Wal*mart selling Brokeback Mtn DVD with tent sex scene blacked out

[stevietheman]

A friend just told me yesterday the Brokeback Mountain DVD he recently purchased from Wal*mart had the sex scene in the tent blacked out, although the audio was kept intact.

OK, now Wal*mart is now censoring the movies it sells? Or is this standard practice with them?

EDIT: "text" -> "tent"

[justgamma]

1. That's just dumb.

You didn't see anything in that scene anyway.

[Suich]

17. Oh, I thought it was me!

I rented it and got the audio ok in that scene but little, if any, video.

[shain from kane]

18. So the movie was sanitized itself, since it didn't show real homosexual

lovemaking. How disappointing.

[tuvor]

2. They don't censor in Canada.

Must be an American thing, because you can't get any "clean" versions of anything here.

[Olney Blue]

3. Why does Walmart hate tents?

[Touchdown]

24. They got it confused with tenting chinos.

It's fun to go to the hardware dept, grab a flashlight and stuff it in the swimwear on the manequins.:rofl:

[kweerwolf]

4. Sorry, but that's not true.

I bought my copy of Brokeback Mountain from Wal-Mart and it contained the complete movie. Nothing was edited out. I pre-ordered my copy from Wal-Mart on line, but I don't think they'd go to the trouble of "editing out" scenes for in-store sales.

[stevietheman]

5. It is true in the case of my friend -- he tells the truth

Anyway, perhaps it's a regional thing... this happened in Kentucky

[StClone]

8. Right

But they still don't allow Green Day's "American Idiot." Brokeback and AI are at the top of critical and popular works that should be sold "as is."

[tuvor]

28. Again, it's an American thing, not a Wal-Mart thing.

American Idiot is available at Canadian Wal-Marts. So are Eminem, 50 Cent, Marilyn Manson, etc. All unabridged.

[melody]

35. And Madonna was arrested in Canada for fake-masturbation on stage

We each have our problems. It's not just Evil America Vs. Virtuous Canada.

[tuvor]

36. You're misuderstanding me.

Just pointing out that if Wal-Mart isn't carrying something, or is carrying a "clean" version of something, the odds are pretty good that Wal-Mart didn't make the decision unilaterally.

[melody]

40. Wal Mart did it, with the Shrub's blessing certainly

It was a political decision, but then everything WalMart does, is.

Which is why I shop at Costco. :)

[kevinbgoode]

38. I purchased a widescreen copy at WalMart

but haven't watched it yet - perhaps I'll run the film late tonight and check. . .if I discover any blacked out scenes, I'll be on the phone to the store in a flash.

[Skip Intro]

6. Yay, walmart will decide what I can see and can't see. More time to shop!

:sarcasm:

[kurth]

7. "Sanitized" version?

Censorship

With its roots in the Southern Christian heartland, Wal-Mart believes that being a "family" store is the key to their mass appeal. They refuse to carry CDs with cover art or lyrics deemed overtly sexual or dealing with topics such as abortion, homosexuality or Satanism. While Wal-Mart is the world's largest CD retailer, and in some regions the only place in town to purchase music entertainment products represent only a fraction of their business. However, it is a different story for recording artists. Because Wal-Mart reaps about 10 percent of the total domestic music CD sales, most musicians and record companies will agree to create a "sanitized" version specifically for the megastores. Sometimes this entails altering the cover art, as John Cougar Mellencamp did when asked to airbrush out an angel and devil on one of his album covers. Other times, musicians change their lyrics and song titles. Nirvana, for example, changed its song title from "Rape Me" to "Waif Me" for the Wal-Mart version. They also changed the back-cover artwork for the album In Utero, which Wal-Mart objected to because it portrayed fetuses. And when Sheryl Crow released her self-titled album, Wal-Mart objected to the lyric, "Watch our children as they kill each other with a gun they bought at Wal-Mart discount stores." When Crow would not change the verse, the retailer refused to carry the album. This type of censorship has become so common that it is often regarded as simply another stage of editing. Record labels are now acting preemptively, issuing two versions of the same album for their big name artists. Less well-known bands, however, are forced to offer "sanitized" albums out of the gate.

Wal-Mart's statement on stickered music:
Wal-Mart will not stock music with parental guidance stickers. While Wal-Mart sets high standards, it would not be possible to eliminate every image, word or topic that an individual might find objectionable. And the goal is not to eliminate the need for parents to review the merchandise their children buy. The policy simply helps eliminate the most objectionable material from Wal-Mart's shelves.

Magazines don't escape Wal-Mart's "family values" rule, either. Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, Vibe and others have been pulled off the shelves because the retailer deemed the covers too provocative. Some magazines willingly send advance copies to big retailers like Wal-Mart for their approval, and will even alter cover artwork to avoid losing sales.

http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/stores3_2.html#censor

[Liberal Veteran]

9. Given this is the only report of this (and I ran a quick google search)

...I'm inclined to think your friend's player just glitched at a strange time.

[stevietheman]

10. That is possible. Too coincidental to be probable however. n/t

n/t

[Liberal Veteran]

12. I'd think after a couple weeks on the shelves, someone else would have...

....already noticed if Wal-Mart were selling a "sanitized" version of BBM.

[stevietheman]

11. Also, Google searches don't prove anything. n/t

n/t

[Liberal Veteran]

13. No, but after two weeks on the shelves, doncha think maybe...

...someone else would have noticed this by now?

[stevietheman]

15. Yes, but a Google search won't necessarily turn it up on the first..

few pages... Google isn't the all-knower of public discourse. Jeez.

And maybe it just started happening.

The truth is... this happened... believe it or not.

[RB TexLa]

14. Wal Mart can't censor movies

They ask the copyright owner of a movie, song or other piece of art to provide them with a version to sell in their stores the copyright owner then can chose to do so or not. Anyone who retails products can ask for anything they want, and the copyright owner can chose to make whatever changes they want or to not make changes at all.

[stevietheman]

16. I don't know if Wal*mart is directly or indirectly censoring Brokeback...

but my friend bought a censored copy at Wal*mart in a Kentucky store.

[Touchdown]

19. Mine's a W-M disc. I've got it in there. Widescreen version

Just in case anyone starts with me, a friend bought it for me, and they went to Hick-Mart...NOT ME!!!!!!!:P

I'd either say that their TV is too dark, getting old, or they are watching at 5pm in the sunlight.
Maybe it's darkened in the square screen (pan & Scan) version, in which I don't see why they'd care. P&S lovers obviously don't care enough about getting the full director intended picture, and are willing to live with 40% less, so they shouldn't have a problem with other editing choices that are made for them.

[stevietheman]

20. Good point... I'll ask my friend about that. n/t

n/t

[proud patriot]

21. I rented a copy from Hollywood video

I thought is was my T.V. which tends
to be dark ...we need a new T.V.

[alphafemale]

26. Same here. And the brightness control is up to near 100% now.

Trying to limp it along until the new technology drops to a reasonable price.

[proud patriot]

46. LOL

oh good I'm not the only one :D

[movonne]

22. I would take the movie back and demand a refund...unless it is

written across the middle of the jacket in very large letters that this cd has been censored for your own good...

[Touchdown]

27. They don't refund opened videos.

It has something to do with Hollywood not taking opened merchandise back. You can only exchange it for the same title. Most stores are like that.

[AuntPatsy]

29. Walmart will take back opened videos, I have returned such before.

[AndyTiedye]

33. I Would Have Argued That it was DEFECTIVE

and if the next one they gave you is the same, it's defective too.
and the next one, and the next.

[alphafemale]

23. It could be a regional thing

I understand it's almost impossible to get an uncensored movie in Utah.

The church of LDS apparently cuts everything to a PG or G standard before it's sold.

[Touchdown]

25. The studios sue them every time too.

I remember a story about some store in Utah bragging that they have "clean" versions of Titanic on VHS, where they edited out "the car scene" but left in the Irish bloke getting shot and the frozen bodies at the end. Paramount sued the pants off of them, and I think they went belly up. Paramount said they have airline versions of the film on tape, and that they should've bought some of those.

[Solon]

31. Good point, about the Airplane edits the studio mentioned...

One thing about Wal-Mart that can NOT be disputed is its stupid practice of only retailing radio edits of CDs. Never buy a CD at Wal-Mart, if you can help it.

[FreeState]

43. Not true

I lived in Utah for over 8 years - never once got a censored DVD/VHS tape. You can get them if you go to a specialty store but Blockbuster etc have the full regular versions.

[AuntPatsy]

30. My copy works just fine? Perhaps some were tampered with, it happens

[Peace Patriot]

32. If it was a better movie, the sex scene wouldn't matter. Unfortunately,

it's not a very good movie, and the sex scene in the tent is about all it has going for it, besides the staggeringly beautiful mountain settings in which it is filmed. I found the story and the characters immensely boring, for the most part.

Back in the 1930s, Hollywood and the U.S. went through similar Puritan stupidity, with what was called the Hayes Code, and edited out Jane Wyman's nude scene (swimming in a pond) in "The Lost Horizon." But it's such a great movie that it didn't matter. The notion of the movie that Shangri La was a pristine refuge from a greedy, war-weary world was only slightly harmed by the editing out of this beautiful scene. It made the idea a little more intellectual, but it was still the pervasive idea of the film, expressed in a hundred different ways in the story, dialogue, characters and setting. The editing itself was comparable to throwing a blanket over, say, the Venus de Milo, or Michelangelo's David--just a stupid act of Puritan vandalism that could not really affect the overwhelming force of enlightened ideas that those statues, or movies like "The Lost Horizon," represent.

Brokeback Mountain, on the other hand, represents what? The idea that forbidden homosexual sex will get you killed, or ruin your life? That it's an obsession, a sickness, that is inherently destructive of family life? That it's grabby and violent and selfish? That there is nothing beautiful or sensual about it? That its depiction requires staggeringly beautiful mountain scenery to compensate for its gracelessness and lack of beauty? That those who commit it are almost completely inarticulate, uninteresting, unintelligent and unconscious persons, steeped in an ugly, repressive culture that they never question?

So, cutting the big sex scene out of THIS movie does it great harm. Because that's pretty much all it's about: furtive sex that gets punished.

I thought there were a couple of good performances in it--but I often see actors rise above lousy scripts and the intentions of funders and producers. In this case, the actors cannot compensate for the poverty of ideas in this production, nor for the very poor quality of the script. And without the sex scene in the tent, even its meager notion of forbidden sex creating unhappiness and ruination in a repressive culture, cannot be fully grasped.

[Peace Patriot]

34. And y'all shouldn't be shopping at Wal-Mart! They are bad dudes!

[kevinbgoode]

48. I only went there because the AFA was threatening them

I very, very rarely go to that place - I hate shopping there.

[0007]

41. I haven't seen the film. You're the first person that I've come across

that didn't rate Broke Mountain up.

[dsc]

37. They can't do that without Ang Lee's permission

They are asking to be sued.

[bliss_eternal]

42. ...yep.

They most certainly are. I hope it is reported and that they are sued. That's censorship, they're screwing with artistic integrity--not their call to make.

:thumbsdown:

[Cha]

39. I don't give walmart

any of my money. It really feels good to be outta that store for so long now considering where they give so much political contributions.

$1,732,250 to the big RED elephant.

http://www.buyblue.org/directory/w

[Broken_Hero]

44. hmm....

Not my copy....I bought mine from Walmart the first day it was out on DVD, and the tent scene was in there...maybe your friend just bought a dvd with a defect on it...

[Imagevision]

45. gedoutahere!!!!!

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

47. So?

Many musicians/producers etc... have a cleaner version of their material for certain outlets that have stricter guidelines on such things. This is by no means a 'walmart' thing, though walmart does employ pretty stringent standards for the stuff it will or won't carry, which is their right anyway. In this case, I'm not even sure of the legitimacy of the story, but even if true so what? This concept has been around long before walmart was around.

[YouthInAsia]

49. Is that even legal?