O/T:- The Dam Busters!

[upthemaggies]

A box set of outtakes and remasters of John Lennon's 1972 "Some Time in New York City" album was withdrawn last year, apparently because Universal Records wanted to remove the track "Woman is the N***** of the World" and Lennon's son was insisting it be included.

At the time Lennon recorded it - based on a slogan coined by his Japanese wife - he was very involved with the Black Panthers, Michael X ("The Black Muslims" leader in London, later executed for murdering a British MP's daughter) and Black activist and comedian Dick Gregory who gave him their approval for its release, it was the white liberals who got upset about it and it proved to be his first real flop after it got banned by virtually every radio station. He did get to perform it on a US TV chat show though, reading out a statement beforehand which included the n word three times which was greeted by an enthusiastic round of applause.

[Notsohumblepie]

Please don't tell me you think that is pronounced the same as the fictional dog?

Republic of Trigger ?

[DaveSmithRules]

There's an interesting entry on wikipedia that explains some of the trouble the dogs name has caused various broadcasters in showing the film over the last 20-odd years. Pasted below. Personally i'd be fine with that word being used in a screening of the film at the cinema or at a festival etc. It's a very offensive word but you can contextualise it's use for people in that environment. But if it's going to be shown on Channel 5 without anyone offering that context then I'd say it's probably best they make this small compromise.

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In 1999, British television network ITV broadcast a censored version of the film, removing all utterances of "N*gger". ITV blamed regional broadcaster London Weekend Television, which in turn alleged that a junior staff member had been responsible for the unauthorised cuts. When ITV again showed a censored version in June 2001, it was condemned by the Index on Censorship as "unnecessary and ridiculous" and because the edits introduced continuity errors.[24] The British Channel 4 screened the censored American version in July 2007, in which the dialogue was dubbed so as to call the dog "Trigger", this screening took place just after the planned remake was announced. In September 2007, as part of the BBC Summer of British Film series, The Dam Busters was shown at selected cinemas across the UK in its uncut format. The original, uncensored, version was also shown on 1 and 5 January 2013, by Channel 5. It was the version, distributed by StudioCanal, containing shots of the bomber flying into a hill.

In 2020, Film 4 broadcast an edited version, possibly re-dubbed in a few places, where the dog's name is removed, addressed as "old boy" or referred to as "my dog".

[tied_up_in_notts]

i was watching this Sunday afternoon and low and behold the dog is now called Trigger !!

It was the Forties, before racism was bad

[Old_pie]

It was the Forties, before racism was bad

It wasn't racist. Why would anyone call their dog a racist name? It may have been insensitive at a time people were less conscious of sensitivities, or people were just that little bit more robust and preoccupied with other stuff going on at the time.

[optipez]

I don't see what all the fuss is about. If it reduces offense to many then I'll take that

Agree with that. It's an anachronism and it jars. There's no upside to the N word, not even when they call it to each other.

[Magpies1959]

When they call themselves it, it is spelt differently and is a positive word, amazingly, but maybe not surprisingly.

[maddogslater]

A fabric colour in a sample book I had early 80s was Nigger brown , it is an offensive word for white people to use in my opinion and it wouldn't spoil my enjoyment of watching the film with the name change. I would feel uncomfortable watching it with a person of colour.

[Jampie]

Check out the one that happened here a couple of years ago. This word isn't a term here really nor is the term "wog" which like pom for the British is a term of endearment for Italians.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/co...0-73e2b916298a

I had never heard anyone use "coon" to describe native aussies prior to that campaign, and thought it was downright weird to change the company's name after all these decades. But, whatever.

As for "wog" I had definitely heard that used as derogatory toward mediterranean descended folk.

Edit: And for the actual change of the dog's name in a film, good. It doesn't change the history one iota and will remove a distracting element from an otherwise good old film.

[Old_pie]

I had never heard anyone use "coon" to describe native aussies prior to that campaign, and thought it was downright weird to change the company's name after all these decades. But, whatever.

As for "wog" I had definitely heard that used as derogatory toward mediterranean descended folk.

Edit: And for the actual change of the dog's name in a film, good. It doesn't change the history one iota and will remove a distracting element from an otherwise good old film.

So kids today will grow up believing that Guy Gibson had a dog called Trigger. Roy Rogers had a horse called Trigger. Maybe Dixie Dean needs to have a new name as the name Dixie has Confederate connotations.

Ok, no-one in their right mind would today name their dog in that way but then we think we wouldn't have done lots of things that our ancestors did, and in a few generations time our offspring will criticise us for what we are doing now. Just wait until "the b&w army is banned".