Re: [dvd-discuss] clean flicks and moral rights

["Arnold G. Reinhold" <reinhold(at)world.std.com>]

At 12:49 AM -0500 1/23/03, Jeremy Erwin wrote:
>...
>
>Could Gosford Park be released as a clean version? Yes, with minimal 
>effect on the story-- eight "f**ks, as cheerfully pointed out on the 
>accompanying commentary tracks .. Will such a clean edit be done? 
>Probably not, as the Mormons would doubtless find fault with the 
>suggestion of incest, homosexuality, heterosexuality, etc... and 
>find ways to wipe out actual content.

It's not just people with strong religious views who are potential 
buyers for cleaned up films. Parents are a big market. Hollywood 
plays a really sick game with ratings.  Many, if not most, PG-13 
films are filled with sexual content and crude humor, while R movies 
have serious themes along with an occasional f-word  and 542 
milliseconds of exposed nipple or crotch. Sans the gratuitous stuff 
thrown in to get the magic rating, many R movies are more wholesome 
for teens and even preteens than most PG-13 movies.

Consider, for examples, "Topsy Turvey" a film about Gilbert and 
Sullivan with a gratuitous crotch shot, or "Men of Honor" an 
inspiring film about the US Navy's first black diver, with a 
particularly graphic use of the f-word (lots of n-words too but they 
are central to the story).

>
>I suppose, that the alternative-- market confusion caused by a 
>proliferation of "clean" versions is by far the worse scenario. I 
>just hope that they won't be used in an educational setting.
>
>(My high school English textbook included a copy of Julius Caeser, 
>minus, peculiarly, a good part of Act 1, Scene 3. A classroom is no 
>place for Bowdler.)
>

Clear warning labels are the way to deal with market confusion.  And 
even Mr. Valenti will agree that Shakespeare is in the public domain.

Garry Trudeau dealt with the moral-rights-in-movies argument quite 
well in a strip published on December 28, 1986 (doonesbury.com has a 
search engine!):

http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.cfm?uc_full_date=19861 
228&uc_daction=X


Arnold Reinhold