cardaway

I'm sure it would edit out the curb scene and the language.

Great point. There is also the need to consider the agenda of the people deciding what is edited, and once again, AHX is a good example.

If somebody decides that movie is not for their children based on the theme, no amount of editing is going to change that.

I guess the player could eat it or spit it out.

DodgingCars

Personally, the only use I could see for the machine for my own use would be if I became a teacher. I think there are several films that I could show to a history class that might have objectionable scenes.

But to answer your question from the perspective of someone who might use the machine for personal use. Why shouldn't I? Movies are made (for the most part) to make money. Obviously, not everyone is going to have the same tastes or threshholds for nudity and language. Why should they be eliminated as potential viewers of a movie just because of a few nude scenes or questionable language that they disagree with that were meant to appeal to a broader demographic?

Why would it concern you at all whether a person wanted to watch a sanitized version of a movie anyway?

Groucho

But how are parents supposed to know that? Let's look at The Girl Next Door. The advertisements make it look like a sweet teen romance. So, the parents just slap the DVD in thinking the device will convert it into a family film. Can't change the fact that the title character is a porn star, though.

The irony is that with this device, children might see more objective content than without it, because parents will see it as a substitute for previewing the film themselves.

talemyn

I think that there are basically two ways in which this would be worthwhile:

1) Films with parents/teachers are already familiar and whose basic themes they find to be acceptable for kids, but contain specific instances of contain objectionable content, and

2) Films that adults who want to watch sanitized versions of films . . . that they have not previously seen . . . for whatever reason.

Personally, I couldn't forsee ever using it for the second situation, but, if done right, the first situation could be useful in many situations.

Cocopugg

Excellent device. I'm sure plenty of parents have been embarrassed even watching some PG films with their kids that show sudden nudity or curse words they didn't expect. No more! The movie industry hasn't a prayer when it goes to court. Since what the machine will be doing is nothing more than a regular DVD player can do (such as MUTE, FF, SKIP, ZOOM, etc.) case closed! Chalk one up for decent parents who are trying to raise their kids right. I'm so tired of hearing "If you don't like Howard Stern, just turn off your radio." To those people, all I can say is "If you don't like this new player, just don't buy it."

cardaway

If I could be confident that the advance of this technology would mean that I would never have to hear another complaint about the type of content you would be stripping out... I wouldn't have a problem with it.

But the reality is that the folks doing the self editing would continue to whine and protest that these movies shouldn't have to be edited by them in the first place... as they continue to ignore the films that are made specifically for their tastes in mind.

Mr. Toast

Wow. Forget the dangers of self-censorship, I'm more concerned about the dnagers of auteurism. I can't believe the level of director fetishism present in so many of these posts. Hello, there more to making a movie than the director. Also, most directors don't have final cut, don't own or control the film they've made and have little to no say in the advertising campaign. Who is to say what the "director's vision" is for any studio produced Hollywood film? And even if it were possible to do so, can you credibly argue that this vision will be destroyed by the application of mute and fast forward? I doubt it and if it can be done, I have yet to see in the myriad threads dealing with this sort of thing. Have you guys checked out which the wind is blowing these days? It's not headed in the direction of artistic freedom. Just look at the gestapo tactics being wielded by the FCC and be gald that conservative "culture warriors" have a tool to help them enjoy movies in a way they like WITHOUT impairing our ability to watch it as we like.

And I also have to say to those worried about adult "themes" rather small bits of objectionable content - have you ever watched a movie made before 1965? Maybe you should. Lots of them are very good and they don't contain swearing or nudity. Many more current films could very likely be enjoyed without those few bits and losing nothing of the original. As much as I love the word ****, I'm not sure that without it a particular movie would be ruined (Pacino's Scarface excepted). Also, consider that this company isn't going to release filters for movies that are heavily violent and/or sexual. While I have no intention of buying one of these machines, I have no problem with their existance. I have to admit that being the father of a 1 year old son and thinking about how I want to to interact with media has softened my view on the matter and I certainly empathize with parents who want to be able to let their kids watch the kids want to see but without some small parts they object to. I've always considered freedom of choice to be a cornerstone of a free society, but I guess many of you don't agree.

Rypro 525

As much as I love the word ****, I'm not sure that without it a particular movie would be ruined (Pacino's Scarface excepted). any tarentino movie or any gangster movie in general. (

dx23

"Excellent device. I'm sure plenty of parents have been embarrassed even watching some PG films with their kids that show sudden nudity or curse words they didn't expect."

Can you name at least one PG film where there has been nudity? or a bad word like F**K? I'm not talking about PG-13, just a PG movie.

DodgingCars

Airplane!

Artman

I think BIG had an F-word in it. Thats all I can think of...

And there really is no excuse anymore for 'not knowing' what a particular film is like content-wise. Resources like screenit.com (as well as plenty of christian-based ones) have solved that problem.

DodgingCars

This is a grouchoism, right? You have to be joking. The guy is dating a porn star and it seems like a sweet teen romance?

To answer your question though. They can either watch the movie first or they can research it. Screen-it is an excellent resource.

Rypro 525

big would actually be rated R today if you can believe it because the f word was used sexually.

Rypro 525

what about older movies from the 70's or late 60's that don't have ratings reasons like all of todays movies do. for instance, i bet that some parents got their young children the original planet of the apes because they saw the G rating, but they didn't know it has a few "damns" and "hells" and brief nudity, that easily wouldn';t get a G today.

Artman

Well than I guess parents will have to do some research or pre-viewing on their own.

And BIG - (just picked this up and watched it a few wks ago) doesnt his friend say "who the f--- do you think you are?"

They had PG13 in 88 so I'm not sure why it wasnt rated as such. Just goes to show you shouldn't just go off of the MPAA rating anyways.

nova

This technology already came out decades ago. It's called a rating system. Scared of what might be seen or heard on a dvd, then don't let your kids watch anything but G and PG rated movies. And the best thing is that all movies have this rating already (I swear it's true!) Most dvd players if not all have a built in program that lets you block movies by these ratings. And if that doesn't work for you, what about actually spending time with your kids instead of just sitting them infront of a tv screen and letting their braind rot (leave that up to us adults, lol). I can understand why this player was built and it makes sense. That doesn't mean it's not f*****g stupid.

Rypro 525

i thought the quote was (i was going off another thread somewhere about a week ago and can't find it) "hey i'm only 13 and i just f***ed that girl" or something like that.

Rypro 525

nova, even that doesn't work, many 70's pg movies contained alot of language, violence (some graphic, look at jaws for instance) and some nudity (logan's run anyone)

k_lodge

Don't remember the exact quote if the movie, but f*** was definately heard in the movie "Eight Men Out". I have 2 nephews, 7 and 9, who love baseball and I thought it would be a good movie to show them, then the "F" word was spoken and I thought my sister in law was going to kill me.

nova

You're absolutely right. I withtract my previos post, lol.

Cocopugg

"All The President's Men" comes to mind. I remember watching this when I was younger and couldn't believe all the times the F word was used in a PG rated film. I've heard it's been re-rated R since, I'm not sure about that, but I do know it was PG when I saw it. Then there's the reason PG-13 was created, "Jaws", which showed nudity, and enough violence and gore to make people wonder why it was rated PG...Of course, Spielberg is Spielberg, but back then he wasn't, and that was enough reason for them to create a PG-13 rating.

talemyn

Sixteen Candles is/was rated PG and contains both "F**k" and full frontal nudity. Those "pre-PG-13" movies cause all kinds of trouble in this area.

talemyn

Nope . . . Artman got it right . . . his friend Billy says it when Hanks is too busy on a business call to talk to him about the Zoltan machine being at a park.

ThatGuamGuy

No, he's absolutely 100% serious *and* right. The advertisements make the movie look like a sweet teen romance, while the movie, in fact, features a lead guy dating a porn star. (I believe prostitution also comes into play; not sure, though, as I haven't seen it.)

That's true, but entirely beside the points being made. If a movie made today deals with its frank themes of sexuality in a frank way, the themes are still frank and explicit even if the words are being ignored. Point being that, logically, if you want a movie made before 1965, you should watch a movie made before 1965, not expect a device to retro-fit a movie made last year to those standards.

Toast, I know you didn't mean it as such, but this is actually the best argument AGAINST the machine. Follow this logic:
- Parents buy the machine
- They say, "Oh, good, now we won't have to pay attention to every single movie he watches." No, Dodging Cars, this is not assuming that every parent is dumb and lazy, this is recognizing that a certain percentage of them *are* dumb and lazy, and acknowledging that this particular product will assist the laziness of all parents, including those who are already lazy.
- They pop in explicit movies, expecting them to be cut, but they're not cut, because those movies were deemed uncuttable.

The same logic, slightly modified, could be applied to people who don't want to watch things which they deem "explicit" and assume that the people who made the player will also deem "explicit".

Well, then stop complaining about him.

The funniest story about the arbitrariness of censorship, to me, is that they still show the TV edit of 'The Godfather' in which Sonny says "He better not come out of the stall with just (a stick) in his hand" [instead of "his dick"], but it still allows at least one (if not several) uses of the word "Ni***r" [I won't type it, but not-typing it brings up *another* point about censorship which is that, depending on how you do it, you're *still* calling to mind exactly the same point that would offend people; is what I just wrote somehow less offensive to the people who knew what I meant than if I had filled in the "gge"? Or is the point, simply, to protect people who haven't heard the word yet? They're still hearing the censorship, so they know something dirty is being covered up (I distinctly remember knowing that by the time I made it to elementary school, because a showing of 'Little Shop' dropped the audio on "shit").].

Cocopugg

Good point. I mean, the "N" word is used on a simple TV show like All In The Family. I don't see them editing that word when they run the shows on TVLand or on DVD. I'm sure this machine would allow the user to either skip through these offensive words or simply mute them when they come up.