Executive Decision (1996) Blu-Ray (1 Viewer)

[JoHud]

To my surprise, I found out this is being released as a Best Buy Exclusive However, there seems to be some unfortunate news about this from users on the blu-ray.com forums regarding scenes that have been removed due to Islamic/9-11 references. Notable changes cited on the forum:

I did see a little blurb at the bottom by the R rating, something about the 133 minute BD version having different material than the regular 133 minute R rated version.

Well at approximately 10:38 when the suicide bomber enters the restaurant the shots where you can see the bomber holding the ?book/bible? in his hand are eliminated.

Another slight change spotted. At approximately 1:04:50 when Halle Berry is covering for Kurt Russell in the elevator, when Nagi Hassan says "Just be patient it will all be over very soon." he is no longer shown placing his hand on the book/bible that was in his jacket pocket. Also seconds later the shot of him slightly opening the book/bible and rifling his fingers through it is gone.

Well this edit is not so slight. The entire shot of Nagi Hassan on his knees praying followed by the shot of the two pilots in the cockpit is gone. Approximately 1:37:04 to 1:37:11. It cuts from B.D. Wong's character saying "He's blocked by the seats, there's passengers all around him." to the exterior shot of the F-14s arriving.

And again moments later the scene is edited differently to hide the fact that Nagi is still on his knees in prayer before answering the phone call from the cockpit alerting him of the F14s arrival. 1:37:18 to 1:37:31 Oh, I forgot to mention that all these times are from the original DVD, they may not match up with the Blu-ray.

Doesn't seem much, but it appears to be specific censorship. Hopefully, there in an unedited version to either replace it or sold alongside it. I'll probably hold off buying to see if this issue is resolved.

 

[cineMANIAC]

This explains the "Blu-ray Edition" tag they slapped on the cover. I don't know if I would've boycotted this release had I known about the censorship but I love the movie enough that I'm willing to overlook it. Still, it's a bit troubling.

 

[Radioman970]

Thanks for the warning. Won't be buying. They'll have to re-release. I guess I"ll grab a DVD instead. Still on my VHS> Love the film. But I don't want it changed.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

Originally Posted by Luisito34

This explains the "Blu-ray Edition" tag they slapped on the cover. I don't know if I would've boycotted this release had I known about the censorship but I love the movie enough that I'm willing to overlook it. Still, it's a bit troubling.

Interesting marketing verbiage and it is unfortunate. I have always enjoyed this movie after all:


How great was it to see Steven Seagal bite it in the first ten minutes and have Kurt Russell be the one to kick butt!

 

[Matt Hough]

Count me as another big fan of this movie. Very sorry to read about these deletions however small.

 

[TonyD]

I already have the DVD, might rent it but will never buy it. Are the trying to protect us from something?

 

[PatH]

I'm glad I bought this years back on DVD. I'm not into BD but no censorship--from Executive Decision to Zoolander--is acceptable to me and shouldn't be to anyone else, especially for political correctness. End of comment except to ask if the Paramount forced changes to Sum Of All Fears refer to those in the film as originally released--shockingly extensive from the book--or to further edits in the DVD/BD release? If the latter, please elaborate. Thanks! PatH

 

[Tim Glover]

Big big fan of this as well and was really waiting for the BD. Guess I'll keep the dvd version. I really don't get the reasoning behind the changes. Film was made in 1996.

 

[Radioman970]

 

Interesting marketing verbiage and it is unfortunate.  I have always enjoyed this movie after all:

 

How great was it to see Steven Seagal bite it in the first ten minutes and have Kurt Russell be the one to kick butt!

 

 

 

:tu: to the spoiler part. Agree agree! That knocked me out when I first saw it.

 

[TravisR]

I'm glad I bought this years back on DVD. I'm not into BD but no censorship--from Executive Decision to Zoolander--is acceptable to me and shouldn't be to anyone else, especially for political correctness.

How is this political correctness? If they were being politically correct, they wouldn't release it at all because it might be offensive to some people. I'm not advocating that but at least that would be a move that had its heart in the right place. In this case, Warners edited the movie so they can still make money and hopefully not take any shit. In my mind, that kind of greed and cowardice is far worse than political correctness. And I realize it's a dangerous world and Warners is scared of everything from being called racist to setting off some maniac into an act of violence but let's face it, if anyone is offended by this movie, a few seconds trimmed out isn't likely to calm them down.

 

[Mark-P]

Censorship continues to baffle me - in literature or movies. School libraries need Huckleberry Finn intact! You know there were tons of movies made in the 80s were the heroes threw around the word "fag", and yes I found it offensive, but I wouldn't want them to remove it now just because I was offended by it. It's an ugly part of our history the same as the offending stereotypes in "Song of the South."

 

[Radioman970]

^ Mark Twain is a whole other thread. ...and I couldn't agree more. I'm fairly non-religious, often groaning when it's thrown in classic stuff and today's stuff too but I sure wouldn't want it removed for my benefit. that's ridiculous.

 

[Carlo_M]

Wow, just wow on the decision to censor. They've finally outdone the minor edits that Lucas did in the OOT when he changed the frames of the blaster hits on certain shots. There's no doubt there is an intent to these edits, but the logic behind it is completely faulty. The movie is a product of its time and I just don't see this igniting some sort of backlash in its original form. Just sad to see this decision. I was very much looking forward to this. Now I'm just going to end up writing a letter to the studio informing them of exactly why I will not be buying this edition.

 

[cineMANIAC]

I'm not looking forward to the Blu-ray Edition of True Lies. They'd have to cut out about half the film

 

[Mr. Pacino]

The new US-Blu-ray has nothing to do with the 9/11 incident!!!!!! The US-Bluray has simply the European version on the disc. That´s all......

 

[Bob Cashill]

But why?

 

[TheHutt]

I suppose Warner already had got cold feet after they shot this film, and for international distribution, they already toned down the "islamist terrorist" aspect. Remember, it's pre-9/11 we're talking about. So for the new release, they just took the Euro version with the islamistic issue toned down. Here is a full report on the differences between the Euro and the US version (in German): http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=2965833 Here a crude Google translation of what happens there: Google translation

 

[smithb]

It could also be that a european blu-ray release was already in the works using the europena cut, so it was just easier to take what had already been transferred to HD.

 

[TravisR]

Having always had two cuts of this movie shows how hypocritical Warners is. It's fine to be offensive in the U.S. since Muslims are a minority but there's more of them in Europe so they needed a version to cover their asses there. Disgusting.

 

[RobertR]

Hollywood's been doing this for some time. They changed the villains in The Sum of All Fears from Arab terrorists to neo-Nazis (as if they've been shown to be an organized, significant threat).