BATMAN - THE FACTS

By Graham Young on August 9, 2008 7:58 PM | Permalink

SUCH IS the non-stop world of the movies, I've just had my first two-week holiday for a decade.

I can't wait to catch up with the third Mummy film and Space Chimps!

During my overseas break I was amused by the Daily Mail's orchestrated campaign to slam the BBFC's 12A certificate for the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight.

On Wednesday, August 6, for example, it had the headline 'Growing anger at Batman's 12A rating' beneath a strapline which read: 'Allison Pearson triggered the debate. Yesterday Iain Duncan Smith joined in. So why was the ultra-violent Batman given such a low rating'.

The next page, beneath the same strapline, had the headline 'Unaccountable, unashamed, the scandal of the faceless censors who do anything BUT censor' and the text included the now familiar line: 'Last week, Mail columnist Allison Pearson triggered the debate on this violent film, saying she was appalled that children could see it'.

But is this really where it all began....?

Well, no. The Birmingham Mail was there before (*, see below) and, for all I know, so were others, too.

When I reviewed The Dark Knight in print in the Mail on July 25, I made sure we included the full BBFC guideline about the way it had decided to issue a 12A certificate and it wouldn't surprise me if we were the only paper in the country to have gone to such lengths.

I've been highlighting the BBFC's policy making for two decades because I believe it's important that our readers have access to information, given that most parents have to take their children with them and just hope that a film is suitable.

Generally speaking, I am not in favour of film censorship.

People are perfectly capable of making their own minds up about films... so long as they are likely to be mature enough to do so.

Michael Winterbottom's Nine Songs, for example, wouldn't have appealed to many, but there was nothing wrong with its 18 certificate to make sure that only adults watched it.

Having seen The Dark Knight twice before it had even opened, I knew there was no way my own children - aged five, eight and ten - should see it.

I'd love to be able to share such violent entertainment with them, but only when the time is right. It's surely more important for children to be able to mature within themselves rather than to just be exposed to violence for the sake of it.

If I took them to see The Dark Knight, they might then have the edge taken off another 100 movies they might see in the future, but the BBFC's 12A ruling for one film doesn't consider this bigger picture or the fact that adults might want to see an adult-themed film without the presence of children messing about.

The recent Narnia film, for example, was really pushing the boundaries of the PG certificate, yet when my wife took our eldest two to see it, she noted there were children as young as three and four watching a film of some violence that's more than 140 minutes long. Why submit children to this?

What PG really means is that it is most suitable for eight and over. What 12A means, is that it's most suitable for 12 and over.

Out of my three children, only one of them has seen one 12A film at a cinema.

And no, it wasn't an action adventure given a lowly rating to help the box office.

It was the extraordinary, subtitled French film about a stroke victim - The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - which I thought was the perfect, ultra-slow way of teaching a maturing youngster about the importance of treasuring every day of your life.

But back to The Dark Night and the Daily Mail's insistence that 'Allison Pearson triggered the debate'.

On Thursday, July 24, The Daily Telegraph's Bryony Gordon said of The Dark Knight: 'The trailer scared me witless... And it has been rated 12A. I mean, really. What would Batman say?'

And, in this very Mega Movies blog way back on July 21, I had this to say:

'If you only see one film at the brilliant IMAX cinema at Millennium Point this year, make sure it's this one.

'Two warnings, though. Some 4,000 IMAX tickets have already been sold so if you want to see it there this weekend after it opens on Thursday, get visiting www.imax.ac or telephone 0121 202 2222 ASAP.

'The film has also been awarded a 12A certificate which is ludicrous.

'With a running time of more than 150 minutes and lots of dark violence, it should be at least a 15 and, not so long ago, would have rated an 18. Do not take children. It would not be fair on them.'

Other countries take a wildly differing view on film certification and you'd be amazed at the difference in thought between the French and the Dutch.

For a handy rundown of how The Dark Knight has been rated overseas, have a look at this August 7 link from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7547223.stm

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* Just as you'd expect from the city which...

Helped to pave the way for the invention of celluloid...

Launched the Odeon cinema chain more than 70 years ago - still the country's biggest despite the arrival of the big American multiplex operators...

... Is home to the Electric Cinema, the country's oldest picture house which will celebrate its centenary in just over 500 days' time.