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Post #231750

Author
Obi Jeewhyen
Parent topic
Quit Whining
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/231750/action/topic#231750
Date created
2-Aug-2006, 10:01 PM
"Special Editions" and just plain censorship may have been around forever, but it's much more prevalent now (the director's 'special editions,' not the censorship, heheh)

King Kong was censored. It's since been restored.

Fantasia was censored. I believe it's been fully restored ... I've head rumours of one very racially offensive scene still missing.

Other movies in more modern times have had 'special editions' - - but I'm not aware of the original versions of those films being hidden away.


There's something about 1977 sci-fi/fantasy films that breaks the mold. Both Star Wars and Close Encounters were subsequently changed, despite massive success in their original forms - - and the original versions have not been seen (legitimately) since. CE3K was vastly more mutilated than Star Wars, and the scenes still missing 30 years later are far more vital to the story of that film.

But it breaks my heart that Star Wars has never again been available in its original form ... a form that sparked a world-wide mania! The veracity of the opening crawl may seem a minor matter to some ... but it's not just the start of one of the most famous opening scenes in cinema, it's a strong and sentimental memory for me personally.

It's one thing to revise one's artistic work; quite another to attempt history revision and deny the existence of artistic work widely beloved. Perhaps movie censorship is not as much a relic of the past as I would have hoped.