Censored/Edited DVDs: Non-Theatrical Versions
 

I just purchased a handful of DVDs at BEST BUY... one of which was "SAVING SILVERMAN". I usually see the DVDs I buy at the Theater first. I did notice on the DVD I purchased that scenes were either edited or deleted. Specifially a fairly disturbing, yet quite funny, scene where Steve Zahn is lying on the floor (nude) trying to "pleasure" himself. I am 99% sure I am thinking of the correct movie, but this scene is gone on my version of the films DVD. Why? How? Don't I have the right to watch the movie I purchased the way I remember it when I originally saw it? What does the film studio think of this? Isn't it illeagal? It makes me wonder how many other DVDs I own have missing scenes/censorship. This scene was just very hard to forget, so I noticed it immediately. I feel ripped-off, angry, confused as to the whole purpose of this. Anyone have a good explanation as to what I am talking about? Does anyone have any suggestions of how to buy a DVD that is not censored, besides buying the ones that clearly state "uncensored" in big letters on the front. Is there a way to tell or somewhere elsed to purchase them? I guess I just assumed all DVDs were uncensored... that is, the original version of what I saw in the Theater.

Thanks for any insight/help.

Brian

Re: Censored DVDs
 

Mulholland Dr. blurs Laura Harring's pubic area.

Re: Censored DVDs
 

I think you are thinking of the wrong movie.

SAVING SILVERMAN was rated PG-13 in the theatre. The DVD was released in an R rated version. So, it had scenes added.

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No your right there is a scene where he's lying on the on his back with his legs up behind his head it doesn't show anything so its still pg-13 i've seen this movie 100 times and know what your talking about weird it's not on the dvd

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Good... then I am not crazy! I wonder how many times things like this get cut out of films. I don't have the best memory, but sometimes when I watch a movie again on DVD or TV it just seems different. You ever get that feeling? I think things get added/deleted. Really makes it mess with your head.

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The Heartbreak Kid edits out the kid snorting coke in the credits for the dvd release

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They don't show anything... he is kind of wrapped up in a pretzel position, so nothing is visible... but you know what he is attempting. I think there was a line earlier in the movie where Jack Black referenced doing this "pleasuring"... so he wanted to try for himself.

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The R-rated sut (on DVD) might have removed scenes when it added back in others.

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This was also done in the theatrical cut-- in theaters. David Lynch's own decsion, which has already been discussed on the website at length.

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The decision I remember talked about it being Lynch's decision, but happening for the DVD release only.

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Does anyone know why they edit/censor the DVDs we buy from retail stores?

Can you buy a DVD directly from the Studio and skip whomever it is; mass-producing all these discs and distributing them to Wal-Mart, Best Buy, etc?

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I knew about this, but as someone who saw it at the theater and on dvd, I really do think it was only blurred on the dvd.

Does anyone know if an unblurred dvd exists in any region?

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The studio released two versions of the movie on DVD. You bought the altered version.

Legally speaking, no.

The studio released the DVD, so I would assume they're OK with it.

No, it isn't.

DVD Talk is an excellent resource for such information.

First, you need to have a better understanding of what censorship is. This is not an example of censorship. Second, the theatrical cut of "Saving Silverman" is available on DVD.

You do understand how DVD distribution works, don't you? It's the studios who are mass producing the discs. The retailer has nothing to do with content or editing.

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Runaway Train

I haven't seen it, but I've read that a memorable death scene has been curiously edited out.

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No, it wasn't blurred in theaters. I saw the movie twice theatrically, and it was uncensored.

Laura Harring talks about it, oddly enough, on an audio commentary for The Shield - Season 5 (Benito Martinez asks her about it). Basically, she made a handshake agreement with David Lynch that she'd only do the scene fully nude if he would not show the lower frontal on the non-theatrical releases.

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Takashi Miike did that a few times earlier in his career, also.

Re: Censored DVDs
 

Thanks for addressing my questions.

No, I don't really understand their distribution. Why on Earth do they need to release a version of their film that would differ from the original without telling the consumer?

I know when they add materials... they will clearly state "bonus footage", "uncensored version"(whatever that means), or "original directors cut". But why would they want to remove material from what was originally shown in theaters? To lower the rating? I guess I understand that, but shouldn't the Studios tell the consumer that they are getting something less than the original? I can't remember if the film I watched in the Theater was originally rated R or PG-13. I didn't notice on my packaging that the film was edited or not the theatrical version.

This is going to add a lot of headache for me from now on. First, I always have to make sure I'm not buying the "fullscreen" versions. Now, I somehow have to make certain I am buying the original theatrical version or something more than the original. More is better, but less is unacceptable to me. Frustrating.

So, Best Buy/Wal-mart's vendors for these DVDs is the Studios? I don't think that makes sense. There must be a middle-man in there somewhere. The distributing vendor(middleman) or the retailer is responsible for what is going on the shelves, not really the Studio.

Additionally, the quality level of the DVDs being sold at Retail stores today seems to be very low. Like double/triple features and more bonuses/extras than actual film. I used to be able to buy a DVD that was "SuperBit", focused on sound and video quality, it had no extra features on the disc... just movie. Those seem to have gone extinct. I guess Blue-Ray is why those are gone.

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They do tell the consumer, and the motivation is money. Cut a movie down to PG-13 so kids can get into the theater, thus increasing potential box office, then release two versions on home video to increase sales.

There is a red box on the cover of the R-rated "Saving Silverman" that, while vague, is a clue that the DVD is different from the theatrical cut. I would imagine there is something written on the back as well. I don't this practice either, but I have learned that I need to check DVD Talk or any of a number of other Internet sources to make sure I know what is available before buying a DVD.

I can't answer your question in this particular circumstance, but when footage is added back in, it often makes other scenes unnecessary or even redundant. This is the case with the "Lord of the Rings" movies. The extended cuts are longer, but there are scenes from the theatrical cuts that have been removed because added scenes repeat some of the dialogue.

In other cases, a director may just have not liked certain scenes, and therefore took them out of alternative cuts.

Um, right. In your version of the world, a middleman takes a movie from a studio, then without their consent, re-edits the movie however they want and sends it to Wal-Mart.

That isn't how it works. The studio owns the movie. The studio produces a DVD and sends it out to retailers. There are wholesalers that handle the physical shipping of the merchandise, but the studio is responsible for the content.

Superbit was a marketing gimmick by Sony, and was only available on Sony's releases. They went away because, frankly, people started to catch on that it was just a gimmick. Although they were higher bitrate, many of the discs still had unused space that could have accommodated extras, but didn't.

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Hahahahaha...Superbits were the biggest marketing scam. It was simply a cool way to say "Expensive Bare-Bones DVD, You're a Sucker". There was nothing super about them. Yes, some of the transfers were better than other versions on dvd, but being a "superbit" dvd had jack squat to do with it. Most of the time, there was still a bunch of free space left on the disc. It was a way for Sony to push more of their product.


Yeah, that's not hard to do.


This rarely, rarely, rarely ever happens (hidden changes, here.) If there's any kind of unmentioned noticeable change, the internet will know and raise a stink about it. You'll notice that UNRATED/2 WILD FOR THEATRES/EXTENDED BLAH-DE-BLAH banners are often hard to miss.


Yes, the retailer is responsible for the actual product that goes on their shelves, in that they say, "we want these movies/cds/video games sold here". Not the content of the movies themselves, though. They are not in the editorial business. They just want you to buy stuff. It's not that complicated.

In short, you're getting entirely too emotionally worked up over buying dvds.

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That is a very naive view of the industry. Big players, like Wal-Mart and Blockbuster, can and do exercise control over the content of movies. That's often why you see R-rated versions of movies on DVD which were released unrated in theatres. Sometimes, because of this pressure and because of low sales expectation, you'll only see an R-rated version of a unrated movie on DVD.

Also, there were companies which would edit the content of a movie and then provide them to a retailer or rental company. CleanFlicks used to be one such company.

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Yeah, ten years ago.

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Wal-Mart and Blockbuster are filled to the brim with unrated releases. Also, which movies are rated R on dvd, but were unrated in theatres?

Which was ruled illegal years ago, and is not done anymore.

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If by "only" you mean at one particular retailer, that might be the case with Wal-Mart if a studio released two versions of a movie. But I can't think of any unrated movies that were released only in edited form on home video (the exception being "Mulholland Dr.")

You had to go out of your way to seek those out. They were generally available only from the CleanFlicks Web site, and they were done over the objections of the studios, which sued to stop the practice.

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"Lila Says" - even though unrated, fogs one scene with explicit sex pictures from a graphic novel that is featured in one scene.

"Young Adam" was released NC-17 in the theatres, the DVD though is the R-rated cut, but features the deleted scenes seperately in the discs' supplementary section

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Two Girls And A Guy

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Will & Grace The Complete Series has been severely edited throughout.

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I believe that was to be compliant with Japanese Law (although I could be wrong on that one)

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The HBO series "1st & 10" was released as a War-Mart exclusive and was heavily edited.

Shame too, because I just saw the entire series in their five dollar dump bin.
That would've been a steal.

Delta Burke was SO hot back then :)
 

It started at WM but the same version is available everywhere else. Some eps were from the HBO version, while others were from the syndicated version. I think that's the reason it was (and is) so cheap.

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What was edited?

--THX

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Also, is W&G actually edited for content, or are the dvds just using the syndication edits?

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Wal-Mart and Blockbuster do carry some unrated dvds, but also still do carry rated only dvds on select titles. For example, many Dimension Extreme titles are only available in their R rated versions at these two places. In the case of Mother of Tears, it was released in theaters unrated.

As for Saving Silverman, I can't answer that since I haven't seen the entire film yet(in either version). However, it would help if the original poster would tell us what rating is listed on the dvd and what the running time is. But in case he's confused, there was a PG-13 theatrical release, and then on dvd a PG-13 and R rated edition released separately.

If you hate these horrible automatic titles, go to the feedback forum and say so!
 

Well, as Mr. Salty said, you have come to the right place. DVDTalk is really the place to be so that you don't have to worry about getting headaches like this.

In addition, an absolutely great resource that I use before I purchase any DVD is http://www.dvdcompare.net. In general, I use it to make sure I'm getting the "best" version of a title, but I will use it to review the different versions of R1 DVDs too. Although I mention this site, I must note that on the Saving Silverman page it states that there are "no cuts" to the R-rated version. It gets tricky with purposefully different versions of movies because as someone mentioned before, a new cut of the movie may also remove scenes or snippets for continuity or flow. However, in this instance, it does not sound like that was the case.

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According to the reviews on Amazon, the Will & Grace "Complete" Series are the syndicated episodes, not the original network episodes. They have been extensively edited for syndicated broadcasting. Also the episodes that were shot & aired in widescreen have been "formatted to your t.v." ~ ugh! The UK version was also edited for censorship ratings. The German release had an additional 480 minutes which doesn't appear on the R1 version, so I'm pretty sure some content was lost as well. For $180 you'd think they'd get it right! Not!!

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Let's get this thread back on to the important topic.

So there's no way to see that hot chick completely naked in 'Mulholland Dr.' now?

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You're probably right. No pubes. Believe me, I know. :sad:

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Pubes are fine, no genitals.

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Damn, what a topic to be late on.

...and yes, all of Miike's works that are optically fogged/pixelated were done so to comply with Japanese laws regarding display of genitalia. Though that doesn't mean certain Japanese can't be found to show everything ......

... Japanese women are marvelous creatures!

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1 - 3 are basically the edited versions besides a few unrated ones....
4 - 6 is unrated besides a few edited ones.....
IMO It's still worth picking up & I'd consider that many seasons for $5 a steal....

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Lust, Caution comes to mind.