All of the topics in this post's header are terms often used by both the MPAA and BBFC (check my previous post if you are unaware of these organizations) to rate and classify films that are ready for distribution. If you have been keeping up with me you will know my thoughts on how the BBFC is somehow becoming more progressive and the MPAA goes the other direction.
I have another paper to write regarding this topic and am having a hard time deciding the exact direction to take it. There are so many things I have noticed while doing research but a short academic paper could never encompass everything. At first I wanted to write this paper because of an article I read last year that got me thinking. Written by Brendon Connelly, it ran on SlashFilm and discussed the BBFC and MPAA in relation to Lars von Trier's film Antichrist. Check out the article here: Comparing the BBFC and the MPAA, and How Antichrist Illustrates The Differences. The article did not necessarily bring up anything new, or that I had not noticed before, but it laid out the argument in all the right words. Connelly used examples to show how in recent years the BBFC has given films with graphic violence a harder time than the MPAA, while the opposite has been done with graphic sexuality. He then leaves it up to the reader to "Infer from those details what you will about the gulf between UK and US society." Since reading this I have wanted to research the causes of that gulf. But I can't seem to stick to just violence and sex on screen, it involves so much more than that.
