Martin Scorsese's movie, The Wolf of Wall Street starring Leonardo Di Caprio who depicts in the film the life of Jordan Belfort -- a 90s stockbroker mogul who was later imprisoned for securities fraud and money laundering, was released across the UAE this past weekend. The film was deemed to be shortened by around 40 minutes from its original 180-minutes run; a matter that seemed to bother many movie-goers who had expressed their frustration about this matter through social media outlets.
The National, in a related article published on January 12, conveys some of the messages shared by frustrated social media users who had gone and seen the film this past weekend. One message said:
“Swear words were muted, which made almost every sentence in the movie hard to understand and sometimes you sit there wondering what happened"
Yes, the censorship did make some of the movie's script jumpy but I cannot grasp how the swear words that were censored made the movie to a certain viewer hard to understand. The very use of some swear words is to add to the drama, or the expression, of the statement being made. Removing such words will not alter, or impact for that matter, the meaning of the sentence!
To analyse that previous statement, let us agree on what was censored out exactly. According to the same article published by The National, scenes containing sexually explicit content were cut out, and statements containing profanity were muted. Cinema-goers are normally used to the former as it is the norm here, so it is safe to assume that the main issue that frustrated viewers had was with the muted profanity! That is why, I find it a little exaggerated how muting swear words can result in the film becoming worthless to watch.
The National, in a related article published on January 12, conveys some of the messages shared by frustrated social media users who had gone and seen the film this past weekend. One message said:
“Swear words were muted, which made almost every sentence in the movie hard to understand and sometimes you sit there wondering what happened"Yes, the censorship did make some of the movie's script jumpy but I cannot grasp how the swear words that were censored made the movie to a certain viewer hard to understand. The very use of some swear words is to add to the drama, or the expression, of the statement being made. Removing such words will not alter, or impact for that matter, the meaning of the sentence!
Another viewer stated:
“It completely ruins the picture for me, there is no point in watching a film which is cut and muted or re-dubbed"
As a dedicated cinema-goer myself, yes, I can understand how annoying it can get when script lines sound a little chopped up especially that based on previous experiences, many movies do contain language content that are only suitable to 18+ audience. But I also understand that watching a movie, and comprehending it, is all about the build up and delivery of the movie plot; a matter which I certainly feel was not compromised at all, as I still have come to learn after watching the movie the story of the rise and fall of Wall Street Wolf, Jordan Belfort -- which after all, is the point of the movie!
Follow Rami Jaber on Twitter: @JaberRami
No comments:
Post a Comment