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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."
For some reason the distributors must think fewer people would see the film if it was a '12'.
My daughter is four, and she's looking forward to the new Star Wars film. So that's one.
I just wish that they'd cut out Jaja Binks in the UK release of Episode 1...
- U - Any age
- PG - Parental Guidance - If you are under 12, you have to be with a parent to see it
- 12 - 12 yeras or over
- 15 - 15 years or over
- 18 - you get the idea...
These are all legally binding (i.e. the cinema will get fined if they let a 10 year old into a 12 film). Basically, if AotC got a 12 cert, then Lucas would loose all those kids who he seems to be aiming at, and it would be less £££ (or $$$) for George." To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. "
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!
Argh! Now I know there is a head butt in AOTC! Please no spoilers please! Next thing you know someone is going to go around telling everyone that Yoda is Luke's uncle.
"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved." -- John Ashcroft
It's all very well cutting out Head-butt (who was much funnier than Beavis, IMO), but what happens when a bunch of impressionable six-year-olds watch the movie and emulate the language of their heroes?
I can just picture them reciting their twelve-times-tables in class...
Four times twelve, forty-eight is
Five times twelve, sixty is
This is a much more egregious assault on our children than a guy with a lightsabre quoting Ezekiel 25:17 as he pops a photon in a bot's ass.
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?
...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)
They used a keyword-based censor....the "head" was okay, but they objected to the "butt".
Did anyone else see the "Contains sci-fi action, violence, and peril" part? This just begs for a Python tangent of some sort.
"No, No, the headbutt is far too perilous"
Some men spend their entire lives trying to kill themselves for having been born. --Ross MacDonald
The difference is, Kids is an obvious parody and exaggeration of inner-city youth. There was no way watching it that you would get the sense that any of it was real. It was more a comedy than a documentary, and many of the viewers got the wrong impression and due to this misinterpretation, the movie received something of a bad reputation that it really didn't deserve. There were no graphic scenes of rape or violence that were shoved in viewers' faces. Anybody who takes the Kids with anything but a grain of comedic salt is simply taking the movie far too seriously. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, as did Roger Ebert when he reviewed it nearly seven years ago, and thought it was quite amusing in a 'cinema grotesque' way. There is simply no comparison between it and Platoon and Saving Private Ryan, which bombarded the viewers with horrible, brutal acts of violence.
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
What do you guys do when the Big Show wrestles on RAW?
Turn the TV over or possibly off.
Logical: "Let's see, 'sliced in half by lightsabre[1]' - OK, 'headbut' - unacceptable."
So, we (and every other post so far) have established that this isn't a logical move. We can move on to considering emotional or political.
Emotional: "People sliced in half by lightsabres doesn't bother me, but a headbut really upsets me." One could argue that the lightsaber is purely fictional, whereas the headbut is grounded in reality, so this might be a possibility. However, since the job of the censor is to protect the under 12 crowd, assuming a sophisticated, reasoned emotional response like this is asking too much.
Political: PHB Censor: "Ian[2], this movie is too violent, you need to make some cuts"
Ian the Censor: "Actually, I quite liked the movie and I didn't find any use of violence gratutious."
PHB Censor: "Dammit, Ian, I said make some cuts."
Ian: "OK Boss". Hmmm, what can I cut that won't actually make any difference in the movie?
------
[1] assumed british spelling
[2] seem's like there's a 50/50 chance of the guy being called Ian
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
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
I suggest that the purists wait until the cut second is about to come up shout 3..2..1.. and head butt the person in the seat in front. Audience participation could bring the film to life.
I suppose that gives Lucas an extra reason to release a shitload of different versions onto DVD..
I can imagine the sticky label: NOW WITH AN EXTRA 1 SECOND OF NEVER-SEEN-BEFORE FOOTAGE!
The dvd release of The Matrix in the UK had a headbutt cut out. They couldn't be bothered to amend the directors commentary track to match so the UK R2 release doesn't have the commentary track on it.
Large hunting knife in the forehead, yes, headbutt, no.
Bob.
OBI-WAN: See ye, Jango!
*THUNK*
"Information wants to be paid"
Well, I guess that missing second will circulate as a surprisingly small mpeg on the Net for those really badly worried.... :-)
Can't I have just a little peril?
No... It's too perilous.
The revolution will be televised. Blackout restrictions apply.
Digital distribution is set to change that over the coming years though, in addition to revolutionize the ability of the theaters to adapt what they are showing to what people want to see much quicker and cheaper than today.
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
How many kids have lightsabers? How many have heads?
Try to bear in mind that this cut is to allow really, really young children to watch the film.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Just call Star Wars a news program and it can have all the violence it wants and no rating.
or better yet it's a scared strait program. this way kidswon't become evil overlords looking to take over the galexy
slow....
its a European thing.
Films in Europe get release later so all the dubbing etc can be done - and believe it or not the UK is in Europe.
Tyler Durden could replace the 1 second with a much more appropriate clip...
-nd
"Excuse me! Can I say something?"
(RAISES HAND IN THE BACK)
SHORT GUY IN THE BACK: "Look, I understand that a headbutt might be a little violent for you raters out there... I UNDERSTAND. Real quick though, why is it you object to the headbutt, but wholesale chopping off of limbs with a lightsabre is totally okay?"
THE BOARD: "Oh, sit down! We judge the morals around here!"
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?)
Seriously. The headbutt is a guy wearing a helmet (Boba Fett?). I can see some little reject putting on a hockey helmet and fracturing the skull of the kid next door, though I don't imagine we'll hear of any "school photon-blaster rampages" in the near future. They censor by what is realistic. If a kid figures out how to cut someone in half with a flashlight, the censors will get that, too.
Until that day comes, you can watch saber-duels, but not metal-helmet-adorned head cracking.
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
That a few months or so after it's been released on DVD there's a special 'uncut' version on a 12 certificate, with an extra 1 second of never-before seen footage!
Blaming GW Bush for the Iraq war is like blaming Ronald McDonald for the poor quality of food.
well I'm UK and I speak English so....:-)
Its a region thing for the studios. UK is in Europe and therefore we have to wait for the regional release!
Not my decission, just telling you how it is.
What is even strang4er is that they cut the headbutts from the cert 18 Matrix film when it came out in the uk. And what is really annoying is that here in Ireland where we have a sane censors office (who pretty much let everything through) we got to see the original cut in the cinemas and are then given the UK cut when it comes out on video and DVD. I can handle the british government forcing their opinions on their own people but when we are forced to have their cut because it probably saves a piddly few pence to just give Irish people the british DVDs (whereas since we just get recycled american film reels in the cinema) rather than getting the cuts which our own film censors approved. Now that sucks bigtime.
Slashdot: Proof that a million monkeys at a million typewriters can create a masterpiece
If anyone is interested, I have the script here. There are also many trailers in the downloads area.
Click here or here.
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"
...but not as violent as a curbstomp.
This is not the way to build a lasting empire.
Did some searching around, and apparently Luke says "Hey", and the way it comes out sounds a bit like "Carrie". movie-mistakes.com discusses it:
When Luke exits his X-Wing , just after the final battle with the Death Star, Leia rushes to greet him. However, after he's climbed out, she greets him with "Luke!", whereas he greets her with "Carrie!". [This has been denied many times by George Lucas - it would have been very easy to dub over it, especially with the re-releases. He just shouts "Hey!", and it sounds a bit like "Carrie!"]
Though I am going to have to pay attention next time I watch ANH.
Few objected, because it wasn't "graphic violence".
It's funny because it's true.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Having an adult around doesn't affect what's on the screen, that's for sure.
Sorry but I have to somewhat disagree with this, and if you had said "Having an attentive parent around..." I would have been forced to disagree completely.
My parents did not believe in movie ratings (except in a few extreme cases) and allowed us kids to go with them to the few movies that were worth seeing each year. I can still remember their hushed comments at key points during the movie and then discussions afterwards about such things as "movie language" vs "what we say in the real world" et cetera.
Far from psychologically damaging my siblings and I, these experiences helped us to grow and to learn about different ways of thought and action that ultimately helped us to learn to cope with most aspects of life in these United States.
Movies can be a great launchpad for serious discussions about life, how to live, how other people live, and how to deal with it all -- if you use your resources and adult influence wisely.
"however I constantly see kids hitting other kids in some strange style they've seen in a movie"
As a fat smelly kid I have been bullied time and time again by the older kids. They usually leap 10 feet into the air and freeze. I stand there while everyone watching seems to spin around us, then the older kid kicks me.
One of these days I'm going to try walking away while the other kid's frozen in mid-air...
graspee
"All quiet on the Western Front" is indeed a brilliant work (be it the book or film), and sadly not many know of it as its what, 70 years old?
I use Friend/Foe + mod-point modifiers as a karma/reputation system.
Maul escape? Escape what? Those two pansies? The two who you said were not a threat to him? (and I agree with that) Why would he run? You apparently misunderstand the code of the Samurai (on which the Jedi are loosely based) where when a Samurai gets an order from his Master, he is to carry it out or die trying. There is no running away, no escape. Maul would not have given up on his task. His orders were to eliminate the two Jedi guarding the queen, then carve her into sushi.
I would have rather liked to have seen external influences interrupt the fight right when Maul was going to kill Obiwan - killing Maul to preserve the story. Something like a stray blaster bolt from a tank blowing up the reactors or a catwalk falling on him or something like that.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Movie: Robocop
Original: Bad-guy henchman drenched in toxic waste, looking melted, staggers onto the road, where bad-guy drives into him, and he splashes up onto the windshield.
Network TV: Bad-guy henchman drenched in toxic waste, looking melted, staggers onto the road, where bad-guy deftly drives AROUND him!
Imagine my surprise, since I had just told a squeamish fellow-viewer what was about to happen, and then it didn't!
I didn't mean run away. I meant for something to happen that didn't involve him dying. Be it, an accident interrupting the fight to prevent him from finishing off Obi-Wan, or Obi-Wan running away from Maul, or Maul being called away by Palpatine somehow. It just made no sense from a combat standpoint for him to get killed by Obi-Wan.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
You probably don't want kids running around thinking that headbutting other kids is a valid option. I think that this kind of censorship is reprehensible, but I can see why someone would do it.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
As for me, I'll wait for a lobotomy or reincarnation, without which I'm afraid I can't enjoy "attack of the clones."
I didn't mind Obi-Wan beating Maul, but I had a problem with the specific mechanism. Basically, Obi-Wan flips out of the pit, catches Qui-Gon's lightsaber in mid-air, lands, and cuts Maul in half without Maul even REACTING. Maul just turns around and gets cut in half without even trying to defend himself. If anything, he should at least have swung at Obi-Wan and missed, giving Obi-Wan an opening to bisect him. (Funny that in Episode 4, Ben says, "In my experience there's no such thing as luck," when he got so incredibly lucky in that fight with Maul :) Seriously, I hope in whatever Special Edition of Episode I there is, Maul at least swings at Obi-Wan when he's flying through the air. Maybe he should cut Obi-Wan's braid off :)
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
It's little wonder then, that the UK authorities might be wanting to reduce glorification of these activities.
For much the same reason, cigarette smoking is largely disappearing from public view.
OS/2 - because choice is a terrible thing to waste.
wait until the cut second is about to come up shout...
...Death Star... it is, I suppose, some sort of audio-vibrato-physio-molecular-transport device?
Ah, always good to come across fellow Rocky Horror Picture Show fans!
Obi Wan Kenobi: This
Princess Amidala: You mean... he's going to send us to another planet?
Cut back to Darth Vader wearing black lingerie
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
We saw him forcibly removed from his own torso, yes. But does that mean he's dead?
Maul will be coming back, I guarantee it. He'll come back as a floating torso...
Akkkk!!!! I just had this horrid image of Nigel from farscape floating around with red/black face paint and that double ended light-staff. Ewwwww!
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I got headbutted by accident once, and it broke my nose! Definitely dangerous if someone does it intentionally multiple times.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
That would have been excellent! And it would make some scenes later on in ESB and ROTJ even better. You'd see the exact same thing happening again with the foreshadowing of Luke becoming a Sith in the swamp on Dagobah and then the Emporer telling Luke to kill Vader/Anakin and take his place. For someone who watched them in order, there'd actually be some suspense about poor Luke's fate.
Dyolf Knip
No one would have cared, or even noticed, if the film board hadn't brought it up in the first place.
-Kasreyn
Kasreyn: Cheerfully playing the part of Devil's Advocate to hairtrigger
I don't like soccer either. Ice hockey all the way baby. It's the only sport that's fast enough to keep me interested. I do also like female tennis but that's for a different reason.
mogorific carpentry experiments
Wouldn't it depend on whether the fetus was in a transparant womb?
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.
I totally disagree with your first point, and I think you also misunderstood my meaning. I wasn't advocating giving hardcore porn to kids, but simply pointing out the natural desire of kids to learn about stuff. Learning about what other humans look like via naturist/fashion mags or whatever strikes me as almost totally safe. And, it has been shown that an open, frank, informed environment w.r.t. sex education leads to a far healthier population. For example, the traditionally more "liberal" countries in europe (sweden, denmark, holland etc) also have by far the lowest levels of teenage pregnancies & STDs. The idea that telling kids about sex will make them more likely to go out and do it is simply wrong, the experience of these countries shows the exact opposite. It's the conservative "keep it all quiet and hope they don't find out" attitudes which cause many of the problems, by making it a taboo topic and the subject of shame, ignorance and embarassment.
And as for guns & ammo, I have to admit to not having read it, so I can't comment on your assertion. But the fact that my kids were interested in firearms _at_all_ would worry me. They have no place in my family.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
The British Board of Film Classification website
This is the ruling on AoC.
here the Guidlines for PG
And these the Guidlines for 12