Unit 16 Films and television
3 And when you can't answer!
Listen and practise saying the expressions.
1.Sorry,my mind's gone completely blank.
2.Wait,it'll come to me in a minute.
3.Wait,it's on the tip of my tongue.
4.Sorry,I can't remember off the top of my head.
Pronunciation
Practise saying the questions .
a.Who's in it? b.What's it about? c.Where's it on? d.What's it like?
e.Who's it by? f.When was it made? g.Where's it from? h.What kind of film is it?
2 While you read
TV ROBOCOP NOT VIOLENT ENOUGH FOR VIEWERS
The news that Mary Whitehouse has died at the age of ninety-one
has brought the same kind of opposing reactions
that she provoked when she was alive.
For over thirty years she was the head of the National Viewers'and Listeners'Association,
which she set up in the late sixties.
She formed the organisation along with two other mothers in their mid-forties
to 'protect children from the filth and violence
that is flooding our TV screens and ruining our children's lives.'
When if first startd,the NVLA
attracted hundreds of people to the meetings it held round the country,
and the group forced the government and TV companies
to create a nine o'clock watershed,
before which programmes should not contain swearing,
excessive violence or sexual behaviour.
It also corrdinated letter writing and phone campaigns
to complain about certain films and programmes.
A spokesman from the NCLA said,
'It's very sad that she has died,
but she made a great contribution to his country.
If hadn't been for Mary Whitehouse,
the quality of TV in this country would be much worse
and the effect on our children would've been terrifying.'
One TV producer said in reply,'I would say that's rubbish really.
Mrs Whitehouse was just an ultra conservative who didn't understand art.
She caused a lot of problems for producers of serious drama and,
as a result,she might've persuaded some writers
and TV executives not to show one or two things,
but basically life moved on ahead of her.
In the end,we're adults and we live in a democracy
and we should be able to watch what we like.'
Raradoxically,a recent incident perhaps proves both sides of argument.
Following the showing of Robocop,
the sci-fi movie best remembered for its comic-book violence,
hundreds of people rang up to complain about it.
However,what offended the audience was the polite language
and the fact that it was not violent enough!
Angry viewers called their local television stations
saying that the TV version had been censored so much
that the film had been ruined.
All the f-words had been over-dubbed and the viilence was so reduced
that at times it was apparently hard to follow the plot.
One man who complained said,
'This is a classic example of over-the-top censorship we constantly get on British TV
because of people like Mary Whitehouse.
When are you going to realise these people are dinosaurs
and let us choose what we want to watch?
The strong public reaction
has actually led TV executives to consider putting back
some of the bad language and violence when it is shown again.
The film,shown last Saturday night at 10.05 pm,
attracted more complaints than any other film this year.
One executive commented that
'one can't help but notice we've maybe taken too much out of a film like Robocop.
Maybe we've gone a bit too far this time.'
Mrs Whitehouse must've been turning in her grave.
However,a spokesperson for the NVLA said,
'People who make these kinds of complaints
are only concerned about their own interests
rather than the good fo society as a whole.
Anybody who can't give up a little bit of film
in order to reduce the current climate of violence
should not be taken seriously.'