I thought it might be interesting to take a quick look at what films have been banned in North America and also in the UK in light of the British Board Of Film Classification refusing to rate Human Centipede: The Full Sequence
My favourite banning in the entire list is from 1918 in Manitoba when they banned comedies. I also enjoy the banning of Monty Python’s Life of Brian in the United States. What is really striking about the list though is how often a banned movie has the ban removed at a later date.
I continue to stand by my position that as long as a film is not made in illegal ways and that everyone involved is able to legally make the decision to be in the film that it should not be banned. Appropriate warnings should be given and the responsibility should be placed on the audience to make the decision to watch the content. Provide us with the knowledge and let us make the decision whether to watch. If you must also provide a rating that is fine but I get much more benefit of simply knowing that they used the f-bomb 32 times.
The list of banned films is below the seat.
Source: Wikipedia
Canada
Prior to the late 1980s and early 1990s, all Canadian provinces banned films with no purpose other than the display of explicit sexuality or excessive violence.
- 1918: Manitoba institutes a ban (since lifted) on all comedies.
- 1953: Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec ban The Wild One
- 1967: Nova Scotia censors ban Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? describing it as “obscene and blasphemous”. After an appeal from the distributor and media coverage, the decision was overturned and the film was released with a “Restricted” rating
- 1970: The National Film Board of Canada blocks the release of Denys Arcand’s controversial documentary On est au coton. An edited version is released in 1976, but the original unedited version was not released until 2004.
- 1972: Pink Flamingos is edited in several provinces, with Nova Scotia banning it outright until 1997.
- 1976: Blood Sucking Freaks is banned in Nova Scotia and Ontario.
- 1977: In the Realm of the Senses is banned by all provinces except Quebec. In 1991, the ban was overturned by most provinces.
- 1978: Pretty Baby is banned in Ontario by the Ontario Censor Board. The ban was repealed in 1995.
- 1979: Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens is banned in Nova Scotia.
- 1980: Caligula is banned by all provinces except Quebec, which gave it an 18+ rating. Edited versions were later passed.
- 1980: The Tin Drum is edited, and later banned outright by the Ontario Film Classification Board.
- 1983: I Spit on Your Grave was banned in Nova Scotia until 1998.
- 1985: Day of the Dead is banned in Ontario and the Maritimes, with a cut version passed in Ontario.
- 1987: Bad Taste is banned in Nova Scotia; it is now available on DVD with an 18 rating.
- 1989-1993: The Death Scenes video series is banned in Nova Scotia.
- 1994: Exit to Eden is temporarily banned by the Saskatchewan Film and Video Classification Board.
- 1997: Bastard Out of Carolina is banned by the Maritime Film Classification Board. This decision was later appealed, and a video release was allowed.
- 2001: Fat Girl banned by the Ontario Film Review Board until 2003
- 2006: Bumfights, a series of shot-on-tape reality productions, is banned in seven of the ten provinces and territories; the remaining three give it an R rating.
At present, only films containing prohibited material (such as child pornography) or under court order (such as libel or copyright infringement) are banned in Canadian provinces.
United Kingdom
| 1932–1963 | Freaks | Rejected by British censors and banned. It was again rejected for a cinema rating certificate in 1952. Available from 1963 – passed with an X rating. |
| 1954–1967 | The Wild One | Banned from distribution in the United Kingdom until 1967. |
| 1960–1968 | Black Sunday | Mario Bava‘s film was banned due to its violent content until 1968. |
| 1968–1988 | The Trip | Roger Corman‘s film was banned due to its glorification of LSD. It was later unbanned, but not released in Britain until 1988. |
| 1972–2002 | The Last House on the Left | Banned by the BBFC until 2002 and not passed uncut until 2008. |
| 1973–1990 | The Exorcist | Not banned per se, but Warner decided not to submit the film for classification for a few years following the video nasty crisis. It was not until 1990 that the film was finally submitted and passed with an 18 rating. |
| 1973–2000 | A Clockwork Orange | Not banned as such but withdrawn two years after its release by its own director, Stanley Kubrick. This was not because of the copycat violence allegedly inspired by the film, as commonly believed. Kubrick received death threats against his family, and arranged to withdraw the film from UK cinemas. It was not allowed to be shown again in the United Kingdom until after his death. Throughout the decades the film acquired a mythical status in the country, until Kubrick died in 1999 and the ban was finally lifted. |
| 1974–1999 | The Texas Chain Saw Massacre | Banned; it was passed uncut in 1999. |
| 1975–2003 | Il paese del sesso selvaggio | Umberto Lenzi’s film was banned. Passed in 2003 |
| 1989–present | Visions of Ecstasy | Banned under blasphemy laws, it is the only film ever to be banned in the UK due to blasphemy. Since the UK’s blasphemy laws were repealed in 2008, the film is likely to be passed in the near future. |
| 1990–2004 | Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III | Banned; passed uncut in 2004 |
| 1993–present | Mikey | Rejected by the BBFC for a certificate in 1996; a trailer had been previously classified 18 four years before. In the aftermath of the widely-publicised murder of Jamie Bulger, the BBFC (on the guidance of three child psychiatrists) banned the film because it features a child as a killer (which they believed might cause children who watched it to act violently). |
| 2009–present | Grotesque | Banned due to a high level of sexual torture. |
| 2011–present | The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) | Banned due to sexual violence and potential obscenity. |
United States
The United States has no federal agency charged with either permitting or restricting the exhibition of motion pictures. Most instances of films being banned are via ordinances or proclamations by city or state governments. Some are instances of films being judicially found to be of an obscene nature and subject to specific laws against such material (i.e. child pornography). Such findings are usually only legally binding in the jurisdiction of the court making such a ruling.
The established film industry in the United States began a form of self-censorship in the late 1920s called the Motion Picture Production Code to forestall any possible formation of a federal censoring agency. In 1968, the Production Code was superseded by the MPAA film rating system.
- 1894: Dorlita in the Passion Dance Banned in New Jersey after use in peepshows. Russell Kick quotes the work Censorship as saying it “was probably the first [film] to be banned in the United States.”
- 1906: Reenactment of the Massacre at Wounded Knee by Buffalo Bill, was banned due to a sympathetic portrayal of the Native Americans in the film.
- 1915: The Birth of a Nation banned in several American cities, including Chicago, Las Vegas, Denver, Pittsburgh and St. Louis, and the states of Ohio, Kansas, and West Virginia, as well as “dozens” of other jurisdictions. Unbanned in 1916 outside of Kansas.
- 1917: The film Birth Control, produced by and starring Margaret Sanger banned, with the New York Court of Appeals holding that a film on family planning work may be censored “in the interest of morality, decency, and public safety and welfare”.
- 1932: Scarface (1932) – banned in 5 states and 5 other cities due to “glorification of crime”
- 1941: Two-Faced Woman – This film’s theme (adultery) caused it to be banned in New York City, among other places.
- 1945: Scarlet Street banned in New York City, according to Jan Morris’ book Manhattan ’45.
- 1953: The Moon Is Blue banned in Jersey City, New Jersey as “indecent and obscene.”
- 1956: The Vanishing Prairie, a 1954 Walt Disney documentary, was banned in New York because it showed a buffalo giving birth. The ban was lifted after a complaint by the ACLU.
- 1961: Victim banned in many American cities due to language.
- 1966 – 1968: Viva Maria! banned in Dallas for sexual and anti-Catholic content, prior to the United States Supreme Court striking down the ban and limiting the ability of municipalities to ban films for adults in Interstate Circuit, Inc. v. City of Dallas.
- 1968 – 1991: Titicut Follies is barred from distribution to the general public by court order because the film was considered a violation of the privacy of the prison inmates it filmed.
- 1969: I Am Curious (Yellow) is banned as pornography. After three court cases, it was unbanned when the anti-obscenity laws concerning films was overturned.
- 1979: Monty Python’s Life of Brian was banned in several towns for showing controversial themes about Christianity.
- 1987–present: Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is banned from sale, distribution, and public exhibition by court order after a civil trial on copyright infringement. Director Todd Haynes had failed to obtain the proper licenses to use several Carpenters songs in the film.
- 1988: The Last Temptation of Christ banned in Savannah when city leaders sent a petition to Universal Studios requesting a ban. However, opened in Savannah on September 23, 1988, 6 weeks after national and worldwide debut.
- 1997: The Tin Drum was briefly banned in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, when a district court judge deemed the film child pornography. The shot in question depicted a minor performing oral sex. The verdict was overturned on appeal.
- 2002 – 2007: The Profit, a film that borrows elements of the life of L. Ron Hubbard, was prevented from release when the Church of Scientology claimed the film could taint the jury pool in the wrongful death trial of former member Lisa McPherson. While the injunction has since been lifted a few years after the suit was settled and the film is no longer banned per se, a legal dispute with investor Robert S. Minton continues to hold up the release. The Disinformation Book Of Lists and The Times have characterized The Profit as a “banned film” in the United States.
- 2010: The Yes Men Fix the World is briefly blocked from releasing due to a pending lawsuit by the commercial entity, United States Chamber of Commerce.
Theoretically, free speech in the U.S. can also be limited if it might cause a clear and present danger of an imminent lawless action, or constitutes a copyright violation.
There were loads more films than that banned in the UK with the ‘video nasties’ act back in the 80′s weren’t there? Or are you just talking about films that were originally banned from cinematic release? Or are these just a few examples and I’m getting pedantic for no reason
Nice list, but always take wikipedia data with a grain or two of salt. Just off the top of my head, regarding Canada, Caligula passed uncut in British Columbia, and The Tin Drum was not banned – there was a dispute over cuts. Ontario requested three, and the distributor offered one (as per the UK version). Eventually they compromised. As David notes with the UK, there are lots of other films – so this is more of a sampler.
talk alot missed!
Reserviour dogs banned for many years before general release on Video.
Natural born killers banned for i think for something like 4/6 years before general release on Video rental and many years after for TV.
True Romance banned for six months before rental release.
Executions Video banned after Seven days on Video due to its real life footage last scene is of a arab man being shot in the face by a AK47 by random people for adultery. brought one in a second hand shop used it in my censorship film class.