Australia downgrades ‘Temptation’ rating

Press, 12 October 1988, Page 6

Australia downgrades ‘Temptation’ rating

NZPA-AAP Sydney The Australian Films Board of Review yesterday reduced the viewing classification for the controversial film “The Last Temptation of Christ” from an “R” rating to an “M” rating. The new rating means that people over the age of 15 years will be allowed to see the movie which religious groups want banned and which has already been banned in Queensland. The board’s chairman, Mr Evan Williams, said

yesterday that a majority of the board had upheld an appeal lodged by the film’s distributors, United International Pictures, against the original “R” restricted classification for the movie allocated by the Film Censorship Board.

The Films Board of Review found the film was in no sense blasphemous or flagrantly and deliberately offensive to Christian audiences.

According to the board’s report, a majority of the six part-time board members found

the film to be “a reverent, sincere and frequently moving account of aspects of the life and crucifixion of Jesus.” The leader of the Call to Australia Party, the Reverend Fred Nile, said he was disgusted by the board’s decision, blaming what he said was a soft stand against the movie by the Australian churches. Mr Nile said the Christian Coalition Against Blasphemy would protest against the movie when it opens in Sydney tomorrow.