Making a livelihood for oneself and a family may seem stressful at times; but compared to the first Homo sapiens, a civilian of a developed country in the 21st century has it pretty easy. With the luxuries of developed commerce, education, technology, and justice systems, however; the life a person seeks to preserve may feel dampened considerably. According to Freudian psychological theory, humans retain subconscious feelings of fear, guilt, desire, and aggression – feelings of all practicality in the world of a harder time – that need to be experienced in order to feel alive. In today’s society, people can experience and express these natural feelings through art. For example, in two graphic war films, Pan’s Labyrinth and Full Metal Jacket, actors become agents and objects of violence, fear, and horror. As members of the audience sympathize with the actors and their pitiable conditions, they achieve a mental balance, or catharsis. The Greek philosopher, Plato, would disagree with such a claim. According to his theory, people who are naturally inclined to imitate the baser nature of art, mimic evils portrayed through art, ultimately degrading civilization. There is some truth to Plato’s claim, especially when considering the young who may not have been socially conditioned to understand the acceptability of artistic material. Imitation is a mode by which the young learn; therefore, if exposed to vile action, speech, and thoughts, they legitimately might consider such to be acceptable in today’s culture. Censorship today does its best to keep art age-appropriate, but the balance between age and cognitive psychology varies from nation to nation.
As it happens, the two films mentioned previously, Pan’s Labyrinth and Full Metal Jacket, are rated “R” in the United States and “C” in Mexico. With a rating of “R”, both films may be screened to people 17 and up in the U.S. The movies are restricted to a greater degree in Mexico, the “C” rating only allowing people 19 and up to watch. There are many theories for the discrepancy in censorship. One might say that it is due in part to overarching social conventions of each national cinema. In this way, Mexico would restrict viewing privileges to an older age, preferring to condition its young more slowly. Then too, the government might simply want a higher level of control over its people, with the opposite said about the United States and its lower viewing age. On another front, the viewing age divergence could be related to the socio-political nature of the respective sponsoring agents. In this way, Mexico’s “Federal Cinematography Law” (Brand), a federally funded institution, would exert a tighter grip on the movie industry than the MPAA, a private censorship institute based in the United States. After all, socialization of the young is one internationally recognized function of government. All this said, a censorship gap of two years(19-17) is not enough to draw any major conclusions. Catharsis must be examined irrespective of particular age, but in terms of general maturity. Therefore, the true controversy of the above-mentioned-films is whether they should be shown at all.
Although Full Metal Jacket – a Vietnam war story – might’ve been too controversial in the United States close to the time of its release (1969); dirty language, sexual implications, and gore are filtered through the historical conditioning of Vietnam in American culture today. For example, when the protagonist takes a ride with a helicopter gunner who repeatedly shoots down what seem to be innocent Vietnamese citizens, “even women and children”, what reckless insensibilities and esteem for an American’s country might’ve been lost had he or she not firstly been conditioned by said country that killing was bad, and secondly had a chance to examine the context of such actions within the war. 
The lighting on the gunner is low key, producing a harsh lighting on the man’s arm – the one area illuminated in the entirety of the figuratively dark helicopter. When watching the beast, one feels pity not only for the military’s dehumanization of a person, but also for the people whom he destroys. Such is also the cause for another man to take his own life, after having been ridiculed constantly for likeable characteristics. The character is chubby with a weakness for doughnuts. He is not physically cut out for training, and the sense of humor he does exhibit as a coping mechanism eventually becomes warped. 
In this scene, one might imagine himself dying if placed under similar circumstances. It is difficult to live in a world of black and white, as evidenced by such the bathroom shot. With thirty years elapsed since such a time, Americans have been conditioned to objectify what was happening to their nation and people during the Vietnam War. With logic to shape emotion, Americans today can cope with the film without getting too emotional. This, of course, is not to imply that emotions are bad; rather, emotions are very beneficial when expressed in a tempered fashion, which comes through a higher degree of event understanding. Having been released internationally, Full Metal Jacket would have had dramatically less cathartic merit in Mexico. Although the country had little to nil involvement in the Vietnam War, it has been approaching a modernized state nonetheless. With a historical appreciation for the war, it has today what Atkins refers to as “shared vulnerability”, a main component of catharsis. This feeling relates an international past, and in turn strengthens the catharsis to a more globally appropriate level. In this way, time has helped to balance American and Mexican mimesis and catharsis. The irony, of course, is that the rating hasn’t changed.
Pan’s Labyrinth is rated “C” for violence and language. Unlike Full Metal Jacket, it has never threatened an inappropriate amount of catharsis. When it was released in 2006, Mexico’s federal censorship institution trusted that people 19 and up could sympathize with Ofelia, a girl who lived in the dark, magical reality of 1944 Spain during Franco’s dictatorship. That trust was well placed. Having conditioned its people for 60 years about the incongruities of fascism, Mexico successfully flourished its artistic masterpiece. Even with tragic foreshadowing, violent deaths of many characters, dark lighting, and frightening phantasmagorical creatures, this film was highly appreciated not only in Mexico, but in Spain, and America too, as manifested in the awards it received(IMDB) In one scene, a suspicious ‘faun’, that somewhat resembles a demon in costume and voice, comforts the protagonist as means of persuasion to do a mission for him. 
Here it becomes clear that no matter if Ofelia lives in real life or fiction, she will be confronted with characters of false identities, secrets, and hidden motives. With historical context concerning political and economic turmoil, the apprehensive nature of their encounter is more easily understood and expected. Therefore, one does not relate completely with a complete fear of all surroundings, but more so with the girl who finds the situation distressing. Between the movie’s release and the end of WWII, nations across the globe had allocated plenty of time to educate and condition their people about the dangers of fascism. The magical realism with which Pan’s Labyrinth was made, however, does inflate the menial catharsis of this horror-thriller when considering the era of its release. The movie was created in the age of technological progress (2006) – a time where anything, even something imaginary, might just come true. In this way, the catharsis stays at the appropriate level for its audience, so that it can be experienced positively.
Even as both films, Pan’s Labyrinth and Full Metal Jacket, are of cathartic merit
today, such merit has, is, and always will be changing. That of Full Metal Jacket started off with a higher degree of controversy nationally, and global cathartic indifference. That of Pan’s Labyrinth started with a similar low level energy similar to that of Full Metal Jacket in Mexico. Over time, the merits of both films have approached the level by which they shall be most enjoyed, and should continue to do so as long as history is taught and conditioned into the younger minds. Looking to the future, finally, it will be important to standardize means of censorship. Already the internet has breached national borders, and is not limited by censorship.
Bibliography/Works Cited
Atkins, Kim. “Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005)”. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2006.
http://www.iep.utm.edu/r/ricoeur.htm#H4
Barsam, Richard. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. Second Edition. W. W.
Norton and Company. New York, NY. 2007.
“Biography for Guillermo del Toro”. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0868219/bio.
Brand, Jeff. “A Comparative Analysis of Ratings, Classification and Censorship in Selected
Countries around the World”. Centre for New Media Research and Education.
http://www.ag.gov.au/www/agd/rwpattach.nsf/VAP/(CFD7369FCAE9B8F32F341DB
E097801FF)~80000CPB++A+Comparative+Analysis+of+Ratings,+Classification+an
d+Censorship+Around+~+Commissioned+Research256794.pdf/$file/80000CPB++A
+Comparative+Analysis+of+Ratings,+Classification+and+Censorship+Around+~+Co
mmissioned+Research256794.pdf.
Chang, Justin. “Pan’s Labyrinth”. Variety. http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_review/VE1117930674.html?nav=NomRev.
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