Bravo sucks!

[sinanju]

So last night I was netsurfing with the tv on for background noise.  I settled on Pulp Fiction on Bravo.  This was after midnight, mind you.  Now, I realize that I'm not gonna get the unexpurgated version of that movie on broadcast tv.  Just ain't gonna happen.  But--Jesus Christ!  I've never seen a movie butchered so badly.  Two things stand out starkly as the worst offenses.

• The scene in which Butch (Bruce Willis) and Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) are imprisoned by the pawnshop owner and Zeke and Marcellus gets the Ned Beatty-in-Deliverance treatment before Butch rescues him.  What did they cut?  Well, in addition to language and downplaying the violence, there was no Gimp.  If you had never seen the movie, you'd never know the Gimp existed as a character in that scene.  He was completely excised from the film.

• The scene in which Vinnie and Jules hide their car in the garage until Mr. Wolf can come help them deal with the situation.  We see Vinnie accidentally kill the guy in the backseat.  Scene goes black.  CUT TO Jules and Vinnie in Tarantino character's kitchen, with Jules oohing and aahing over the coffee.  EVERYTHING from the moment Vinnie accidentally kills the guy to the moment they walk into the kitchen is gone.  No argument (In the blood-splashed car); no frantic discussion of options; no desperate phone call.  Just BAM!--they're in someone's kitchen.  Again, if you hadn't seen the movie before, you'd have no idea what was going on.

I understand that broadcast (or even cable) tv has limits.  But if you have to butcher a film so badly that it doesn't even make sense when you air it, maybe you should rethink airing it at all.

Comments

[lorres.livejournal.com]

But if you have to butcher a film so badly that it doesn't even make sense when you air it, maybe you should rethink airing it at all.

Exactly.

But how often have television programming people considered that criteria? It's all about advertising, not about the programs.