Curtain falls on edited films at BYU

The Varsity Theater at BYU has always been very open with distributors about its practice of editing films.  A committee would review and edit the films.  The theater has also shown versions of movies edited by filmmakers for viewing on airlines.

In 1994, the Varsity Theater pulled “Schindler's List” from its schedule after it was denied permission to edit out depictions of nudity and violence.  The theater discontinued showing edited R-rated movies for several months but a student-initiated survey found that nearly 90 percent of students wanted the edited movies to return.

“Last year, the demand to see edited movies at Brigham Young University's Varsity Theater was so strong that students who lined up before noon for a nighttime screening were limited to purchasing just six tickets each.”

After reviewing for six months its policy of showing edited films, controversy over an American Fork theater editing “Titanic” encouraged BYU to institute its new no-editing policy now rather than waiting for the beginning of fall semester.   Hollywood refused to grant permission for cutting certain scenes or offensive words.  Although BYU may have been able to continue the practice unofficially, school administrators decided to discontinue the editing of films.  A committee will likely continue to screen films to decide which ones can be shown.