>
>
> My understanding is that the film inspired some rapes and other
> crimes in Great Britain that seem to have unnerved Kubrick.
I think the issue was more a spate of muggings of tramps.
> The film had
> been on the British market for about a year when it was removed from
> theatres at Kubrick's request.
And it remains unavailable legitmately. And yes, Dan, our venerable British
Board of Film Classification has a pretty tight grip on video over here. I'm
expecting things to loosen up a little now that James Ferman (an expat Yank!)
has gone. I hear that The Exorcist is finally getting a certificate. That's
one that Ferman thought was likely to have a disturbing effect on teenage
girls, and consequently was refused a certificate. He also has a bee in his
bonnet about drug abuse, and took his shears to scenes in Pulp Fiction and
Trainspotting (on vid) as a consequence. Natural Born Killers is more like
Clockwork Orange, being pulled by the company from its release schedule in
the wake of the Dunblane massacre. I'm showing Straw Dogs to my students
next week, and have to hire a 16mm print from the British Film Institute as
that's another that has been refused a certificate on video.
If you're wondering why all this is, it's worth bearing in mind that we had
19 years of an unbelievably repressive Tory government that even managed to
outlaw the "promotion" of homosexuality as a legitimate lifestyle in
education and cultural contexts.
OK. that's my quota of off-topic used up for the month.
Anyone catch the Buckner/Prophet double bill?
Stevie
