Court Rules: Movies On DVD Can’t Be Sanitized
Art imitates life, and life is replete with obscenities, both flagrant and innocuous. No one lives a G-rated life, even a minister’s daily adventures would merit a PG-rated label.
Reel life is seldom rated G, some of the greatest movies have been slapped with an R-rating. If the expletives, violence and sexual images are expunged from these classics it would drain them of the vitality that makes life exciting and movies entertaining.
There are folks who delight in burning books and then there are wicked companies like CleanFlicks, which edit popular movies on DVD to remove language and scenes that they consider offensive, then rent or sell the “sanitized” versions of the films to individuals and movie rental companies.
Many Hollywood directors, including Mel Gibson, filed suit against these companies for violation of copyright laws. These directors argued that their artistic vision was being compromised. If you removed all the blood and gore from “The Passion of the Christ”, all you would be left with would be the opening and closing credits.
Last week, a federal appeals court judge ruled against  these companies that butcher films, on the grounds that they cause “irreparable injury to the creative artistic expression in the copyrighted movies.”
The companies have been ordered to turn over their inventory of edited DVDs to the movie studios within five days. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist or a Quentin Tarantino to figure out what the movie moguls will do with those sanitized DVDs.
This ruling will put CleanFlicks out of business, but “Frankly My Dear, I don’t give a damn.”
I write a weekly column for a small town newspaper in Virginia, and I also write for several Web sites. Please leave a comment or send me an email at: rreyes4966@aol.com | More from Robert Paul Reyes
Stumble It!
July 11th, 2006 at 7:40 am
“Aim High” That’s the Air Force motto. Would that we all had such lofty goals, but we don’t. We like to stand behind claims like “There’s whale shit on the bottom of the ocean. Let’s wallow in it.”
It’s not like hollywood can’t make a movie without some profanity in every tenth frame an have it sell well. They’d rather not. They’re probably still embarassed that Ingrid Bergman was fully clothed all the way through Casablanca; or that Humphrey Bogart and Claude Raines weren’t swearing every time they spoke.
Art imitates life and life imitates art. But when the spiral is downward, wouldn’t it be nice to see a real leader arise and refuse to follow the lemmings under the whale shit?
How much impact would Rett Butler’s famous line have had if he was swearing all the way through Gone with the Wind? It was shock when shock was needed, not because they were “pushing the envelope” into the dirt.
Yes, CleanFlicks broke copyright law and will now pay the price. But what was the message? Hollowood can make make movies, BLOCKBUSTERS, without the profanity. With a little thought, and a little more editing they can come out with pictures that are enjoyed by more people.
Maybe there is an agenda. Maybe there is a desire to bulldoze all morality from the landscape and put up another brothel. All they need is a few more cheerleaders chanting “Art imitates life, and life is full of obscenities.”