

The effects of media violence were high on the consideration list, and a new Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill was introduced to Parliament in 1993. In the background to this, the controversial 1984’s Video Recordings Act was going to be revised to address video certification.
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The movie wasn’t outright banned, just wasn’t granted a certificate. It submitted the video for certification as usual, but was advised that a decision would be delayed. Polygram wasn’t necessarily to know the problem that lay ahead.

But the BBFC took particular interest in Reservoir Dogs, taking note of the fact that it’s in the English language, and its reputation had been growing.
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The movie Man Bites Dog – a genuinely difficult Belgian movie following a serial killer in documentary form – was threatened. Several films were caught up in the midst of this. The government of the time felt compelled to act. That didn’t stop a fresh drive for the tightening of video laws in the UK, in response to the perceived easy availability of age-restricted material for younger views. The murder was for a while linked via a tabloid campaign to the movie Child’s Play 3, a connection that seemed loose even at the time and was ultimately never proven. This senseless killing remains as shocking today as it was then. That was sharply brought into focus by the horrific, tragic murder of young James Bulger in 1993. The movie had been passed uncut by the BBFC when it came to its cinema release, and whilst there was some earache over its violence, it was given an 18 certificate with little fuss.īut separate to the release of the film, a debate had been stewing over violence in films, and their availability on home video. Although this wasn’t entirely in the organisation’s hands. Reservoir Dogs would have had its video release and lived on as a cult movie forever more.īut what really turned the film into a must-see sensation was a decision made by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) when it came to the VHS release. The film did solid business for an independent movie, and ordinarily, that may well have been that. The terrific Empire article of the time trying to work out who shot who was one that Tarantino even threatened to make into a T-shirt. However, off the back of rave reviews and the wonderful backing of Empire magazine, the movie built its audience and became a word-of-mouth must-see. Even then, most of us hadn’t really heard of it when Polygram Filmed Entertainment released the movie in UK cinemas. It didn’t get a fuller release in America for another nine months for a start, although it made it to some European countries ahead of that.īut for us in Britain, Reservoir Dogs didn’t arrive until 15 th January 1993.

But the film’s rollout around the planet – as was pretty much the norm in the early 90s – really took its time. It debuted in January 1992 – famously – at the Sundance Film Festival, announcing to attendees that Tarantino was a talent to sit up and take notice of. Quentin Tarantino’s debut feature as director, Reservoir Dogs, took a long time to get to the UK. In 1992, Reservoir Dogs became a small sensation – but a decision to delay the video release of Quentin Tarantino’s debut made it so much more.
