Movies converted to PG for schools?

[Tori Jensen]

An administrator has asked me to try to find a PG rated copy of Slumdog Millionaire. I have heard of movies converted to PG from R for schools, but isn't this a lot like censorship? Anyway, does anyone know how to find movies like this? Thanks, Tori

[Dennis Fazio]

There used to be several outfits that edited movies for content and sold or rented "cleaned" DVDs. However all of them were put out of business a couple of years ago by the courts for copyright violation after lawsuits by the studios. Some have refocused their businesses to renting only "family-friendly" original releases (e.g. www.cleanflicks.com).

There was some talk around that Walmart had the marketing clout to get the studios to provide edited versions of their releases for sale at Walmart, but I don't know if that ever was or is still the case.

There are also DVD players on the market that will "clean" DVD playback on the fly. It works via a secondary input, software filters stored on a flash drive, that triggers edits at the appropriate times. (e.g. www.tvdefender.com). You have to buy the special DVD player and subscribe to the filter service. I have no information about the quality or reliability of this product or others like it, but it's not that expensive.

[Tori Jensen]

WOW! Great information, Dennis. Thanks so much. The teacher in question decided to just go ahead with the R version and get permission from parents. Whew, I had censorship.

[Dawn Nelson]

How did the showing of the video go, Tori?

[Tori Jensen]

I heard from the teacher that it all went very well and the students got a lot from the lesson. I decided to rent the movie to see what it was like. I loved it, but it was very "rough" in places. :)