Joe's Visit; Return of the Joker
Dec. 18th, 2001 12:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
robotech_masterWell, Joe Moore came over, I gave him my Christmas present for him (a tin of Harry Potter butter cookies plus the Mike Judge movie Office Space on DVD) and we put my laundry and my cook/diningware away. Then I headed over to a nearby grocery for a pound of ground round and a loaf of garlic bread, and Joe made spaghetti with one of the bottles of sauce I'd been saving for a rainy day. It was a good meal, and as we ate, we watched some of the DivXes and other material I'd downloaded or acquired. The Daft Punk music videos, one of the BMW films from the DVD, and then, since Joe had never seen it, some Batman Beyond. I showed him "Rebirth" and "A Touch of Curaré" (season one episodes 1-2 and 12, respectively) for character background, then the uncut version of the Batman Beyond movie, Return of the Joker. He seemed to enjoy them.
Speaking of which, I really should talk about Return of the Joker, and what the studio did to it. I firmly believe that the uncut RotJo is probably the hardest-edged, most mature, most thematically complex (and most psychologically shocking) Batman animation ever made--and it probably ranks in at least the top ten American animated films of any kind in those respects. It was definitely a risk for the folks at Warner to take--and it was unfortunate that its release date coincided so badly with a fresh resurgence of school violence. In an effort to save face with the public (and, suggests one reviewer, avoid imperilling the AOL/Time-Warner merger deal), they delayed the release of the film for two months so they could cut and redo some scenes to remove some of the most overt violence (by toning down the fight scenes) and move other violence off-screen. In so doing, they severely weakened some of the most important thematic aspects of the film--as well as severely damaging its atmosphere.
Leaving aside the most major changes--which to discuss would be to spoil, and I really don't want to give away anything about the film--I'll just touch on the issue of the chopped up fight scenes. Now, I'm not normally one to support violence simply for violence's sake . . . but I like a good fight scene as much as the next guy. It's a bit annoying to think that there must be some sort of measurement system for violence. What, are they actually counting the number of punches and kicks, and going by some sort of numeric scale? Is it okay if someone hits someone else twice, but not three times? It doesn't make much sense.
At least they've finally come to their senses and decided to release the full version to DVD next Spring. Perhaps they realized they were just giving pirates and bootleggers another income source--the people who want to see the original enough that they'll pay through the nose for copies of the screener. Or perhaps the events of September 11 put their worries about violent media in perspective. Or maybe they just don't have to worry about the merger hanging over their heads anymore.
Speaking of which, I really should talk about Return of the Joker, and what the studio did to it. I firmly believe that the uncut RotJo is probably the hardest-edged, most mature, most thematically complex (and most psychologically shocking) Batman animation ever made--and it probably ranks in at least the top ten American animated films of any kind in those respects. It was definitely a risk for the folks at Warner to take--and it was unfortunate that its release date coincided so badly with a fresh resurgence of school violence. In an effort to save face with the public (and, suggests one reviewer, avoid imperilling the AOL/Time-Warner merger deal), they delayed the release of the film for two months so they could cut and redo some scenes to remove some of the most overt violence (by toning down the fight scenes) and move other violence off-screen. In so doing, they severely weakened some of the most important thematic aspects of the film--as well as severely damaging its atmosphere.
Leaving aside the most major changes--which to discuss would be to spoil, and I really don't want to give away anything about the film--I'll just touch on the issue of the chopped up fight scenes. Now, I'm not normally one to support violence simply for violence's sake . . . but I like a good fight scene as much as the next guy. It's a bit annoying to think that there must be some sort of measurement system for violence. What, are they actually counting the number of punches and kicks, and going by some sort of numeric scale? Is it okay if someone hits someone else twice, but not three times? It doesn't make much sense.
At least they've finally come to their senses and decided to release the full version to DVD next Spring. Perhaps they realized they were just giving pirates and bootleggers another income source--the people who want to see the original enough that they'll pay through the nose for copies of the screener. Or perhaps the events of September 11 put their worries about violent media in perspective. Or maybe they just don't have to worry about the merger hanging over their heads anymore.
