Nordling here.
Congratulations to THE KING'S SPEECH and all involved in the making of the film for their Oscar win last night. I think it's a fine film and everyone who worked on it did terrific work. It's not the winner I would have chosen, but as Steven Spielberg so aptly put it last night, all the winners and all the losers are in fine company.
I'd like to take this time to apologize if I inferred in my previous article that Tom Hooper was complicit in the edit to get the ratings changed. I was wrong. According to Entertainment Weekly he is absolutely not a fan of the editing of the film to achieve a lesser rating. He has stated unequivocally that he is not going to cut the film. Helena Bonham-Carter also stated that she didn't think the film needed to be cut down.
And now Best Actor Oscar winner Colin Firth has joined in, according to Hollywood Reporter, saying, "I think the film has its integrity as it stands." He also stated that "I still haven't met the person who'd object to it. I am against it."
This is all getting a bit "you can't fight City Hall", as I believe the Weinsteins have submitted their PG-13 edit and the MPAA has signed off on the re-release. At this point there is likely little anyone can say or do. And as I've noted in some of the argument back and forth about this, people have stated that it's just a couple of swear words, and what's the big deal. The big deal is that liberties are rarely lost in grand moments; they're lost by inches, especially today. It was considered scandalous in 1939 when Rhett Butler told Scarlett O'Hara that he didn't give a damn. Can you imagine if the studio had bent to the whims of the day and changed that line? As King George VI, played by Firth, discovered in THE KING'S SPEECH, sometimes the only word that works is "fuck." I know I've said it enough times when other words have failed. I think most people can understand that.
Nordling, out.
