TORTURED LOGIC
The Motion Picture Association of America, fresh from its comic turn in Kirby Dick’s This Movie is Not Yet Rated, returns to is absurdist roots by censoring a poster for Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross’s The Road to Guantanamo. The Washington Post reports the story. Howard Cohen, co-president of Roadside Attractions, recounts his dealings: “The reason given was that the burlap bag over the guy’s head was depicting torture, which wasn’t appropriate for children to see.” Gayle Osterberg for the MPAA, refusing (of course) to comment on the particular case of Guantanamo, stated simply, “If it’s a poster that’s hanging in a theater, anyone who walks into that theater, regardless of what movie they’ve come to see, will be exposed to it.” Quite rightly, Cohen wonders then about recent films like Hostel and Hard Candy.
