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| Down with this sort of thing |
I used to love Premiere magazine back in the 90's. Made for great reading. I've a vivid recollection of reading an article about this new vampire film called From Dusk Til Dawn that was due out soon and I couldn't wait to see it. Sadly it was not to be as it became the latest film to be banned in Ireland. A silly horror film banned. I couldn't believe it. Turns out it was only the latest in a huge list of films that the Irish censorship board didn't approve of.
1923 saw Ireland's first cinema open and also the formation of the Irish film censor's office. This office ruled with an iron fist for the first 70 or so years of its tenure until things started to become more relaxed around the turn of the century. Supposed social mores and the influence of the Catholic church ensured that hundreds of films were butchered and banned in those years because they contained material supposed to offend public decency. Ha. People then and now were mad for a bit of titillation. But the powers that be under the guise of protecting them denied them that. Films were often cut so much that parts of them appeared nonsensical on release. Casablanca being a prime example.
Some of the films banned over the years are surprising and some aren't. Happily the vast majority of them eventually got to see the light of day. Here are some of the most well known ones.
The Great Dictator. The classic Charlie Chaplin pisstake of Adolf Hitler. Released during World War 2 and banned in Ireland so as not to jeopardise the country's neutrality.
Monkey Business. The Marx brothers ocean set comedy clearly frightened some of the folk in charge and they banned it in case it inspired us poor easily led plebs to be anarchaic!! A real "seriously??" moment right there.
Brief Encounter. The story of a married woman being tempted to have an affair was never ever going to go down well with the Catholic church and they responded the only way they knew how. By suppressing the film of course. Bastards.
Ulysses. A very famous Irish book gets turned into a film that then gets banned in Ireland because of some choice language. That reads like a Father Ted storyline. Utterly ridiculous that this was not legally available in Ireland until 33 years after its release.
A Clockwork Orange. Made in 1971 and still pretty damn rough 46 years years later so not a hope this was going to be made available to the Irish public who in their sheepish ways would OF COURSE copy the onscreen antics.
Emmanuelle. The most famous sexy movie of the 70's was never going to get a release in Ireland. And cutting out the sex scenes would have left the film 3 and a half minutes long so the censor got out his banning stick instead.
The Life Of Brian. This was never going to get a release in the Catholic Ireland of the 70's. Seen as blasphemous in the extreme when it was nothing of the sort. Remember also that RTE in the 90's was wary of showing Father Ted because they thought it might offend people.
The Evil Dead. Not a surprise this one. It had already had big problems with the BBFC ( British Board Of Film Classification) so it was always going to face the same here. But i suppose when you have a film full of mutilation, eye gouging and people being raped by demonic trees thats going to happen.
Natural Born Killers. A massive cause celebre in 1994 and also temporarily banned in the UK. The Irish censors never gave a definite reason to why this was banned but no doubt it had to do with the media furore in the UK and the US where is was accused of inspiring copycat killings.
Showgirls. 1996 saw the last film to be banned in Ireland from the cinema ( others later were banned on video) and that was Paul Verhoeven's infamous camp classic Showgirls. Copious amounts of gratuitous sex and a grim rape scene were to blame for the banning this time.
In the late 90's restrictions eased up big time thank feck. One big statement the censorship board made was releasing Michael Collins with a PG cert compared to the UK's more restrictive 15 cert. Instead of outright banning films they snipped out offending scenes and eventually stopped doing that with the last few cut films including Broken Arrow, Crash, Another Day In Paradise and finally Dangerous Beauty. No film has been cut in Ireland since 1998. A serious change indeed.
In the 21st century the censorship office changed its name to the Irish Film Classification Board to better reflect their newer outlook. They still had a ways to go though. A major example was a film called The Cider House Rules. An American film with abortion as a major storyline. It received a 12 certificate in the UK but an 18 over here. And any film with a gay theme seemed to get the more restrictive certificates too.
These days though, they seem to make their decisions with a clear head and plenty of rationale and transparency. Their website has become a very handy resource for getting info on films especially for parents making sure a film is suitable for their kids.
Check it out here
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