Speaking of Reservoir Dogs being banned in some countries, beware of the
edited version of Man Bites Dog.  This version baldly undercuts the
seriousness of the film's treatment of violence by editing out
1) the "protag's" killing of a little boy at the house they try to rob--
protag himself is disgusted at having to do it, smothers him with a
pillow--it's the first time the protag shows any disgust at killing
2) the scene in which the crew and protag rape and then disembowel a woman
in her apartment--they kill her boyfriend too.  this is a crucial scene
to the overall import of the film--to turning around any strange
sympathies we might have had for the protag, etc.
When I rented this version, it was being housed in the COMEDY section
of the video store.  Does anyone know WHY this cut may have been made?  Or
how in the world it was given the go ahead by whoever's in charge--surely
the filmmakers would have been appalled (or maybe I'm romanticizing some
money-grubbing, attention-hungry "artists")?
I did read something about the first showings of the movie in this country
were edited in some fashion because of excess violence, or something like
that.  Ugh.  Excess and not easily laughed off violence in the point of
those scenes!
Susan Crutchfield
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