India’s Censor Board believes, ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ is “unsuitable.”

image from mankabros.com

The Huffington Post is reporting that “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” will not be released in India since the censorship board has declared the film to be inappropriate for audiences. Let me start off by saying I think censorship is bullshit. I also believe that India is doing an injustice by preventing the film to be screened on the basis that there are many social issues that I believe should be addressed by the Indian people/government, but I digress. I’ll spare you the details since I’ll go off on a tangent and go completely off topic.  Okay, here we go…

1-I thought the film was OUTSTANDING. I’m a fan of Daniel Craig to begin with, and seeing Rooney Mara’s performance in the film blew me away. I haven’t read the novel, by Stieg Larsson, but I’m not letting that influence how I feel about the movie all together. Everything from the premise, to the characters, to the cinematography, was what I was expecting to see on the big screen. I’d say it was one of the best movies I’ve seen in recent months.

2-I don’t think censorship doesn’t do anything beneficial at all to be honest. I never understood how overprotective parents could justify keeping their kids from watching violent television, or how a government could ban books in a society as you may recall reading about  in Fahrenheit 451. Censoring content just keeps it from being exposed to a mass. I believe it only makes a society more naive in terms of the things that happen in the real world. It would be more constructive and progressive if we saw the things that some may want to be banned and discussed why it’s controversial, or crude, or inhumane, or whatever the reason may be. Everybody gets a better understanding of how disgusting or inhuman or “unsuitable” something maybe by seeing it for themselves.

Furthermore, *the rape scene that is mentioned in the article demonstrates the horror that Lisbeth (Mara) experienced and reinforces the character development in the film. *The full-frontal nudity: everybody knows what boobs look like. You either have your own, or Googled to see what they look like when mom and dad weren’t home as a kid. Lets just leave it at that. *The lesbians kiss? I can understand why that’s a hot button issue in India, but on a personal note, I’m cool with same-sex relationships. The scene is short and irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. Lisbeth ends up having sex with Mikael (Craig) once or twice anyways. Woops, spoiler alert?

3-I disagree quite a bit with Indian culture, and the social issues over there. My parents are immigrants of the subcontinent so I’ve heard all sorts of stories growing up. It wasn’t until college that I further understood the social climate in India. I think the Indian people and government need to reevaluate what is considered taboo. There are social laws I don’t accept, corruption, and taboos, which prevent people from being exposed to, discussing, and understanding a number of things. I get it, I may not have the best insight in regards to India since I was born and raised in the good old U.S.A but cant help but to feel so strongly that Indians are so sheltered and “living in the cave.” (Shout out to Plato!)

4-Kudos to Sony for standing behind the director of the film, David Fincher! I’m an advocate for the arts and couldn’t be happier that he refused to re-edit the film to accommodate the Indian standard for what is deemed “suitable. This makes me believe that Fincher is a man about content and telling a story rather than making bank on his movie. Just think about how big India’s population is, and how much money would be made by moviegoers to see it! ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ was a great movie on its own and by cleaning it up if you will, would only take away the significance of it all.

In a nutshell: India refusing to screen the film is their call, which I think is completely unjustified and stupid on their part. But I’m happy that Sony is supporting Fincher in saying “see ya!” to the Censorship Board in India.