Everyone is familiar with the concept of specific songs having a “clean version”. They often are played during the day to make sure kids don’t hear the “bad” words and it’s something which we feel is normal. But what if that was applied to movies, that would be a bit weirder. Some movies are edited when shown on TV (I can still remember the BBC broadcasting Coming to America and Samuel L. Jackson saying “Forget you!” when he’s trying to rob the restaurant instead of the F word), but it’s something that doesn’t happen a lot. But what if you aren’t allowed to view imagery which could impact you negatively because of your religion? You would like to watch the latest movies, but you never know what kind of imagery they contain. It would mean a huge risk.
The mormons in Utah are a group who believes there are still prophets around and one of them had said that you are not allowed to watch “inappropriate” imagery. Clean Flicks and Flick’s Club are companies who saw in a new market in that and who decided to create edited versions of Hollywood movies, allowing customers to rent or buy the newest and latest blockbusters.
You could say that it’s a relatively innocent action, but the Directors Guild of America had a different opinion. Directors weren’t happy that their vision was cut up by various companies, damaging their product. They started lawsuits and a cat and mouse game was the result, where the companies were searching for what could and couldn’t be done according to the law. When a judge told them something wasn’t allowed, they tried something else. The person who became the face of the “clean flicks” movement was Daniel Thompson. The story gained a lot of media attention and whenever interviews were requested he agreed. Others weren’t happy about this, because it meant more media attention and a bigger threat to business. Thompson turns out to be a smart businessman who might not be the God fearing mormon he portrays himself to be.
The thing which I found interesting about this documentary was the discussion if you are allowed to make alterations to the product someone else made. It isn’t a new discussion of course and one which has raged on for year when it comes to sampling. The fact that clean versions exist for a lot of movies (for example made for airplanes), which studios refuse to offer to customers comes across as strange as the demand for them is relatively big in some parts of the country.
I saw something like this a long time ago. What these people are doing to films are horrible. You cut out someone’s work all because you don’t agree with some of the content. I was offended by what that guy did just so he can clean things up for families. What a fucking asshole.
Well, I can understand it from their religious point of view, but I can also understand that the thing you are watching is nothing like the director meant.