4 ms·

Blockbuster never "censored" or "cut" videos as you said. Blockbuster chose not to carry NC-17 or x-rated movies. There are alternate cuts of just about all mov

by gdulli 8y ago

Blockbuster never "censored" or "cut" videos as you said. Blockbuster chose not to carry NC-17 or x-rated movies. There are alternate cuts of just about all movies and TV shows for different venues. I see people complain about Netflix having a different version than the one they remember. Some SNL episodes on Netflix run only about 30 minutes. It's not Netflix or Blockbuster doing any editing, they just buy what's available, probably the cheapest version or they take what they're given by default. Outside of their choice not to carry "adult" programming the casual censorship you're accusing Blockbuster of doesn't exist.

pmoriarty 8y ago
Even with films that were originally R-rated, the Blockbuster versions had scenes that were missing. I don't know if Blockbuster did the editing themselves or just bought alternate versions, but the fact is that they had cuts, while the versions in other, independent video stores did not. I watched almost no X-rated or NC-17 movies at all, so the movies that I saw that had cuts were R-rated.
- porsupah 8y ago
  Indeed. The one example I recall was in Tank Girl, R rated - the copy I rented from Blockbuster had one line blanked out, just as she discovers where exactly the Rippers are hiding out. The normal release has a voiceover line "See hell, go to hell." - in the Blockbuster copy, this line was missing. There may have been other edits, but that's the one which tripped my memory when watching the laserdisc copy I bought soon afterward.
- gdulli 8y ago
  Your fuzzy memories from decades ago don't amount to evidence. A cursory search tells you this wouldn't even be legal for Blockbuster to do. The studios have alternate versions of movies and some of the TV edits may have gotten into the Blockbuster stock but your portrayal of Blockbuster as being the originator for reasons of censorship are wrong.
  - pmoriarty 8y ago
    Many companies do illegal things all the time. Often they get away with it, or just eat the bad PR and fines when they're caught. So just because it might have been illegal doesn't mean Blockbuster didn't do it. Also, media companies censor all the time. Take a look at youtube, which will not allow porn, ostensibly because it'll affect their brand and image. Blockbuster was probably trying to do the same thing to keep its "family" video store image. They certainly did not allow hardcore XXX porn in the store because of that, and may very well have stocked censored videos for the same reason. Finally, you don't have to rely on just my memories. There are others discussing Blockbuster's practices of at least stocking censored films. Whether they cut the scenes out of those movies themselves or just bought censored films is immaterial. The fact is that their customers had to watch censored films. That is a fact supported not just by my memories but the other people who talk about this happening, some of which I linked to in my previous post. If you are really interested in getting to the bottom of whether they censored or not, you could probably find and contact some former Blockbuster employees and others in the industry who can give you a more authoritative account of what happened.
    - jcranmer 8y ago
      It is not immaterial who is producing the different editions; at the very least, it tells you to whom you should be directing your anger. Blockbuster was almost certainly not doing any editing itself, simply for the cost of running a VHS/DVD production workshop at that scale. Doing its own editing without permission of the video owner would have been outright copyright infringement, and they would have had the pockets and visibility to be sued for doing so. Another thing worth pointing out: rental editions are generally produced and released before retail editions. It's very possible that mistakes identified in a rental edition could have been rectified for the retail edition, and Blockbuster in particular is unlikely to have replaced its rental edition stock with retail edition stock if such changes were made. Just because a change exists doesn't mean that one copy was intentionally censored.

by gdulli 8y ago

pmoriarty 8y ago

Even with films that were originally R-rated, the Blockbuster versions had scenes that were missing. I don't know if Blockbuster did the editing themselves or just bought alternate versions, but the fact is that they had cuts, while the versions in other, independent video stores did not. I watched almost no X-rated or NC-17 movies at all, so the movies that I saw that had cuts were R-rated.

porsupah 8y ago
Indeed. The one example I recall was in Tank Girl, R rated - the copy I rented from Blockbuster had one line blanked out, just as she discovers where exactly the Rippers are hiding out. The normal release has a voiceover line "See hell, go to hell." - in the Blockbuster copy, this line was missing. There may have been other edits, but that's the one which tripped my memory when watching the laserdisc copy I bought soon afterward.
gdulli 8y ago
Your fuzzy memories from decades ago don't amount to evidence. A cursory search tells you this wouldn't even be legal for Blockbuster to do. The studios have alternate versions of movies and some of the TV edits may have gotten into the Blockbuster stock but your portrayal of Blockbuster as being the originator for reasons of censorship are wrong.
- pmoriarty 8y ago
  Many companies do illegal things all the time. Often they get away with it, or just eat the bad PR and fines when they're caught. So just because it might have been illegal doesn't mean Blockbuster didn't do it. Also, media companies censor all the time. Take a look at youtube, which will not allow porn, ostensibly because it'll affect their brand and image. Blockbuster was probably trying to do the same thing to keep its "family" video store image. They certainly did not allow hardcore XXX porn in the store because of that, and may very well have stocked censored videos for the same reason. Finally, you don't have to rely on just my memories. There are others discussing Blockbuster's practices of at least stocking censored films. Whether they cut the scenes out of those movies themselves or just bought censored films is immaterial. The fact is that their customers had to watch censored films. That is a fact supported not just by my memories but the other people who talk about this happening, some of which I linked to in my previous post. If you are really interested in getting to the bottom of whether they censored or not, you could probably find and contact some former Blockbuster employees and others in the industry who can give you a more authoritative account of what happened.
  - jcranmer 8y ago
    It is not immaterial who is producing the different editions; at the very least, it tells you to whom you should be directing your anger. Blockbuster was almost certainly not doing any editing itself, simply for the cost of running a VHS/DVD production workshop at that scale. Doing its own editing without permission of the video owner would have been outright copyright infringement, and they would have had the pockets and visibility to be sued for doing so. Another thing worth pointing out: rental editions are generally produced and released before retail editions. It's very possible that mistakes identified in a rental edition could have been rectified for the retail edition, and Blockbuster in particular is unlikely to have replaced its rental edition stock with retail edition stock if such changes were made. Just because a change exists doesn't mean that one copy was intentionally censored.