http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/tv_film/newsid_3777000/3777753.stm
An interesting (if simplistic) piece from the Children's BBC team on how HP3 got its "PG" rating. Basically: Children's movies are allowed to be a bit scarier, because being a children's movie you know everything will turn out alright. Hmm... I don't know, I'm not sure that reasoning holds up to close scrutiny, but I can't easily put it into words. They're right when they say that the majority of the audience will have read it already, though.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3786397.stm
Speak Your Brains: Is flying England's flag right? There's a variety of opinions there, ranging from worries that the St George's Cross has been co-opted by racist bigots, to those who don't see what the fuss is about and don't know why you'd wave a flag anyway ("Birthplace is fairly arbitrary"), by way of those who believe they should be able to show their patriotism and racist bigots be damned. Personally I'm with the people who don't particularly see the point, but I also think it's a shame that those who do like to wave a flag only seem to feel the need to do it during football tournaments. They're not saying "Our country is the best", they're saying "Our lads can beat your lads at football".
The reason it's been co-opted to an extent by the far right, of course, is that they've taken "Our country is best" and extended it to "because all foreigners are dirty and should stay where they belong", which is much worse. Given the choice, I think a world in which people could support their team at sporting events without raising unfortunate associations would be a good one. But then, I'd quite like a world in which people could support their teams without painting their country's flags on their enormous distended bellies, which currently seems sadly out of the question.
Right, that's quite enough half-baked drivel from me for now.
An interesting (if simplistic) piece from the Children's BBC team on how HP3 got its "PG" rating. Basically: Children's movies are allowed to be a bit scarier, because being a children's movie you know everything will turn out alright. Hmm... I don't know, I'm not sure that reasoning holds up to close scrutiny, but I can't easily put it into words. They're right when they say that the majority of the audience will have read it already, though.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/3786397.stm
Speak Your Brains: Is flying England's flag right? There's a variety of opinions there, ranging from worries that the St George's Cross has been co-opted by racist bigots, to those who don't see what the fuss is about and don't know why you'd wave a flag anyway ("Birthplace is fairly arbitrary"), by way of those who believe they should be able to show their patriotism and racist bigots be damned. Personally I'm with the people who don't particularly see the point, but I also think it's a shame that those who do like to wave a flag only seem to feel the need to do it during football tournaments. They're not saying "Our country is the best", they're saying "Our lads can beat your lads at football".
The reason it's been co-opted to an extent by the far right, of course, is that they've taken "Our country is best" and extended it to "because all foreigners are dirty and should stay where they belong", which is much worse. Given the choice, I think a world in which people could support their team at sporting events without raising unfortunate associations would be a good one. But then, I'd quite like a world in which people could support their teams without painting their country's flags on their enormous distended bellies, which currently seems sadly out of the question.
Right, that's quite enough half-baked drivel from me for now.