Press Release 4 July 2008
The film “End of the Spear” has had its classification downgraded from R16 to R13 following a successful appeal by the Society against the classification decision issued by the Chief Censor’s Office. The Society contended in its written and oral submisssion to the Board that the nature of the depiction of violence in the film – medium level violence – could not possibly justify an R16 classification. The nine member Film and Literature Board of Review agreed and in a unanimous decision, issued to the Society on Wednesday this week, took the view that 13, 14 and 15 year old children would not be harmed by exposure to the violence which formed only a small part of a compelling Christian message of forgiveness and redemption that is told based on the “true story” of the missionary outreach in the 1950s, to the violent South American Waodani Indian tribe. A revised censor’s note from the Board, alerts viewers to the medium level violence involving tribal warfare that some might find “disturbing”.
This is the second successful appeal by the Society in recent years involving a major Christian film that has led to its classification rating – issued by the Chief Censor’s Office – being downgraded by the Board. The Society made both oral and written submissions to the Board to overturn the R16 classification of Mel Gibson’s blockbuster film “The Passion”, and this led it to being reclassified R15. The applicant in this case was the film’s distributor and the Society opted to take a role as an interested party.
The Society has as one of its six objectives: the promotion of freedom of expression, within the boundaries of good law that safeguards the public good from injury.
How dare the SPCS suggest movies with graphic violence such as the ‘Passion Of The Christ’ & ‘End of the Spear’ be down-graded to lower ratings as to allow younger children to be traumatized by the violence featured in these films. What hypocrisy! The Passion of the Christ is well-noted for its anti-semitic undertones and it goes to show the Taliban/Nazi-style message in promoting the forced imposition of ‘Christianity’ upon those of other faiths and creeds. It is the SPCS that needs to be censored, ideally even banned.
Ok Ok I was enjoying reading some of the posts on this site untill I read this post. WHAT HIPOCRACY! I dont understand how this society can be so fundementally against violence in video games to the point where they want them banned when they are pro violence when it is portrayed in a context within which they believe. sorry team im out. I’m embarrased for you.
I can honestly say that Passion of The Christ is one of the most violent films I have ever watched, and it was very hard to sit through. I agree with James, wanting to ban video games, yet wanting to lower the rating of a film promoting a Christian message is very hypocritical, but I would ask the question, what IS the message that Passion of the Christ is sending?
We can honestly say, with the greatest respect, that it appears you may have led a very sheltered life. There are numerous very violent films screened in cinemas and available on DVD that are far more violent in our view than Passion of The Christ. Furthermore, many of them involve unacceptable levels of gratuitous violence (e.g. Baise-Moi) depicted without any reasonable justification – such as the need to portray violent events based on histrorical context factors etc. It was the distributor of the film that sought the downgrading of the classification (restriction) from R16 to R15 and NOT the SPCS (see reference link below).
While it is true the Society supported many aspects of the distributor’s appeal arguments – it recognised that a strong Censor’s warning note as to the nature of the film’s content was needed and it recommended parental mandatory supervision/approval as a consideration.
While we do not wish to downplay your concerns raised over the portrayal of violence in the film (viewers’ sensitivities to such content do vary greatly), we do suggest you take a careful look at the substance of our arguments in our published comments on this film. It may be easy for you to just label the Society as hypocrites because of our views on other forms of violence in the media, but we suggest that have not properly examined our position with an open mind. We suggest you check out our published views (see links below). The Society does NOT accept its position to be hypocritical. The government enforecement agencies we regularly deal with do not think so.
You ask “what is the message” that the film is sending? As you know it only deals with a very limited portion of Jesus Christ’s life: it fails to cover His Resurrection, His appearances to his followers over the course of 40 days on earth, His ascension and His glorification. Nor does it deal with the Meaning of His Life in Salvation/Redemption terms (theological considerations). Allow us to ask you: What message does the Mona Lisa painting present to you?
Please read from the URL links below to find out some of the messages that have been communicated through the film.
References:
The Passion Of The Christ Submission. Published Wednesday, 7 April 2004, 1:11 pm
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU0404/S00030.htm
Historical Violence not the same as Gratuitous violence
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3551525
NZ churches join push to lower censorship of the passion
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3551015