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Not So Forbidden Fruit
Jun. 8th, 2011 10:56 amNo, not a new story (but I am cooking up some new one-offs and writing a third part of Performance, if anyone's interested), I just thought I'd have a bit of a waffle on a subject that interests me, so here we go:
The sequel to The Human Centipede has been refused certification by the BBFC. There are many debates raging about this right now, in all corners of the internet and I don't want to get into the whole "how dare the BBFC tell me what I can or can't watch" argument - it's nothing to me because Ireland has it's own ratings board, IFCO - or the merits of the film in question.
But limiting the access will make some people want to see this even more because there is always a certain thrill in seeing something you shouldn't and I'm speaking from personal experience here. When I was 16 I brought my 14 year old brother to the cinema and we bluffed our way into Pulp Fiction. I'd managed to rent pretty much every slasher movie in my local video shop before my 15th birthday. Restrictions be damned, if it was rated 18 I wanted it and I usually got it - funnily enough, the only time I was ever challenged about my age was when I went to see American Beauty and the guy at the ticket counter squinted at me and asked me if I was 18. I was 22 at the time.
It wasn't always as easy as just picking up a video case and bluffing my way past someone behind the counter, though. Some films just weren't available full stop; in the early/mid 90s, the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Exorcist and A Clockwork Orange were all banned. Forbidden. Just not available. But there were always ways to get them. Maybe you knew someone who knew someone who'd bought a tape in Paris. Or if you were me, you got your parents to buy you copies of A Clockwork Orange and The Exorcist in New York and then paid to have the tapes converted to PAL format (yes I know these terms are gibberish in this DVD/digital age but that's what you had to do in the VHS age).
But we're living in a different era now, the internet era, and if you want something, two clicks of a mouse will usually get it. No need to search for pirate tapes or anything like that. There is no such thing as forbidden fruit anymore and I'm sure copies of The Human Centipede 2 will be floating around the net very soon, making the BBFC's decision meaningless - and that's what really makes me laugh when I see people whining about the film being banned. If they've grown up with a broadband connection, then they don't know the meaning of the word "banned" and they never will.
Oh, and I haven't see The Human Centipede and I never will. It looks awful and the very concept makes me want to gag.
The sequel to The Human Centipede has been refused certification by the BBFC. There are many debates raging about this right now, in all corners of the internet and I don't want to get into the whole "how dare the BBFC tell me what I can or can't watch" argument - it's nothing to me because Ireland has it's own ratings board, IFCO - or the merits of the film in question.
But limiting the access will make some people want to see this even more because there is always a certain thrill in seeing something you shouldn't and I'm speaking from personal experience here. When I was 16 I brought my 14 year old brother to the cinema and we bluffed our way into Pulp Fiction. I'd managed to rent pretty much every slasher movie in my local video shop before my 15th birthday. Restrictions be damned, if it was rated 18 I wanted it and I usually got it - funnily enough, the only time I was ever challenged about my age was when I went to see American Beauty and the guy at the ticket counter squinted at me and asked me if I was 18. I was 22 at the time.
It wasn't always as easy as just picking up a video case and bluffing my way past someone behind the counter, though. Some films just weren't available full stop; in the early/mid 90s, the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Exorcist and A Clockwork Orange were all banned. Forbidden. Just not available. But there were always ways to get them. Maybe you knew someone who knew someone who'd bought a tape in Paris. Or if you were me, you got your parents to buy you copies of A Clockwork Orange and The Exorcist in New York and then paid to have the tapes converted to PAL format (yes I know these terms are gibberish in this DVD/digital age but that's what you had to do in the VHS age).
But we're living in a different era now, the internet era, and if you want something, two clicks of a mouse will usually get it. No need to search for pirate tapes or anything like that. There is no such thing as forbidden fruit anymore and I'm sure copies of The Human Centipede 2 will be floating around the net very soon, making the BBFC's decision meaningless - and that's what really makes me laugh when I see people whining about the film being banned. If they've grown up with a broadband connection, then they don't know the meaning of the word "banned" and they never will.
Oh, and I haven't see The Human Centipede and I never will. It looks awful and the very concept makes me want to gag.
