Sherry Chandler » On the MPAA’s censorship
On the MPAA’s censorship
of the poster for Taxi to the Dark Side, from No Caption Needed:
There are two sides to the normalization of violence in the US. On the one hand, fictional protrayals of beatings, rape, torture, and murder are standard fare in the culture of popular entertainment (TV, film, video games). The viewing public is constantly rewarded for suspending disbelief and ethical revulsion about the conduct of violence; just play along and you get all the pleasures of the show. On the other hand, actual violence being perpetrated by the government is minimized, sanitized, or outright censored. Let it not be said that the MPAA does anything in half measures.
Here’s the poster in question:
According to Variety:
The MPAA has rejected the one-sheet for Alex Gibney’s documentary “Taxi to the Dark Side,” which traces the pattern of torture practice from Afghanistan’s Bagram prison to Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay.
ThinkFilm opens the pic, which is on the Oscar shortlist of 15 docs, on Jan. 11.
The image in question is a news photo of two U.S. soldiers walking away from the camera with a hooded detainee between them.
An MPAA spokesman said: “We treat all films the same. Ads will be seen by all audiences, including children. If the advertising is not suitable for all audiences it will not be approved by the advertising administration.”
Oh, how precious we hold the children. Unless they’re like this little boy:
The photo, from AP/Jean-Marc Bouju, is also featured at No Caption Needed.
Go and read that post and the Variety article about the MPAA’s history of censoring these images of hooded prisoners.
Possibly related posts:
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Leave a comment