Motion Picture Association censors out US torture
December 19th, 2007
Denial of US torture is everywhere, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) had decided that the US public will not be allowed to see posters for the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side because a hooded prionser suggests torture, which isn’t suitable for children. Perhaps they should have told that to the administration before the US started torturing children in Iraq and Guantanamo.
From Variety:
MPAA rejects Gibney’s ‘Dark’ poster
Org objects to hood on torture docu’s one-sheetBy Anne Thompson
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.”
According to ThinkFilm distribution prexy Mark Urman, the reason given by the Motion Picture Assn. of America for rejecting the poster is the image of the hood, which the MPAA deemed unacceptable in the context of such horror films as “Saw” and “Hostel.” “To think that this is not apples and oranges is outrageous,” he said. “The change renders the art illogical, without any power or meaning.”
The MPAA also rejected the one-sheet for Roadside Attractions’ 2006 film “The Road to Guantanamo,” which featured a hooded prisoner hanging from his handcuffed wrists. At the time, according to Howard Cohen, co-president of Roadside Attractions, the reason given was that the burlap bag over the prisoner’s head depicted torture, which was not appropriate for children to see.
“Not permitting us to use an image of a hooded man that comes from a documentary photograph is censorship, pure and simple,” said producer, writer and director Gibney. “Intentional or not, the MPAA’s disapproval of the poster is a political act, undermining legitimate criticism of the Bush administration. I agree that the image is offensive; it’s also real.”
ThinkFilm plans to appeal the ruling, although Urman admitted that he “doesn’t know what that entails. I’ve only appealed ratings before.”
If ThinkFilm ignores the MPAA and uses materials that have not been approved, it runs the risk of having the rating revoked, which is what happened earlier this year to “Captivity.”
The “Taxi” ad art is actually an amalgam of two pictures. The first, taken by Corbis photographer Shaun Schwarz, features the hooded prisoner and one soldier. Another military figure was added on the left. Ironically, the original Schwarz photo was censored by the military, which erased his camera’s memory. The photographer eventually retrieved the image from his hard drive.
“It’s the photo that would not die,” Gibney said. “This movie is not a horror film like ‘Hostel.’ This is a documentary and that image is a documentary image.”
Entry Filed under: Film, Guantanamo, Interrogation, Iraq, Law, Mainstream media, Media, Torture, War Crimes
10 Comments Add your own
1. Tenzing | December 19th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
It seems that contrary to rumor, McCarthyism isn’t dead in Hollywood after all. It has a stronghold in the MPAA. For shame.
2. Robert Egan | December 19th, 2007 at 6:55 pm
“We don’t need no stinking Constitution:!!
It’s censorship again just like not being allowed to show the coffins of our returning dead!
The American public must get the truth from other sources than the
Mega-buck conglomerate media that this bunch of traitors in power are about to allow to take over the last vestiges of independence!!
3. Red Star | December 19th, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Would you really expect any different? Like it or not the United States is now a Tyranny - it became so when it openly admitted to detentions without trial and torture. Censorship is what tyrannies DO. It is essential for them to survive.
4. Abbybwood | December 19th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
According to what I’ve been reading and watching on video lately it seems it’s more the “torturers” who are hooded…not the person being tortured.
Check out Amy Goodman’s video from her “Democracy Now!” program (on Crooksandliars.com), in which she interviews a man who was renditioned and tortured.
This video should be mandatory viewing by every American citizen. Your tax dollars at work. I wept the whole time I was watching it and for several minutes after.
I feel like I’m living in a surrealistic nightmare.
5. John B | December 19th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
If the behavior is going to be seen by all ages then maybe the behavior and not the documentary should be censured.
If we can’t be honest in our documentary that children may see, maybe the behavior of torture should be addressed more adequitly, not the integraty of the documentary censured.
6. JEff Satin | December 19th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
Well, on THAT note, if ANYONE other than Ron Paul wins the white house, I am off to get a passport, and leaving this country for GOOD, and I expect I am NOT going to be alone in my decision, I believe people are going to hit the exits in DROVES!!!
This place is no better than the very communists we supposedly dislike…
THEN who are the power elite going to get to do all the WORK???
They sure as hell aren’t going to do any THEMSELVES!
7. Americans For Change | December 19th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
I live in New York City, where you can’t go three feet without seeing an enormous four foot by four foot poster with movie ads. I want to point out that, although it seems to be “not suitable for children” to see an image which reflects important contemporary political events, it is apparently alright for them to show (as was one ad for SAW IV) a woman encased in leather dominatrix gear tied to a chair with a decapitated pig’s head stuffed onto her head. Fuck the MPAA.
8. Bigboy | December 19th, 2007 at 11:44 pm
For an interesting chapter on US prisoners and torture read online or download for free from page 608
http://www.amoralamerica.info
9. RSW | December 19th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
The motion picture industry has been in the business of propaganda and mind control since at least WW2 and probably before. Paricularly Disney, though it’s probably across the board.
This is no surprise.
Hollywood needs to be taken for what it is - the information arm of the military industrial complex and all its ramifications.
10. James B | December 20th, 2007 at 2:59 am
It’s only interpreted as ‘torture’ when it threatens to reveal the acts of men who recieve paychecks made up of United States citizen’s taxpayer dollars. Any other time, especially if they are Muslim or increasingly ‘domestic terrorists’, it is perfectly acceptable and quite the rage in motion picture plotlines.
‘Bending the minds and wills of the weaker races’ is how they percieve their jobs. Since most people are hopelessly uneducated as to the situation one has to wonder if there will ever be an end to it.
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