Missing Sex Scenes from DVDs

[sarahjh69]

My boyfriends a bit of a sad old git!
He bought Total Recall cos of the scene with Sharon Stones bum.
He bought American Werewolf in London Cos of Jenny Agguter topless.

Only when he viewed these DVDs those scenes had been re-edited
to remove all the shots potentially embarassing for the actresses.
He had seen both movies in the cinema and says they have been cut!

Is he right, or is he just sad. Anyone else found any
sanitised DVDs...........
(I'm too young to have seen the films in the cinema so I
don't know if hes' right or not)

[diji1]

Hi,

In Australia there was a "M15" ( restricted to 15 yrs and over ) and a "R" ( restricted to 18 yrs and over ) version for Total Recall ... at least that was for VHS, that be an old film. Maybe ur bf got a "cut-down" version where there might be another un-cut version as well with a higher rating. Maybe :).

... maybe i'm wrong, but do you really think that the organisation releasing the dvd would cut out scenes that would make the dvd sell more copies ? After all, we all know that sex sells.

[Ookami]

At least an someone raised this very important issue! :D

Seriously, I have seen many cutted and censored DVD's. And I don't mean only those "sex" scenes...

@diji1

There are many reasons why to censor something, mostly the producers would like to keep something in it, but the also want to have a wide viewing range... So they often compromise.

When I read the Subject, the character "Fluffy" from "Unhappily ever after" came somehow to my mind. Grin.

Cheers y'all,

Mijo.

[Doom9]

as you may know in some European countries we have the opposite problem... they don't care about sex but love to cut out violent scenes. So, especially in Germany you can often only buy movies rated 16 of which you can usually get a version rated 18 in the rental store upon showing your ID. Obviously the version rated 16 is cut, sometimes even mutilated (I've seen movies that have been cut as much to make no sense anymore). In the early days of DVDs only the cut versions were released, now they're beginning to also put out unrated versions but due to child protection laws (or that's what they call them.. I call it state censorship) they cannot openly sell copies rated 18.. they have to sell them "under the table" which means that you can still not buy these discs as retailers don't make enough money with these copies and hence don't cary them.. so you have to buy them at the rental place or via mail-oder (where you have to send a copy of your ID, usually). However, there's no stopping you from buying a DVD released in another country where they don't cut.

so, it may well be possible that these movies get cut due to legislatory constraints. Movies in the theater should always be uncut (well.. in the US some movies get cut to get an R rating rather than NC-17 (which is almost as strong as XXX) but then you normally don't get the NC-17 cut on DVD either).

[DSPguru]

Originally posted by sarahjh69
My boyfriends a bit of a sadso make him happy.. ;)

[theReal]

I suspect some movies are cut for one sole reason: the companies need enough unused material to release a 10 to 20 minutes longer director's cut version a year later ;)

[diji1]

When I read the Subject, the character "Fluffy" from "Unhappily ever after" came somehow to my mind. Grin.
... hehehe ...

... as you may know in some European countries we have the opposite problem... they don't care about sex but love to cut out violent scenes ...
it's bizaare really - the euro "way" makes a lot more sense that the aussie way though, i'd rather view sex over violence anyday :).

[tenebrenz]

I live in the UK which has had very strict censorship laws but which are currently being slackened, extreme violence gets through nowadays but hardcore porn is still banned. A problem in Europe is that the distributor's don't want the hassle of releasing different versions of the same film in different countries which have different censorship systems. There are many cases of cut European masters being used for UK releases when it is not neccessary. We too have the problem of distributors cutting a film so it will get a lower rating.
For these reasons I like to buy most of my horror films from America where censorship is more advisory than compulsory and I can get a film that hasn't been butchered too much.

[theReal]

but hardcore porn is still bannedAre you sure? I saw an interview recently with Add N To X (a British music group) who had released a porn version of a music video (as well as a normal version for TV). As to the reasons why they said they wanted to show that porn had been legalized in the UK some time ago, only nobody knew about it.
However, it depends on your definition of "hardcore", I guess. Some stuff is illegal in about every country of the world.

[Slogra]

Originally posted by theReal
I suspect some movies are cut for one sole reason: the companies need enough unused material to release a 10 to 20 minutes longer director's cut version a year later ;)

You may be joking about this, but i seriously think this is true. Even Ace Ventura Pet Detective is cut (more cut than the vhs version). Why would they cut some funny scenes like the dolphin trainer out of this movie???

I suspect they'll re-release it someday.


btw. I've European version of Total Recall (Studio Canal), but there's no butt in this version either :'(. I don't recall the original version of the movie, so i didn't really miss it... untill now.

[sarahjh69]

I was talking about the UK versions
both rated 18. Both with edited sex scenes.

1 more reason never to buy DVDs

[Lord Sandwich]

To my recollection, The Fifth Element had a few seconds more topless footage in the US theatrical release than on the Region 3 DVD.

Never trust videos that are intended for countries with authoritarian governments. :D