The BBFC and The Dark Knight (2008)

The film was sent to the BBFC with a request for a 12A rating, in line with the previous film in the series, Batman Begins. The film had already been given a PG-13 rating by the MPAA in America 'for intense sequences of violence and some menace.'

Prior to this, there was significant media attention around the film due to the recent and sudden death of Heath Ledger, The Joker's actor.

The main factors in the film's rating was violence and threat, which was allowed in 12A films to an extent, and not be dwelled on in detail. The examiners agreed, but the public complained.

The film's violence is quickly edited, a bit crunchy at times but lacking in any blood or injury details. The impacts are mostly masked by actors and/or camera angles but with the impression and implication of violence being very strong. For example in the 'pencil trick scene' where The Joker slams that man's head onto a pencil. Some people claimed that they saw the pencil go into the man's eye which, while being impossible as it wasn't shown, did bring up the issue of suggested violence potentially being as bad as shown violence being a reason for audiences wouldn't be best pleased by this 12A rating.

There was also the matter of knife crime, which there is some amount of in the film. Examiners considered the fact that there is no undue focus on the weapon itself, with it merely being an aspect of The Joker's unpredictable behaviour - an integral part of his character - and not glorified or glamorised in any way. Regardless, the BBFC stuck to their decision.

After the film's release, the criticism of the rating continued with 364 complaints from members of the pubic in 2008 (they usually only get 450 in total per year), with The Dark Knight making up 42% of all complaints that year. Several high-profile figures condemned the choice, with Keith Vaz, Labour MP and Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee saying "the BBFC should realise there are scenes of gratuitous violence in The Dark Knight to which I would certainly not take my 11-year-old daughter. It should be a 15 classification,".
John Whittingdale, Conservative MP, said that "this Joker is truly evil", and "most parents and children would not know this beforehand. Nobody goes to the BBFC's website for parental advice."
Do these people really have nothing more important to be doing?

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