Monday, October 7, 2013

Cinema Censorship — Trailing Behind Banned Book Week


From Flavorwire, Tyler Coates reports that Woody Allen has pulled his film Blue Jasmine from theaters in India because of that country’s anti-smoking campaign.  Apparently, in addition to showing the hazards of smoking before all films, the Ministry of Health demands that anti-tobacco messages be shown during scenes in which cigarettes are smoked. Might we expect to see a message about the inappropriate nature of chopping someone’s head off during a beheading scene?

The most recent film, according to Wikipedia to be restrained prior to release in the U.S. was The Yes Men Fix The World.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed a lawsuit.  The movie, which included information about Dow Chemical, Exxon, and Halliburton, was finally shown in 2009.  Also, The Profit, a film about L. Ron Hubbard was held up initially by a lawsuit by the Church of Scientology and now by an unhappy investor.

Other silliness.  Back to the Future is banned in China because the country is uncomfortable with the notion of time travel.  China also ended up banning Avatar after it proved too popular and interfered with release of its own blockbuster — Confucius.


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