Censorship - "Crash" Tonight

[Flett]

For those students of our archaic censorship laws, David CDronenberg's "Crash" is on at 11.35 p.m. today, on Channel 4.
You may recall that when it was released in 1996, serious efforts were made to stop its release in the U.K., on the grounds that it would lead to "copy-cat" incidents.
The movie is pretty pathetic, but it does give an good insight into the workings of the minds of those folks who would wish to prevent the masses seeing what they want to see. Having watched it, I certainly didn't feel like pranging the car just to see if I could get my end away with some sicko female.

[woodgnome]

i saw it when it was first released and thought it a pretty good effort. the book, though, is something else - if you don't mind having your prov severely, voked, it's recommended reading.

alexander walker, the film critic for the london evening standard, railed against this movie (i can think of no better reason for seeing it). he was of the genuine conviction that it might induce people into totalling their jalopies on the off chance of some bumper to bumper action! christopher tookey, the daily mail stooge, was similarly afflicted. sad, indeed.

[other ballard corkers - the crystal world, concrete island, vermillion sands]

[richy]

The problem with people the like of Alexander Walker and Christopher Tookey is they are looked up to by large numbers of the population as fonts of all knowledge, which they clearly are not; all they do is express their opinion on the films being reviewed. It is somewhat sad that with nothing more than a nod from one of these people, a film can sink without trace all because the population was incapable of making up their own mind by going to see the film themselves. And as for pseudo W.I movements like the great National Viewers and Listeners Association, these only exist for those helpless souls who are unable to operate the 'off' button. The most liberating thing about the internet is the YOU are the censor, not some anonymous
suit in Whitehall who still believes we should get what we are given - and be thankful for it.

I'll get off my soapbox, now.

[Dibble]

All that hullabaloo about 'Crash' was basically just the 'Daily Mail' and 'Telegraph' doing what they expect their readership expect them to say. It's all bollocks of course. Nowadays The Daily Mail's outrage is just music hall comic strip outrage - there are even a few risqu? photos and articales beginning to appear. Although there are obviously still a few genuine weirdoes at the Mail (S.H?) I guess most of the folks who work there are just normal people and spouting all that 1950's back to basics bollocks is just part of the job. The reason for the Mail's popularity is it's accessible style - it's broken up into interesting little articles with pictures and graphics, unlike the 'Independent' for instance - with it's seas of monotonous text, which is usually about some lost tribe in the outer Kalahari, who are (usually due to globalisation) having problems with their village well. And who amongst the great British public (not middleclass journalists) gives the slightest fuck about any of that?

I was surprised and intrigued recently to learn that one of my 'Evil Porn Baron' colleagues took 'The Mail' as his daily paper! He just felt comfortable with its style and content and he's never really took onboard that he himself was one of the examples of 'moral decay' that they so fervently railed against.



Dibble.

[Caractacus]

Walker is, and always has been, a prissy old woman. Him and his kind were responsible for Michael Powell not making another film after Peeping Tom.

[marcusallen]

"Newspapers" is a misnomer. I've been nicked in the past for a fraction of the 'offences-misrepresenatation etc' committed by national purveyors of sensationalism and downright untruths.
"In the public interest" is always their war cry and their self-appointed watchdog committe naturally concurs.
The latest 'revelation' is that the England manager is fucking a fellow countryman-so what. These same "newspapers" are the first to scream ""ENGLAND"" for the World Cup and promptly hurt our prospects with rubbish like this.
You may have gathered that I FUCKING HATE THE PRESS, with good reason because apart from all the filth and bollocks they constantly purvey to a simple-minded sensation loving public-I have personally suffered at their evil little inky hands.
I take the point made earlier about people doing a job-so did the SS.

Before some expert claims this has nothing to with porn-think about it

[jj]

Sven-Goran fucking a fellow-countryMAN? Has U had a sex-change?
Now that would be news.......as for the rest, well said that/those men.

[woodgnome]

and considering he and emeric pressburger made some of the most stunning and audacious films in cinema history (a matter of life and death, a canterbury tale, the life and death of colonel blimp, i know where i'm going, etc) that is not something to be lightly forgotten (actually, dilys powell, the unrelated 'oberver' film critic, revised her initially scathing review of peeping tom and promised to apologise to m.p. in heaven, for what she later considered an unmitigated masterpiece. can't imagine walker or tookey displaying such humility).

[jj]

.....and the knock-on effect 'Blimp's' bad press ("bad for morale, Old Boy", etc) had on the career of the excellent Roger Livesey.

[marcusallen]

As per norm Woody, your unsurpassed knowledge and literacy are wonderful. I take issue with your last sentence-substitute "humility" with hypocracy