A COLUMN BY Dick Rolfe Chairman, THE DOVE FOUNDATION
New Line Releases and Edited Version of "The Mask"
May
2nd marks a very exciting event in the history of video entertainment. That is
the home video release date of the first Family-Edited version of a major motion
picture -- ever!
New Line Home Video has decided to bite the "creative integrity" bullet in favor of profits, and release an edited version of their 1994 hit movie, "The Mask" starring comic Jim Carrey. The original movie was rated PG-13 for profanity and sexual innuendo. In an earlier era, the film maker would have produced it in a family-friendly style, since the intended audience was anyone over the age of 8. Hollywood, in its obsession to be "cutting edge" tends to offend most members of its target audience by salting the dialogue with four letter words, or filming images of naked bodies (gender irrelevant) doing the obligatory "bedspring bounce".
New Line has toned down the rhetoric and the images in this sanitized version to test the market for family-edited films. Due to some mild sexual innuendo and violence, the edited version of "The Mask" has been awarded the Dove Seal for for family audiences over age 12.
Nearly every week Dove receives phone calls, emails or letters from people begging us to convince Hollywood that there is a viable audience for edited versions of films that were just slightly over the top for most families. These are parents that refuse to wink at salacious, disrespectful behavior in any form. Whenever I speak to parent groups, I recommend they set the same standards of behavior for all guests invited into their homes, whether they enter through the door or the television screen.
Setting standards means sacrifice. If we live by a high moral code and refuse to compromise for the sake of being entertained, Hollywood will eventually get the hint and give us what we want.
On May 2nd, run, don’t walk to your nearest video store (or visit www.dove.org/shop online) and purchase your family-friendly copy of "The Mask" -- whether or not you own a VCR. Your vote will be counted, and New Line and other studios will be motivated to release more of the same.
Dick Rolfe is Chairman of The Dove Foundation, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging the production and distribution of wholesome entertainment. His columns appear online at http://www.dove.org.
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