MPAA Rejects Movie Poster Depicting U.S. Soldiers Leading a Hooded Detainee Away
December 19th, 2007But, you know, these movie posters…
Via: Variety:
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.”
Again, nice catch. It’s “little” things like this that show us how far from rational, honest, and peace-loving we’ve traveled. The fascism curve is getting steeper and steeper. All we need is another 9/11, and it’ll be a done deal. While America “burns”, our news media and huge portions of our population “fiddle” about Obama vs Hillary, and other circuses. If we, as a race, are lucky, we will survive to realize how incredibly stupid the current population is.
Well, I just read the Salon piece. If the pigs need an excuse to bus me to the catfood factory, I’ll give them one right here: How can I possibly be proud to be an American when everything about America now is something to be ashamed of? We should have let the South secede. That way maybe what would have been left of the USA would be slightly less evil and crazy today.
I hate how muslims always walk around in those offensive orange jumpsuits and hoods when they know how much that offends us.
I had a dismaying conversation the other day with two “liberal” friends who accused me of asking for too much and “taking it too far” when I asked them how they could support dems who do nothing to impede our torture programs. They believe their choices for prez would torture “less” and that’s all that should realistically be expected. Let’s not get all radical here.
Loveandlight: I’ve thought that about the South for a long time. Irony is, the industrial revolution pretty much crowded out slavery every place it spread, probably would have done it in the South eventually, too. And without leaving such a bitter taste in everyone’s mouth.
Druff: man, do I know how you feel. My brother sends me articles by David Brooks, because it’s good to be “open minded” and David Brooks “makes some good points sometimes”. His latest in the Times (nominally praising Obama) portrays folks like us as “dividers”, and wouldn’t it be a nicer world if more of us were “uniters”, like he is, no doubt. So I sent my brother back some pieces Brooks wrote during the Lewinsky “scandal” and pointed out what a right-wing prick the guy was being — taking no prisoners and loving it. But still, I doubt my brother will ever see that it’s just one big game of good cop/bad cop. (He never got back to me about it.) “Obama could really be different…” and all that crap.
Bottom line is, throughout history, it seems, very few human beings have ever been able and/or willing to read the writing on the wall. Because, if nothing else, it takes facing the fact that one’s world could get as ugly as the horrible things one’s read about or seen on old newsreels. And that’s just too damn scary.