when it involves sex or torture (or both). Besides, there are enough psychos out there doing f*cked up things already...
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There should be no censorship. We all have minds and can use them to decide what we do or do not want to watch or expose ourselves to.
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I see. Well this wasn't much of a discussion then. I was expecting at least someone to advocate the removal of some REALLY disturbing material. Explicit combinations of necrophilia and paedophilia perhaps.
In response to Brown Aerrow: The definition of snuff is that people actually are killed in front of the camera. If they don't actually die for real it's not snuff.
In response to fjp999: We do have a rating system.
Allowed for anyone
Allowed for 7 and up
Allowed for 11 and up
Allowed for 15 and up.
It doesn't go higher than 15 unless it's pornographic, in which case the limit is 18. However, unlike America we don't stop movies that get a certain rating (in your case I think it's NC-17) from marketing themselves on TV etc. I don't like their way of rating things either; it's terribly inconsistent. I remember some movie where a girl masturbates (with her clothes on!!) that got an NC-17 rating whereas extreme amounts of violence are tolerated.
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Offhand I'm not for censoring the portrayal of anything that's not a criminal offense to show. Just to be clear I mean "criminal offense" in action rather than in content. For example, actually torturing or killing animals should instantly be labelled "evidence" and used to prosecute those involved, but using computer graphix to create the illusion of it is something else (not that I'll want to see it).
That said, I want the content LABELLED. I don't really care about ratings anywhere as much. If a movie is rated R I want to know WHY because to me there is a HUGE difference between a scene of people enjoying pot and a graphic rape scene. I really don't see that much of a difference between that and labeling the ingredients of our food. As it is I skip a lot of movies because I don't know how or why it got rated (or saw movies that I would've skipped because I assumed they weren't as bad as they turned out to be). And unfortunately asking friends often didn't help because what I consider extremely upsetting is considered "no big deal" or even hilarious to others. Heck, one I trusted on a messageboard (a middle-age female Wiccan who was a bit on the fluffy side) demanded we see Born on the Fourth of July. I asked how graphic it was (as I heard it was) and she said "not at all." Yet I couldn't get through it as it's content was so horrible, and after sharing on that messageboard my experience others agreed they wouldn't be seeing it but the one who made the recommendation accused me of being anti-American, and then left after one of the others (grateful I'd saved her from seeing it) said people like us didn't need to have the darkness of the world rubbed in our faces to "get" it or even just to feel something like she did.
It would be nice if they could label things in other ways, too. For example, is a comedy satirical or slapstick, witty or fecal? (Of course as South Park proves they can be all of that, sometimes at the very same time. That's fine, list all that apply.) Then there's really depressing comedy (a major pet peeve of mine since I often get comedy to improve my mood only to feel worse after seeing the tragic "comedy" of the movie and I'd really love a heads up before I pay money to see it only to make myself feel worse for it.) Same for violence, is it "thrilling" (that is no blood, obviously as fake as wrestling or the Jerry Springer show, perhaps Indiana Jones level at worst) or is the goal to make the audience cringe as people are beaten into a bloody pulp and left on life support?
They don't have to list it all on the movie poster, of course, I'm fine with looking it up online (or better yet on a "movie guide" in the cinema itself, though on the package of dvds, both for sale and for rent, seem good as well).
As for "torture porn," I will never watch that (unless a Rob Zombie movie I saw once classifies as that), but it doesn't particularly bother me that others do. I imagine it's like guys who listen to songs about necrophilia, it's just "so gross it's cool and/or funny" to them. While I have heard of psychos in those fanbases, others are surprisingly nice people.
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for some reason this topic reminded me of a movie called brainscan
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How far are you allowed to go?
