Did videocassettes/dvds censor movies? Example, Scorsese's "Cape Fear"

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I've only seen Scorsese's "Cape Fear" once, on a videocassette probably in the early 2000s rented from a video store. I could have sworn the scene where the ex-con De Niro beats & rapes Ileana Douglas's character had parts that were cut out -- it didn't seem like a clean edit in the film. I may watch it again on a movie website and compare, though my memory may not be reliable. I had a similar experience with my rental (again video cassette) of "The Hollow Man" wherein the rape scene between Kevin Bacon and Rhona Mitra seemed oddly abbreviated.



Is that, or was that, a thing -- for VCs and DVDs to censor movie scenes?



You can't make a rainbow without a little rain.
I've only seen Scorsese's "Cape Fear" once, on a videocassette probably in the early 2000s rented from a video store. I could have sworn the scene where the ex-con De Niro beats & rapes Ileana Douglas's character had parts that were cut out -- it didn't seem like a clean edit in the film. I may watch it again on a movie website and compare, though my memory may not be reliable. I had a similar experience with my rental (again video cassette) of "The Hollow Man" wherein the rape scene between Kevin Bacon and Rhona Mitra seemed oddly abbreviated.



Is that, or was that, a thing -- for VCs and DVDs to censor movie scenes?

If you rented the VHS from Blockbuster Video, there's a good chance that it was an edited version. It's common knowledge that Blockbuster was known for editing movies that they rented.
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Some video stores that were supposedly "family friendly" did seek out edited versions of films, but a lot more than that one scene would need to be altered to make Scorsese's Cape Fear remake palatable to that crowd.

It may simply be that movies were reformatted for VHS, "pan & scan" was the term from those dark days. Scorsese shot Cape Fear in full 2.35:1 widescreen which would have been presented as a more square 1.37:1. A lot of visual information was lost on VHS.





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I once rented 1999's The House on Haunted Hill from Blockbuster. That's on me.
But anyway, in one scene there's a VHS cassette on a table in the foreground, and it appeared to me that the spine of the tape had had a Blockbuster label poorly superimposed on it. Like when the camera moved, the label didn't quite move in sync. Obviously a post-production add-on, but I wondered if this appeared on copies not rented from Blockbuster.
Since then, I've come across this tidbit:

Warner Bros. and Dark Castle Entertainment, in an homage to the marketing gimmicks of William Castle films, promoted this film by providing movie theatres with scratch-off tickets that would be given to movie patrons. The scratch-off ticket would give each movie patron a chance to win prize money just like the characters in the film. The cash prizes totaled $1 million, and this included rentals from Blockbuster Video. Warner had intended to continue featuring such gimmicks for any further William Castle remakes, and Thirteen Ghosts (2001) was supposed to be released in 3-D to continue this trend. Such plans were abandoned.

So maybe it was added as part of the marketing arrangement? I'd have to re-watch it to verify if it's in all copies of the film, which is gonna be a no from me, dawg.
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Years ago, Hubby and I bought a DVD at BJ's Wholesale Club. (I don't remember what movie it was, but I know that it was one of the teen movies starring John Cusack.) When we watched, it, we noticed that it was edited, and a couple of short scenes were missing.

When we went back to BJ's to return it, the manager tried to tell us that they don't sell edited movies, but we were able to prove to him exactly what scenes were missing. He ended up taking it back and returning our money, even though it was against their policy because it was opened.

That was the first, and last, DVD we ever bought at BJ's.



Is that, or was that, a thing -- for VCs and DVDs to censor movie scenes?

Yup VC's and DVD's got censored LD's didn't which is why I still collect them.


Toy Story
The Keep
It
Star Wars
Return of the Living Dead



Some video stores that were supposedly "family friendly" did seek out edited versions of films, but a lot more than that one scene would need to be altered to make Scorsese's Cape Fear remake palatable to that crowd.

That picture from the movie that you put in showing De Niro in bed with Ileana Douglas made me realize they cut out the entire scene from the video cassette I rented. All I remember was De Niro in the bar with her beforehand -- and then they cut to a shot looking up from the streeet at her apartment window showing the shadows of him beating her through the window with the blinds drawn I think. That's it.

Now I'm not sure if it was Blockbuster because I hardly ever rented from Blockbuster back in the day. I had a habit of going to smaller video stores.



It was common for VHS to release an R rated version and an unrated version. Blockbuster would only stock the R version. I never heard of an R being cut to a PG for tape release. Only for showing on TV.