The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body, which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912, and videos since the passing of the Video Recordings Act in 1984.
Cinema
The BBFC was set up in early 1912 by the film industry as an independent body to being a slice of uniformity to the classification of film nationally.
Statutory powers on film remain with the local councils, which may be overruled by any of the Board's decisions, passing films they reject, banning films they have passed, and even waiving cuts, instituting new ones, or altering categories for film exhibited under their own licensing authority.
Video
In 1984 Parliament passes the Video Recordings Act. Which stated; subject to certain exemptions, video recordings offered
for sale or hire commercially in the UK must be classified by an authority designated by the Secretary of State. The president and Vice of the BBFC were so designated, they were charged with applying the new test of 'Suitability for viewing in the home'. At this point the Board's title was changed to British Board of Film Classification to reflect the fact that classification plays a far larger part in the board's work than censorship.
Examples of Classification Decisions
The Railway Children - U - Containts scenes of character in danger
- Lionel Jeffries
Alice in Wonderland - PG - Contains moderate fantasy Violence
- Tim Burton
Hierro - 12A - Contains strong language, once, moderate Violence & Psychological threat
- Gabe Ibåñez
The Shouting Men - 15 - Contains strong language and sex references
- Steve Kelly
Repo Men - 18 - Contains strong bloody violence
- Miguel Sapochnik
Case Study for A Clockwork Orange
http://www.sbbfc.co.uk/CaseStudies/A_clockwork_orange (09.03.10)
The BBFC was initially shown a screenplay based on Anthony Burgess's novel in 1967 and advised the distributors that the film showing 'an unrelieved diet of vicious violence and hooliganism' would be unlikely to be acceptable. However, when the finish product was submitted to the BBFC in 1971 )by which time the age bar for seeing 'X' rated film has been raised from 16 to 18), it was passed 'X' with no cuts. At the time, the Board's Secretary, Stephen Murphy, defended the film by stating that "Disturbed thought we were by the first half of the film, which is basically a statement of some of the problems of violence, we were, nonetheless, satisfied by the end of the film that it could not be accused of exploitation: quite the contrary, it is a valuable contribution to the whole debate about violence".
There was a strong body of press and public opinion that the crimina and anti-social actions of the film's main character. Alex, would be copied by young people, inspired by his charismatic example to break the law. Indeed, reports in the papers of suggested that some attacks now occurring were inspired by the film. In fact, however, no such behaviour by anyone over the age of 18 was ever reliably established as being related to the film.
In 1973, allegedly concerned about reports of copycat violence, and threats made to the safety of himself and his family, Kubrick withdrew the film from circulation in the UK. This was in spite of the fact that the film had been judged by the Board to be acceptable for public viewing for adults over the age of 18. At no time did the BBFC reject the film - although this is a common misconception - and it continued to be available throughout much of the rest of the world.
It was not until after Kubrick's death that his family agreed to permit the release of the film again. It was submitted to the BBFC in 1999 for a modern classification certificate and received an '18', without cuts, to replace it's old 'X' certificate. There was a muted response from the public, and the video version of 2000 was also classified '18' uncut.
TO DO:
Brief History
What it Does
