Movie Thread

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

I'd like to see a redub where all the swearing was replaced with something straight out of the Adam West Batman show.

[jpakke]

Americans have no idea how lucky they were that they had MPAA instead of the state run censorship like many yuropoor countries have (or had), like in Germany, Sweden, UK, Finland, Norway and a few other countries. Sure MPAA has (or had) their own problems, but when compared to our VET, Sweden, UK, Germany etc they were so fucking hands off. Films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre and a lot of other films were outright banned in here, I remember counting days when the film/video censorship was finally lifted at the start of 2001 when the first previously heavily cut or banned films would be released on DVD, like Evil Dead, which was cut by over 10 minutes on VHS, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead etc. IIRC Dawn of the Dead and Evil Dead were released quite soon after the censorship was officially lifted. UK and Germany still suffers from the censorship to some extent, which is fucking ridiculous, but not surprising. I think aussiecuckland too.

I still have many hilariously poorly cut VHS from the time, like the completely ruined release from Robocop that cut off virtually all the violence. In the drug factory raid scene Robocop raises his weapon and in the next cut everyone lay dead. Emil's death scene was also completely cut off, during one scene Clarence is driving his car (before colliding with Emil) and in the next cut his car is on its roof in a mud pit. Rambo 3 was also completely mutilated, I think they cut off something like 15 minutes from that one. I also still have many illegal (of the time) VHS copies of banned films like Exterminator (with Greek subs).

Don't forget John Woo's Hard Target which was hacked to pieces, here's video of it:


Watching some of those fourth generation vhs copies with greek etc subtitles was a kind of rite of passage, I remember watching Evil Dead on those, same with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Predator 1 and 2 etc. The whole film-/video censorship is a great show of what the censors and people who supported the whole system thought of the people, and I think the whole nannying the populace still lives in our society and government.

[Guest]

I remember when Robocop first aired on TV, there was an alternate cut where Clarence drives around Emil and doesn't hit him. Naturally, the swear words were all redubbed.

I could've swore the shitty RoboCop TV series actually retconned Emil's death and turned him into a recurring villain, but it turns out that was a new character that just happened to have a similar origin story.

[veris leta facies]

Don't forget John Woo's Hard Target which was hacked to pieces, here's video of it:


Watching some of those fourth generation vhs copies with greek etc subtitles was a kind of rite of passage, I remember watching Evil Dead on those, same with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Predator 1 and 2 etc. The whole film-/video censorship is a great show of what the censors and people who supported the whole system thought of the people, and I think the whole nannying the populace still lives in our society and government.

Fight scenes that included kicks were for some reason considered really brutal and were very commonly cut out. The rule of the thumb was that if there's any kicking in it, it will be heavily cut (Bloodsport, Kickboxer, The Way of the Dragon) and if it involves violence against women, rapes etc. it will get banned (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I Spit on your Grave, Evil Dead, virtually every Argento film). The Board of Film Classification was otherwise very inconsistent in its operations, for example two very similar vampire movies from the same era, The Fright Night and Near Dark, received a completely different treatment from the inspectorate. They were both equally "brutal", but The Fright Night was allowed to be released completely uncut, whereas Near Dark got banned completely. Same inconsistency with Peter Jackson's early films, Bad Taste allowed uncut, but Braindead banned and so on.

It is indeed very common for Finns to believe that the state knows better what is good for them. Maybe it's a legacy from the times of Finlandization (times when the Soviet Union was feared and media/politics/people avoided offending the country by self-censorship). People are extremely resistant to change, they'll fight tooth and nail for status quo. It's really quite a miracle that the video law was got rid of or that the retail sale of alcohol up to 5.5% was allowed. Maybe we'll have retail sale of wines by the end of 2050!

[Liar Revealed]

Even in the 1970s USA, if it was a martial arts movie, it got an automatic R rating. Even Jackie Chan's The Big Brawl got an R rating.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

I also like how at least Great Britain considered nunchuks to be the most evil of all possible weapons.

[veris leta facies]

It is no wonder that nunchuks are banned everywhere. A weapon so deadly that anyone becomes a real ninja with one in their hand. It's amazing how much more effective the stick becomes when it is cut in the middle and a chain is inserted between the parts, the kinetic energy doubles in the homogeneous synthesis of chain atoms and the stick becomes a scepter of death.

But yeah, I guess marital arts movies are globally hated everywhere by inspectorates. It's funny how they had to replace the "ninja" in Teenage mutant ninja Turtles in Europe, apparently they were afraid that children grow into ninjas if they are exposed to the word.

[VoiceOfReasonPast]

I think this was a side-effect of that bit of autism during the '80s when everyone was afraid of Glorious Nihon and their mysterious zaibatsus curbstomping us all.
Literally every cyberpunk or post-apocalyptic tabletop RPG from that period involves a Glorious Nihon that becomes a major player by going back to feudalism, with Cyber-Samurai and Cyber-Ninja swinging around Cyber-Katana in the name of the Cyber-Tenno.

[Guest]

I wish we were living in that timeline. Instead the Japs are becoming as cucked as the 'Murricans.

[Guest]

I also like how at least Great Britain considered nunchuks to be the most evil of all possible weapons.

Yesterday was the nunchaku, today is the butterknife.