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June 1994

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Subject:
From:
"John G. Thomas" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 12 Jun 1994 13:13:57 -0700
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        Normally, I wouldn't put my two cents in, but the subject does
warrant discussion.  For years we've had all kinds of censorship in
movies and now we see even more censorship as a result of the
soon-to-die, extremely flawed idea of "political correctness."
 
        PC has required those who wish to have others do their thinking
for them to include a new list of forbidden words and pictures.  But
there is a positive side to this.  A large, expansive medium like film
and/or tv exposes the PC spectrum of foolishness to a wide group of
people, which should hasten its demise.  Freedom of thought and
expression, especially in creative, visual mediums, is a wonderful
thought indeed.
 
        Recently, I saw a film a I made several years ago on the tube.
It was a film called "Arizona Heat" and contained much rough, highly
objectionable material.  In one scene, the local censors(whomever they
are), changed a line from, "She's a dyke." to "She's gay."  The character
was a street wise, hard drinking, hard living, crude, thoughtless and
sometimes brutal character named, "Kapinski."  (played by Michael Parks)
The character he was refering to, his female partner, was indeed gay.
But his character would NEVER say "She's gay."  But none-the-less, our
local censor, most probably a recent college student, had the words changed.
The female character would probably refer to Kapinski as a thoughtless,
insensitive, ugly, foul, worthless pig of a person.  And that would be an
accurate description.  Kapniski would probably say, "Thanks for the
compliment."
 
        So, I think this new censorship is of the worst kind of all.  The
sooner it passes through, sort of like a kidney stone, the better for us all.
 
____________________________________________________________________________
 
---------------->from John G. Thomas ([log in to unmask]) <-------------------
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