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Vanityfair.com's Julian Sancton noted yesterday that a brief scene of violence in The Men Who Stare at Goats recalls the recent Fort Hood tragedy. The scene (actually a self-contained clip in a montage) shows a disturbed soldier running amok in Fort Bragg, firing at troops during their morning exercises. Sancton is wondering if Overture Films should omit the scene from future prints.
HE verdict: It happened, move on, let it ride. No one is going to blame Goats for goading the grief. All chickenshit Monday-morning-quarterback censorship calls need to be ignored. It was lame for filmmakers to talk about digitally removing the twin towers in cityscape shots used for films shot in 2000 and early '01. I was watching the Three Days of the Condor Bluray the other day, and it has shots of the towers and the World Trade Center lobby that are truly wonderful for their time-capsule quality. Don't erase -- watch films in their proper context.
"The associations are inevitable, and they're not only distracting but detractive to the movie," Sancton writes. " When Michael Jackson died, Universal cut a scene from Bruno in which Sacha Baron Cohen rifles through Latoya Jackson's Blackberry to find Michael's number. It was the right move to cut it, not because it would have been tasteless -- that's never stopped Cohen -- but because the joke would have fallen flat.
"But then Michael died two weeks before Bruno's release, so there was time to swap the prints before distributing them. Logistically, it would be much more difficult to alter The Men Who Stare at Goats, now that the film is already in theaters.
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 8, 2009 at 8:14 AM
comment #1
Eloi Manning
says ...
They delayed the release of Gone Baby Gone in the UK after Madeleine McCann went missing. Absurd.
Posted by Eloi Manning
at November 8, 2009 8:57 AM
comment #2
Film Misery Alex
says ...
I'll admit, that scene made me a bit uncomfortable because it seemed like it was meant to be played for laughs.
Then again, the whole movie is kind of crap, with or without that moment.
Posted by Film Misery Alex
at November 8, 2009 9:43 AM
comment #3
lipranzer
says ...
I have to confess, I didn't even think of that when the scene showed in the movie. I don't know how the rest of the theater felt (there were no walkouts, anyway), but since I didn't think much of the movie to begin with...
Posted by lipranzer
at November 8, 2009 11:12 AM
comment #4
Chase Kahn
says ...
I thought of it immediately when I saw it on Friday. The fact that it was accidentally ill-timed overshadowed the fact that it wasn't any funny to begin with.
What an aimless, shitty film.
Posted by Chase Kahn
at November 8, 2009 1:04 PM
comment #5
Scott Mendelson
says ...
SPOILERS -
.
.
.
That scene was vitally important to the narrative of the movie. In terms specific to this film, cutting that scene would be cutting the death of Mace Windu from Revenge of the Sith. It's the major act of violence that causes everything else to go to hell and allows Spacey/Palpentine to take control and purge the 'Jedis'.
Posted by Scott Mendelson
at November 8, 2009 2:05 PM
comment #6
DeeZee
says ...
There was a similar reaction when Die Hard 3 got released right after the Oklahoma City bombing.
Posted by DeeZee
at November 8, 2009 10:50 PM
comment #7
Jonathan Spuij
says ...
Eloi Manning, you should perhaps know how big an issue Maddie McCann was here in Europe and especially in Britain. That movie simply would be too painful for many and totally tank. It was an understandable decision, but just a delayed release. Not any change to the movie itself, which was great btw.
Posted by Jonathan Spuij
at November 9, 2009 1:16 AM
comment #8
actionman
says ...
yeah, I mean (sem-spoiler warning), wasn't the character in Goats tripping on acid when he was firing at his fellow soldiers? I could be wrong but that's what I thought was going on...
Posted by actionman
at November 9, 2009 6:38 AM
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