New Software Lets Viewers Choose DVD Film’s Rating

A soon-to-be released computer program automatically edits out violence, nudity and objectionable language from DVD movies, essentially letting viewers change an R-rated film to a G-rating or anything in between.

The program, developed by a small Salt Lake City software firm, will allow parents to shelter their children from the increasingly coarse language and images of popular culture. But the ability to strip out scenes that could upset youngsters also means many children of the digital age will grow up never knowing that Old Yeller was shot, that flying monkeys kidnapped Dorothy and that Spock once died.

Movie directors, educators and leaders in the art world fear the new technology will lead to a loss of artistic integrity.

“We’re talking about works of art that were created for a specific purpose and go about that in a specific way,” said Jeanine Basinger, who heads the film studies program at Wesleyan University. “Now everybody gets to play with your film, to alter it according to their own sensibilities?

“We’re not talking about Silly Putty, we’re talking about icons that represent some of the best our civilization has to offer. I think this sets an extremely dangerous precedent.”

Beyond the artistic issues, allowing people to personalize digitized media--films, music, images, newspapers, magazines and books--to suit their own prejudices has profound implications for society, said film director Joe Dante.

“How exactly are we going to talk to each other if each of us sees a unique version of the material?” said Dante, whose controversial 1984 film “Gremlins” helped spawn the PG-13 rating. “How do you and I discuss the Three Little Pigs if all you’ve seen are two?”

Others argue that putting control of cultural touchstones into the hands of individuals guarantees that people will excise the most controversial aspects of a movie.

“This technology can be used as a form of censorship,” said Janet H. Murray, director of the information design and technology program at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a member of the American Film Institute’s board of trustees.

Despite such concerns, experts predict that many Americans will embrace the Movie Mask Player, which will work on many computers equipped with a DVD drive, Microsoft Corp.’s new Xbox game console and a new type of DVD player that more than two dozen manufacturers will begin distributing early next year.

Previous efforts to give parents control over content have proved unsuccessful. The V-chip, built into all television sets 13 inches or larger since Jan. 1, 2000, can be programmed to block broadcasts based on criteria such as violence. Few parents use the technology, however, because it’s complex and many find the labeling systems used by the networks to identify content inadequate or confusing.

But the Movie Mask Player, which will sell for $50, is designed to work automatically. Consumers can load it into a DVD player like any computer program. After a DVD movie is inserted, a menu pops up and asks whether the viewer wants to reduce the rating of the movie. One click accomplishes the task. The software plays along with the movie, removing the objectionable parts, but leaving the DVD unaltered.

The software, developed by Trilogy Studios Inc., is based on a system of filters or “masks” created by technicians who watch movies and note when violence, nudity or harsh language appear. When the movie is played within the mask program, frames with objectionable material aren’t seen or heard by the viewer.

Each movie requires a custom mask; if the mask isn’t already loaded on the player, the software automatically will use the Internet--a standard feature of the new DVD players--to grab a mask from an online library created and maintained by Trilogy. The company has created dozens of masks for movies such as “Shakespeare in Love,” “Titanic,” “The Godfather” and “Saving Private Ryan” and expects to have masks for a thousand films available by the time the product is released next year.

Trilogy also will make a $150 program that lets users make their own masks, which can be shared with others.

Systems like Movie Mask have been available for some time, but the mask system is unique because it doesn’t require the user to first decide what to cut, and the cuts are much smoother.

For example, a horrific battle scene from “Braveheart” that depicts warriors being burned alive was shortened by nearly a minute as the software neatly excised the more graphic elements. Some masks digitally alter the image instead of skipping over a frame. The mask for “Titanic” tastefully dresses Kate Winslet in a corset as she poses for a drawing, removing the nudity but leaving the scene intact.

Filmmaker Ron Howard said he’s comfortable with someone altering a movie for family viewing at home, but draws the line at someone distributing that altered film to millions of consumers.

“If somebody wants to take a Picasso print, cut some parts up, color some things in and hang it in their room as their take on Picasso, that’s the sort of personalization I don’t mind,” said Howard, director of 21 films, including “Splash” and “Apollo 13.” “But I wouldn’t want somebody to take that to an art show and say that’s Picasso, because it’s not.”

Breck L. Rice, a co-founder of Trilogy, dismisses concerns about artistic integrity and censorship. He says the issue is about control. The studios were supposed to let consumers choose ratings of DVD movies, but only a few offer the feature.

“That’s a promise that was never kept,” he said. “Movie Mask is a way of letting people see things the way they want to see them.”

Indeed, some say the entertainment industry’s standard practices have made questions about the artistic integrity of a movie increasingly meaningless.

“As a filmmaker, I would love people to see the movies the way I intended them to be seen,” said director Joel Schumacher, whose 21 films include “St. Elmo’s Fire” and “Falling Down.” “But because almost all our films are purchased by television, they’re all cut up anyway.”

Although movies shown on network television often are altered, the minimum contract developed by the Directors Guild of America forbids alteration for any reason except the network’s broadcast standards and practices, which limit nudity and foul language. Contracts generally require any cuts to be made or at least approved by the director. If no accommodation can be reached, the director has the option of removing his name from the film.

When films are altered for network television or in-flight screenings, they remain authorized works, a basic variant of the original. They are typically seen by millions of people who share the experience. Technologies such as Movie Mask hold out the threat of many different versions of the same film.

Critics liken the kind of manipulation possible with Movie Mask to Thomas Bowdler’s Family Shakespeare, an edited version of the Bard’s work issued in the 18th century. Bowdler aimed to advance culture by removing the adult themes from the plays, making them more palatable to English citizens. Instead, his contribution to civilization was seeing his name become a synonym for prudish and ham-handed censorship.

Dante, the director, argued that some movies will never be appropriate for kids. “I think Bowdlerizing material to get it in front of children when the material clearly isn’t intended for children is preposterous,” he said.

The studios that own these films are wrestling with the proper response. Some executives see the new technology as a way of selling more movies; others fear losing control over the intellectual property.

Interviews with representatives of every major studio produced not a single comment for this report, as the industry waits to see what happens. Several executives said their studios are exploring whether Movie Mask violates copyright laws. Because the DVD itself is not altered, many lawyers believe the Movie Mask Player would be protected under the Fair Use exception to copyright law.

But the studios may have one angle to play, said Annette L. Hurst, a partner with law firm Howard Rice Nemerovski in San Francisco. “If there is a market for these sanitized versions of the work, and if the movie studios argue that this new technology is discouraging people from buying these derivative works from the studios, it might turn out to not be fair use.”

Experts say the ability of consumers to alter information and entertainment to their own tastes will transform our civilization.

“We have media that reach out to particular segments of society, like women, blacks, gays, and we have different media that appeal to all segments, which bring us together to discuss, talk, and share,” said Joseph Turow, professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.

“Having both these types of media is terribly important for the health of our society,” said Turow, who explores the situation in his new book, “Breaking Up America.”

“The essential dilemma we’re facing is that customized media make life better for us as individuals, but can be bad for society. That’s the danger of something like Movie Mask.”

But the lure of the technology seems nearly irresistible to some consumers.

“I just cringe at the idea of chopping up the movie,” said Charles Houck, a 34-year-old archeologist in Charlotte, N.C. On the other hand, he and his wife have two daughters, ages 7 and 3.

“As a parent, I have to say I wouldn’t mind being able to skip past some incidental nudity or incidental bad language,” he said. “But I know there’s a slippery slope here. There is a point the filmmaker was trying to make. We need to be careful before we edit out the things that challenge us.”