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Violence is so central to the theme and core of many films that no matter how much they are altered, they could never be made appropriate for broadcast television. An effective edit of some of the films described earlier would require the skill and precision of a highly trained surgeon. It would also leave them very short and without adequate context or a comprehensible storyline. Many of the films that fall into this category have already been described. The Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme films are predicated on violence. This is what their fans pay for. There are dozens of violent scenes in each film and taking them out, if not impossible, would serve no purpose. They would be unrecognizable to those who know them and incomprehensible to those who do not.
Walker, Texas Ranger is a television series about violence. The violence is central to the theme like in the films above. However, since Walker is made for television, the violence, while still a concern, is far less intense and graphic than that of motion pictures. Retrofitting a film that was created for an entirely different medium is sometimes an impossible task. There is no series currently on television that raises concerns about violence to the same degree that theatrical films do. This is where the problematic violence is.
Some films such as Dances with Wolves simply need advisories. Others like Patriot Games need a little more editing. But there is nothing that can be done on broadcast network television with Marked for Death or Trespass. There is nothing that can be done to make these films suitable for broadcast television.
Some question the effect of editing on the artistic integrity of films. Although it reflects a network's attempt to responsibly air a program, we believe that many of these films are in need of further editing. Some films, however, contain so much violence that they cannot be edited sufficiently to air without concerns. Silence of the Lambs is a film with a very violent theme that could be edited and made appropriate for broadcast television because it contains only a few scenes of inappropriate violence that could be excised without seriously detracting from the basic storyline. The list of all theatrical films monitored (in the appendix) demonstrates that many very violent films in the theater could be acceptably modified for broadcast television.
The broadcast television networks recognize that some films can never be shown on their airwaves. That is why films such as A Clockwork Orange, The Wild Bunch or Reservoir Dogs have never appeared. They know that violence is so central to these stories and the scenes so graphic and disturbing that no matter how responsibly they edited these films, they still could not be run without raising serious concerns. The violence in A Clockwork Orange is integral to the film's theme and message and is an important part of character development. The rape scene demonstrates how brutal Alex is and why society needs to stop him. The actual rape follows more than eight minutes of attempted rape and violence. As contextually appropriate as these scenes are to the film's whole, the sheer amount and graphicness of the violence make it impossible for a network to run this film, and none has.
We would never see a pornographic film such as Deep Throat on television because of the explicit sexuality. If a network editor tried to edit Deep Throat to remove the sex we would be left with a plot so confusing and weak that no one would watch it. The same point applies to many violence laden films. Violence is what they are about and they either have too many scenes to edit or, if edited, they would be shells of their former selves.
We are also unlikely to see Natural Born Killers or Pulp Fiction on broadcast television. The networks do accept the fact that they should not air some theatrical films. They have drawn a line about what does and what does not belong. In our view, the "what does not belong" side of the line should also include the action films with 30-50 scenes of non-stop violence.
Advisories are used much more frequently for theatrical films than for made-for-television movies. Perhaps because theatrical films have MPAA ratings and are made by others, the networks are more willing to use advisories when airing them. Still, of the 50 theatrical films we felt raised concerns, 22 did not use advisories. As discussed previously advisories alone would have made a difference with Dances with Wolves, Far and Away and Bugsy. We can find no explanation for how films such as Batman Returns, Ghost and Die Hard 2 could run without an advisory. They are far more violent than many films that did contain advisories.
Fox, because of its earlier starting time for films, uses advisories much more liberally than the other networks. Advisories are used consistently on Fox and are likely to be spoken or printed three times during the course of the movie.
A list of all the theatrical films and made-for-television movies that should have had advisories and did not is in the appendix.
The three older networks have a prime time lasting three hours six nights a week and four hours on Sunday. They can start a theatrical at 8:00 or 9:00. Some theatricals are longer than two hours and unless they can be extended with commercials (or additional footage) to four hours and broken into two parts, they usually run at 8:00.
Occasionally, the three older networks will extend prime time 15 or 30 minutes beyond 11:00 so as not to have to start the film before 9:00. This raises strong objections from affiliates who want to see their own advertising at 11:00 rather than the network's advertising. It is commendable when the networks extend prime time to accommodate difficult films. They did this 12 times this past season. Prime time was extended for the following films:
On the whole, the three networks act responsibly by starting theatricals as late as possible. In only a few instances were films run at 8:00 or 8:30 when they should have been run later. The previously discussed Black Rain, which contained an extremely graphic image in the first 15 minutes, raised an additional concern because it started at 8:30.
As mentioned earlier, ABC bills its 8:00 Saturday night slot as the "Family Movie." This is one of the heaviest family viewing periods of the week. Almost all of these ABC movies are family- oriented and fit well into this slot. For that, ABC deserves praise. In reviewing all of the "Family Movies," we did, however, find several that were questionable (four out of over 20).
The biggest time slot issue concerns the Fox network. On one hand, Fox does routinely issue advisories. Yet on the other, it is forced into airing all these films at 8:00. Like the other networks, Fox runs theatrical films filled with violent themes and scenes. Many are of the type that may not be able to be sufficiently edited or made appropriate for television. Some of the films they run may not be able to fit at all on broadcast television. Running them at 8:00 raises special concerns. If the other broadcast networks are able to occasionally extend prime time to accommodate a film of concern, Fox should also on occasion be able to do this for its most difficult films. If and when Fox becomes a network with a 10:00 prime time hour, this concern will diminish. Until it does, Fox is under a special obligation to use the 8:00 period appropriately.
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