Films and TV shows removed from streaming services

[Pi]

<split from the "Things that make you go WTF? Part II" and "What should or shouldn’t be shown on TV?" threads. Thanks, David for BBMods.>

ffs now this

Basil Fawlty ; cancelled.

https://7news.com.au/the-morning-show/fawlty-towers-episode-the-germans-pulled-from-bbc-owned-streaming-service-uktv--c-1096148?fbclid=IwAR1ktAoWzEKHEBuiwg5-26JTX5OdBy5rv1G0-QlNue3BLtgreogTsWtIGdA

Gone with the wind removed, pending some probable editing

https://www.distractify.com/p/why-gone-with-the-wind-banned

bring out your movie collection, it needs to be edited / erased. year zero approaches.

[think positive]

so bloody ridiculous.

[Tannin]

I've posted before comparing this dysfunctional, dying society to ancient Byzantium. Now we are up to the iconoclast stage. (Look it up. Same script as today, only more than a thousand years ago.)

[Morrigu]

[Jezza]

[stui magpie]

[What'sinaname]

I demand all copies of The Castle be destroyed and this show never to be shown again because of its racist overtones.

[K]

https://www.theage.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/john-cleese-slams-uktv-decision-to-remove-fawlty-towers-episode-as-stupid-20200612-p5523w.html

Apart from Cleese not being comparable to Newton, Socrates & Caravaggio, they are irrelevant anyway, because Caravaggio didn't film a movie of himself murdering someone, etc. (I don't know if Socrates wrote in praise of slavery -- no talk of Socrates here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/slavery/ethics/philosophers_1.shtml .)

[think positive]

I’m really in shock over this shit, and wishing I had a copy of Gone with the wind! Not something I’d watch often but still! Doing a mental check making sure I have a copy of all my favourites! Die hard 3, I guess when Bruce Willis calls a black man a racist (he was!) will be gone!

How about those bad pizza shows, vaguely remember I show with w*g in the title, is that out too? Every war movie ever made, bye bye, I mean if the goose step in a comedy upsets people, you can can a shit load of docos too.

How do you learn from something if you simply erase history? I guess much as the One country apparently did in their history books in school, and it’s not Germany. Or the US.

Stu I hope you have a copy of Django Unchained

[David]

A few things to clarify here:

1) Gone with the Wind is only temporarily being pulled from one streaming service (HBO Max in the US) so that a short disclaimer can be added at the beginning of this kind:

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcReBG9s5MndpkmSPE7JIm1uqoo0_Wl0kgVtCZ-hnkQGmbx-Mnvu&usqp=CAU

So I think that one is largely a beat-up and not exactly a pressing case of censorship or artistic suppression. As these things go, I don’t think such disclaimers are so bad.

2) The TV episodes, in contrast, are, presumably, gone for good, or at least until a time when this has all blown over and they can be quietly reinstated (as often happens). I don’t love that, but it’s not exactly a new trend; TV networks have selectively avoided re-airing controversial episodes of TV shows for decades, and to this day networks like Disney+ censor scenes from shows like The Simpsons for innocuous reasons (something far more unforgivable, in my books). What bothers me is that streaming companies are angling to be the dominant means of accessing films and TV shows, and thus in effect are engaged in acts of suppression (particularly if they hold exclusive copyright over a show that’s been disappeared). This is just one reason why I continue to support physical media, and, to be honest, piracy, because I think people have a right to see what they choose to, and there are many ways in which work gets suppressed – including simply not being considered commercially viable enough to be made available in the first place. Ironically, in cases of Little Britain et al, this is where a Gone with the Wind-style disclaimer can come in handy, although I suspect companies feel a little more comfortable doing that for eighty-year-old films and TV shows than they do for things made, say, five years ago.

3) I hope that no-one for a minute thinks that streaming companies have gone "woke" (whether one is inclined to see that as a good or bad thing). They’re only looking out for themselves, and would simply rather whitewash history than be associated with anything that could net them bad PR. And this also gets them free press (who here had heard of HBO Max before this? Now we’re all talking about them). So to say their motives are less than pure here would be an understatement. And if one is less interested in motivation than outcome, it’s worth considering the negative effects of selectively suppressing old work that doesn’t flatter contemporary viewpoints and paints the past in a rose-coloured light – beyond, of course, valid questions over whether adults ought to be treated like children who are incapable of thinking for themselves.

4) Ultimately, I think this is a reminder that the streaming company model is capricious. Something that’s there today may be gone tomorrow and never come back, for any number of reasons. So maybe something to think about before putting your DVD player on the nature strip.

Otherwise, I think this is a very good response to HBO’s Gone with the Wind removal:

https://www.vulture.com/article/the-absolutist-case-for-gone-with-the-wind.html

[stui magpie]

It's not just the streaming companies, there's others keen to appear woke atm, I think the whole thing is fkn ridiculous.

And yeah TP, I'm hanging onto my copy of Django unchained, might have to check around for a copy of Tropic Thunder too.

[Wokko]

I think I've got a copy of Gone with the Wind somewhere, better hang onto it.

As for streaming services not being woke, Netflix is one of the wokest companies out there. Hence a whole lot of memes like this:

[Presti35]

What about The Club?

It has anti-Tasmanian tones throughout the film.

#ErrolFlynn

[luvdids]

Guess we won't be seeing Love Thy Neighbour anytime soon

My God people would have a field day with that one now, honky tonk, nig nog, whitey, all used regularly.

[Morrigu]

Seems the best place to put this

Penny Lane signs defaced in Liverpool over slavery claims

Road signs on Penny Lane in Liverpool have been defaced over claims they are linked to slave merchant James Penny.
The markers had the word Penny blacked out and the word racist written above them on Thursday night.

The city's International Slavery Museum said it was not certain whether the street, which was immortalised in a song by The Beatles in 1967, was named after the 18th Century slave merchant.
A spokeswoman said "more research is needed" to clarify the name's origin.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-52992669

I always thought it was so named because there was a bridge at the end that cost a penny to cross - like the Ha'penny (Liffey) Bridge in Dublin?

Either way what do they hope to achieve with actions such as these