Is The Wolf of Wall Street too raunchy for our innocent Irish eyes? Apparently so. The movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio (helmed by veteran director Martin Scorsese) was originally given a US rating of NC-17 however to qualify for the more ideal rating of 'R', they had to cut out lots of the sexy bits. And the druggy bits too.
As per The Hollywood Reporter, this was demanded by the Motion Picture Association of America. However from what we've seen of the trailers and the extended clips we were lucky enough to catch at a recent Universal slate presentation, it certainly didn't appear to us as though the quality of the movie had been compromised.
Such demands made by the MPAA have sparked quite the controversey in Hollywood, and indeed further afield, where many people feel it is one thing to take into consideration the sexual content of a film but another to do so while ignoring extreme violence.
All of this begs a number of important questions: Are we OK with violence? Are we not OK with actors getting down and dirty? Are we OK with aggressive or sexual language? Are we OK with drug use on screen?
As per Digital Spy, Evan Rachel Wood recently took to her Twitter profile to share her frustration with the MPAA in their dislike toward sexual content versus violent content. Wood starred in Charlie Countryman for which a number of her scenes were cut, among which was a scene in which her character receives oral sex from her male co-star, Shia LaBeouf.
"After seeing the new cut of Charlie Countryman I would like to share my disappointment with the MPAA, who thought it was necessary to censor a woman's sexuality once again... The scene where the two main characters make 'love' was altered because someone felt that seeing a man give a woman oral sex made people 'uncomfortable' but the scenes in which people are murdered by having their heads blown off remained intact and unaltered. "This is a symptom of a society that wants to shame women and put them down for enjoying sex, especially when (gasp) the man isn't getting off as well! It's hard for me to believe that had the roles been reversed it still would have been cut. OR had the female character been raped it would have been cut. It's time for people to GROW UP... Accept that woman are sexual beings... Accept that some men like pleasuring women. Accept that women don't have to just be f**ked and say thank you. We are allowed and entitled to enjoy ourselves. It's time we put our foot down..."
Thoughts?
