I find this to be odd. Apparently, the MPAA has rather inconsistent guidelines for what is considered inappropriate verse appropriate imagery for movie promotions. Via Think Progress, the poster for Alex Gibney's new documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side, has been rejected because it is not "suitable" for all audiences. The poster shown here, is an image of two soldiers walking a hooded person away. Censorship is usually fickle and inconsistent, but for some reason it appears that when torture is fictitious, graphic imagery is appropriate. It is when it represents reality, it must be censored.
For example, can we forget the lovely image for the movie, Captivity?
Amanda at Think Progress has a few more images that also show torture and were approved by the MPAA and frankly they are much more graphic than the above poster that was censored. So I guess, it is OK to show women tortured in movie posters, mainly because we are used to seeing it, but in this case perhaps because it is fiction. However, when images are shown that display the atrocities done by US military forces that are inhumane, unjust and illegal, WELL, that is just too much for the American public to handle.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: I may not be a conspiracy theorist, but. . ..
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/6554
Weekly Feministing Newsletter
Feministing RSS Feed
Good catch. One wonders also if it is the fact that the shadows make a U.S. flag image (a really striking image) that causes the censorship here. Definitely uncool that they are censoring this! If you guys have any contacts in the media, you should see if someone can press the MPAA on this.
One nitpick: I think you meant "versus" rather than "verse".
Alan
i remember seeing that poster for captivity on the T in the morning...it actually upset me, it's really really disturbing...
It's often harder for people to accept reality. It was many years before a truthful movie could be made about World War II. One that didn't just portray us as the good guys and made everyone else look bad.It's difficult for a country as proud as America to admit that they may have done something wrong.
I saw a movie a few months back about the MPAA. I think it's called, "This Film is Not Yet Rated." It went into all sorts of strange inconsistencies in the way the MPAA rates movies, like the fact that movies with a gay or lesbian sex scene are more likely to be given an R or an NC-17 rating than one with a straight sex scene, and that sex in general in movies is usually given an R while violence gets a PG-13. Good movie.
Is it the fact that the words "Taxi to the dark side" are placed next to the American flag? Because, how horrible! Children might start questioning the president's policies! The horror!
/sarcasm.
Might it also be that it is just not alright to portray the torture of men?
Why is the wrongdoing being placed in the past tense?
And yet the movie poster for "Black Snake Moan" was okay?
Someone better with html tags should post that.
I think it bears noting that the MPAA actually rejected those ads for Captivity, and that they were put up by the producers of the film without the MPAA's endorsement. It's not that the MPAA is right about this instance or the many many others in which they have dictated the marketing of a picture, but Captivity is one of the few cases in which the MPAA was sort of doing their job.
Ugh jessica I just saw that poster for black snake moan or whatever. DISGUSTING.
"And yet the movie poster for 'Black Snake Moan' was okay? Someone better with html tags should post that."
Official website (hit skip intro and watch the silhouette of the chained Ricci trying to resist).
http://www.moanmovie.com/
I admit, if I were a younger, unmarried man, I wouldn't mind getting with Christina Ricci. But when I saw that movie trailer on the Apple Quicktime site, I thought, WTF? The premise of the story and the plot according to the MovieSpoilers site didn't make it sound any better. An old black man chaining up an unconscious young white woman to "cure her of her wickedness," cuz she drinks and gets victimized by men. Riiiight. I could see this being put out by racists about 50 years ago to warn about the threat of teh negroes, but now, even as parody or satire? WTF. I don't know how Samuel Jackson or Ricci could get involved in that, and I don't care.
If I remember correctly, the posters for "Captivity" weren't approved by the MPAA and were taken down, right? I remember being happy about that ....
Ahh, you beat me to it, Pengo. :-)
It is true that some ads for Captivity were put up without MPAA permission (billboards in LA I think). But the image Samhita has here is the one that was MPAA approved and went up after the other images came down. This ad was plastered on public transit in every major city in the country.
I think the non-MPAA approved billboards were(*trigger warning*): these; namely the torture and termination portions.
I like the poster for Taxi to the Dark Side - I hope the producers win the appeal.
um, jessie isn't "wicked", she's an alcoholic nymphomaniac. Don't judge a book by it's cover, and all that. I enjoyed the over-the-top grindhouse vibe of the BSM marketing but I thought it did the actual film a disservice. sold as a sex movie, it's actually rather tender and to do more with broken people creating the family situations they need to survive. Probably not an appealing prospect for most of ya'll but if you liked Death Proof, I'd recommend it.
Any info on how to get in touch with the MPAA and politely express my displeasure with their ridiculous double standard and hypocrisy?
This Film Is Not Yet Rated is a great way to find out how the MPAA is the worst parts of the Spanish Inquisition & the Keystone Kops. Check it out.
Umm, perhaps this got rejected not for depicting torture (which it clearly does not) but because it depicts people walking on the flag. Expresions of that type have become less free, especially during the endless war on ____________.
Shaping Youth covered this debacle last spring when the brouhaha hit the fan...so here's the scoop on the billboard.
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=335
Like most of these corporate 'oopsies' on ambient advertising (like the Target/spreadeagle brouhaha) it smacks of an 'ask forgiveness rather than permission' approach to signage...
In other words, lets get as edgy as we can until it hurts the brand or someone asks us to take it down. Then we'll claim either oversight, prudish reaction/misinterpretation, or in this case, agency/printer error.
Only through questioning conduct will the slightest corp. changes be made...and even then, it's a long shot, but well worth it.