Hit the road, Jack

Jack Valenti steps down as head of MPAA! Filmbrain rejoices!

Filmbrain has a lot of gripes against Valenti, but none more than his decision to muck with Kubrick's final masterpiece, Eyes Wide Shut. That he had the audacity to dictate what American adults could and could not see was sickening. His smugness about the whole affair made Filmbrain see red. Around that time, Valenti wrote an article for Variety, where he dubbed us anti-censorship folks "constant whiners":

"This small band of Constant Whiners talk to each other, write for each other, opine with each other, and view with lacerating contempt the rubes who live Out There, west of Manhattan and east of the San Andreas Fault. The CWs think that everyone ought to view an orgy as a diurnal event, observing such goings-on with a "been there, done that" casual yawn.

Shouldn't everyone in the country glory in four-letter words ending in "k"? And why not? Since the CWs know what is right and real, then it is from them that the simpletons in Middle America should take their cues and their culture.

In their zeal to brandish the notion that they are the custodians of creative rightness, they commit intellectual nihilism, the smashing of truth and reason, exalting a smallish and relentlessly ill-humored prism through which they all see the same lunacies, which persuades them that if they can kill the movie rating system, there will be no alternative to take its place. Or to put it another way, it is the contagion of the anointed few who believe they are a huge throng."

Valenti used to warn that without the MPAA the government would step in and create their own ratings system. Could that be any worse than the system we have in place now? Valenti created the 'NC-17' rating as a means of strong-arming directors into editing their films -- many newspapers refuse ads for NC-17 films and several theater chains refuse to screen them. This is a slimy, underhanded tactic that Valenti justified:

"The fact is that the movies rated NC-17 [. . .] always undergo editing. All those films, by the director's own volition, not by any command of the rating board, make adjustments to get the R rating."

Gee Jack, why is that. . .?

Then of course there was the screener ban, but there's no need to rehash that bit of stupidity.

The odd thing is that Valenti is often going on about how great the 1st Amendment is. Great, that is, until something offends his sensibilities.

Violence, of course, is rarely the problem. Mel Gibson's snuff-porno movie received an 'R'. Would that have been the case if Jesus was crucified nude?

Bloody, beaten, ground-beef-looking Jesus = 'R'
Jesus penis = 'NC-17'.

Here's hoping that Valenti's replacement won't be as threatened by male genitalia, and we will forever be allowed to see Ewan McGregor films in their full-frontal glory.

Comments

[David]

I remember thinking years ago that the European DVD release of Eyes Wide Shut was not edited by the studio. Now that I think about it, I doubt this is true. Do you have any verification on that? I know about the digital people blocking the people having sex. Is that all that Kubrick didn't want in the movie or is their more? Regardless, no one should have ever effed with Kubrick. What a shame that he final movie wasn't even released the way he wanted it.

[Filmbrain]

Actually, EVERY other DVD release of Eyes Wide Shut is uncensored. Only the US has the digitized figures version. Pathetic.