Don’t mention God. I mentioned him once, but I think I got away with it.
I meant to blog about this yesterday but didn’t get the chance.
Apparently we need to be careful about mentioning the word ‘God’. It’s not a word that should be used in polite company … or at least that’s what one overzealous, young, film censor thought. He fastidiously cut every mention of the word from the new Helen Mirren movie, The Queen.
News.com.au reports that the movie was modified for showing on airline entertainment systems. The article says, “God was bleeped out seven times during the film, which centres on the Queen’s relationship with Tony Blair in the weeks after the death of Princess Diana. “
Both Qantas and Air New Zealand have pulled the edited movie from their planes after complaints from passengers but it’s unclear what other airlines have done about the odd censorship.
It seems that the young employee who was responsible had been told by bosses at the distribution company to remove all swearing from the film. He failed to distinguish between the legitimate use of the word and its use as a profanity.
In the edited version Helen Mirren, as the Queen, is greeted by a character with the line, “(bleep) bless you, ma’am.”
I suppose that the young censor will be supervised a little more closely in future. Maybe they can post a big chart above his desk explaining which words really are offensive and which aren’t. I was thinking of sending him a Bible so that he could find out a little bit more about God but I figure that he’ll just think it’s a dirty book with lots of swearing in it.
Posted by Rodney Olsen
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It’s a good job that the film didn’t carry footage from Charles’ and Diana’s wedding, it would have been unwatchable!
I have always found it absurd that in sitcoms, whenever the actor says the phrase ?God d— it?, God?s name is bleeped out, but not the other part. Does putting God?s name in front of ?d— it? make it worse somehow? I never got that.
May he learn about the real God eh? And be proud to say the name of God or Jesus Christ.