So, I would just say this about banning films or censorship, I don't think that should ever happen. These pictures should remain available to see as they are and only be seen as a reflection of those that created them and the times in which they were made.
The only picture I am certain has been "banned" or removed from distribution/circulation is Disney's Song of the South and this was essentially done by their legal department. In all honesty, I think this is a bad idea as it likely creates more bad vibes than allowing the picture to be seen. The other day I was at a gathering and all this came up and a woman said of Song of the South that it was this horribly racist film that was totally disgusting. I asked her if she had seen it and she said no and I asked how she knew it was so horrible then.
She said she had read about it. I explained that was not the best way to make a judgement on it. I told her I had seen the picture at a drive-in theater some 45 years ago or more and then perhaps once after that and I did not find it to be a movie promoting or encouraging racism. A guy then asked me, jokingly, if I was wearing my white sheet and hood when I watched it and I said "Sure but everybody was and I just wanted to fit in." which at least got everybody to laugh.
The point being that she had ''heard'' it was terrible and wildly racist and so was telling other people that who then would have just taken her word that it was. That's how things end up "banned" because people that have no chance to judge for themselves have to just believe what someone else said and can't judge the picture for themselves.
Song of the South is not some terribly racist picture nor is it promoting that. Yes, it does have some characters speak in what would have been for the time a stereotypical uneducated voice of a person of color but it is not with the intent to paint an ugly picture of all African Americans.
Why ban the picture when many people know of it, you can look at clips of it on youtube and you can even purchase a copy of it on DVD through internet sellers. Disney's attempt to hide it just makes them look like they are guilty of something and that there is some shameful thing in their closet they want no one to see.
Let people watch the films themselves and judge them. Sure, there are odd and sick people in the world that take these films in the wrong ways. However, it is not the films that made these people odd, or sick, or a racist...something in them made them go in that direction or they were taught that thinking by the environment they were raised in.
Blaming the films is a cheap out because basically you can take the film away but you can't take somebodies racism from them. You can't make people into better people by taking the film away.
A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.
All that said will we see more pictures "banned" or taken out of circulation? We might and here's how I think that would happen. It won't be done by politicians or political activists. It would likely be done just like Disney did it with Song of the South. A person in the company, probably a younger person with no real experience with the picture they want to get rid of will just bury the film. There is not going to be some government group or a bunch of protesters...just likely one person or a small group of lawyers in an office that say "We'd just be better off not showing this."
So, not a hard ban just don't show it until it fades into memory. Then some woman sitting next to someone at a party will tell them "Oh yes, that film had to be banned because it was so awful." and nobody will care or know any better.
I do not disagree with you in principle, but Disney is king of the goalpost-movers. Trouble is, now they're dragging other studios down to their level.
