Movies on Airplanes

NOTE: I've edited this post to drop out any four letters words just like the airlines.

If you've traveled at all in your life, you've probably seen a few movies on airplanes. I can remember back in the day when they used to have the special connection headphones that you could only buy on the plane. Considering the fact that you can't get a free meal on an airplane anymore, it's surprising that they now allow passengers to plug in their own headphones. Of course, you can still purchase a pair on the plane for $5.00.

Anyway, the REAL reason for this post has to do with how the airlines edit movies to be seen on the plane. A recent trip featured the movie Deja Vu starring Denzel Washington. He plays an ATF agent that tries to prevent a terrorist strike from happening (it's actually an entertaining movie--so I will not spoil it). The editors are careful to make sure that there is no fowl language left in the film. I'm sure I heard a few occurrences of "h%&&" and "d@^!" but you NEVER hear the word "sh!>" on a movie edited for an airline or US television. I'm not sure why this is the case, but it is. The real irony is that the movie was STILL loaded with many violent scenes including a ferry boat explosion that kills hundreds of people--including small children with their families. You can literally see them being blown off the boat and into the water. Dead bodies are carried off by emergency crews. In one scene a man is made unconscious with a gunshot and then lit on fire by a terrorist. He's literally burned alive on the movie. However, if he would have been awake and alert enough to cry out, "Sh....(you know the word)!" those of us on the plane would never know.