Dog's name in Dambusters remake causes headache for filmmakers
We read:
"It is not the full-scale replica of a Lancaster bomber nor the special effects that are causing problems for the makers of a multimillion-pound remake of the classic British war movie The Dam Busters.
The Lord of the Rings trilogy director Peter Jackson is producing the £21 million movie, to be filmed in Britain and New Zealand, and he has promised to be true to the original story. However RAF hero Guy Gibson, head of the mission that destroyed German dams during the Second World War, had a dog called N*gger and filmmakers are now wondering whether they dare utter in N-word in 2009.
The canine with the politically incorrect name, who featured in the 1951 book The Dam Busters, was mentioned 12 times in the 1954 film starring Sir Michael Redgrave.
RAF Squadron 617 used revolutionary "bouncing bombs" to target the dams of the Ruhr valley in May, 1943....
When the Dambusters project was announced in 2006, Jackson said: "It is not our intention to offend people. But really you are in a no-win, damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don't scenario. If you change it, everyone's going to whinge and whine about political correctness. And if you don't change it, obviously you are offending a lot of people inadvertently."
Source
15 comments:
kill the dog
problem solved
They do in the movie. It gets hit by a car.
What is wrong with changing history? Just so not to offend the Germans they should have Churchill starting the war too against that poor defensless Hitler, all in the name of Christians trying to wipe out Muslims. Add in a bit of multi-culturalism amoung the cast and you have the perfect movie.
Or another way it could be changed is some environmentist hero could be saving some fish by destroying the dam.
The important thing is not to let facts get in the way!
Ahh, one of my favorite old movies. Every time i've watched this movie, i couldn't help but think how "un-PC" it would be in todays bizarro world. Obviously, the movie had no racial intent at all, but that doesn't stop some people from using every and any opportunity to create what "they deem to be", a pure language.
I'm glad i have the original version on DVD, because you can bet your life this movie will be "cleansed". Ironically, this Nazi-type censorship is coming from those who claim to be such lovers of total freedom and tolerence. Yeah, right!
Are they keeping all the other 1940's-speak that may be hard for modern audiences to understand or relate to, even in Britain, let alone the States, and so may reduce box-office returns?
As long as they keep the Nazis Nazis, who gives a flying F if they name the dog Rex! It's just a movie!
Yeah, why refer to the dogs name at all. It can't be all THAT critical to the plot, can it?
Certainly didn't seem that important in the original.
The point being, how the "PC-ists" are always looking for some "PC-crime". They then go out and find a victim.
Could I remind those that refer to "the movie" and "the plot", that the Dambusters raid actually happened. It was an extremely daring and dangerous endeavour, and 53 of the 133 highly skilled young air crew on the mission did not come back. They were from many countries, not just British. Wing Commander Guy Gibson's black labrador WAS called Nigger; he WAS much loved by the squadron; his name WAS the code word to confirm that the Mohne Dam, the primary target of the raid, had been breached; and he WAS sadly killed by a car the following day.
Hmm secret code word, sounds like it might actually be relevant!
Maybe they could do like blazing saddles - every time they say the codeword, have a train blow its horn.
make the cast black, problem solved
Perhaps the dog could take Michael Savage's place on the banned list and we could solve two problems at once.
Why don't they rename the dog:
Af-ruff-cian-American?
Actually, in the US, the word nigger, in a way, had it's origins in the South. In olden days, when southerners used the word nigros when discussing blacks, because of their drawl, it came out nigras. Over time, (and mostly in the North BTW) that was transformed into niggers. It was not originally intended to be a racial slur.
Real History stifled for the sake of political correctness run amok. Good Lord.
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