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I seldom flog a given story or film in this space; but, I'm shamelessly going to in this particular instance.
Continued controversy surrounds the American DvD release of this film by SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT and their CBS Films unit, and their sanitizing the Keep-case Wrapper cover-art removing all references to the DvD's gay content and underlying homosexual sub-text.
For this reason, I took another look at the film that I purposefully had purchased and screened just after Christmas when the media hand-wringing first surfaced.
Damnation all to hell, give me a break!
It's a gay-themed film replete with all the gayness any dizzy old queen like myself could hope for; but, what's likely significant here is that it tells an apparently true story based upon historical fact, subject to the usual theatrical/film license to move things around just a tad to suit their story-board. It's a fun movie, and we need all the fun movies we can get; but, more importantly if BUENA VISTA HOME ENTERTAINMENT (a film unit of the Disney Company) could release 2001's gay-themed film Blow Dry, if MGM/UA Home Entertainment could release 1996's The Birdcage (a shameless remake of the original co-French/Italian La Cage Aux Folles, and an unquestionably gay, not just gay-themed, film if there ever was one), if MGM could have before that have released 1984's Consenting Adult based upon Laura Hobson's seminal youth Coming Out tale (even with all it's warts and failures, still a compelling view 30-years later), and earlier still released 1976's Norman... Is That You?, a film that still has the capacity to make me roll all over the floor laughing, and worth every screen moment of the nubile sweet young thing that plays the title-character's love interest for his father Redd Foxx's sake, and lastly a couple from WARNER HOME VIDÉO, 1980's Cruising, a film difficult to watch if you're not inclined to the film's particular gay-themed premise and 1976's The Ritz, a unabashedly glorious romp throughout New York's famed Continental Baths, lavishly and lovingly adorned by a quivering Rita Moreno, Kaye Ballard never looking so radiant, Jack Weston befuddled as never before, Jerry Stiller likely swearing-off that he'd ever reprise this role and a simply luscious and lascivious Treat Williams in his first significant screen presence.
So SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT, what's the Problem here? The half-dozen titles I mention are only a drop in the bucket of the many hundreds of gay-themed, radically gay-driven, or otherwise gay-idealized films that have been released by one or the other major American film studio in the last half-century. Get with the programme.
Folks, you simply MUST BUY, or rent, this import DvD [EAN: 5060002837672], if you buy or rent no other this year, this is definitely the one. In addition, if you haven't already done so, you need to screen the other six titles that I mention; they, too, are well worth your time and trouble should you care to.
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
[Updated on: Fri, 23 January 2015 14:15]
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13767
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Unlike many vocal LGBT advocates I am very happy that the gay message (etc) has been removed from the cover. This means that folk will see it and discover the major LGBT elements inside, folk that would otherwise have avoided it.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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A point well taken Timmy, which should always be seriously considered; but, unfortunately it would appear, in this instance, that your thoughts were not amongst those of the SONY/CBS Film's marketing folks when their decisions were made.
The Keep-case Wrapper Cover-art that I've appended earlier in this thread is from the very first release (and fortunately the one I was lucky enough to still be able to purchase through Indigo here in Toronto on Boxing Day having seen it for sale prior to Christmas and before the controversy ensued) and is from the BBC Films release from the Pathé/BFI print prior to SONY/CBS Films purchasing the distribution rights for North America. The current Cover-art for both the now standard U.K. release and the U.S. version (not shown here) are those that are featured in the many news articles on the subject.
My Point here, and largely it would seem from the summaries I read, someone at SONY/CBS Films got weak kneed, went to work on the artwork and submitted the final version for approval; all of a mind to clearly sanitize for the fundamentalist crowd-in-waiting any possible objection they might place against the film.
In line with your thoughts I would have given full support to the creation of an entirely brand-new Cover-art which incorporated none of the prior imagery or wording, focusing only upon some unidentified agency providing support for Welsh Miners in 1984 smack dab in the midst of Margaret Thatcher's austerity putsch; but, to barefacedly simply air-brush away the offending text bits and imagery from the second edition Cover-art is simply a snake-in-the-grass tactic deserving of our derision; and something that SONY/CBS Films should be held accountable for.
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
[Updated on: Fri, 23 January 2015 18:42]
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13767
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I suppose Sony have acted predictably. Look at their Kim Jong Un disaster.
Even so I think they have, by pure idiocy, cowardice, arrant foolishness, and for all the wrong reasons, got it right for the prudish US market.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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ChrisR
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Likes it here |
Location: Western US
Registered: October 2014
Messages: 136
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I can't quite agree with you on this one, Timmy. In my second favorite line from E.T., Elliott answers his friend's line "Well can't he just beam up?" with a great, "This is reality, Greg!" So is this.
The purpose of Sony or any other company is to sell a product and give a return to its investors, period. If it can make inroads into social justice, that's fine, but it's far secondary. In this case, they've made the decision -- quite properly -- to avoid turning the product off to the mainstream market. Gays are likely aware of this film and will seek it out. It's the other audience Sony's trying to capture. Americans were not part of the coal miners' strike drama, and we've already seen the "gayish" version with Billy Elliott. This film has to shine on its own.
(And if you don't know my favorite line from E.T., you haven't seen the film.)
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The following is the offending Keep-case Wrapper Cover-art (version 3) from SONY/CBS Films as released after removing their (assumed to be) objectionable text-bits and images.
Unfortunately I've not yet been able to locate a suitable copy of the entire Keep-case Wrapper (version 2) the un-sanitized original scripted text and images for comparison; but, eventually I will. The BFI/Pathé/BBC Films (version 1), as first originally released in the United Kingdom is appended earlier in the thread.
Warren C. E. Austin
The Gay Deceiver
Toronto, Canada
[Updated on: Sun, 25 January 2015 19:21]
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