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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."
This is hilarious. Hey, those of you on the other side of the pond, is it OK for kids to watch soccer (where there is much more contact)? If NFL Europe censored? Or how about this: What do you guys do when the Big Show wrestles on RAW? About all that goof can do is throw headbutts...
well, that one extra second in the original star wars that Lucas added in in the special ediction proves that Greedo shot Han Solo first, thereby changing the whole dynamic of Han Solo's personality. Not exactly a minor plot point is it?
And here's information about it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/tv_film/newsid_1 627000/1627976.stm
I'm involved in a student cinema, and as we show stuff just to the (student) members, we don't bother with ratings. OK, mainly this is because all our memebrs are >18, but we have certainly shown a number of independent films that are not rated...
" To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. "
Actually what I find even more stupid is that (in the US) full frontal female nudity is perfectly okay for a R, but any full frontal male scenes and you are talking NC-17 or X. For the nearly all male movie executives and ratings board members, it's not like this should be anything they haven't seen before. Right?
Given one hour to live, the student replied: "I'd spend it with professor FP who can make an hour seem like a lifetime."
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Us brits always get our headbutts cut. The worst case recently has to be the Matrix - 15 seconds were cut, all due to headbutts. What really sucks is that this threw off the timing of the Music-only-Soundtrack/directors commentry extra, intended for inclusion on the DVD, so they binned it. 15 seconds and a couple of dvd extra's down the pan. If anyone's interested in seeing what else the british board of film clasifictaion deletes from movies try http://www30.brinkster.com/dvdcuts/default.asp for dvd releases and http://www.melonfarmers.co.uk/ for general uk censorship
One of my first wierd experiences as a Brit living in the US was watching "Airplane" on network TV. Roughly 50% appeared to be missing. The most bizarre cut I recall went like this:
Original: Pilots are discussing problems. One turns to other: "When McCruskie hears about this, the shit's really going to hit the fan!"
Cut to shot of fan. A large brown mass hits it and slops to the bottom.
Cut to McCruskie and rest of film.
Network TV version: Pilots are discussing problems. Then are silent for a few seconds.
Cut to shot of fan. Nothing happens. "WTF is the significance of the fan?" asks audience.
Cut to McCruskie and rest of film.
I recall watching this, open mouthed, wondering how anyone can be that conservative. Then I got to know my collegues better, and while most are as liberal as the people in the UK, it's not uncommon to find an extremist in their twenties who will refuse to watch a film because it has a rude word in it. It's even more bizarre when you consider the standards being set: Beat the crap out of someone, and it's standard TV. Show crap, or use the word "crap", and it's controvertial.
This is one of the potential benefits of the V-chip. As the V-chip becomes more prevalent, the censors will have no excuse. Network TV should be able to show what it wants, safe in the knowledge that those who would normally whine and complain can be answered with the line "Well, we tagged it, if you'd set your V-chip properly you wouldn't have seen it. You only have yourself to blame."
Here's hoping.
KMSMA (WWBD?)
ARggh! I can't complain enough about Darth Maul losing to that chump Obi-Wan!!! In the ENTIRE fight scene Maul outclasses Obi-Wan and Quigon in every possible way. He's a better fighter, he's faster, he's stronger, and he has better makeup. And that little pansy Obi-Wan manages to cut him in half... GRR! Anti-climatic fight scene! They should have let Maul escape, and had older Anakin kill him to take his place beside Palpatine. Would have been so much better in my opinion.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
Not that weird, it's just that our film classifiers (recently anyway) have been much more bothered about violence than nudity/sex. They did a public survey a couple of years back which basically said that the vast majority of adults want to be able to watch whatever they like, and parents are far more worried about violence than sex.
In the UK (and europe to an even larger extent) nudity (particularly toplessness) is seen as nothing special. Full frontal is common on network TV, and as you say (some) tabloid newspapers have topless page 3 girls. In the summer you'll see girls in the park topless (more in europe than the UK, it rarely gets warm enough!), and on beaches it's derigeur.
As a non (but prospective!) parent, I would have no problem at all with my son/daughter checking out the naturist magazines at any age. I'd be a lot more concerned with them picking up the latest guns & ammo, or even worse, some WWF crap
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
I can confirm this story. I saw Trey Parker and Matt Stone at a presentation at the Director's Guild in Los Angeles, where they showed a couple episodes of South Park and then took questions from the audience for an hour. Trey (and he was visibly irritated about it) told the story about how when they did Orgazmo, they asked the MPAA what they should cut to get from an NC-17 to an R. The MPAA told them, "Sorry, we can't tell you that, you just need to guess," but when they did the South Park movie, they received itemized lists of what they would need to cut to get from NC-17 to R.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased