Film Censorship Quotes

We live in a world where in the movie you can disembowel someone in a youth hostel in Romania, but you can't show people having sex. I think it's weird.

They pulled Resurrection out of the theatres, so it was running in New York and I was nominated for the Oscar and there was no ad in the newspapers to say it was running. So it was literally killed.

If a producer goes to the censor at the last minute, just before the film releases, then he often settles with cuts because he cannot afford to lose any more time.

In Rio Bravo when Duke makes love to Feathers, the scene dissolves to the next morning where we see him putting on his vest and almost humming. It was subtle, but you knew what happened. Give me a towel and some blankets any day!

The censor boards are mere redundant forces conspiring to keep the 'bold' films out of reach of the audience.

When they released Sidewalks of New York, there were some shots with the towers they were going to take out, and Ed told them no. I don't think they can deny the towers were a part of New York.

It was like fighting with the MPAA... to me it was like this is an R easy... but it was NC 17 over and over and even with this cut they were like, you are right on the edge buddy, one more thing and it's NC-17.

If we must have the Production Code, then I think the only way to use it effectively is to judge a film as a whole and determine whether its effect is good or bad.

If you got the DVD you can see that George Lucas has taken that person out, as well as the voice, and we shot this scene when we arrived in Australia during the actual filming of Episode 3.

You know... the only person I really had to please after a point was the MPAA. Because Lions' Gate was like, hey, whatever you can get away with is fine, we don't care.

Teenagers used to go to the movies to see adults having sex. Today adults go to the movies to see teenagers having sex.

You could do much more in movies than you could on TV, and even movies were heavily censored. But in television, the areas of timorousness were fairly laid out. Race relations. Sex. Politics. There was a whole conglomeration of taboo themes. And even to date, though television has become a much freer medium, it's still far less free, far less creatively untrammeled than are the movies. They're infinitely more adult in that respect.

It's incredible that they censor films. It's sad.

The public's nerves are raw and edgy. You have to be discreet and understanding about the films you are showing.

I think it's so hypocritical to be so anti-nudity in films, and be so pro-violence. I'd rather see two people making love, than somebody being done in. Or being shot and getting their head blown off.

In 'Expendables 2,' there was a lot of vulgar dialogue in the screenplay. For this reason, many young people wouldn't be able to watch this. But I don't play in movies like this. Due to that, I said, 'I won't be a part of that if the hardcore language is not erased.'

It's very difficult to release an X-rated movie.

In Paris, when the picture came out [Casablanca] they weren't too pleased with it. They didn't like the political point of view. The picture was taken off immediately and was never sold to television. A while ago it was brought in and opened in five theatres in Paris, as a new movie. They had a big gala opening where I appeared and people were absolutely crazy about it.

My movies were always clean. There was never anything obnoxious in them that might offend anybody.

I'm sure there are people in Hollywood, whose main drive in film is to make money, who will feel that any use of the word hijacking or any reference to anything violent or remotely associated with the terrible tragedy that occurred will lose customers for them. And that will be the only criterion that will matter and so they'll force the minions that work for them to remove these things from their movies, or not make movies about that subject.

All my films were based on sensitive issues, and they were passed without any problems. I give full credit to the Censor Board for being capable enough to do their work well.

Storytelling is the only studio movie where the censorship is perfectly clear, the only studio movie with a big red box covering up a shot. I take pride in that - and, of course, in having avoided the fate of Eyes Wide Shut.

I have no issue with the CBFC.

Many filmmakers have had that experience. They make a movie, then out of nowhere, they either pass censorship or fail.

A movie that gets a PG-13 rating can show someone running down a street killing 27 people. And there are no repercussions.