Current Events: The CofE and the BBFC

Resistance: Fall of Man

I’m staying quiet on the whole Church of England vs Sony thing. However, one line from the C of E’s response did catch my eye:

“However, we do not move from the position that we are against violence and especially the gun violence seen in this portrayal of the Cathedral.”

So… should there be an invasion of aliens bent on killing and maiming all humans… and should there be military personnel sheltering inside Manchester cathedral…

What, pray tell, would the Church of England like said military personnel to do? Turn the other cheek? Fall on their knees and pray for forgiveness? Perhaps make a substantial donation to the Church in the hopes that God will intervene and save them all?

Yeah, that will ensure the survival of the human race. Right. In the immortal words of Colonel Carl Jenkins:

“You disapprove? Well, too bad! We’re in this war for the species, boys and girls…”

Manhunt 2

In other news, the BBFC have finally refused to approve a game – Manhunt 2. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, a game showing “unrelenting focus on stalking and brutal slaying and the sheer lack of alternative pleasures on offer to the gamer” sounds uncompromisingly grim and the world would probably not be any worse off without it. On the other hand… it seems like an awful lot of equally violent slasher films are approved recently – Paradise Lost a.k.a Turistas (in the rest of the world), Captivity, Saw III. It seems rather unfair. Seriously, take a look at the plot keywords for Saw III. Here’s a sample:

• Mutilation
• Stabbed In The Head
• Neck Breaking Scene
• Drill
• Severed Foot
• Gruesome

Does portraying all that filmed fear and pain and violence magically become okay as long as the villain pauses for a moment of contemplation?

*sigh*

My feelings on game (and other) censorship are as follows:

1. I thought the whole point of having an adult classification was that adults (in general) can be trusted to make their own judgements. Does that no longer apply when the fictional bad guy fails to get his comeuppance? Let the game through with an 18 rating and let those who want to play it have their twisted idea of fun. I won’t buy it any more than I wanted to see Saw III. If a game based around unrelenting brutality does become a blockbuster multi-million-pound hit… UK culture probably has some fundamental underlying problems that need more than censorship to address.
2. The world is seriously fucked-up enough. Take a look at today’s news. Do we really need this sort of shit in our fantasy entertainment, too?

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