Unit 1 - Task 4

1
Task 4 Understanding legal, ethical and
regulatory issues involved

• By Luca Munro

2
Impact and effect

• On a personal note, the X-Men were what got me
  into the whole superhero genre and also films in
  general. For me, what got me into X-Men was the
  Australian actor Tim Pocock, who played a young
  Cyclops (X-Men character) in the film X-Men
  Origins Wolverine, and previously I had taken a
  keen interest in him from a teen TV show he did
  called Dance Academy.
• So after finding out this fact on Google, and
  hearing many praises of the X-Men franchise from
  my friend Matthew, I decided to look into the
  X-Men franchise and found so many big name actors
  that I recognised such as Patrick Stewart, Ian
  McKellen, Jennifer Lawrence, James McAvoy,
  Michael Fassbender, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry,
  Ellen Page, Nicholas Hoult, Brian Cox, Kevin
  Bacon and Anna Paquin.
• I looked all these actors and decided to watch
  the series, and I remember seeing The Wolverine
  standalone before and I realised that it was
  X-Men film later when I had found the X-Men page
  on Wikipedia. I fell in love with the message the
  franchise was trying to convey, about how the
  films were not necessarily superhero films where
  they had to go save the world from the creepy
  English guy and live happily ever after, it was
  more of a metaphor of how we as humans treat each
  other and how people who are different react to
  that.
• One example is in X-Men First Class when Charles
  Xavier (McAvoy) and Raven
• I loved the alternate nature of the X-Men
  franchise, how different it was to many of the
  other superhero films at the time, which I found
  generic and boring. Over time after watching the
  films, I loved how character motivated they were
  and because of the comic book genre, I started
  taking note of other big franchises such as
  Batman (Mainly Batman Beyond and Christopher
  Nolans Dark Knight trilogy), and other DC and
  Marvel properties, this then escalated to a love
  of films that I still enjoy to this day, and it
  all started with the X-Men.

3
Impact and effect

• For role models and positive effects, there is
  not that many examples of role models but the
  message of the positive effects is to make
  children think about consequences. I mean yes,
  Mystique is naked, when Beast gets angry he
  becomes violent, and Wolverine stabs people, and
  Xavier abuses drugs, and Magneto is in prison,
  and there is a prison break, and yes Quicksilver
  is a thief, and Mystique is trying to kill
  someone, but most of this is irrelevant.
• What matters is in this battle for survival, the
  politics and individual struggle would provoke
  thoughts in the audience. For example, when Hugh
  Jackmans son Oscar was with his friends and Hugh
  for his 14th birthday and whilst eating after
  watching the film, they got talking about human
  rights and how people would be treated.
• As for Jackmans character Wolverine, the famous
  words used for his character is He is a good
  guy, but not a nice guy. His mysterious nature
  has made him the fan favourite, having been the
  lead for pretty much all but one of the X-Men
  films (Where he still made the best cameo ever).
  As for a role model, hes probably not a good one
  considering he is stabbing people with his claws,
  but kids seem to like him for the reason that he
  is Cool.
• Kids will be able to relate to mutants as
  outcasts so if they ever feel left out, they can
  see that in the characters from the X-Men world.
• As for negatives, the violence even though
  audiences know it to be Sci-Fi so they dont
  really react so terribly about violence as in
  real-world situations, such as American Sniper
  and Kingsman The Secret Service. Though both of
  which are also R-Rated films in America when
  X-Men aim for PG-13 in America for all of their
  films, it being a kids franchise despite its
  heavy themes, the lack of blood contributes to
  the film rating being suitable for young
  children. There is really nothing about X-Men
  being seen as a scapegoat towards children and
  teenagers being violent, unlike Grand Theft Auto
  and Call Of Duty.

4
Issues of representation

• Hugh Jackmans Wolverine is seen as very
  stereotypically male, with his extremely muscular
  figure and short temper. Most of the characters
  fit somewhat of a stereotype, with James McAvoys
  Charles Xavier being young, smooth and foolish,
  Patrick Stewarts as this mentor figure who has
  the answers to everything as is all wise.
• Nicholas Hoults Beast is very nerdy and timid,
  perhaps referring to those who are held back and
  when they get angry they can be very surprising.
  Jennifer Lawrences portrayal of Mystique is very
  relatable for women and, in fact, anyone who is
  insecure about their body, as she is at first in
  X-Men First Class very insecure and Michael
  Fassbenders Magneto teaches her not to hide when
  she thinks Charles thinks she isnt pretty in her
  blue form when he was trying to protect her from
  people who would hurt her.
• In X-Men Days Of Future Past, she challenges
  women stereotypes of being a damsel in distress
  by having set out to kill Bolivar Trask, and
  originally succeeding in the timeline beforehand.
  Also with the character of Kitty (Ellen Page),
  she is one of the most relevant characters as she
  is the one who is able to send Wolverine back,
  challenging female Sitting on the side
  stereotypes, and actually having some real
  relevance to the plot.
• Really we dont see any women Damsel In
  Distress and powerless stereotypes, we see some
  weak portrayals of particular females such as
  Rogue in the original X-Men trilogy, played by
  Anna Paquin. However, that was mostly because of
  the fact Rogue was a young runaway who cannot
  physically make skin contact with another person
  without hurting them. So in that sense, it as far
  as Im concerned, is a very real take on such a
  character.

5
Issues of representation (Continued)

• Other individual groups represented in the film
  are people confined to the use of a wheelchair
  such as Charles Xavier, whose ability to walk is
  mostly interchanged between being able to walk
  and being confined to his wheelchair. There are
  people who have mental health issues represented
  in Charles, when he hears the voices and it
  makes him struggle to cope, and that to have the
  strength to pull through is difficult.
• Mostly all the characters do serve as a metaphor
  to how individual groups and minorities are
  represented. A literal example is that of a minor
  character from X-Men First Class named Armando
  Muñoz or Darwin, a black taxi driver whose
  mutant power is to adapt his body in order to
  survive. He demonstrates various aspects of this
  ability, including growing gills when submerged
  in water or growing thick body armour when
  attacked.
• Perhaps this was too literal in the fact that he
  is a black man in the 1960s, when racism was
  still the norm.
• In X-Men Days Of Future Past we dont have many
  ethnic relevant characters in the past sequence
  of the film, though in the future two of the
  characters are Asian, they being Blink (Fan
  Bingbing) and Warpath (Booboo Stewart). The fact
  that none of the characters are of any
  significant minority mean they are keeping with
  the times, in a sense that the 1970s were still
  very minority ignorant, in which mutants reflect
  on that in the X-Men universe.

6
Relevant legal and ethical issues

• An example of an ethical issue is that of John
  Stape and Rosie Webster on Coronation Street when
  Rosie was Johns student and she began an affair
  with him, so issues that are not illegal but
  morally incorrect are ethical issues.
• Legal issues are rather self-explanatory, they
  are issues touched upon in media that are
  illegal, such as anything from trafficking drugs
  to violence, and stealing to rape.
• In X-Men Days Of Future Past, an ethical issue
  is Bolivar Trasks experimentation on mutants
  corpses to further his research and development,
  in which we know he has taken the corpses of
  Angel Salvadore, Azazel, Emma Frost and Banshee
  among many more mutants and experimented with
  their DNA so he is able to find out more to be
  able to wipe out more mutants.
• Ethical issues for the film would involve the use
  of weapons and violence, which all are why X-Men
  Days Of Future Past earns the BBFC rating of a
  12A.
• An example of legal issues may not be so
  significant in the film but distribution has a
  very significant issue. Marvel Studios and The
  Avengers director Joss Whedon announced they were
  going to have the character of Quicksilver (An
  X-Men and Avengers character in the comics) in
  their Avengers sequel Avengers Age Of Ultron and
  then Bryan Singer announced the character of
  Quicksilver was going to be in X-Men Days Of
  Future Past, which caused a lot of stir between
  Fox and Marvel.
• The Marvel products owned by other studios
  include Spiderman which is owned and distributed
  by Sony (Though now, Marvel co-own the character
  and they are allowed to bring him into the Marvel
  Studios continuity), and X-Men and the Fantastic
  Four which are both owned by Fox. The franchise
  characters that Fox and Marvel Studios own cannot
  cross continuity and can not be portrayed by the
  same actors, in-case this causes confusion for
  the audience.
• They resolved it with the X-Men version of
  Quicksilver being able to be referred to as a
  mutant and Magnetos son, but not able to mention
  the characters past in Europe, whereas the
  Avengers version being the reverse to that. Also,
  Foxs Quicksilver was primarily in the 1970s
  period and was to be played by American Horror
  Story actor Evan Peters, whereas the Marvel
  Studios version was set in the modern day and
  would be portrayed by Kick-Ass himself Aaron
  Taylor-Johnson (Funnily enough, Taylor-Johnsons
  character is best friends with a character played
  by Evan Peters in Kick-Ass).

7
The role of relevant regulatory bodies

• In the very violent world of comic book movies
  that are coming to be more and more grounded in
  reality, gritty and dark, there still needs to be
  that security of being able to be shown to kids
  so there is to be no blood or any swearing,
  unless the film goes from an American PG-13 to an
  R-Rated film.
• The disadvantages of that is if a film gets such
  a rating the marketing is vastly limited as many
  films very rarely can be shown all over un-cut to
  fit the original plot of the story, and the box
  office numbers would decrease very rapidly as
  R-Rated films from what I understand are not
  allowed to be shown in China, which is a big
  market place for box office cash.
• Being a film marketed towards children, a PG-13
  would allow for more kids who want to see a
  blockbuster franchise in a genre they have come
  to love. Whereas R-Rated films would
  traditionally be aimed more for people at the age
  of 15 or above, and parents would need to watch
  an R-Rated film in order to decide whether their
  kid could handle it, which is a risk for studios.
• In order to preserve its independence, the BBFC's
  income is derived solely from the fees it charges
  for its services, calculated by measuring the
  running time of films, DVDs/videos and other
  works submitted for classification. The BBFC is
  not organised for profit, and its fees are
  adjusted only as required to cover its costs. 
• The BBFC's financial affairs are administered by
  the Council of Management. Members of the Council
  are drawn from the manufacturing and servicing
  sections of the film industry, as well as from
  banking, corporate accountancy, TV broadcasting
  and production and the charity sector.
• As a highly expert and experienced regulator, the
  BBFCs mission is to, protect  the public, and
  especially children, from content which might
  raise harm risks. Also to empower the public,
  especially parents, to make informed viewing
  choices and recognise and respect adult freedom
  of choice within the law. They respond to and
  reflect changing social attitudes towards media
  content through proactive public consultation and
  research, provide a cost-effective, efficient
  classification service within our statutory
  remit, work in partnership with the industry to
  develop innovative service models to provide
  content advice which support emerging media
  delivery systems and provide an effective service
  to enforcement agencies.

8
BBFC Case Study

• The BBFC takes part in film Case Studies, that
  tell you why the BBFC did what they did and offer
  background information that you wont find
  anywhere else. Find out why some films and BBFC
  decisions were discussed in the news media, what
  works were complained about, and which ratings
  were praised. You can also browse their From The
  Archive studies which showcase fascinating
  historical artefacts from our archives and listen
  to their hugely popular Podcasts.
• Some like A Clockwork Orange are works you will
  definitely have heard of, others like Freaks are
  lesser known but important films, and some are
  films like Juno and Fight Club that you might
  have seen but had no idea they caused a stir when
  submitted to the BBFC. They provide Case Studies
  for all films that they introduce as part of the
  BBFCs longstanding relationship with Film
  Educations National Schools Film Week.  Though
  they no longer rate video games there are some
  video game case studies which should offer an
  historical view of how we treated some well-known
  video games.
• The BBFC regularly update the Case Studies, and
  add new titles several times a year. We welcome
  suggestions for new Case Studies, but, as each
  one takes a while to research and write, we
  prioritise requests. You can email them to
  suggest a Case Study.
• If you are researching a specific title and would
  like access to the BBFC's paper file archive this
  may be possible depending on the age of the work.
  You can request access to the companys archive
  in Education resources.
• An example of a Case Study is the Rockstar game
  Bully, which caused a lot of stir when it was
  released due to its initial concept due to the
  name. It came out when anti-social behaviour had
  become a hot topic, and was ultimately a 15 Uncut
  release.
• The game was classified by a team of two
  examiners, although given its nature it was seen
  by several other members of staff at the Board,
  including the Director. It was immediately
  apparent that the content was nowhere near as
  strong as in the GTA series or Manhunt (all
  passed at 18) and that the concerns that had been
  aired in the press were misplaced. Whilst it was
  fair to say that the game's values were somewhat
  confused, and while it was possible to partake in
  anti-social, destructive behaviour, it was not a
  celebration of bullying at all indeed, Jimmy
  fights against the bullies.
• But it wasn't completely straightforward whilst
  Jimmy does stick up for some of the persecuted
  kids in the school, he also uses violence to deal
  with his problems. Just like GTA, the frequency
  of the violence is dependant on how the player
  chooses to play the game. If they want to be
  violent, the opportunity is there to do that.
• Concern was expressed about the use of certain of
  the weapons, notably a firework gun, firecrackers
  and cans of spray paint. After consideration, it
  was felt that neither the idea of throwing
  fireworks at somebody, nor the idea of spraying a
  person in the face with an aerosol, were
  particularly novel or likely to be unknown to
  persons of 15-17 years of age. Throwing
  firecrackers is hardly an original idea (people
  far below 15 often hear about this - and worse -
  on the news) and the Board was not convinced that
  this would be damaging to 15-17 year old gamers.
• The BBFC acknowledged the concern about such
  portrayals of violence engendering anti-social
  attitudes, particularly towards children and
  their teachers, and its obligations under the
  harm test imposed by the Video Recordings Act
  whereby it must pay special regard to the effects
  of works that may cause harm to society through
  the behaviour of those who are exposed to them.
• The BBFC did not feel that the depictions of
  violence in this game would have a significant
  effect on attitudes in the real world. After
  debate, it was felt that the game would look out
  of place with some of the violent and bloody
  titles that had recently been passed at 18, and
  so it was passed at 15.