FCC Won't Give Waiver To ABC Affiliates Showing "Saving Private Ryan"

No matter; just stick with commerical-free DVD. I can't even recall the last time I watched a movie with commercials.

 

I might call and complain if they show it.

But only if they don't edit out the stupid vignette at the beginning and end of the movie.

 

To each one's own.

IMO it was a clever, artistic way to intro and close the action, linking the present with the past.

 

What's so objectionable about the beginning and end?

 

Has the FCC ever given an advance waiver for the movie in the past?? If not, this is clearly a publicity stunt by the local stations. If so, and if they're refusing to this time, Michael Powell oughta be shot.

 

I think the movie was solid enough to stand on its own. It didn't need the, "In case you didn't realize, this is the part where you're supposed to cry" section. I think it detracted from the inerent power that the movie had. It's more powerful to let me draw my own connections than to force-feed mwe one.

It worked in Schindler's List, but that scene was effective because we don't know and can't know the victims of the holocaust. It helped us tie it to today, to ourselves. But we do--nearly every one of us--know, directly or indirectly, a WWII veteran (or at least a veteran of some conflict). We didn't need the scene, and I was a little insulted by it.

Similarly, I hated the tacked-on end of Natural Born Killers for telling me, "In case you didn't get the blatant commentary of this movie we're gonna force-feed it to you now." Fortunately, the rest of that movie sucked, too, so it didn't ruin anything for me.

And now that we're completely off topic...

 

I didn't mind the intro...and ending. I didn't mind the landing on the beaches.
Scared the shyte out of me and I've been shot at.

I just hated the rest of the story line with the "shall we shoot the German POW? No we'll leave him alive so he can come back, shoot and bayonet the cowards, then we can shoot him..!!! Pap...

 

The question is, will senator-elect Coburn of Oklahoma object to SPR, or are his objections strictly to Schindler's List?

 

Do you read before you respond?

 

Earlier this year a rock star in the halftime show of a football game showed less flesh than you can see on an 1896 $5 bill or a 1917 quarter, and half the country acted as though the foundations of western civilization were threatened. I don't blame the TV stations for being gunshy and, frankly, if it is overdoing the self censorship to make the censors look bad, they've got it coming.

 

True that even the FCC has no idea what FCC's standards are.

But really, it's not like Spielberg is going to break out the extended director's cut which includes the previously deleted sex scene with Hanks, Sizemore and Pepper. And the FCC has always been more tolerant of wanton violence than on words and sex.

 

Maybe they're not graning a waiver because the movie was a huge pile of ripe, runny shit. Sure, the opening scene was scary. So are rollercoasters. See the connection?

 

I agree.

I totally blame EuroDisney for all this crap!

 

this sounds to me like some station managers are trying to make a statement about the FCC. they know pretty much nobody would complain - the complainers always bitch about sex, not violence.

I think its kinda like a protest of sorts. The FCC threatens them if they broadcast swear words? Well fine, guess what, they'll show the teletubbies and secret garden reruns on veteran's day. Tinky Winking trading in his rifle for a purse.

Punish the people for the FCC's misplaced crusade. Hope the people realize how silly FCC regulations are. Hope for change.

There won't be any, but the broadcasters are making their point.

 

Saving private Ryan was a great movie. Some of it reminded me of "walk in the sun" for some reason another good war movie with another great cast.

Remember Richard Conte? He was good in that movie.

 

I see that purveryor of smut Steven Spielberg has struck again.

 

It said they've run the movie in the past, it didn't say whether or not the FCC ever gave them a specific advance waiver to run it in the past. For all we know this is just a publicity stunt by the local networks seeking to capitalize on the FCC/Howard Stern/Janet Jackson controversies.

 

Just heard an ad on the radio, it seems ABC in Chicago will be airing it...unless they didn't pull the ads.

 

I'm sorry. I understand the wording now.

I would agree with you. No need for pre-emptive waivers.
When I was growing up, cable/VHS rentals did not exist and movies were always shown on TV, edited for content.

 

Not here in Columbus, Ohio. It's Father of the Bride II.

 

"Far and Away" here in Boston.