MovieChat Forums > Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) Discussion > edited for TV line omission

edited for TV line omission

posted 9 years ago by doctorbenjiphd
1 reply | jump to latest

I know US television networks are super scared of offending anyone, so while leaving in lots of graphic violence (the elevator shootout was unedited as far as I could tell), they censor anything that could be offensive. I caught a bit of this on TBS last night, only watched a bit of it but it was the cab chase through the park, and Sam Jackson says "are you aiming for these people?!" and McClane says "no...maybe that mime." They cut out the mime line!...just "no"...nothing about a mime. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I can understand cutting out some of the harsher four-letter words, but has censorship gotten so ridiculous that we can't risk offending any group, mimes included?

[–] dinkyvision 8 years ago

Certain networks have different standards as to what they will censor. Some will leave a good bit of "offensive" (not saying mine joke is offensive) content in, while others censor simply ridiculous things.

Another consideration is "editing for time" / usually indicating if it is prior to the start. If you are trying to get a 2:09:00 film to fit into a 2:00:00 time slot, lines/shots/scenes get trimmed or outright omitted. I suspect cutting the mime joke is more a result of editing for time. It may seem insignificant as far as the amount of time cut, but every second counts & if you really need certain scenes & dialogue to stay in the film for story purposes, it's much easier to cut a sentence (or even a few words) from several scenes throughout (throw away jokes, one liners, reaction shots etc) as they can be removed without altering the bulk of the plot.