Facts and Honesty

Recently I posted on the attempt by the right, through mediums like Fox News, to eliminate accepted facts from the discourse and to create "red" facts and "blue" facts and let the viewer determine which fact to choose. William Raspberry today has an excellent column today making the same point.

I was also struck by an article I read in the Washington Post today about a group of film "sanitizers" or "scrubbers" who are "self-proclaimed 'family-friendly" editors who delete scenes containing sexuality, violence or crude language -- and sometimes more -- from the DVD releases of Hollywood movies. The edited DVDs are resold or rented to parents and others who want a 'clean' version of the movie."

In addition to striking things like Kate Winslet's nude scene from Titanic, they've also eliminated any depictions of Oskar Schindler's extramarital affairs, as well as other stuff:

But critics say sanitizers sometimes alter a film so much that its original
themes are muted or even turned upside down. Robert Rosen, dean of UCLA's film,
theater and television school, points to a sanitized version of "The Hurricane,"
about African American boxer Rubin Carter, that eliminated racial epithets
uttered by police officials investigating Carter. That, according to Rosen,
undercut two of the movie's central themes, racism and police corruption.

Besides the obvious copyright violations associated with such an endeavor I was struck by the fact that there may be another unspoken agenda behind these sanitizers:

Family Flix, which claims to have the toughest standards, removes "sexual
innuendo," including suggestions or depictions of homosexuality. It recently
edited "The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie," an animated film with a PG rating, to
eliminate a scene in which a male starfish character sings and dances while
dressed in fishnet stockings and high heels.

"We don't hate homosexuals," says Sandra Teraci. "We just don't think
that lifestyle should be glorified. It's becoming rampant in more types of
films."

Hmm. I wonder what they did with the Birdcage? But one of the most interesting issues is how these groups treat film violence. 1998 Academy Award winning Saving Private Ryan had its amazing, opening D-Day battle sequence trimmed, despite protests by director Stephen Spielberg that "those images were critical in illustrating the courage and sacrifice of American troops and the viscerally disturbing nature of warfare." Nope. The "sanitizer" found them over the top. "You still get the full effect" even after the cuts, he says.

However, the "sanitizers" have not tackled the ultra-violent 2004 release "Passion of the Christ." When asked why not, the "sanitizer" replied that "everyone has already seen it."

Hmm. So you don't trim the "Passion" released in 2004 because "everyone has already seen it" but you do trim "Saving Private Ryan" released in 1998? I guess no one went to see Ryan, huh? Nah, there can't be another agenda here.
- posted by Joshua @ 1:31 PM