MovieChat Forums > 10 to Midnight (1983) Discussion > '10 to Midnight' censored on late night ...

'10 to Midnight' censored on late night TV in USA.

posted 14 years ago by CCRider01
8 replies | jump to latest

I just caught the last 20 minutes of "10 to Midnight" on THISTV (ABC sub channel from Seattle). I was watching via OTA in Canada, and what little I saw of the film seemed interesting. What I noticed, and the reason for this topic, was every time there was any partial nudity (bare breast), there was a moving fuzzy image over top of the "naughty bits" to make sure no one got an eyeful. It made the movie look extremely amateurish, as if it were edited by someone taking a grade 10 film class.

Coming from Europe and now living in Canada, I cannot remember the last time, I saw something like this, it must have been 30 years ago. Why is the United Sates so far behind other "free" nations,ie Westernized, on such trivial matters?

This is not meant as an anti US comment, but just curious as to why any US network TV has to follow such "Victorian" censorship, even after after midnight.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Cimmerian_Dragon 14 years ago

While many of the founding fathers were libertarian in their leanings, America is still poisoned by the taint of the Puritans who settled here in the early colonial era. The spirit of these religious extremists, while it has subsided, still lingers in the blood of the country like a chronic illness that flares up at inopportune moments. One place the taint is most obvious is in the area of not just sexual nudity, but nudity in general. There is a huge social group that seems to think the human body is hideous and evil by its very nature, and thus unfit for display in film or other art.
--------------------------------------------------
If there were reason for these miseries,
Then into limits could I bind my woes.

[–] edimusprime 14 years ago

Tell you what...I love this film, great packed thriller, awesome story......edited for television....its damn hilarious.

Warren's matted in underwear looks like its alive, and the ending is hacked up more than one of Warren's victims...personally I wish I could get a copy of the edited version just for the laughs.

[–] The_King_of_Cool 11 years ago

I really hate these posts. Why did the UK have the Video Nasties and why are there still some films they haven't lifted the ban on?

So I can make a case for parts of Europe being behind.

[–] MrBullo 11 years ago

They censored the tits but I bet you they left in all the bloody violence...... ..... talk about priorities.

[–] CCRider01 10 years ago

Obviously the US is more "progressive" with regard to what they allow into theaters, such as hardcore or gratuitous violence, or films that defame real individuals, freedom of speech and all that good stuff.

My original point was not about which country has the most censorship with regards to theatrical release, it was about heavily editing a film for TV, that was shown after midnight, on an issue that most adults find completely natural and innocuous (bare breasts), and with such a heavy handed approach, that the film became an unintentional joke. It would have been better if the film WAS banned, it would have at least prevented such an amateurish hack job of editing.

[–] wetcamelfood 10 years ago

Not that I agree with this but when it comes to US network television, it doesn't matter what time of day or night it is shown, if they are going to air it, they are going to air the edit they made.

I'd almost prefer networks didn't show these movies at all because fans of these movies will just watch the DVD version anyway since it's uncut and without commercial.

It was better when they just used to cut the scenes out altogether instead of having the moving blob versions like they do now (though granted, it's harder to cut these scenes out of this movie since they are more important to the story, so this would be a good candidate to not show it at all).

[–] johnmiller (4011) a year ago

I'm surprised that there was more than one hour of film left by time they cut out all the nudity and gore.