11 réponses à ce sujet

[Burnouts3s3]

What, exactly, is self-censorship?

 

I’m talking about when a piece of work (such as film/TV/books/games) makes a conscious choice to alter their work over societal pressure or current events to curb criticism or maybe even avoiding the controversial topic(s) altogether.

 

Here’s one recent example you may remember. Do you recall "Gangster Squad"? It was a movie released in 2013. It dealt with cops and mobsters and one of the more infamous scenes in the trailer was a shootout in a movie theatre causing a massacre. What? You don’t remember that scene in the movie? Why is that, you may ask?

 

The Aurora Colorado Massacre is what happened.

 

In case you don't know, the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises (which had Gangster Squad showing in front of it, making it more awkward) in Aurora, Colorado was shot up by James Holmes who called himself The Joker. Thus, it started a heated discussion whether or not violent material caused James Holmes to murder those people.

 

Because of this incident, the filmmakers decided to reshoot and replace the initial scene where a movie theater shootout happened and instead showed Chinatown being bombed. 

 

Now, comes the question: were the producers in the right to alter that movie thus making it a broken mess as it was? Were they giving up their 'artistic integrity' by removing this one vital scene (supposedly, this scene was the lynch pin for holding the entire movie together and by replacing the shootout at the movie theater with the bombing in Chinatown, the film does not flow as it needs to).

 

Also consider the following. Back in 1994, Spider-man had another cartoon premiering on Fox Kids. However, the Fox network was under heavy scrutiny at the time because many parents felt that Power Rangers was promoting violence that kids could imitate. So, Spider-man had to go through many animation edits and cut out many of the more dangerous elements. Spider-man only punched in one instance and most of the time kicked his opponents. Characters could not die but instead were sent to an alternate dimension. How silly did it get?

 

Let me introduce you to Morbius. See, Moribus was a vampire in the comic books, but due to the heavy standards set upon by Fox, the show runners had to get… how shall we say creative with him. So, instead of sucking blood through his fangs, like a normal vampire, he instead absorbed 'plasma' through the palms on his hands.

 

Spoiler

 

Or how about series in which the cutting back on harsher elements is done naturally? Like in Batman TAS, where the depiction of death could not be shown so instead the Joker inflicted his enemies with Joker Venom and gave them a creepy smile. Or in Gargoyles where they depicted Gargoyles dying through showing a smashed statue? 

 

Spoiler

 

Are these examples of 'self-censorship' or not? What should the creator do?

[Sully13]

Well to be honest its **** ***** ****** ** ***** ***** ****** *****

****** **** **** and ****** ***** ***** ***

[Cyonan]

The case of Spiderman and Batman seems more like nitpicking that they didn't stay more true to the source material than anything else, even if it was because of societal pressure to tone down the violence for kids.

 

In that case if the show is still good despite the changes then I don't see what the problem is, and if it's bad then odds are that it was going to be bad even if they didn't change those characters around. I didn't watch either of those shows so I don't know if they're good or bad. I watched Ninja Turtles which was awesome despite the comics apparently being much darker, and I wouldn't have them change it.

 

I would probably make the same argument for the movie. If it was that bad with the replacement scene, then it probably still would have been bad with the original scene(maybe less bad, but still bad).

 

It reminds of the people who say that Han not shooting first ruins the character as a whole. 99% of people watching Star Wars probably couldn't have told you who shot first before it became an internet meme.

[Sully13]

You see to me hats more makein things more "kid freindly" as opposed to censorship.

Toneing something down a notch is different to not showing T&A&D.

[mybudgee]

I foresee more of this as Marvel & DC release more PG-13 films in the next 5-8 years.. unfortunately

[Inquisitor Recon]

I oppose self-censorship to the point where I never think about what I say before I say it.

[Sully13]

Yep in never gona get that Red Sonja cartoon.  

[Jeremiah12LGeek]

It reminds of the people who say that Han not shooting first ruins the character as a whole. 99% of people watching Star Wars probably couldn't have told you who shot first before it became an internet meme.

 

I'm one of the 1%. I noticed every change.

 

(That'll happen when you've seen Star Wars 7 or 8 times before the edited version was released.)

 

Edit: And I also believe it diminishes the character. I pretty much hated all the changes that were made.

[The Love Runner]

I foresee more of this as Marvel & DC release more PG-13 films in the next 5-8 years.. unfortunately

On the other hand, we're getting an M-rated Batman game for the first time.

[Kaiser Arian XVII]

I oppose self-censorship to the point where I never think about what I say before I say it.

 

That's why you can't get anywhere. Get your shet together before speaking and you might find some fans in RL just like me!

[SnakeCode]

Since we're on the BSN, it's worth noting that self censorship is something that Bioware has done a fair bit of in the past. People taking showers in their clothes, people putting clothes ON to have sex, this was after the FOX news debacle.

 

GTA IV also cut the ability to fly planes in their fictional city based on New York due to 9/11.

[mybudgee]

Yep in never gona get that Red Sonja cartoon.  

I was really excited about Rose Mcgowan