Cut, Censored, Changed: 10 Hollywood Films Tweaked for International Release

'Lincoln'

While U.S. audiences are quite familiar with the Civil War, the details may be hazy for international moviegoers. So director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner prefaced the film with black and white images and text explaining what was going on in 1865 America. The international-only prelude lasts about a minute and has John Williams’ score playing over it. View a slideshow of what it looks like here.

'Skyfall'

Footage of a Chinese character dying, and references to prostitution and torture were edited out of the Chinese release of the 2012 James Bond film. One scene completely cut included a hitman (Ola Rapace) killing a Chinese security guard. In another, Bond (Daniel Craig) questions a woman (Berenice Marlohe) about her tattoo, which indicates she had been forced into prostitution as a child. The audio was kept in, but the subtitles instead read she was being extorted by the mob. When Javier Bardem’s Raoul Silva tells Bond about being captured in Hong Kong and then tortured, the subtitles did not tell the whole tale.

‘Titanic 3D’

Kate Winslet got covered up during the famous nude portrait scene when James Cameron’s epic hit got the 3D treatment in China. The scene saw Winslet cropped up to the neck, with censors citing fears audience members might try to grab the 3D flesh."Considering the vivid 3D effects, we fear that viewers may reach out their hands for a touch and thus interrupt other people's viewing,” an official said.

'Talladega Nights'

Scenes of a shirtless man in the 2006 Will Ferrell film were too much for censors in Iran, a country which has increasingly employed digital censorship tools rather than banning films outright. In the scene, which shows a man shirtless on a racetrack, the wall of the track is extended digitally in its Iranian release to cover him from view.

'Savages'

Oliver Stone’s film lost some of its sex and violence when it was released in the U.K. so that it could receive a BBFC 15 rating rather than the BBFC 18 rating it initially received. The film was rated “R” in the U.S.

‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’

The Johnny Depp film didn’t get a boost from one of China’s biggest stars, as Chow Yun-fat’s turn as pirate captain Sao Feng was cut from the film for Chinese audiences. Officials said his character was an insulting, racial caricature.

‘Men in Black 3’

Chinese audiences didn’t see Will Smith wipe the memories of their countrymen, or watch as aliens disguised as Chinese restaurant workers went about their business in New York in the 2012 film. Those bits were deemed offensive by Chinese censors and thus edited out.

'Ice Age 4'

The U.K. reserves its "U" rating for only the most kid friendly of films.  Ice Age 4  (Ice Age: Continental Drift in the U.S.), had to cut a line in which one character calls another “spastic," in order to earn its "U."
 

'Jack Reacher'

In order to snag a BBFC12 rating (allowing those 12-years-old and above entrance) in the U.K., the Tom Cruise film had to ditch footage of a woman being suffocated and man being hit with a rock. The film was rated PG-13 in the U.S.

‘Mission: Impossible 3’

Shanghai sequences were censored for Chinese audiences, including a scene in which men play mahjong next to a room where a hostage is held, and images of what they saw as unkempt laundry lines in the streets.