TV Censorship

Nothing to do with this post - it's the only thing I photographed today (just outside my front door)

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I was watching TV this evening when the announcer said something like ...

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'In place of tonight's scheduled films we will be showing a feature-length episode of Dalziel and Pascoe followed by Robin Williams in the inspirational comedy Patch Adams'

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I was pretty annoyed at this news because Tracy had got out a rental DVD of Insomnia earlier in the day and two doses of Robin Williams is more than any mortal can bear in 24 hours. I was also curious. What were the two films that the BBC had pulled? A quick look at Teletext supplied the answer - The Rock, followed by The Dogs of War. Talk about a master-stroke from the schedulers at the Beeb. Presumably the movies had been replaced in the wake of Ken Bigley's execution a couple of days ago. I can see the logic. The Rock features people in a hostage situation and the Dogs of War is all about mercenaries illegally overthrowing a dictatorial regime. Both movies clearly have echoes with the current situation in Iraq, particularly The Dogs of War.

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It's not that any of the unfortunate Ken Bigley's family members were likely to be watching TV this evening, it's more to do with the fact that a handful of idiots with time on their hands would undoubtedly have made formal complaints about the 'inconsiderate and thoughtless actions' of the BBC. Forget the fact that the we've been merrily consuming violent mind-shit on television and cinema for years, whilst dusky brown people have been slaughtered all round the round. Nope, for some reason, Ken Bigley's death is more significant than the ten of thousands of Iraq civilians killed over the last two years or our own soldiers come to that. So, for this weekend and this weekend only, the BBC eased up on the fictionalised Death Porn. Come to think of it, anyone who has read or seen The Dogs of War would probably rate that as a more accurate and less sensationalised depiction of the kind of things that happen in the World than much of the junk shown on CNN, Sky or the BBC (Sean 'I'm so nervous I'm smoking 60 a day' Langan's and John 'my ears are bleeding' Simpson's work being worthy exceptions).

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So, no Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer action movies or documentaries on the French Revolution for us this Saturday then. Not much chance of any channel screening Carry On Don't Lose Your Head as a Sunday matinee either. This could be bad news for the American movie industry. What would it do if its entire back, and future, catalogue of action movies were banned for featuring hostages, plane crashes and acts of terrorism? Say goodbye to:

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Mission Impossible II - 747 into a mountain / terrorists spreading bio weapons

Die Hard I - hostages

Die Hard II - 747 into ground / shots of screaming passengers enveloped by flames on impact

Executive Decision - 747 / Suicide Hijackers / Bio-weapon payload (9/11 was loosely based on this movie)

Air Force One - 747 / Terrorists

True Lies - Jihad-crazed Terrorists / Nukes

Patch Adams - Robin Williams making us a laugh and cry all at the same time

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etc etc

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Presumably, if our TV channels can't show this kind of stuff any more they'll just have to hang out and hope for some more Russian school massacres that they can give wall to wall coverage to.

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The truth is we've been educated to view the fictionalised depiction of terrorists killing civilians as entertainment. I would suggest that we've been deliberately fed this material to condition us in advance, so that we're densistised to what our governments are doing to the World now. All in all, replacing a couple of movies for one night because of one, well-publicised execution is pathetic.

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As a minor aside, what is it with Robin Williams? Everyone loves him. I love him. But why is that? His films are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo shit. 'Robin Williams is the zany teacher/ doctor/ psychiatrist/ wartime DJ/ photolab technician with a heart, fighting against oppression. He'll make you'll laugh! He'll make you cry!'

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He'll make you vom.

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OK maybe not the photolab technician. I spent the first 80 minutes of that movie wondering when it would actually start and the last 15 wanting it to finish ...

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Fun Facts - Film producer Don 'Elvis was a fag health freak' Simpson died January 19, 1996 at 52 from an overdose of 21 drugs. So extensive was his drug use that he stocked his bedroom closet with over 15,000 sedatives, amphetamines, tranquilizers, antipsychotics, narcotics and other drugs - and arranged them all in alphabetical order.