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Attack of the Clones Cut in UK
MartyJG writes "The British Board of Film Classification has demanded a cut in Ep2 AOTC for a head-butt. I don't know which is more extreme: UK viewers insisting on viewing the US version for 1 second of extra film, or that a 1 second cut means the difference between a '12' (~PG-13) and a 'PG' certificate. For some reason the distributors must think fewer people would see the film if it was a '12'. The film report is on the BBFC website."
Acc. to the site, run time is 2 hours, 22 minutes. A good long film... one second will likely not be missed.
I'd have a personalized plate on my car, but "toxic bachelor" won't fit into 7 letters.
All those over a one-second headbutt? I wonder how many British children are exposed to professional wrestling? They'll see loads there.
But even on the other side, this is one of those things where ignorance is bliss. If this was never reported, no one would have complained, since one second is a trivial amount of footage.
I'd have to side with leaving the footage in. After all, there's much worse violence than a lousy head-butt.
I am the evil aardvark!
...that while a movie that shows graphic violence, including decapitations, disembowellings and other acts of torture and sickness that turn viewers' stomachs can still a 'PG-13' or 'R' rating in the US, while just about any sort of hint of sexual acts, both heterosexual and homosexual, will merit at the very least an 'R' or an 'X' rating?
American censors and the film ratings boards seem to believe that it's OK for people to see violence because it won't affect them at all. Hey, the country was founded in a pit of blood during the Revolutionary War. But it's a hell of a lot better to have that on screen than it is to see two people who love each other show it intimately. Better that we have teenagers running into their school brandishing easily-purchased assault rifles than it is to have them falling in love with someone and spending time with them.
I'm just curious when the culture of violence and hate that the United States pushes on its citizens will finally become tiresome or offensive to them. Look at crime rates in Europe, where guns are near impossible to get hold of and where there are no restrictive anti-sex laws on television. Is it any wonder that their crime rates per capita are significantly lower than the US?
Let's keep producing more violent movies and glorifying war, like Platoon, Saving Private Ryan and all the Rambo movies do. That'll make everyone safer...
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
We're not yet as lawsuit-crazed as in the US.
-- Help Digitise the Public Domain at DP.
I guess they figure that young kids are not that likely to lop somebody in two with a light sabre, but they're pretty likely to stick the nut into some little kiddy's face.
I don't really have a problem with the BBFC's decision. The film makers are perfectly entitled to say "Fuck you, the headbutt stays". It's just that they have to accept a 12 certificate. Which means lower revenue (gee, a whole $20m less that $5b) in the UK.
Now we get to see whether artistic integrity will triumph over filthy lucre...
--Ng
The whole censorship thingie has been flying around for years now, the BBFC class themselves as the moral guardians of modern british society...which frankly has annoyed more people over the years than our goverment has, and thats saying something.
Tbh, i dont think a 1 second cut will affect the film at all, but still its the principle of the matter...why do we have a legally binding orginisation that can tell us what we can and can't watch? Freedom of choice doesn't exist in all aspects of life it may seem.
Just my $0.02 on the subject, i did media studies at college and i think i have a good look on the system...but prove me wrong if u feel u want to :)
"What do you mean you have no ice? Do you expect me to drink this coffee hot?" - Random Customer, Clerks
Few objected, because it wasn't "graphic violence".
The whole ratings system is seriously odd. What has an adverse affect upon one 11 year old might provoke another 11 year old into acutlay THINKING about an issue.
The rating scheme assumes all children are identical.. which there not.. unless there all clones and im blind.
At least in my mind, the real issue not that the studio capitulated. If they had to, so be it. The problem is that there are people in charge who feel that a head butt is enough to prohibit parents from bringing their kids into a theater. I mean, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles head butted, and they were aimed at a younger audience than Star Wars.
__
Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?