Siskel and Ebert on the "video nasties"
Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2022 11:43 am
I stumbled across this on YouTube the other day. It's a 1987 segment from Siskel and Ebert talking about the "video nasties," films that were banned in the U.K. in the 1980s and were apparently the source of shock-and-awe parties in the U.S.
At about the four-minute mark, Roger Ebert describes a film he found particularly offensive. Without spoiling anything, let's just say he was no fan of our friend, Ralphus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7fINHOibX0
For those who are interested in the subject, the British magazine Sight and Sound devoted an issue last year to the history and controversy of the video nasties.
https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/ ... 2021-issue
There is also a series of videos on YouTube about the video nasties, describing the videos that were banned, the videos that were flagged but weren't explictly banned and the videos that somehow eluded the censors, even though they had more questionable content than the banned videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Osa27Q ... fejQvTJJ0k
At about the four-minute mark, Roger Ebert describes a film he found particularly offensive. Without spoiling anything, let's just say he was no fan of our friend, Ralphus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7fINHOibX0
For those who are interested in the subject, the British magazine Sight and Sound devoted an issue last year to the history and controversy of the video nasties.
https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/ ... 2021-issue
There is also a series of videos on YouTube about the video nasties, describing the videos that were banned, the videos that were flagged but weren't explictly banned and the videos that somehow eluded the censors, even though they had more questionable content than the banned videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Osa27Q ... fejQvTJJ0k