When the film was released Josh Mostel called Ellen Burstyn a *beep* in all the cable showings... including HD... he calls her a bitch... is this Mazursky's doing? It was always the reason the film was rated R... which seemed wrong headed.
shareWell maybe that and the quick flash of skin by the hitchhiker,
Also maybe the adult "themes" of the film, and maybe even by 1974 standards the death of Tonto at the end, Kinda always been weird to me that this was R and Jaws was PG.
trey
According to the director in the DVD commentary, the C word was the original word that is spoken, and because of that, the ratings board branded the movie with an "R" rating. After that, Mazursky re-edited it to the "B" word. However if you look at Josh Mostel's mouth, he is definitely saying the "C" word.
I've always noticed that although this movie is apparently harmless and actually ok for general viewing, the objectionable material comes in a very subtle manner. For example, there are scenes with hookers, and talk about drug use. Also occasional profanity. I suppose that also adds up to an R rating. There is also a brief topless scene but it is harmless, so I don't consider it something that would contribute to the rating.
I just watched the movie last night. Now I can't decide which word makes the line funnier. I think b!tch is actually funnier; c@nt is too jarring.
"The truth 24 times a second."
And my first impressions of this movie was that it was a wholesome family film about a kindly old man and his cute cat!
shareWell, in the late '60s and up to about 1980 there was a period of movies that presented normal adult life and language in a non-exploitational way. Like the second or so of nudity in the movie -- there's nothing puerile or sensationalistic about it, it's just a frank depiction of a completely believable situation that the characters are in.
Now, movies seem to be split into PG-13 movies where the language is oddly sanitized and removed from real life, and movies where Quentin Tarantino sprays the F-word like he just invented it.
"The truth 24 times a second."
excellent analysis, thethee...that is one of the best features of this film, and of many of the time period you mention, this subtle honesty. strange to think it was rated "R"...
shareCompletely agree. They'll never make movies like this again.
shareAgree as well!
Filmmakers treated their audiences like adults back then, before American culture sadly backslid into perpetual fratboy stupidity. There such a matter-of-fact honesty in these older films, something that's largely been lost today.
Please mark your post with a spoiler warning!
shareSaw this film in college for a film class and it was the "C"-word print. Because it was so truly jarring an insult, the line got a huge laugh in class. "Bitch" isn't as funny, I think--it's too literal (and frankly, a bit prosaic); his use of the "C"-word was much more of an over-the-top, even non-sequitur condemnation--hence the big laugh.
shareAh. Now it makes sense, the R rating. I watched this on Netflix and clearly from what I saw it was no R rated movie. Back in the 70's PG films could show more nudity than this one did, and there were some adult themes but none done so too explicitly, and the language was pretty mild.
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