(no subject)

[novapsyche]

In AMC's broadcast of Blazing Saddles today, it silently censored racial and gender slurs. I clearly remember in late 2008 watching it and it wasn't edited out.

I'm not normally for censorship, but I'm heartened that I can watch cable TV in the afternoon without hearing what I consider obscenities.

Edit: Actually, upon further thought, I feel worse about the censorship. A film is a work of art, and it should be appreciated in total. I still don't want to hear slurs over live airwaves, as I so distinctly remember from two years ago.

Comments

[sophiaserpentia.livejournal.com]

Blazing Saddles is an interesting case; it does seem like racial slurs were flung around pretty cavalierly, but OTOH Brooks was making fun of racism. Does the point he was making about racism justify the continual exposure to casually-dealt slurs? Arguments could be made either way.

[novapsyche.livejournal.com]

I tend to agree with Richard Pryor on this one. He tried to destabilize and thus remove the power from the term 'nigger' in his routines. In time, however, he came to the conclusion, and publicly stated, that he would no longer use the term at all, because some people would hear his jokes either out of context or without sufficient reference to understand. In short, he was perpetuating the core of the term even while poking fun of it, which did nothing ultimately to undermine it.

If you stop calling people names, you don't have to explain what the name used to mean. This is why the only manner in which I support the use of slurs is in academic treatises (a category under which our present discussion would fall), because then the context (or at the very least a historical framework) would be provided.

Not familiar with Blazing Sadles, but AMC....

[airsucker.livejournal.com]

AMC isn't what it used to be. Even just a couple years ago when they aired the Blues Brothers, they cut the "I hate Illinois Nazis" line. I have no idea why. They seem to cut things without rhyme or reason since they lost all the classics to TCM. They seem to be struggling with everything.

I'd rather watch a movie in its original form, even when it has horrifying things in it. We need to be reminded that we don't do these things anymore for a reason. It would be bad to repeat those mistakes.