We reported
HERE not so long ago on the MPAA pulling its Nazi shit again,
this time on the After Dark Films
CAPTIVITY Billboards. Now we all have our opinions on the matter and
Darkside Films’ DW Kann
(Read more of
his two cents here) just sent us his. I thought it made for a
good read and that it might spark up a hefty debate (Spit them bullets below)
hence I’m sharing it with you here. You got the floor DW!
Chocolate Jesus +
Torture Porn = Censorship
by D.W. Kann
The infamous Billboards…ouuuuuu!
Why is it, I wonder, that the media can plaster a gruesome
child rape and murder across the six o’clock nightly news but a production
company can’t get away with a billboard depicting torture scenes from a new film
entitled “Captivity?” No pun intended, but God forbid artist Cosimo
Cavallaro depicts a nude Jesus made out of
milk chocolate during Holy Week. He is offending Christians’ delicate
sensibilities. Why is it that artists are persecuted for their craft while the
rest of us become desensitized to the real atrocities of the world?
I read about the MPAA penalizing After Dark Films over their billboards in an
article about “Torture Porn” printed in the online magazine The First Post in
March 2007. The billboards were causing outrage among parents as they were
driving their kids from school to soccer practice, probably while listening to
the current death toll in Iraq over the radio. The MPAA pushed the rating
review for Captivity one month, in essence deriding their May 18th
release date for the film. What the hell is going on?
We live in a world of instant gratification brought on by the internet. If you
wanted to see the horrific decapitation of poor Daniel Pearl, you could find it
in mere minutes. The same goes for the hanging of Saddam Hussein. For months
on end, we sat in front of our televisions and listened about the prisoner abuse
and torture that went on in Abu Ghraib. We were riveted by a cannibalistic
serial killer, not to mention a pro-football player on trial for slaying his
wife.
As a society, we have been tragically desensitized to the atrocities that take
place on a daily basis. We don’t think twice about having the nightly news on
while our two year old daughter sits a few feet from the television playing with
her dolls. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, we must protest, picket,
demonstrate, or moan and groan at the slightest provocation at the sight of a
woman’s public hair in a film. It must be lost on the editing room floor or
else! Why do we scream bloody murder (again, no pun intended) over a
particularly gruesome killing scene that was born in some filmmaker’s
imagination? It’s nothing but a concoction. A fantasy.
I am a parent as well as a filmmaker, lest you think I’m one or the other. Or
worse, some fanatic who puts a paper bag over his daughter’s head whenever the
television is on. Sometimes I wish I could. I plan on sheltering her from the
wickedness of the world as long as humanly possible. However, I will never not
take accountability for raising my child. It is my decision what she sees and
does not see and no one else’s. I take responsibility unlike so many other
parents who rely on outside sources to tell them what is suitable.
I have worked in the film industry for 18 years. I do not choose to make films
about pink puppies frolicking among the daffodils or butterflies flitting over
rainbows. No, my films certainly depict man’s darker side. Horror films have
been around since the dawn of film. As long as they are here, so will be the
desire to censor them. Such films as Cannibal Holocaust, Dawn of the Dead,
Evil Dead, and Last House on Dead End Street were made on
micro-budgets. These types of films are still being made today in the
straight-to-video market. They aren’t so much as causing a peep. It is only
because the major studios have stumbled upon an easy cash cow with the genre,
resulting in the outcry of the public. The current watered-down versions of the
films of yesteryear leave a bitter taste in my mouth.
Maybe it’s the sad reality that the more exposure a multi-million dollar
production gets, the more people will bitch about it. After all, that’s what
advertising gets you, I guess. What’s sadder still, is that filmmakers are
actually conforming to the masses and the end product does nothing but suffer as
a result. It’s a cruel irony.
So the next time you see a
billboard that makes your blood boil, maybe you should simply explain to your
child that it’s an ad for a movie, a fictitious movie and one that he or she
will not be seeing. Take a minute to digest what’s going on in the world and
realize that it’s a hell of a lot scarier than any billboard or movie will ever
be.
ARROW CONTRIBUTION
TO THE SUBJECT AT HAND:
Losing one’s balls…
HURTS!
Do with that what you will… : )