Richard, interesting commentary as always. True, censorship is with us to stay. You have to dig a little to learn (say) of what the Japanese did in Nanjing and later in WW2. As a boy, dutiful father hid a book from me - The Knights of Bushido. I'm glad I found it at aged 13 or 14. Bergen Belsen and all the other camps? A little easier to find. But what about pics of the October 7 raid into Israel? At least here in Australia, nothing graphic was reported. And why not? Methinks movie audiences need the stimulation of fictional violence to underscore say a revenge/redemption theme (John Wick) but also the reality of the actual (Saving Private Ryan). That landing scene - and the "let 'em burn" one soon after wasn't about politics or moralising (it's a S over here), just truth-telling if you can believe the history books. And true, there is no censoring Hollywood. Take, for example, the ready acceptance of poor Julia's lot in life in Pretty Woman. Who knows what part that story led to entrenched feminism, toxic masculinity and a non-sustaining birth rate in the West of around 1.5? I don't care! Propaganda always wins through. If you're clever about it.
Richard, interesting commentary as always. True, censorship is with us to stay. You have to dig a little to learn (say) of what the Japanese did in Nanjing and later in WW2. As a boy, dutiful father hid a book from me - The Knights of Bushido. I'm glad I found it at aged 13 or 14. Bergen Belsen and all the other camps? A little easier to find. But what about pics of the October 7 raid into Israel? At least here in Australia, nothing graphic was reported. And why not? Methinks movie audiences need the stimulation of fictional violence to underscore say a revenge/redemption theme (John Wick) but also the reality of the actual (Saving Private Ryan). That landing scene - and the "let 'em burn" one soon after wasn't about politics or moralising (it's a S over here), just truth-telling if you can believe the history books. And true, there is no censoring Hollywood. Take, for example, the ready acceptance of poor Julia's lot in life in Pretty Woman. Who knows what part that story led to entrenched feminism, toxic masculinity and a non-sustaining birth rate in the West of around 1.5? I don't care! Propaganda always wins through. If you're clever about it.