So after a wait of nearly six months, British audiences have finally been able to see Gone Baby Gone. As I mentioned in my review, the film was originally scheduled for its UK release on the last weekend of 2007; its American release had occurred earlier in October. The film's distributors felt it would be inappropriate to release the film on its original date because the Madeleine McCann case still receiving a large amount of media attention.

I said in my review that this decision made little sense to me, and I stand by that claim. First of all, Madeleine disappeared some seven months earlier in May of 2007. While still present, the media fervour had died down considerably, and the public were generally becoming familiar with the story. It is also worth noting that is has never been proven that Madeleine McCann was actually kidnapped. Indeed, the Portuguese police has spent a lot of time focusing on her parents. In many respects what actually happened to Madeleine is neither here nor there; the real issue is how the film distributors bowed to perceived public opinion.

If Gone Baby Gone had been released in 2007, would some people complain about the decision, and accuse the distributors of acting insensitively? Almost certainly, because there are always people who complain whenever anyone does anything which gets up their nose even a tiny bit. But would the people complaining be an insignificant minority? Definitely. I have never quite seen the justification for not releasing a film, book or any other piece of art or entertainment, purely because a particular crime has received widespread attention. If you take this to its extreme application, we shouldn't release films with any form of criminal activity in them whatsoever because crime is a constant concern.

All in all, I think the Gone Baby Gone distributors made a mistake. Not a massive mistake, but one which put the interests of a noisy few above the interests of the majority. And this really ties in with the whole notion of how film-makers react to public opinion, particularly when it comes to the dreaded notion of offending people.

In the past, there have been extreme cases where the most rampant expressions of public opinion have actually resulted in his threats to life. When A Clockwork Orange was originally released in 1972, its director Stanley Kubrick and his family started to receive death threats. As a combination of this, and a certain degree of public outcry, Kubrick ordered the film to be pulled from UK cinemas, and it wasn't released again until after his death in 1999. In this sort of situation my sympathy lies entirely with the film-maker. Nobody should have to to suffer death threats, and if pulling a film from release will make them go away then that is the right decision to make.

However, there is little doubt in my mind that as a species, too many people seem to go out of their way to find offence in absolutely anything. How on earth can somebody take personal offence to a film about a child kidnapping being released at the same time as a child they don't even know apparently disappearing in similar circumstances? Of course, anyone who has had a child kidnapped would find the film tough going, and it may well bring back some harsh memories for them. It's probably the same for anyone who has been a victim of a serious crime. I can't imagine that many rape victims find The Accused a pleasant film to sit through, for example. But the reality of life is that crime happens, serious illness happens, and bad things in general happen all the time. Of course, films can reflect the good things in life as much as the bad things. But film-makers shouldn't be afraid to release or produce films which capture these harsh realities purely on the basis that some people might disapprove. Again, if you take doing this to an extreme, every film released would be about cuddly cartoon animals and carry a U certificate.

We have laws in this country, as they do in pretty much every other country, which define what is legal to put in a film and what isn't. But beyond these laws, I believe that as a society we have almost become used to looking to be offended. The right not to be offended is not enshrined in law, and yet too many people seem to behave as though it is. The point I'm trying to make here is that sometimes we want films to try to offend us. We want films to challenge our perceptions, to frighten us, to make us uncomfortable, and to reflect the often disturbing world around us. Naturally, we don't desire this from every film, but there is a danger that if people keep trying to be offended by so much of what we see on our cinema screens, the world of film is going to react to every single outcry. The result of this would be less choice, a decline in quality, censorship, and the possible death of an art form.

© David Mercier
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