[910dohead]

I noticed today that my digital copies of the Ghostbusters films now had a "+ Clean Version" tag. I thought 'Wow! They released the Wally Wick version'. I go to the first known scene which was "We came, we saw, we kicked it's ass!" which gets replaced by "Well, what a knockabout of pure fun that was!". Except, they left the original line in the clean version. I guess kicking ass is ok for the kiddies? Then I went to the mayors office scene and discovered the 'Wally Wick', 'Rodent' and 'Stuff that'll turn you white' lines were in fact there, but the footage wasn't. Instead of remastering the TV version, SONY half-assed this "clean version" by dubbing the audio from it over the 4k movie footage.

I thought maybe I just remember the footage wrong and assumed they shot alternate footage. After a quick check over at YouTube I was right and that this is a poor man's clean version. Kinda sucks but I thought this was worth mentioning. I haven't gone through Ghostbusters II yet. I don't know of anything that was ever changed as GBII was supposed to be as family friendly as it gets? Maybe Louis and Janine getting hot on the sofa gets omitted? What is in part II that needed to be changed or dubbed?

EDIT - I forgot about the Funny Face and Dana's "Oh, no" lines. I haven't checked if the originals are still there.

[Glenn Frederick]

In GB2 the Court room scene and the meeting with the Mayor at Gracie Mansion Venkmans lines were changed for the clean/TV version!

[EJLambert]

This whole thing smells like Clean Flicks.

[Winston1986]

Maybe it's just me but I wouldn't want to buy a censored version of any movie. It's why I never watched movies on TV. I want my bad language there and I want the scenes the way they were filmed. I really don't see that many fans of either movie wanting to buy a censored version.

[*NormalGamer*]

Maybe it's just me but I wouldn't want to buy a censored version of any movie. It's why I never watched movies on TV. I want my bad language there and I want the scenes the way they were filmed. I really don't see that many fans of either movie wanting to buy a censored version.

@ *referring to bold*

Though I don't mind watching movies on TV (censored or not), when it comes to buying movies uncensored, you're not the only one. It's why I visit movie-censorship.com a lot.

This is pretty much pointless on Sony's part.

[ccv66]

If it was like Star wars where you couldn't get the original version, I'd be upset. But if your trying to show younger kids it might be nice to the clean version available

[910dohead]

I totally agree with you and I feel like films shouldn't be censored or whitewashed. I don't mind when an alternate version is created to cater to a more wider family audience. Since Ghostbusters did have alternate dialog and footage shot to replace the racy scenes, I am personally alright with it when a films creator caters to a more family friendly film. The other scenes are pretty funny in comparison to the actual ones.

What I can't stand is when a scene is viewed as controversial and gets removed due to outcry or moral majority. For example, I can't remember the name of the film, but all I can tell you it was a teenage sports movie of some sort. There was a scene in the film and trailer where members of the sports team laid on the lines on a road in between traffic as some sort of method of improving their training. Some idiots copied the film and were killed as a result. The scene was yanked from the film. EDIT - So I looked it up and the film was called "The Program" and I found the actual scene.


It also happened with Talladega Nights. I used to have one of those cheap cam bootlegs the shady guy around the corner sells for $3. In the beginning of the film, as a baby Ricky Bobby is at a racetrack. He manages to sneak away and climbs over the wall separating the crowd from the track. He runs out on to the track while the race is in progress stating 'Un go fast' with the race cars crashing or something to that effect. Then it goes into another scene where he is a few years older and steals his parents car while his mom is in a store. He drives away saying "I wanna go fast." I have never seen the scenes again in any tv airing or released version. People complained and Sony removed them from the film. It's even hard to find mention of them online.

Clean versions made intentionally I don't mind but I am also not going to buy it either. I guess wacky religious people who want to shield their children from real life is what that caters to. I was merely pointing out how the clean version was half assed when it actually did get an official release. I think it doesnt make sense and completely pointless.

[ccv66]

They have to a clean version for TV might as make it available to everyone. I don't mind the cursing, but the line " I want you inside me" makes me cringe if there's young kids in the room... I think the notebook has a similar scene of laying in the road and it aired on TV.. But it's a movie aimed towards women and apparently girls are smarter boys. Guys must be monkey see, monkey do

[Coover5]

Clean versions have a huge audience. I lived in a small town for about 10 years. Churches would have youth events, the park would have Movies in the Park and schools would have special days were movies were played. It was a bear to get something every one wanted. With the language in Ghostbusters in the scene that ends the montage it was difficult to get it played. It was picked as the movie in the park once and some one placed their had over the projector lens to conceal the montage scene. it wasn't shown again for years and when it was it was very obvious it was a TV edit being played on a VCR.

That being said with them being poorly done it makes it pointless as you said. A lot of places would love these family friend versions if done right. It was so difficult to get parents to agree to movies for almost my entire school experience they almost exclusively played Air Bud when they wanted to treat us to a movie.

[Glenn Frederick]

I think a lot of people like the edited versions not because of a few words or scenes were cut out but simply because of nostalgia!

Back in the eighties movies would use alternate footage and deleted scenes for padding out the running time for broadcasts instead of how it is now by simply removing audio or blurring something out.

Many fans that didn't get to see the film in theaters or didn't own a VCR got there first experience watching the edited version on ABC.

[910dohead]

Well, I guess Sony's idea of a clean version specifically relates to language and not actual adult content.



Which I don't mind at all and most of the time though it doesn't really matter. 9 out of 10 Kids won't pick up on the adult innuendo, so lines about Thorazine will go right over their head. Honestly, the blow job scene always confused me as a kid. I had no idea what was going on in that scene anyways. Ray could've even had said "Oh, this ghost gives amazing head." and I would've imagined a ghost taking off its head and handing it to him (still trying to figure out why his pants came undone). With lines like "I want you inside me." girls usually think of babies in a belly and boys just think she's going to eat the person.

What I was trying to relate earlier though is when a movie is intentionally messed with in order to cleanse it is what I can't stand. If your church group wants to watch Star Wars for their Sunday get together, but requests all of the violence to be removed, just watch a different, more family-friendly film instead. Don't tinker with the classics unless the director does it for you.

[Lee FW]

Never quite understood clean versions of movies, as others have said it's only years later as an adult that most of this stuff is picked up on, the majority flies right over kids heads.

[Sav C]

I thought the ghost literally scared the pants off of him.

[JurorNo.2]

Honestly, I was really into behind the scenes stuff as a kid, and I just couldn't get past how "'80s fake" it looked, lol. Like, "Oh there's clearly a string or something pulling the zipper...and actually that's a mannequin, isn't it?"

I don't think I even saw the scene when I was like really young. I feel like I had half of the first movie taped off TV, and saw the rest of it later on (I was more familiar with GB2 originally). By the time I saw the scene, yeah, I knew it had something to do with adults making out, that's really as far as I went, lol.

[pferreira1983]

Sony are apparently doing this with all their movies. The thing is if they take every offensive thing out of Answer The Call the movie will only be a few minutes long. Ha, ha!

Sorry an obvious joke couldn't resist. Now onto Juror.

By the time I saw the scene, yeah, I knew it had something to do with adults making out, that's really as far as I went, lol.

I remember that bit edited out a lot of the TV versions I watched growing up. They always showed the start of the unzipping but when they immediately went to Ray's head tilting back I thought he just fainted.