N104UA

I had to turn it off after about 20 minutes as they dubbed in 'fudge' too much. I understand if a movie says F@#k once it twice and UA censors it out but in a movie like 3 Billboards, either just put a warning at the beginning of don't show it (And they do have a warning).
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Also- I believe Woody Harrelson is contractually to swear 50 times in each movie.

chermorg

Wow, I have never seen people take so much offense to the removal of words found obscene, offensive, or vulgar by many from a video entertainment system that is available to all on board with little to no supervision. If it bothers you that much, maybe instead of relying on United to provide you entertainment you should provide your own entertainment, at your own cost. The adage of "given an inch, try to take a mile" seems to come into play here - United provides a decently large selection of both PDE and seat-back entertainment (on all but DirecTV birds) and people are complaining that it's censored so it's (for the most part) family friendly?

narvik

I think some are rather perplexed by the apparent paradox that visual censorship -which neighboring persons could see- doesn't seem to occur very often (e.g. nudity, sexual content, and graphic violence is shown; see note*), but audio censorship (e.g. swearword removal or replacement) -which neighbors couldn't hear- does occur.


Note*: the exception are airline crashes which have always been censored, at least as far back as I can remember

chermorg

I can understand this, however the majority of the replies read to me as if people are complaining about audio censorship - not that there is little visual censorship. For the record I support any effort they take to ensure that their content is as minimally disturbing as possible.

zymm

In this case, people are complaining because the censorship significantly alters the tone of the movie, Some movies cannot be made 'family friendly' without being totally butchered, and therefore probably should not be included in IFE. The complaint is not necessarily with the idea of editing, but with the ham-handed execution on this particular movie. If this is how it had to be edited, United shouldn't have opted to offer it.

diburning

That's funny. Wasn't it just a year or two ago that people were complaining on FT about how United showed an unedited version of the movie Alex Cross?

PsiFighter37

Heh...I remember watching a bunch of episodes of ‘Billions’ on a UA flight once and eventually wondered why the show - especially one about cutthroat high finance - had such wholesome language...the answer eventually dawned on me that Paul Giamatti’s character wasn’t as folksy as portrayed

Absolute

There was a long thread about this type of editing on the AC forum a few years ago, which was really interesting. A few posts talked about the companies responsible for "editing" movies for airplanes, and the huge amount of money they make - and how expensive entertainment licenses are for airlines.

I can't speak to UA specifically, but different airlines - and even airlines with flights to certain destinations within a single airline - have stringent requirements. From swearing, innuendo, nudity, etc., some airlines even require all editing out of anything sexual, any sign of drinking, or even of smoking (Turkey does not allow you to see any smoking on TV, even).

Airlines generally have a list of restrictions they send to the editing company, that covers the majority of their requirements. As others have mentioned, for some movies it, well, destroys most of the intent of it.

luke5111

Totally agree.

bhunt

Was on a 739 the other day in front cabin with DTV watching "How Planes Crash" on Weather Channel. Somebody complain to flight attendant.

She said I didn't have to change it but was upsetting another passenger. So I did. lol

trooper

So..anyone else find the original complaint amusing given where it's being posted...on a board which does THIS when you try to say .... or ..........lol

Ah well... I'll have to make do with swive......

TomMM

"OOO baby yes yes AH AH AH" .......

iluv2fly

I always watch "Curb" and "Veep" on my international flights. The language used is filthy - totally uncensored. ^

chavala

bocastephen

Does that extend to telling me what I can and cannot watch on my own personal device if you find it offensive? I support any effort made to treat adults as adults who can deal with salty language and seeing boobs and such - I thought the puritan era was over, what, about 400 years ago? Other people should be focused on their own entertainment, not on my screen.

Should I be told to stop watching a Star Wars movie because some religious soccer mom is afraid one of her precious blossom children might see my screen? Where does it end?

For the record, I watched something last week on a Polaris 777, and I honestly don't remember the title, but every F word was in there loud and clear.