Dawn Of The Dead Remake R1 Director's Cut censored? (1 Viewer)

[Doug Schiller]

I'm leaning towards the "2nd cut submitted to the MPAA" theory.
I have seen the R3 and noticed this difference right away when I watched the R1 last night.

Remember the formula...

Breasts are fine, you can have 2 hours of breasts, no problem.

Breasts and blood, well that is a whole different story.

 

[Scott Rogers]

They did.

Here's the TC
http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=MCA023861

and here's the DC
http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.cfm?itemID=MCA025819

I bought the DC myself, not for the gore, but for the extra bonus materials.

The TC is missing the featurettes:
RAISING THE DEAD, ATTACK OF THE LIVING DEAD and SPLITTING HEADACHES: ANATOMY OF EXPLODING HEADS

 

[David Ruiz]

I will agree with everyone who has said that this is very weird. You can definitely have tons and tons of naked breasts and still get an "R" so it doesn't have anything to do with the MPAA.

Though, it does in fact remind me of the whole T3 scandle that everyone had a heart attack about.

 

[Mike Wadkins]

and the t3 didnt get sorted at all so im not crossing my fingers on this one

 

[Antony James]

Weird.

Just FYI, the R4 is fully uncut, just like the R3.

 

[David Ruiz]

Wasn't Mullholland Dr. censored as well, when it hit DVD?

 

[Vincent-P]

Yeah, but Mullholland Drive was specifically censored by David Lynch, the director. And no uncensored version was ever released because that was his wish.

Here we have a "director's cut" (The R3 release was also called a "director's cut"; they can't both be director's cuts!) that has been altered for reasons unknown. Like I said, I wonder if Zack Snyder even knows about this. Since the R3 release came first, I bet he recorded the commentary watching that version.

I don't like censorship at all, so it really does bother me that this has happened. Plus, I think that blood looks terrible. I could tell it was CGI'ed in from a mile away.

 

[Chris Rein]

It would be funnier than all hell if the Theatrical Cut on DVD had the boobage in it.

Has anyone confirmed the TC having boobies yet? What if they mixed up the discs? TC got the UR and the UR got the TC?!?!?

I am sensing BTTF all over again.

If this were Columbia, we'd get a new "SuperTITS" transfer with DTS and boobies.

 

[Vincent-P]

I think someone said the exact same scene with the CGI blood has been added to the Theatrical Cut, even though it wasn't there in the actual cut in theatres. So the Theatrical cut on DVD isn't the actual Theatrical Cut.

 

[Jack Johnson]

This is easy to explain:

If the studios can both make a buck by selling an "unrated" cut and do it "safely"--especially by removing, dressing up or editing those scenes which seem especially "troubling" to domestic audiences...those involving blood AND nudity--they'll darn well do it. Only in America would people seek unrated content, then gripe about it when they get it. Not saying anyone here would do that, but these things happen. So they go with a doctored shot. But that backfires as well, as soon as screen caps from other regions show up.

Makes me want to cue up Re-Animator again. Now that was a truly unbound film.


--Jack

 

[Ricard Casselha]

This is most irregular. And upsetting.

 

[Scott Weinberg]

I don't much care one way or another about seeing the girl's boobs (the context of the scene is anything but...sexy) - but, like most of you, I find it sad and alarming to see domestic releases get censored like this, as if someone at Uni said "Um, no. On the North American version you will NOT have this topless girl wandering around in gore. That's just too much for people to handle!"

But on the other hand, "Director's Cut" does not mean "the most complete version on the planet".

Still...it's annoying. And I believe Snyder even mentions the toplessness during the audio commentary!

No, this alteration doesn't mar the movie for me one bit - but the mindset behind the alteration is quite disturbing.

 

[Vincent_P]

Robert Anthony wrote:

"I'm thinking maybe what we got was a cut that was re-submitted to the MPAA to see if they could get away with an R, thus a smeared windshield."

I find that a little hard to swallow, because it seems the ONLY difference between this version and the R3 is the windshield shot- I sincerely doubt the MPAA would give the film an NC-17 that first time and ONLY indicate that the windshield shot was a problem. In fact, I have a hard time thinking this shot would've caused much of a stir at all. Remember, a lot of the other footage added to the DC is dialogue plus other little scene extensions, so it obviously wasn't ALL cut due to the MPAA.

As for why one version has lots of blood and the other doesn't, I can't say. Maybe the "censored" one IS correct? It might be a good idea to compare shots of the windshield BEFORE they show the naked woman. Maybe the relative lack of blood was a continuity error, so Zack had more blood added digitally to better match the amount of blood on the car windshield when Sarah Polley is driving? I dunno, either way it's a little odd, and it's also odd if the "director's cut" footage in the R3 is cleaner than the swimming-with-black-dirt DC footage in the R1...

Vincent

 

[Mike Wadkins]

the uk "unrated" has no blood as far as im told (yet to check this for my self

we cant have any video or dvd over here without ratings so count your selfs lucky

 

[Rolando]

ok 2 questions.

does the R3 have the exact same content in terms of extras?

and Jack Johnson what do I need to know about Re-animator? I have considering getting the Elite Millennium Edition...

 

[Mike Wadkins]

welcome to dvdmike's 5 min photoshop class :

r3 dotd2004


taken from my r3 copy im yet to receive my jap premium dts dvd so will post when i find out

 

[Mike Wadkins]

get it its one of the best dvd's made and is very hard to find by all accounts

as for dotd r3 extras they are listed here
http://www.movietyme.com/catalog/pro...9a9a5badd85572

 

[Robert Anthony]

Yeah, so did I, I was basically spitballing.

And as Mike's helped point out, the smeared cgi blood introduces a nice continuity error, as there's never that much blood on that windshield at any time BEFORE or AFTER that shot.

 

[Jeff Krispow]

Well, aside from the non-breastage shot, Universal has "censored" the Unrated Director's Cut in another way — the two "Unrated" editions are both missing a featurettepresent on the two "Theatrical Version" DVDs:

• Surviving the Dawn — Dare to Face Your Fears! A behind the screams feature with cast interviews, on-location footage and more!

When Universal originally issued their Dawn of the Dead Press Release, they broke down the contents into a concise list. That official PR specifically stated that the Unrated Director's Cut edition would contain all the extras from the Theatrical Edition PLUS three exclusive new featurettes.

Here's a copy of the Universal's official Press Release announcing the contents of both editions… see for yourself how Universal was marketing the Unrated Director's Cut edition…


Those of us who purchased the Unrated Director's Cut edition bought it with the understanding that it would be the best DVD edition of the film, and would also contain ALL the bonus feature content from the Theatrical Edition DVD. Universal did not market this as having "Three Exclusive Featurettes and some of the content from the Theatrical Edition DVD" — it was specifically marketed as having "Three Exclusive Featurettes and all of the content from the Theatrical Edition DVD."

Needless to say, I'm a bit ticked off that Surviving the Dawn is missing from the Unrated Director's Cut. Apparently, the only way to obtain this extra it is to purchase the Theatrical Version, which I have no intention of doing… nor should I be expected to.

Universal specifically promoted the inclusion of this featurette in all their marketing, and they should honor that "promise" by making this featurette available to everyone who purchased the Unrated Director's Cut. Rather than repress the entire disc, there is a very simple way for Universal to correct this problem — instead, they could press a new "Bonus Disc" containing Surviving the Dawn, and make it available to consumers upon request. In addition, there would also be more than enough room on such a disc to include all the cool Teaser & Theatrical Trailers and TV Spots that Universal "neglected" to include in the regular DVD sets — Universal could consider this their way of apologizing for the false advertising…

Of course, this is just a suggestion, but it's a perfectly workable solution. It would also be "right" and "proper" thing for Universal to do — which means they most likely won't.

*sigh*

By the way, does anyone know what the exact running time of Surviving the Dawn is? Judging from the description, it looks to be a fairly in-depth featurette (then again, it could easily be just a short, lame 2m long EPK that we'd all be foolish complaining about… Then again, if it really IS that short, there's no excuse for not including it, since it could easily have fit on the disc… by removing some of the useless cross-promotional trailers).

Regards!

 

[Eddy-C]

I just watched the disc(rented it) and I love it. I'm glad I watched it before reading this otherwise I would've gone in bitter intsead of enjoying a great horror flick

Also I don't get people's problem with that one change. I actually think its a improvement looking at those screen caps. I'd rather be thinking "this is some scary sh^t" rather than "man, that girl sure has some ugly boobs"