Conan The Barbarian

[HotRats]

These horses have long since made their contribution to the dog food industry and films are no longer made with such cruel techniques. Censoring old films by the standards of what is currently deemed socially acceptable is idiotic, especially in a world where the uncut version is a mouse click away. Still, it provides work for the BBFC, even if they do make prats of themsleves such as cutting CGI horse falls from Red Cliff but I don't want old westerns censored especially when it comes to classics like Duck, You Sucker.

[duggie walker]

I get what you're saying, and I don't want to be a hypocrite about it. I do have movies in my collection that have instances of animal cruelty in them, and I'll put up with those moments if I have to. But I don't like it, and I just automatically react with revulsion at the "hurrah"-style comments in this thread. I know it wasn't meant that way but we are effectively cheering the right to watch abuse of living creatures.

Cruelty to animals has massively decreased thanks to the AHA monitoring scheme but we need to remain vigilant. There are still many mainstream films that do not elect to be monitored (it is voluntary) or that sport fake acknowledgements; and many films made in foreign countries that aren't covered by any such agreements.

I despise the BBFC as much as the next man but at least I can see a clear purpose in these cuts - ie they're excising instances of actual harm being caused - rather than the cuts that are made on the dangerously spurious basis that content will cause psychological harm.

[Sky_Captain]

Get off your high horse.

[Jeff B]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

I know it wasn't meant that way but we are effectively cheering the right to watch abuse of living creatures.

No, we're cheering the fact that we can see those scenes as they were originally filmed.

[demiscy]

Maybe you think that every time we watch the scene.. the pain comes back to the horse

[chip75]

I don't want to see any form of animal cruelty on film and the barbaric treatment of horses throughout films history, I'm also oppossed to botched editing jobs to work around said cruelty. It was more of a 'Hurrah!' against botched editing than the former....

and 99.9% of UK Blu-ray buyers won't even access the footage. I'm amazed that it's available on the UK disc.

[duggie walker]

Originally Posted by Jeff B

No, we're cheering the fact that we can see those scenes as they were originally filmed.

Which involved the injury of horses.

Me, I'm hoping we get an extended version of THE TWILIGHT ZONE where we can see Vic Morrow and those kids get whittled to shit by flying rotor blades.

[Jeff B]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

Which involved the injury of horses.

That's not what people are cheering. The film is a product of its time, and I want to see it without cuts.

[Sky_Captain]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

which involved the injury of horses.

But you're fine with the murder of men, women and children being depicted onscreen, as opposed
to a few horse pratfalls, which happened around 3 decades ago?

Seriously.

[whedon]

It's ridiculous the way some people think that by celebrating the inclusion ofcut version we are saying animal cruelty is something positive. What we are celebrating us the fact that we can now watch a film many of us loved dunce we were children without the inclusion of dreadful forced cuts which destroy a truly epic battle scene.

Animal cruelty us a nasty thing but I do nit want to watch films made decades ago being judged by today's standards. It's like the argument that Birth if a Nation is a deeply racist film, while many if the ideas on display in the film are questionable we cannot judge it by today's standard but rather must look at it in the context of the time it was made.

[agent999]

Originally Posted by duggie walker

I get what you're saying, and I don't want to be a hypocrite about it.

So don't pick other people up for it then. The final battle sequence is totally incoherant without the horsefalls. If there's a safer way now of doing these things then fine, but I'm not losing sleep over some horses that may or may not have been injured 30 years ago.

[Dickieduvet]

They do things much differently now, All the real Horses have been sent to the Glue Factory and have been replaced by CGI versions

[Douglas R]

Originally Posted by HotRats

Still, it provides work for the BBFC, even if they do make prats of themsleves such as cutting CGI horse falls from Red Cliff

John Woo may have claimed that they were CGI - but he would wouldn't he? The trouble with China is that they still use trip wires to make horses fall. Having said that, I don't see the point of cutting, for example, all those old western films for horse films but this is already done as in DeMille's Northwest Mounted Police (1940).