CHANGES IN FILM CLASSIFICATION ON US CINEMA

Historically the Board has faced strong criticism for an over-zealous attitude in censoring film. Prior to the liberalizing decade of the 1960s, films were routinely and extensively censored as a means of social control. For example, Rebel without a Cause was cut in order to reduce the "possibility of teenage rebellion". Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night was cut to remove "overtly sexual or provocative" language. (Allen 2005)

In 1967, two movies—Ulysses and I'll Never Forget What's'isname—used the word fuck in their dialog. This precipitated public demand for the reintroduction of self-censorship. After meeting with government, the MPAA and the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) agreed to a uniform ratings system for every film produced by its members that, theoretically, would be enforced by exhibitors.

The BBFC's attitude moved extensively towards liberalization during the 1960s - concentrating on censoring films featuring graphic sex and violence. However decisions which the Board reached repeatedly caused controversy in the 1970s when it banned a series of films that were released uncut and were popular in other countries (such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Last House on the Left), or released others which proved controversial, such as Straw Dogs and A Clockwork Orange. However, under recent President Andreas Whit tam Smith and current incumbent Sir Quentin Thomas, guidelines have been relaxed again, allowing the release, usually uncut, of these previously banned films on video and in cinemas. Some films from the 1970s remain unreleased (see this list for titles), but many of these titles remain banned primarily because their distributors have not chosen to re-submit the films to the BBFC, almost certainly for commercial reasons. If they were, they would be likely to receive a more sympathetic hearing than 30 years ago - only two films from the 1970s, Love Camp 7 (rejected in 2002) and Women in Cellblock 9 (rejected in 2004), both of which contain substantial scenes of sexual violence, have remained completely banned following a re-submission since 2000. (Peter 21)

Post-classical cinema is a term used to describe the changing methods of storytelling in the New Hollywood. It has been argued that new approaches to drama and characterization played upon audience expectations acquired in the classical period: chronology may be scrambled, storylines may feature "twist endings", and lines between the antagonist and protagonist may be blurred. The roots of post-classical storytelling may be seen in film noir, in Rebel without a Cause (1955), and in Hitchcock's storyline-shattering Psycho. (Peter 21)'New Hollywood' is a term used to describe the emergence of a new generation of film school-trained directors who had absorbed the techniques developed in Europe in the 1960s; The 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde marked the beginning of American cinema rebounding as well, as a new generation of films would afterwards gain success at the box offices as well.

Filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, Brian de Palma, Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, William Fried kin and Steven Spielberg came to produce fare that paid ...