Film Standards

Following my outrage at the state of War Horse and its certification, I thought I'd air some thoughts about what may be happening to the film industry and its standards.

Based purely on my own experience, I would say that when I was young - so going back anything from 15 to 25 years - the majority of films seemed to be aimed at teenagers and young adults: the number of films with a 15 or 18 certificate at the cinema seemed remarkable.  Films that were for general consumption were quite few and far between, or so it seemed to me.  Does anyone agree?

Somewhere during the last 20 years or so, the film industry has realised something: the more people they can get in to see a film, the more money they can make.  And with the rise of the incredibly talented film writer, we have films like Shrek, studios like Pixar and Dreamworks, and a whole array of ever-improving animation techniques, which all combine to produce films that can appeal to children, but also keep adults wonderfully entertained - much like most of Neil Gaiman's books.

But now a door seems to have been opened.

I can remember, not even that long ago, the murder of James Bulger bringing to the arena of the public press, the debate of whether violent films and computer games were creating violent individuals.  While it seems unlikely as a sole cause, there is no doubt that a violent environment can lead to violent tendencies in an individual - as in the abused child who grows up to abuse his own children or others.

The dilemma in the film industry, it seems, is not "Who/what age group is this film intended for?", but rather, "How can we get this film to the widest audience possible?"

As a result, as I wrote about briefly before, there is now a 12A film about the First World War - subject matter that I would have thought most people reticent to invite 15-year olds to watch, never mind 12.  The loophole here is the lack of bloody/gory violence, but the psychological violence is clear.

Having got so far with entertaining audiences of all ages with a single film, Hollywood now seems to be trying to entertain audiences of all ages, with any film.  The proof of this, to me, is that compared to when I was a child, there seem to be far fewer 15 rated films, and 18 rated films are unusual to the point of rarity.

Maybe I'm alone in my outrage, but it seems to me that an historical event as harrowing as the First World War is not good ENTERTAINMENT (and that is the vital world in the sphere of cinema I think) matter for someone as young as 12 - and with a 12A, parents are actually permitted to take younger children!

From here I can sense a slippery descent into madness.  Films have changed so much already.  There was a time when a film like War Horse would have been an 18 in this country, then a 15, now a 12A.  Where will it end?  And what does the BBFC think has changed so much that this gradual lowering of standards is a good idea, never mind acceptable?

I would hazard a guess that if such lowering of standards goes unchecked, it won't be long before a 12A film is allowed to contain the kind of bloody violence that is currently unacceptable; a 15 will contain the graphic sex scenes that are currently only permitted in 18 rated films, and an 18 certification will be reserved for films like Human Centipede II, a horror film that the BBFC has just outright banned in the UK.