Attack of the Clones Cut in UK

MartyJG writes "The British Board of Film Classification has demanded a cut in Ep2 AOTC for a head-butt. I don't know which is more extreme: UK viewers insisting on viewing the US version for 1 second of extra film, or that a 1 second cut means the difference between a '12' (~PG-13) and a 'PG' certificate. For some reason the distributors must think fewer people would see the film if it was a '12'. The film report is on the BBFC website."

PG vs. 12 certificate

[dazed-n-confused]

For some reason the distributors must think fewer people would see the film if it was a '12'.

My daughter is four, and she's looking forward to the new Star Wars film. So that's one.

Jaja Binks

[pknut]

I just wish that they'd cut out Jaja Binks in the UK release of Episode 1...

No Spoilers!!!

[JHromadka]

Argh! Now I know there is a head butt in AOTC! Please no spoilers please! Next thing you know someone is going to go around telling everyone that Yoda is Luke's uncle.

Kids are impressionable

[rde]

It's all very well cutting out Head-butt (who was much funnier than Beavis, IMO), but what happens when a bunch of impressionable six-year-olds watch the movie and emulate the language of their heroes?
I can just picture them reciting their twelve-times-tables in class...

Four times twelve, forty-eight is
Five times twelve, sixty is

This is a much more egregious assault on our children than a guy with a lightsabre quoting Ezekiel 25:17 as he pops a photon in a bot's ass.

Who cops it?

[shut_up_man]

If Jar-Jar is the one who gets headbutted, I'm flying to the states to see the full version, ooooh yeah.

Re:No Spoilers!!!

[dylan_-]

I guess I'd better not mention that Anakin becomes Dar....oops!

effect on continuity?

[tps12]

Aren't they afraid that UKian audiences will be confused when one of the characters suddenly gets blood all over his face for no reason?

Re:PG vs. 12 certificate

[corian]

> In the UK a 12 means that a kid under 12 cannot go in whether accompanied by an adult or not. So it does matter.

Is this legistlated? I could just see the problems in the US...whether pregant mothers could see a movie or not would come down to a court decision as to when a fetus becomes a child.

Re:Head-butt is a problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

Everybody (at some point, hopefully) has sex. Except the readership of this site!

Re:Hmmmmm

[corian]

They used a keyword-based censor....the "head" was okay, but they objected to the "butt".

Re:PG vs. 12 certificate

[Dante_H]

My daughter is two and [...] I don't think a "head butt" is going to scar her.

Jesus, your daughter must be tough. Last time that happened to me I cried like a girl.

crazy brits

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll see the film in france, land of the free...

Re:Over a headbutt?

[minus9]

What do you guys do when the Big Show wrestles on RAW?

Turn the TV over or possibly off.

Re:Jaja Binks

[TheConfusedOne]

Read the story.

They cut out a head but, not a butt head.

Re:that extra second.

[minus9]

I suggest that the purists wait until the cut second is about to come up shout 3..2..1.. and head butt the person in the seat in front. Audience participation could bring the film to life.

Re:How nitpicky can they get?

[iapetus]

I wonder how many British children are exposed to professional wrestling? They'll see loads there.

Maybe so. But perhaps it looks realistic in the film. :)

Re:Does anyone else find it interesting...

[d_lesage]

Let's keep producing more violent movies and glorifying war, like Platoon, Saving Private Ryan

Wow, the "Saving Private Ryan" movie I saw must have been a different one, because it certainly did not glorify war. Maybe you saw the UK version, with all the deaths cut out?

Contains sci-fi action, violence and peril

[elsegundo]

Can't I have just a little peril?

No... It's too perilous.

Re: Who cops it?

[Black Parrot]

> If Jar-Jar is the one who gets headbutted, I'm flying to the states to see the full version, ooooh yeah.

Sorry, d00d, but you're confusing "head butt" with "butt head".

Re:Does anyone else find it interesting...

[smagoun]

It's not that the execs haven't seen it before, it's that they're jealous...

Re:Episode IV was "G"

[dschuetz]

This guy [ref. to post talking about Owen and Beru's bodies being the added scene] was told something different.

Hm. He wasn't certain, either. I like my take on it, 'cause the arm shot looks out of place. :) However, a quick google search found two references to the shot of the Lars bodies burning outside their home, and no references to the severed arm. Snopes had nothing. IMDB simplys says "Execs got them to change it to PG."

Anyone know the real story?

Re:PG vs. 12 certificate

[dazed-n-confused]

If they can go down a list and say "Ok, you're two points over the line for a 12. You can take out x laser blasts, x seconds of sabre duel, x punches, or this head-butt to get under the line again", I'm ok with that.

Seems that's how it used to work.

On the 5th of August 1974, Mark Forstater, a producer from Python (Monty) Pictures, wrote the following letter in respect of Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

'Dear Mike,

The Censors' representative, Tony Copell, came along to Friday's screening at Twickenham and he gave us his opinion of the film's probable certificate. He thinks the film will be AA [which is 14 and over] but it would be possible, given some dialogue cuts, to make the film an A rating, which would increase the audience [A being five and above].

For an A we would have to, quote, "lose as many shits as possible, take Jesus Christ out if possible, lose "I fart in your general direction", lose the oral sex, lose "Oh, fuck off", lose "we make castanets out of your testicles".'

He writes further:

'I would like to get back to the Censor and agree to lose the shits, take the odd Jesus Christ out and lose "Oh, fuck off", but to retain "fart in your general direction", "castanets of your testicles" and oral sex, and ask him for an A rating on this basis.

Please let me know as soon as possible your attitude to this.

Yours sincerely.'

I first read that letter 20 years ago. It amused me then and it still amuses me. You'd think it was something the Python team themselves had created, not something their producer had written in all seriousness. The thought of a group of people sitting 'round a conference table, heatedly negotiating these points, is quite bizarre. I mean, how many shits do you have to lose to keep castanets out of your testicles? Exactly how many Jesus Christs is fart in your general direction worth? Or is it a combination thereof? Maybe you can have oral sex for four shits, a Jesus Christ and a fuck-off.

I know it sounds very, very silly, but this type of negotiation is still going on today and will continue going on while we feel a need to classify films. Which I might add, is something I totally endorse in principle and by 'in principle', I mean except when it comes to my own films.

Source: Watch on Censorship [watchoncensorship.asn.au] (Australia)

Re:PG vs. 12 certificate

[Dante_H]

Jesus has a daughter?!? Does the Pope know about this?

I know that Catholics have developed something of a "reputation" but I don't think even the Pope is that eager.

The first rule of being a projectionist...

[danger42]

Tyler Durden could replace the 1 second with a much more appropriate clip...

Re:Not the first time

[karmawarrior]

There's also the highest rating:

R80: Restricted 80. Basically you can't get in unless you're over 80, and accompanied by both parents.

Excuse me!

[El Camino SS]

"Excuse me! Can I say something?"

(RAISES HAND IN THE BACK)

SHORT GUY IN THE BACK: "Look, I understand that a headbutt might be a little violent for you raters out there... I UNDERSTAND. Real quick though, why is it you object to the headbutt, but wholesale chopping off of limbs with a lightsabre is totally okay?"

THE BOARD: "Oh, sit down! We judge the morals around here!"

Re:The real weird part for us crazy Americans

[bloodSausage]

Movie: Robocop

Original: Bad-guy henchman drenched in toxic waste, looking melted, staggers onto the road, where bad-guy drives into him, and he splashes up onto the windshield.

Network TV: Bad-guy henchman drenched in toxic waste, looking melted, staggers onto the road, where bad-guy deftly drives AROUND him!

Imagine my surprise, since I had just told a squeamish fellow-viewer what was about to happen, and then it didn't!

Re:PG vs. 12 certificate

[Happy Monkey]

Hmm. Apparently [imdb.com] the Brit censors are particularily sensitive to head butts. Perhaps they have too many soccer hooligans.