Fewer films are banned at the cinema in Britain these days, but this is more often that not because they are only released on video. This difference is due to the stricter guidelines for video certification. It is also much more likely for a film to be cut than banned totally.
Between 1989 and 1994 10% of 15 certificates were edited and approximately 20% of 18 certificates.
There are many cases of film censorship in terms of cuts every year, whilst
most are in violent films such as Terminator, Terminator II, Die Hard II and
Under Siege, many more family films are also cut.
For instance, Robin Hood,
Prince of Thieves had Will Scarlett's cry of 'Fuck Me!' as he sees Robin flying
of the battlements changed to 'Blimey!'.
Mrs Doubtfire was subject to
several cuts for the use of sexual innuendo.
The more violent films in
recent years have seen an increase in the 'body count', even after cuts were
imposed. Terminator II, and Die Hard II together have a total of over 400
corpses. Recently the BBFC has had a tendency to cut one or two violent
sequences from a film containing many, to reduce the total number of violent
incidents, such as kicks, or stabs.
Film censorship will continue for as long as films are made for public viewing, with the current trends towards more 'aggressive' and 'sensational' films the censors are going to have to be ever more careful with their work.