The Human Centipede Films

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

He does make valid points about the stupidity of the BBFC, however.

Only if you live in a country where your Constitution allows complete freedom of speech within the arts. However, if you live in a country that has compulsory film censorship, it's a different story. At the end of the day, every country has its own system of government and laws that spin off from that idiom -- and if you flaunt the law, these are the results... ;)

I'm not defending the BBFC, but as someone who also lives in a country of compulsory censorship I can see both sides of the equation. I might not like that, but it's the way it's done. Could be worse though: they could have done this in a country where such a thing might have attracted a lengthy jail-term or death sentence (eg: there's indie filmmakers around SE Asia that have spent the better part of the last decade or two in jail...for making movies).

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Only if you live in a country where your Constitution allows complete freedom of speech within the arts.

Which, thankfully, I do. No disrespect to any country whose gov't enforces such things, but I think the entire concept is antiquated and backwards. Adults should be able to choose for themselves what they want to watch, I don't want the gov't deciding what I can or cannot subject myself too. Obviously there are exceptions (snuff stuff, child porn, etc.) but as far as fictional films go, I take a pretty strong stance against elected or appointed officials making such decisions for me when I'm perfectly capable of doing it on my own.

So I guess I don't see both sides of it, honestly.

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

So I guess I don't see both sides of it, honestly.

I figured that might be the case. ;) My point, which I am sure you did get, is that folks like me and those in the UK (and other countries), will always answer to these laws until they change. That might be tomorrow, or it might be never. Australia and the UK are very similar in this respect: the laws largely protect the lawmakers themselves, but don't always work in practice in the public arena. Aussie censors passed this one uncut, the UK counterparts banned it -- on the flipside, SALO only just had its ban lifted last year here while it's been available for ages in the UK. It's all swings and roundabouts, really...but there's not a lot Joe Public like me can do about it in the end (apart from import). It's definitely silly that it all applies to works of fiction as much as real (and abhorrent) stuff that should be banned. But what do you do? I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on this one, as we live under different circumstances.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Oh, I got your point, I just went on a bit of a rant is all. Of course I don't expect people in the UK or Australia to be able to do much about it, you just have to make do - but I feel very strongly about gov't censorship and went off a bit, particularly as the examples you site in your post above prove that there isn't always a lot of logic to the decisions made.

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

...the examples you cite in your post above prove that there isn't always a lot of logic to the decisions made.

Bingo! But the well-adjusted amongst us (ie: people with families and normal lives, in my case) just have to wear it. Meanwhile, juvenile offenders get caught, arrested, go to court, get a slap on the wrist and walk off laughing...sometimes to re-offend the very same day. We have sex offenders and pedos down here, that make the news regularly, that are literally doing the turnstile thing between prison and public life...because they keep re-offending and then the courts go easy on them to keep the do-gooders happy. And while all that shit's going on...people are making some stupid fucking song and dance about a movie that next to no-one (realistically) is going to see like it's the world's worst crime. As the old saying goes: the law is an ass!

So...how's that Lisa Dalbello, hey? She's Canadian, right?

PS: I think I am going to have to try harder to lose some weight as I am beginning to resemble my avatar.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

The vocalist? I know of her but can't say I know her music too well.

And yeah, in perspective there are certainly bigger deals than censorship to get worked up over, but for whatever reason it really pushes my button. I guess you can attribute it to not being allowed to by a Sam Kinison cassette when I was 13 ;)

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

I guess you can attribute it to not being allowed to by a Sam Kinison cassette when I was 13 ;)

My folks wouldn't let me go and see The Elephant Man, around the same age! But American Werewolf, The Howling, Prom Night and The Thing were fine...go figure...

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

It wasn't a parental issue in my case - my mother was fine with me buying stuff that was labelled as parental advisory as I was a pretty well behaved kid and didn't seem all that interested in torturing small animals or swearing at her - it was the store I tried to buy it at. I even went back a second time and they said that they wouldn't sell it to anyone under 18 even with parental permission, and then refused to sell it to my mother because they said that they knew she was just doing it to give it to me. And this was in Florida, not Canada. It stuck with me I guess, even if in a roundabout way they did me a favor by not letting me waste my money on a Sam Kinison tape.

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

Ah...that makes sense. I had the same drama when I went and saw my first R-rated films: walked into COMMANDO, paid, sat down, watched movie, no worries. Went back a week later to the same cinema to see WILD ORCHID, also R-rated (though we got the American unrated cut) and they wanted to refuse me entry! So it was: here's my ID, and money -- give me a ticket. Thus, even in Oz...it's okay to be a young-looking 18yo and watch a violent film, but don't expect zero hassle if you want to watch something with boobies and shagging in it.

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Australia sounds a lot like American in that regard. I think it's a bit backwards myself.

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

It should be the other way around! When I was growing up, back in the 70s/early 80s, it was; we used to be a very liberal nation that way back then. In the last two decades we've turned into a bloody Nanny state run by wowsers. People seem to get more bent out of shape these days if a pair of boobs is exposed in public (eg: a mum breast-feeding her bub) than if someone gets shot in the face on the doorstep of their home in the 'burbs! Guns are illegal to own in Oz...last time I checked, boobs were perfectly legal.

[Mike T Guest Find all posts View Profile Close Mike T]

The film's now been passed in the UK with 2m37s of cuts...

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/CVV278459/

And here's what was reduced in the British version: *SPOILERS* Company was required to make 32 individual cuts to scenes of sexual and sexualised violence, sadistic violence and humiliation, and a child presented in an abusive and violent context. In this case, cuts included: a man masturbating with sandpaper around his penis; graphic sight of a man's teeth being removed with a hammer; graphic sight of lips being stapled to naked buttocks; graphic sight of forced defecation into and around other people's mouths; a man with barbed wire wrapped around his penis raping a woman; a newborn baby being killed; graphic sight of injury as staples are torn away from individuals' mouth and buttocks. Cuts required in accordance with BBFC Guidelines, policy and the Video Recordings Act 1984. *SPOILERS END*

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Full marks for this poster.

[Todd Jordan Smut is good. Find all posts View Profile Close Todd Jordan]

where'd it go?

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Cover art for the US DVD release.