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Under Siege is typical of the action films that appeared on broadcast television (and cable) during the 1994-95 season. It is a film with a violent theme and constant violent action. Starring laconic action hero Steven Seagal, Under Siege is about a group of terrorists led by Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey who take over an aircraft carrier and threaten to use its nuclear weapons unless their demands are met. Seagal plays an undercover agent disguised as a cook who foils the terrorists' plot and saves the carrier and its missiles.
It is an excessively violent film. There are gruesome, detailed shootings and stabbings accompanied by other acts of mayhem, all of which are central to the plot. By the time the two bad guys meet their end the audience is delighted to see them suffer as they are brutally finished off.
The film contains over 50 scenes of violence, far more per hour than found in any series or television movie. The motion picture studio which produced Under Siege did not have to be concerned about the large number of violent acts because it was made for a theatrical audience and would be rated "R."
ABC did a noble job of trying to edit Under Siege for broadcast television. Scenes were pared down considerably, some of the worst acts were edited out and we believe some scenes were completely cut. But there was no way they could remove enough to make it free of concerns. There were far too many scenes which were central to the story. This film would not be understandable to its viewers, not to mention the fact that many Seagal fans would be disappointed by the lack of action, if most scenes were cut.
We know of no way that this film could be edited sufficiently so that it could run without raising concerns about violence. It did run with an advisory and began at 9:00 p.m.
Black Rain stars Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia as two tough New York cops who have to deliver a gangster back to his home in Japan. He escapes and Douglas pursues him through Japan as we learn about Japanese crime syndicates and see a New York cop out of his element. The film began at 8:30 and 12 minutes later we see an extremely brutal scene where two men are killed, one of them by having his throat graphically slit--one of the darkest and most disturbing images of the entire season. While some of the action films, including the above mentioned Under Siege, have an exaggerated or overblown comic-book style with lots of action and heroes, Black Rain is filled with extremely ugly scenes of dark, mean and real violence.
Throughout the film, viewers see another stabbing, gun fights, fist fights and a very graphic scene where a character cut off his own finger. Black Rain ends in a huge gun battle with explosions and stabbings.
This too is a film that simply could not be edited sufficiently for broadcast television. Violence is inherent in the entire film as viewers watch American police use their methods against the equally brutal styles of Japanese police and gangsters. CBS did issue an advisory.
This film is described earlier in the report. Unlike the action films, this is, at its core, a love story. Violence, while integral to the plot, is not the driving force of the film. It must begin with a scene of violence, Patrick Swayze's murder which turns him into a ghost. It also requires a final confrontational scene in which Swayze's wife, Demi Moore, is in danger. Swayze (as a ghost) saves her and defeats the man who arranged his murder.
It contains far fewer scenes of violence than the action films. Concerns arise out of the final confrontation. As mentioned earlier, after a prolonged fight, the bad guy falls onto a broken window sill where he is impaled by a large piece of glass. The close-up of the glass entering the body is edited, but viewers see the body with the glass protruding from his stomach for a full eight seconds. It is excessive and far too graphic. This is one of the theatricals that could have been edited without interfering with the integrity of the story. Even though it contained this very intense and bloody scene, it did not contain an advisory.
This is a story about a teenager in Chicago who becomes involved in underground boxing. It is filled with the violence of the underground boxing world and crooked fight promoters. This is not just a boxing movie. It is about excessively violent boxing that is graphically portrayed. There are over two dozen boxing scenes filled with blood and gore. The scenes are prolonged and central to the entire story. It would be impossible to remove the scenes from the film and still have a story.
As with made-for-television movies, Fox begins its theatrical films at 8:00. Because of that, here too, they are very liberal with the use of advisories, and in this film, warnings ran three times.
Bruce Willis plays a disgraced former government agent working as a cheap detective. He teams with ex-football player Damon Wayans to investigate corruption in professional football. Basic to the story are a large number of very intense scenes of glorified violence. The very violent Willis is shown to be cool and suave. This is underscored by co-star Wayans' admiration of his actions.
The Last Boy Scout, with over 30 scenes of violence, is excessive and graphic. This film, which contains football violence, raises an interesting issue. A case could be made that football is an American pastime and institution and therefore socially sanctioned. There is no question that, at its core, football is a violent game. But "real" football is televised live with no control over what will happen. A case can be made that either football should be protected from criticism or that it glorifies violence and should be condemned.
However, in a film about football all the scenes are scripted. A writer has to decide what will happen and a director has to decide how graphic it will be. These scenes are not real. Therefore, we held them to the exact standard of violence to which all other scenes in a film are held. A film which is primarily about football such as this season's Necessary Roughness raises fewer concerns than the football scenes in The Last Boy Scout where in one moment on the field a player pulls out a gun and shoots another player.
Almost every scene in the film contains violence. Many were prolonged and ugly. This is yet another film that could not possibly be edited enough to air on television without raising concerns. The amount of violence is excessive and the glorification only aggravates it. ABC ran an advisory.
ABC extended prime time until 11:30 to run this film. This is an unusual action that incurs the anger of affiliates. This film was heavily edited in another noble effort to make it fit the standards of broadcast television. Unfortunately, the effort was unsuccessful as it would be impossible to eliminate gratuitous scenes of violence from the film.
"Bad boy" Charlie Sheen plays a rich kid who becomes a rookie cop and is teamed with Clint Eastwood as his hardened, cynical partner. The movie is wall-to-wall violence, containing over 40 scenes. The violence here too is glorified as the viewer cheers when Eastwood commits acts of violence.
There are obvious signs of editing as the network tried to salvage the film. However, it is simply not possible to take the violence out of this film. ABC aired several advisories.
In another Steven Seagal film, the actor this time plays an ex-drug agent taking on Jamaican drug lords who have marked him and his family for death. Many of the scenes were very long and drawn out. It is a very typical action film distinguished only by a heightened level of violence. It contained fewer scenes than many of the films described above, but two of the scenes were particularly graphic and shocking.
Five minutes into the film, Seagal is buying illegal drugs in a Mexican brothel when a fight breaks out. The gory scene is filled with knives, guns, punches and kicking and it lasted a full two minutes as we saw many people shot. Far more graphic than the story warranted, the scene could have been edited without damaging the plot.
The second problematic scene occurs at the end and lasts for six minutes. It is a very long and continuously graphic finale which begins with one of the characters holding the severed head of a Jamaican drug lord. (Strangely, we see the decapitated head of another Jamaican drug lord in another film shown in local syndication, Predator II.) A long fight and chase ensue with Seagal chasing the bad guy who ultimately (after much intervening violence) is impaled by a long piece of metal on which he lands after being thrown down an elevator shaft. The camera lingers on this image.
Nothing could be done to edit this film sufficiently for broadcast television. It is filled with visual images of disturbing violence and constant action. It ran with two advisories.
These movies are grouped together because they continue to raise the same issues. All are big- budget Hollywood action films with big stars (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis, Denzel Washington, Steven Seagal, Wesley Snipes, Eddie Murphy and Sylvester Stallone) in the lead roles. The only significant difference is that Total Recall and Terminator 2 are futuristic action films while the others are contemporary action films.
They are all filled with many scenes of continuous violence. Lethal Weapon III contained 21 scenes, Terminator 2 29, Total Recall 35, Ricochet 27, Tango and Cash 30 and Another 48 hours, 27 scenes. Once again, a valiant effort was made so that these films might be suitable for television. Terminator 2 alone must have occupied the efforts of film editors for months. There simply was nothing that could be done. The violence is everywhere and is what these films are all about.
These films continue the Hollywood trend of making violence exciting because it is committed by the hero. All of these films attempt to interject humor into the violence. After killing his wife who has been trying to kill him, Schwarzenegger exclaims, "Consider this a divorce."
Much of the violence is exciting and glamorous. All the films contained advisories.
The plot of Trespass is completely dependent on the use of violence. Indeed, if the violence had been cut it would have been a very short film. There were 35 scenes of violence.
The story revolved around a prolonged struggle between two firefighters who witnessed a murder and the men who committed it. Violence is what moves the story. Much of the violence was mean, dark and graphic.
The most disturbing scene of violence shows a drug user graphically about to shoot up with a hypodermic needle. He then uses the syringe as a weapon and stabs one of the firefighters in the neck. The film is filled with violence. No matter how much Fox edited Trespass, the constant barrage of violence could not be eliminated, only toned down. Adding to our concern is the fact that the film features popular rap artists Ice Cube and Ice-T, making it more likely to garner a large audience of young viewers. Like other Fox films, this one began at 8:00 and contained three advisories.
Home Alone is one of the top five box-office films of all time. How can a children's film possibly raise concerns about violence? While many will argue that this is a cartoon-like kid's film filled with Christmas spirit and worthy of becoming a holiday tradition, a contextual examination of the violence tells another story.
Macauley Culkin plays a young boy, Kevin, accidentally left behind at home by his parents in their rush to prepare for a trip to Paris. Kevin lives every child's fantasy and nightmare: he is home alone. The first part of the film is indeed a kid's film as the young Kevin adapts to life on his own. We watch him use aftershave, not knowing it will burn, and try to convince a store clerk that he really is an adult and able to use a credit card.
Toward the end the film becomes violent. Two burglars try to break into Kevin's house. In order to foil the break-in, Kevin sets up elaborate schemes to stop the burglars. While these scenes are played for laughs, they are filled with extremely sadistic and mean-spirited acts of violence never demonstrating consequences. In fact, Kevin is rewarded. Watching Kevin torture these burglars is really the appeal of the film.
Kevin's actions begin modestly as he shoots the intruders with a BB-gun. The violence progressively becomes more mean-spirited and vindictive throughout the movie. At one point he pours water on the stairs causing the burglars to slip and fall. When one of the robbers falls, a crowbar lands on his head. In another scene, an iron falls on one of the burglar's heads who then steps on a nail. The violence continues to escalate as Kevin rigs a blowtorch to burn the bad guys' heads. They continue to slip and fall throughout the movie, and in one scene, are hit in the head with great force by paint cans. Later on, one gets stung by a tarantula and finally the old neighbor comes to the rescue and bangs the intruders on the head with a shovel.
Many will argue that this is a funny cartoon-like film that appeals to every child's fantasy. While we understand this, we hope it is not every child's fantasy to use his or her wit and intelligence to sadistically torture fellow human beings, even if they are robbers.
This is violence for the sake of violence. It is never intended to be realistic, but it sends the message that people getting hit in the head with a crowbar or burned by a blowtorch is funny, especially if it is the result of an ingenious booby trap. NBC ran Home Alone at 8:00 without an advisory.
None of the violence in these films compares in intensity or graphicness to the films already discussed. Most are fairly innocent with tame themes, in most cases appealing to children. Our only objection is that all four are lumped together by ABC as part of its Family Movie on Saturday nights.
While any 8:00 program is likely to attract children, an 8:00 "Family Movie" encourages them to watch. We believe that a "Family Movie" promises that the entire family can sit together and watch a story of family interest without any intrusions of sex, violence or language. What little level of violence one would expect to see would be very innocent and closer to a cartoon format.
These are primarily objectionable because they are presented as "Family Movies." They would not necessarily have registered on our scale without this label and its implicit promise.
Problem Child II (the sequel to this film which was a television movie is discussed in the previous section) is filled with malicious pranks which typically involve children. In one of the first scenes of violence in the film, Junior turns on the propane on a neighbor's barbecue which then explodes, sending the neighbor flying into the air. In a later scene a man storms into a restaurant to find his wife on a date with John Ritter. The man hits a waiter with a lead pipe. As the scene continues, the angry man hits Ritter over the head with the pipe. Ritter stands up and the man tries to hit him again. This time Ritter grabs the pipe and hits the man in the stomach. Then Ritter is punched to the ground by his date. Later we see an electrocution as Junior declares, "The wench must die." Further into the movie a character threatens Junior with a knife and tells him to go to his room. The film continues to be filled with people fighting, falling and being electrocuted,
Every Which Way But Loose and its sequel Any Which Way You Can are Clint Eastwood vehicles, very different from the Dirty Harry series. Featuring Eastwood with an orangutan, they are intended to be funny. They raise concerns because they are labeled as "Family Movies."
In both films, Eastwood plays a traveling street fighter. The movies center around violence. His sidekick Clyde, the orangutan, drinks alcohol and fights. In the first scene of Any Which Way You Can, Eastwood is fighting as the police cheer him on. In a subsequent comic scene, Clyde punches a biker causing him to fall and knock over a row of motorcycles. In a later scene, after breaking into a house, mobsters threaten Eastwood's mother and beat up his best friend. The film is filled with fights, many of them cheered by bystanders.
Ernest Scared Stupid contains 38 acts of violence. Although most of these are minor, concern was expressed because of the frequent involvement of children. The violence is continuous and, in one scene featuring a knife and numchuks, Ernest fights a monster. It is a relevant scene but surprisingly intense for a "Family Movie."
None of these films contain outrageous or graphic violence. They do contain intense violence. Our major concern surrounds their inclusion in the "Family Movie" category.
Dances with Wolves is Kevin Costner's Academy Award-wining film about the Old West. Far and Away is Ron Howard's story of Irish immigrants in America. Bugsy is Warren Beatty's portrayal of mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Malone, the man responsible for founding Las Vegas. These films, while containing brutal and graphic violence, must do so to accurately capture and realistically illustrate the historical eras and events they portray. Our only issue with these three films, particularly Dances With Wolves, is that their use of violence warrants an advisory.
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