BBFC – This Is England.
This is England is a British film written and directed by Shane Meadows in 2006. The film revolves around the life of a young boy facing social challenges, who later finds company with a young group of skinheads in 1983. The film highlights the origin of their subculture, which can be traced back to the 1960’s. The film also highlights the social issues that were dominant within the society, as well as the division between skinheads in the society because of their nationalist views.
Becuase this film was produced in UK, the film had to undergo certain levels of scrutiny under media regulation bodies. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Media and Communication, media regulation is the “control and supervision of organizations exercised by external authorities through the application of rules.”(ODMC 2011). The setup of regulation bodies in a society stimulates domestic production of films, and guarantees public interest when watching films within the region affected.
The British Board of Film Classification, commonly known by its abbreviation, ‘BBFC’, is a non-profit regulatory organisation in the United Kingdom, setup in 1912 as an independent body to bring a degree of uniformity to the classification of film nationally, and test their suitability for viewing in the home. The BBFC is the regulatory body for films produced and distributed in the UK. They examine “issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, sexual violence, theme and violence when making decisions. They also consider context, the tone and impact of a work (e.g. how it makes the audience feel) and even the release format (for example, as DVDs are watched in the home, there is a higher risk of underage viewing).” (BBFC Website: 2015)
With the given objectives of the BBFC, it is clear that they have rights to revoke viewing rights of certain films that do not meet with the set guidelines. The BBFC will be held responsible if the public send out complaints about certain films which they feel should not be shown to a particular audience are given clearance to. This is why the BBFC are very strict when examining films by producers. The film being used as a case study, This Is England, had various scenes where violence which inflicted, and one major scene that was not only violent but, pain was inflicted on the person involved which in turn led to the person’s death. The BBFC made a comment on this scene as well; “Arguably the strongest scene was towards the end of the film when a vulnerable character, Milky, is subjected to a brutal and realistic racist attack”. (BBFC website; 2015)
The BBFC has a rule on violence especially for films which are sent to them with the intention of getting a 15 age rating. The guideline clearly states that; “Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but the depiction of sexual violence must be discreet and justified by context.” (BBFC; 2015). With this rule, placing Shane Meadows’ film with an age 15 rating will be difficult.
Before the film ‘This Is England’ was awarded its rating in 2007, certain scenes within the film were carefully examined because of its relevance to a young audience. However, the BBFC addressed the film saying there was an unbalance in deciding what age rating should be given to the film. They also said the rating would likely turn out as an age 15 and 18 rating classification because some scenes justified the film as a 15 age rating but, the use of abusive words, and strong racist violence in the film did not pass for a 15 age rating. When the film was finally awarded an age rating for viewing classification, it was given an age 18 rating for viewing because of its very strong racist violent content, and several people challenged the decision of the BBFC. Their compliant was based on the belief that, the film being centred on the lives of teenagers, could not be viewed by teenagers who were also the target audience. An important figure who challenged the ruling by the BBFC, was the writer and director of the film, Shame Meadows who was quoted saying “the BBFC's decision means that This Is England is now unavailable to the audience it will benefit the most” he also added that, “It's like I've somehow overachieved. By having one piece of violence and one piece of really acute verbal violence I've managed to get an 18 certificate, whereas someone else can slay thousands of people in a single film and that's OK. To be honest I don't understand it because, yes, the film is affecting but I think it's something that someone of 15 can cope with. It's not like it's a film about the 80s that has no value; it's incredibly relevant politically. It's as much about Iraq as it is about the Falklands. It's as much as about England in 2007 as it is about England in 1983” (Alt Film Guide; 2013).
However, to the BBFC, “The film also contains aggressive use of very strong language. The use of vulgar words exacerbated by its combination with the highly offensive racist violence and the representation of racist ideology as attractive to the child character Sean, and the artful ambiguous presentation of his developing world views and the impact of racist views upon this”. A spokesperson by the name of Sue Clark also cleared the air on why such strict measures were taken on this film. She said “we looked at it and the issues were for us very strong language which is used in conjunction with violence, and that we are told by the public is unsuitable for below 18. What we’re concerned about is groups of teenagers seeing this on Saturday night at the cinema which is rather different from watching it in an educational setting where the whole issues are unpacked and discussed rationally and we feel very strongly that in a cinema setting it’s more appropriate at 18”. The interpretation of this statement explains that, if a rating of 15 is awarded to This Is England with the nature of prejudice, its target audience will not have the mental maturity to understand the film to the level that they can make a sensible judgement on the film which in return, will have a negative impact in the society whereas, if this film is given an age rating of 18 which permits an audience of 18 and above to view this film, there will be no cause for alarm knowing that the people found within this age group, have a higher sense of maturity and will be able to control their opinions without stigmatising other people. It is a fact that, this film, This Is England explored the racial challenges that developed around England in 1984 which was contributed a certain level by the Falkland war, it is also wise to put into consideration, that because of the growing population of immigrants in UK who have children that fall within the 15 year age group, stand a risk of stigmatisation in their societies. The reasons remain the same, they may not have the mental maturity to understand the film.
The view of the director can be understood when he shares his opinion on films with more violent scenes being passed and given suitable age ratings compared to his film. However, it is best not to get sentimental on the ruling given for the film, and focus on reasons why the BBFC awarded such a ruling which claims to be targeted for a young audience. Nelson Cowan (1997) discusses the stages of development in the memory of childhood, and in this he describes children and teens to be in a stage of implicit remembrance who have the ability to capture their world and develop on it as they grow older. He also quotes Guttentag who says; “The extreme case of non-deliberate remembering involves implicit remembering. With implicit memory tasks there is neither intent to memorize not intent to retrieve, thus ruling out effortful strategies as a source of age differences in performance at both encoding and retrieval, indeed, subjects are not necessarily even aware that they are remembering” (Guttentag; 1997)
The BBFC, classification guidelines outline conditions for filmmakers that may be considered in rating an age 15 film. And the condition states that, “there may be strong language. Very strong language may be permitted, depending on the manner in which it is used, who is using the language, its frequency within the work as a whole and any special contextual justification” the BBFC, also added that, “language which people may find offensive includes the use of expletives with a sexual, religious or racial association, derogatory language about minority groups and commonly understood rude gestures. The extent of offence may vary according to age, gender, race, background, beliefs and expectations brought by viewers to the work as well as the context in which the word, expression or gesture is used For these reasons, it is impossible to set out comprehensive lists of words, expressions”. The second statement made by the BBFC regulates filmmakers to create films, which show less abusive and discriminative content of religious or racial associations if the scope of their target audience is large. However, given the outlined guidelines set by the BBFC, it is safe to say the regulation body was right in its ruling which meant, Shane Meadows’ film This Is England, did not deserve to be awarded an age 15 rating but 18 rating viewing classification even if there are claims that the films intended audience falls between the early teen age.

REFERENCES
Cowan, N. (1997) The development of memory in childhood Hove: Psychology Press.
An 18 for this is England? This is an outrage | film | the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2007/apr/23/an18forthisisenglandthis (Accessed: 1/13/2015).
Bfi-press-release-bbfc-centenary-season-2012-08-22.pdf. Available at: http://www.bfi.org.uk/sites/bfi.org.uk/files/downloads/bfi-press-release-bbfc-centenary-season-2012-08-22.pdf (Accessed: 1/13/2015).
This is England | British board of film classification. Available at: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/case-studies/england (Accessed: 1/13/2015).
THIS IS ENGLAND movie vs. this is BBFC censorship. Available at: http://www.altfg.com/blog/directors/this-is-england-vs-this-is-censorship/ (Accessed: 1/13/2015).
BlueCrayon77. (2007). Shane Meadows' This Is England-news item about the 18 cert. (Online Video). Mar 7, 2007. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQD7vd3B5A0 (Accessed: 13 January 2015).
British board of film classification | British board of film classification. Available at: http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ (Accessed: 1/14/2015).