PRESS STATEMENT
from the Director

Film Classification: THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK

A number of critics and journalists have suggested that the BBFC was incautious in granting THE LOST WORLD a 'PG' certificate accompanied by a warning. In fact, we were extremely cautious, as we try to be in reaching all such decisions.

We also learn from experience. The first Board decision I faced was the classification of JAWS. Because it scared me, I jumped to the conclusion that it would do the same to children, as some others are doing now over THE LOST WORLD. I was wrong then, and I'm glad I took the trouble to consult three child psychiatrists, since they were unanimous in pointing out that JAWS would frighten adults much more than it would frighten children. They gave three reasons:

1. children are more at home with man-vs-beast adventures, since they are closer to their own animal natures; they also know that the beast must be defeated or contained, just as they must overcome the beast in themselves (see Bruno Bettelheim's book about fairy tales, The Uses of Enchantment);
2. children's stories are full of images of eating and being eaten, since children are preoccupied with their own alimentary canals; thus witches and giants are forever eating or threatening to eat children, in pies, as gingerbread men, etc;
3. we shouldn't judge children by adult readings of scenes, since children don't understand the medical implications of having a leg bitten off, or the pain or incapacity that would result; they see a battle between mythic forces, St George and the Dragon or Jonah and the Whale; it's as they get older that they see it in terms of real-world consequences.

When I asked the Professor of Child Psychiatry at Great Ormond Street if he wasn't worried about children having nightmares over JAWS, he asked what made me think nightmares were bad for children? They might be bad for parents, but they were just the mind's way of working through the fears of the day - and coming to terms with them.

When the first JURASSIC PARK came along, these answers came back to us. The film was seen by all the examiners, who registered their terror, but acknowledged that their own children would probably love it. A test screening was laid on for nearly 200 children aged 8 to 11, 96% of whom said they had enjoyed the film "a lot", including all the 8-year-olds. When asked to choose words to describe the film, 87% ticked "exciting", 79% "interesting", and 82% "funny in parts", while given the choice between "too frightening for me" or "good and scary", 82% chose "good and scary" while only 13% ticked "too frightening for me". Our task was to balance the needs of the 13% who found it too scary against the pleasures of the 82% for whom scary was a term of praise: this could only be done through a warning system, which is what the 'PG' is all about. Of the 44 letters we had about JURASSIC PARK, most were from adults imagining that their own fears would be replicated by children; there were only three letters citing the fears caused to particular children, and these were balanced by letters of praise from other children and one from a vicar thanking us for letting him take all his children, one of whom had gone to see it four times.

Unsurprisingly, therefore, when THE LOST WORLD was submitted, we reserved judgment until we had tested it on children themselves. But, as usual, we were cautious, testing it first on children from 9 to 11, and only then, when that enthusiastic audience had burst into loud applause as the first end credit appeared, did we consider a second screening for 6-to-9-year-olds.

In all, THE LOST WORLD was tested on 478 children. All of them filled out questionnaires, and overwhelmingly their vote, and that of their teachers, was for 'PG'. At both screenings, the loudest responses were the spontaneous cheer that went up when the young gymnast Kelly kicked the velociraptor out of the cabin, and the squeal of oohs and aahs that erupted when the snake wriggled down the back of the shirt. Both these moments had to be seen with children to get their full effect.

During the opening scene with the little girl, the audience was silenced and tense, but no one cried or tried to leave, either then or at any time thereafter. Some found the scene 'scary', others found it 'sad', as they did the death of Eddie later on, but for the children the saddest scene of all was when the hunters went after the dinosaurs with guns and the little ones tried to get away. The teachers confirmed that no child had been traumatised by the film, and there were no reports of nightmares or emotional disturbance afterwards. In fact, the majority would have let their younger brothers or sisters see the film, and the teachers were equally confident.

Children enjoy films that make them feel intensely, just as we do. If we photographed the faces of children in the middle of a rollercoaster ride, we might not read the emotion as pleasure, but most children come off the ride wanting to do it again, even when their parents have had more than enough.

The warning we chose was carefully calculated to reflect what we found. Only 10% of the children said the film was 'too frightening for me', and these were not necessarily the youngest. That's why we referred first to 'sensitive children' and only then to 'those under 8', an age we chose not because those of 6 and 7 were more frightened than the others, but because they had trouble concentrating during the 30 minutes of exposition and found the narrative confusing. What they loved were the dinosaurs, and many of them will probably be off to the Natural History Museum to find out more.

For the first time in the British cinema, this film carries consumer advice at the box office and over telephone booking lines:

29th July 1997

James Ferman