1980s Nuke Movie, The Day After, On Sci-Fi Channel, Sponsored By U.S. Navy: War Scenes Edited

[Echo In Light]

I wasn't sure about posting about this, and doubt I'll get any replies, but I found this a tad odd.

Periodically, the movie, The Day After, an early 1980s nightmare flick which tells the story of small town Kansas during the days leading up to and following a nuclear war, gets aired on The Sci-Fi Channel. With the channel recently picking up Jericho, this movie has gotten even more play.

So late last night I'm flipping through channels and stumble across this right at the time of the horrifying nuke scenes. Now, I've seen this movie several times {hell, we were shown this movie back in junior high school theology class}, and so I'm watching, and something's amiss ... the scene ends, cut to a Sci-Fi Channel framing of the movie, announcing how it is being sponsored by the U.S. Navy {?!}, and then off to commercial, which is for, you guessed it, a Navy advert trying to coax people into joining the military.

I was a bit puzzled: The Day After is a made for television movie, its special effects are quite outdated, and I've never seen a "cut" version of it until now. Not to mention that The Sci-Fi Channel routinely airs very gory/bloody movies, and The Day After, even during the infamous attack scenes, isn't on par with that. All of the scenes of the terrifying affects of nuclear weapons on cities and people were REMOVED from the version that aired...the version that just happens to be sponsored by the U.S. Navy :wtf: Anybody else catch this and wonder why?

[Selatius]

1. Why, it should be obvious why they edited the movie.

Sci-Fi channel probably felt indirect pressure to clean up the movie. The Navy, and for that matter the Armed Forces in general, take advertisements out on most channels. The Navy simply bought the ad time in order to cash in on the videogame aspect of war. If you remove the human element out of war and sit behind a screen, such as watching over banks of computers or radar/targeting equipment on a warship, you can kill a target on a screen like a videogame.

[Echo In Light]

3. Understood, yet it has that weird feel to it like trying to re-classify de-classified info, ya know?

[Selatius]

4. Eh, they do that all the time. It's a way to stop FOIA requests. nt

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

2. It's on You tube if you want to watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VG2aJyIFrA

I don't know why it would be cut.

[Echo In Light]

5. In the comments section someone brings up the recent "cuts"

Ironically, the Youtube clip is taken from an airing on The Sci-Fi Channel.

[Tesha]

14. Among other reasons, the Sci-Fi channel cuts things just to fit in more commercials.

Fairly frequently, we find a movie on the Sci-Fi channel that
we'd like to watch, watch one or two segments of it, and then
decide that if we drag out our DVD copy, we'll finish the movie,
whole-and-uncut, an hour before the Sci-Fi channel finishes
their hacked-up-like-cole-slaw version.

For example, it doesn't really take 24 hours to watch The
Stand from end to end; it just feels that way on the
Sci-Fi channel.

They are a pathetic network.

Tesha

[Echo In Light]

16. Perhaps, but it doesn't logically explain why the cuts only involve the nuke scenes

[Tesha]

19. Ya seen one nuke explode, ya seen em all.

(Or, at least all you'll ever see.)

Tesha

[Echo In Light]

22. That's not the point: Sci-Fi never cut the film until the Navy sponsored it

[Tesha]

24. Fine. But the Sci-Fi network is crap, whether or not it's politically-propagandized or not.

Why do you even bother watching the Sci-Fi network in
the first place? And why are you surprised when their
product turns out to be crap? Why do you assume that
*ANYTHING* that gets delivered via MegaGlobalCorp's
networks is some sort of "truth"? It's *ALL* politically
propagandized crap, direct from MiniTru.

Tesha

[Echo In Light]

26. When did I imply I was seeking "truth" on the Sci-Fi Channel?

I just found it odd how this film hadn't been censored until the Navy sponsored its showing. Nice of you to turn this into a personal attack on me over watching movies on a cable channel...:crazy:

[Tesha]

27. (There's no personal attack intended.) (NT)

[melm00se]

6. scifi's

spot breaks are more numerous and longer than what was traditionally done in the 80's. So to fit the show into their scheduled window they would have sliced some stuff to make it fit...

[Echo In Light]

8. ...and so they only focused on cutting the nuke scenes, and nothing else?

Not buying it. I smell an agenda.

[magellan]

7. What it says to me is there's too much bloody gov't influence on that channel

Sci-Fi was acquired by USA Network several years ago (I was alerted to this by semillama on the science fiction forum). USA is owned by NBC Universal, which in turn is owned by GE.

We already know the Pentagon has got its people handling the news. If the US military is paying you good money to air their recruitment ads on your channel, and your channel is owned by a war profiteer, there's bound to be quid pro quo going on.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. I watched it on TV when it first aired in the early 80s

It was a big thing back then, with people around the world watching versions of it on TV in their own countries.

I remember seeing scenes of people burning to a crisp as the nuclear blast swept over them, instantly having their flesh burnt off and leaving skeletons behind. I haven't seen those particularly graphic scenes on any televised version since then, and I've seen it several times since, including the Sci-Fi channel.

[Echo In Light]

10. Just click the Youtube link above - that's the original version of it

[Strelnikov_]

11. Threads . .

will fuck you up.

It does appear that some of the cuts made go beyond those needed to fit the movie into a time window.

I did not watch this viewing. However, I remember on a previous viewing on Sci-Fi they cut the part where the farm kid looks at the nuclear detonation and is blinded. In the cut version, all you get is his Dad carrying him into the basement with a rag wrapped around the kids head. Seems to be a bit of continuity gap in order to simply fit in a commercial. There are a lot of 'character development' scenes before the bombs start dropping that could have been cut.

[Echo In Light]

13. The most gut wrenching nuke movie I've seen is Testament

http://www.amazon.com/Testament-Jane-Alexander/dp/B00062IDJW

http://www.flickfilosopher.com/blog/2005/08/the_day_after_threads_testamen.html

[Supersedeas]

31. thanks for the links EIL

[hyphenate]

12. Here is some info on the film from IMDB

The rare laserdisc version (released by Image Entertainment in 1995) is advertised as being a director's cut. This version runs 127mins, is widescreen in its proper ratio of 1:75:1 and has a commentary track by director Nicholas Meyer. At the time of this release full versions of the film were not readily available. So it stands to chance this director's cut is actually the same as the current mgm dvd (US region 1) as far as content and running time goes, with the exception of the widescreen format and commentary track which so far has only be found on this laserdisc.

Originally filmed at 3 hours, the original release version (which ran in European theatres and later worldwide on home video) ran 126 minutes. The network telecast version (available for a time on LaserDisc) ran 120 minutes. Heavily edited for later telecast showings. Most current video cassette and disc versions run the full 126-minute length.

First broadcast without commercial interruption after the nuclear attack sequence.

In the original broadcast, in an effort to be "contemporary", the radio address by the President of the US was given by a voice that was a mimic of Ronald Reagan. This apparently offended a lot of people. In subsequent broadcasts, and on the video release, the voice was changed to a more generic, non-identifiable voice.

The Brazilian (South American) version is re-edited. Most of the military stock footage is removed, while many of the other scenes are extended. This version is more intense with added scenes of burn and radiation sickness victims.

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/alternateversions

IIRC, the movie was shown over a couple of nights in its original airing. I could be wrong, but I was a big fan of Nick Meyer's and I could have sworn it was split into at least two nights of showing.

[Squatch]

15. SciFi is notoriously heavy-handed with edits on movies they air

[Echo In Light]

17. The point is, Sci-Fi has never cut it until it is sponsored by the Navy

[Squatch]

21. And that point is a stretch, to say the least.

Unless, of course, you have evidence to back that claim?

Me...I'd rather chalk it up to SciFi's greedy ways: less actual movie content, more commercials.

[Echo In Light]

23. Yes, I do. Check the Youtube link above @ post #2

It's taken from an airing on the Sci-Fi Channel - their logo is seen in the bottom corner of the screen. Plus, I've watched it on this channel before, and it wasn't cut. Then, when the Navy sponsors it, only the nuke scenes were cut.

[Squatch]

25. Unfortunately, Youtube is blocked where I work

[HughBeaumont]

18. Ah yes . . . "The Day After" . . .

Just another happy memory from the FEAR FEAR FEAR 24-7 "Ours might be the first generation to witness Armageddon" Reagan years. This is what happens when you elect End-Times fundamentalpatients who believe the Book of Revelation as fact to office.

I guess War Machine Supplier GE figured Americans aren't scared enough these days, so they have to go trotting out this old Repuke chestnut, which scared the hell out of enough weak-minded humanoids in the 80s to keep them obedient enough to the Big Corporate Fist.

In fact, it kept them so obedient we ended up suffering under a Reagan and two Bewshes, who were painted as kick-ass John Wayne types, for 20 goddamned years.

What they're really saying is "who would YOU want at The Red Phone, should GOD FORBID nuclear WAR ever happens? Someone who's experienced war like John Maverick McCain . . . or a black guy who's name sounds like OSAMA A a a ?????"

When are people EVER going to wake up?

[Echo In Light]

20. While I agree with the sentiment, given the state of affairs, the threat is greater now...

Than throughout much of the cold war PR campaign. Granted I was just a teen in the 80s, but I don't recall as much loose, belligerent, bellicose nuke rhetoric then compared to the authoritarians running the show now.

[Diclotican]

28. Echo In Light

Echo In Light

Have seen this movie, the day after.. And in fact also read the book, who are much larger than the movie, And it was indeed a movie I have feared since I was seeing it.. In the early 1990s.. And i decided for my self, that nuclear weapon was not good weapon....

I still remember most of the movie, as it was been airing yesterday, and when I first was seeing it, it destroyed many night for me... Have not been seeing the movie since 1991-92 I guess... No I have not the Sci-Fi channel And I am not living in US..

The movie is maybe old, and the special effects old. But the fact is that this movie still have some credit to it.. Nuclear weapon _is not a weapon to use_ And it _SHOULD BE DESTROYED_ It should be a international worldwide ban on nuclear weapon. Not just for "rouge states" but for _all_ World...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language

[Echo In Light]

29. Yes! Agreed. Approx 30,000 bombs that need to be eliminated before they eliminate us

[Diclotican]

30. Echo In Light

Echo In Light

And it is mutch better if we manage to eliminate them, then that they eliminate us if I have to say it... But that is maybe a dream, many country believe that a nuclear bomb are the same as a replacement from the "dick" thing...

The smaller the dick, the bigger the toy you want to have, to replacement for the fact that you don't have a dick... And I believe the same are between Country.. And a nuclear device is something to set you apart from the rest....

Diclotican

Sorry my bad english, not my native language

[Echo In Light]

32. LOL very true! George Carlin did a fantastic bit on this while condemning the 1st Gulf slaughter

Did you ever notice that all the bombs and bullets and missiles are all shaped like dicks? It's a subconscious need to project the penis into other people's affairs. It's called fucking with people."

He was quite outspoken on the matter:thumbsup: