How the BBFC Ruined the VHS Release of Rambo III (1988)

[@jorgezarco9269]

RIP Jerry Goldsmith. His Rambo music was epic, sweeping, vibrant and bombastic.

[@VideoTasties]

Certainly was

[@usernameinfo4therevenge]

I have strong memories of the cinema version of Die Hard 2 being very amateurishly edited down to a 15. The sound would drop out when characters were swearing, and the way the picture would jump when graphic violence was cut was hilarious.

[@VideoTasties]

Yeah I have done a video on that too

[@joshfulcifan1015]

What the BBFC did to Rambo III was criminal. Also the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 was truncated with all scenes with just the sight of weapons. Never liked James Ferman (the cutter) and Margarette Thatcher (the self-righteous hypocrite), and everything that they stood for with what they did to these films.

[@VideoTasties]

Was cut way more than I first thought

[@ManCave1972]

The 80s and 90s was awash with the BBFC overstepping the mark in pointless ways. Anyway, Rambo 3 was a huge movie at the time, and it’s an okay film, it’s a shame we don’t get such straight forward action movies today.

[@VideoTasties]

@@ManCave1972 real action on a grand scale which is why I enjoy it

[@RiderRated18]

It feels so pointless to make all of these edits and still slap it with an 18 rating 🤔

[@VideoTasties]

Yeah I could understand if they made it a 15 like the others

[@stevenjohnson7442]

Totally agree.

[@dougmasters4579]

The movie was basically a 12 rating with all the cuts. Virtually no heavy violence remained, just PG type shoot outs.

[@byronlaw6491]

The BBFC then believed that no adults should see it uncut even. They didn’t think they were capable of watching it. You just need to read the various reports of the day they wrote about films. The new website is rubbish but the old one you could access all that type of stuff.

[@unconditionalprong]

Under Siege 2 was notorious for having heavy cuts on video to get an 18 as well. Eraser has theatrical cuts for an 18, but the 15 version on video is certainly something else.

[@stuCameraman1]

Blooming BBFC😖 I remember buying Terminator 2 on VHS 3 times hoping one of them would be uncut... Nope! 1- Blockbuster video rental copy vhs (before retail copy came out). 2- Then retail copy vhs. 3- then a "Liquid metal Edition" had extended scenes like T1000 killing the dog ect... But still had violence removed 1st head slamming against wall, guard gets hit once in face by broom stick ect... Dam them😤😤😤 after all that BBC1's first transmission of T2 was uncut 🤕😮‍💨

[@VideoTasties]

Yeah more pointless cuts

[@mackychloe]

Having seen T2 about 5 times at the cinema, watching it on VHS was truly painful. so many cuts.

[@justdannyquinn]

I can understand why James Ferman got a little bit scissor happy in the wake of Hungerford, but what I don't get is why Die Hard and RoboCop, which were both released around the same time, were left intact despite being, if you ask me, more violent than Rambo III. Not complaining though. I'm glad Ferman left well alone with those films. Then again, I don't think consistency was ever a strong point of the BBFC under Ferman's watch.

[@VideoTasties]

So many 90's action films were butchered by him too right up to the Matrix

[@justdannyquinn]

@@VideoTasties I'm well aware. It's funny how we all have rose-tinted nostalgia goggles for the good old days, yet the good old days saw many of our favourite action and horror movies being cut to pieces.

[@stevenjohnson7442]

Fact:Die Hard and RoboCop, had cuts made to them on their initial releases especially Robocop. Now both movies are available in their full uncut versions.

[@justdannyquinn]

@@stevenjohnson7442 RoboCop did receive cuts to obtain an R rating in the US and this was the version passed in cinemas and on video over here in the UK. Die Hard 2 and 3 were both cut for 15 certificates but the original Die Hard has always been uncut.

[@TheSEMAJ1117]

My guess is it could have been the frequency of violence in Rambo III. Die Hard has some violent moments but they occur in pivotal parts of the story and never feel gratuitous. Robocop has some very graphic violence but again the violent scenes happen for a reason. I don't agree they needed to cut Rambo III for an 18. However, when you look at the context at the time with the massacre and that Rambo was viewed negatively in the media you can see why the extensive cuts were made. In Australia Rambo III was uncut with an M rating (your 15 equivalent at the time) and was only recently upped to MA15 along with the other three original Rambo films.

[@FranzSanchez-ky9up]

I had no idea Brando had been offered the role of Zayzen! I looked it up after last night's Mamma Mia stream (still recovering) and came across a letter Carolco had sent to him not only offering the part, but willing to commit to any script changes he would've liked. Would have been fascinating to watch, but I'm not sure somebody as socially conscious as Marlon Brando would have gone along with it... it also would have pushed an already expensive film way over the edge.

[@VideoTasties]

Probably for the best

[@dougmasters4579]

Brando was too old at that point, imo. Kurtwood Smith should've played the villain instead of having a cameo at the beginning.

[@QuagmiresDooflab]

A couple of things: the poster was censored. It removed the crossbow strapped to him. A trailer was banned by the BBFC, the Blu Ray has the horsefall; although, this may be an approved release or accidental release.

[@FranzSanchez-ky9up]

@QuagmiresDooflab The original U.K DVD was uncut and I believe the original Blu-ray, but the more recent 4K and Blu-ray are censored.

[@L1RW]

I remember people raving over the German releases of Rambo. Those were uncut.

[@VideoTasties]

@@L1RW i guess importing was the only way back then

[@redscyther7725]

The MPAA over in the US may have had some stupid cuts, but at least they didn't determine a knife being pushed into dirt to be unacceptable. And to think the sensational news media back then thought the head of the BBFC was too liberal with films back then.......(one reason they said that was because the BBFC didn't ban David Cronenberg's "Crash") That said, the post-2005 era BBFC is a lot more reasonable than this.

[@VideoTasties]

Yes the MPAA cut films and then the BBFC cut more because 'won't someone think of the children'

[@redscyther7725]

Yeah. Thank goodness we're past that now (plenty of 12, 15 and 18-rated action films from the later days would definitely have been cut if they came out back then) Even then, there was some oddness. The Japanese film Yojimbo got away with an uncut PG for a 1993 VHS release, despite featuring a dog carrying a severed hand in its mouth, a guy's arm getting chopped off, the protagonist being tortured by beating to the point that he has to crawl afterwards and, if I remember right, a knife thrown into someone's arm. Even the consistent "no-nos" didn't apply outside action films. Much Ado About Nothing got an uncut PG back in 1993 and 1994 while featuring a headbutt delivered on a restrained victim.

[@NumaanTahir]

Yeah the bbfc now are more laid back then how they were back then. Even though a few films still get censored now and then like the Equalizer 1 and 2, tenet and poor things. Though the latter being the most understandable reason why one scene was cut.

[@mackychloe]

@@NumaanTahir Pls tell me what was cut from Poor Things.

[@NumaanTahir]

@@mackychloe well it was only bit in the movie that had to be shortned but for good reason where a father is showing his kids with main character how to have sex

[@thepuriproject7282]

At least they left good films like die hard, robocop and total recall relatively unharmed. But the did more violence to Rambo 3 that stallone did to to the Russians

[@MunsterFan666]

Back in the day I always disliked this movie, but after I got the DVD (widescreen and a few minutes longer) I really began liking it. Blu ray is fantastic.

[@VideoTasties]

I'd imagine seeing the complete version would change your mind

[@mikeadams7904]

I love rambo 3. Guilty pleasure

[@dougmasters4579]

In terms of raw action, it's one of the best out there to this day. No shaky cam or CGI, just guns, muscles and firefights.

[@VideoTasties]

I have a lot of fun with it

[@VideoTasties]

Exactly real people and real fire, can't beat it

[@AbyssTiger69]

Phhwwoooaarrrr 😂 I knew it was cut but didn’t realise this bad, yes I was born in 1978 and in the UK so grew up with all this censorship bull😂

[@VideoTasties]

I heard it was cut but I didn't expect this much

[@ScotsGal]

I love Stallone's movies ..I've been a massive fan of his most of my life (,I'm 50 now) so i know most of his films inside out ..I remember buying Rambo 3 on dvd when it was first released ..watching it and thinking " wait a minute where did all of these added stick fight scenes come from ?" ....they did the exact same thing with Van Dammes kickboxer the amount of scenes removed from the end fight and the bar fight were just ridiculous ..you could clearly see all the jump cuts ....a joke .... the BBFC was just a joke here in the uk ...a couple of stuffy old fossils deciding what the population was allowed to watch ...sickening when you think about it like that

[@VideoTasties]

Yeah, when I see how ridiculous cuts are it amazes me

[@andymartin3039]

Absolutely pointless cuts, another example of James Ferman and his 'mines bigger than yours' syndrome.

[@VideoTasties]

Just a shame we had to wait till 1999 to get rid of him

[@FranzSanchez-ky9up]

@andymartin3039 James Ferman was a very odd fellow. A lot of people don't realise that he started out as a T.V director, but I don't think he had too much success. He saw himself as a liberal guy, but unfortunately like a lot of liberals, he came across as quite classist. There's a famous quote of him talking about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where he said something like "it's a great film, but it's one thing for somebody educated watching it... it's something else for some guy who works in a car wash up-north seeing it". I'm paraphrasing that quote, but it was said along those lines. Also, the fact that he had a previous job as a director, made him an even bigger pain in the arse, as he genuinely thought he was making the films better in some cases, even going as far as to say that the likes of Steven Spielberg and Kathryn Bigalow preferred his censored versions, though I don't think there is any documented evidence of either of them stating that.

[@HomeCinemaEnthusiast]

Rambo 3 was cut to shreds 🤷‍♂️

[@VideoTasties]

Crazy right?

[@Cybertron-cs7sk]

I had only seen the UK vhs for years and knew the movie very well and in 1993 bought a laserdisc player and imported my discs from USA I bought U.S release of Rambo 3 the U.S cut blew my mind I thought Christmas had just come! Since then I've only bought the American release of Blu-ray or 4k don't trust the U.K sensors on action so many movies are different from the original cut in the U.K and they are still messing with films from Abyss to Temple of Doom.

[@VideoTasties]

Anything released since 2000 should be uncut but then a film like the Abyss isn't released here because they wouldn't edit out the rat scene

[@SwatDBOverlord]

The Finnish K-16 Video Version is butchered to Death, with 9 min and 11 sec removed, the 2 sec Horsefall is left untouched, thankfully 🙂

[@streamoftimesavesnine99]

I was reading about what happened at Hungerford a little while back. Even though it was in 1987,the reverberation from it had an impact on film censoring. British broad of film classification, I suspect, got cold feet after that awful massacre. In some ways, I don't blame them. Violence has always been a sensitive issue. I saw some movies today that make you whince, especially foreign films. I watched Irreversible and climax recently, and my word.

[@VideoTasties]

@streamoftimesavesnine99 they swap between blaming films and video games and neither make people violent

[@ChampionCinemaPod]

Great video. Easily one of the more scissor happy BBFC jobs, like the cutting of the crowd shots in the opening fight...why? Haha. I understand the bad rep Rambo had in the UK press at the time but this was a tad overboard. Even the video art was heavily overseen to make sure there were no images of knives from what I remember from a moment in the 'Draconian Days' documentary. Crazy times. Though I weirdly miss those days, just for the excitement of hunting down an 'uncut' version of something that the BBFC had taken around the back and kicked the shit out of. But, we're very lucky we don't have to deal with this kind of insane movie censorship these days.

[@VideoTasties]

@@ChampionCinemaPod thanks, many films have surprised me when I have seen them uncut without knowing how much they were cut

[@neilredmond8296]

Rambo is Vegas. 🤔.john Rambo takes on the mob.😊.

[@VideoTasties]

@@neilredmond8296 I'd watch that

[@QuagmiresDooflab]

Okay, the constant showing of the (incorrect for the UK) poster is REALLY annoying! You don't need to show it that often.

[@QuagmiresDooflab]

This video is unwatchable. Watch Cutting Edge's version. There's no constant interruptiions.

[@knownpleasures]

It’s only problem was it simply wasn’t as exciting to watch as first blood part 2 . This was reflected in the box office figures at the time.

[@beowulf1417]

It was the 6th highest grossing movie of 1988 beating Die Hard by over $40 million and most critics including Siskel and Ebert and audience members agreed that it surpassed Part 2 in terms of action and set pieces. It's performance compared to First Blood and Part 2 was due franchise and genre fatigue and the shift in public sentiment around Russia.

[@VideoTasties]

I appreciate the spectacle and the stunts with real people not CGI

[@knownpleasures]

@@beowulf1417umm Die Hard is generally regarded as the greatest action movie ever ( 2 and 3 were also great ) . Rambo 3 is regarded as a pile of junk ! In short it’s crap 💩 😅😅

[@ktoogood11]

Rambo 3 is far from crap 🤡​@knownpleasures

[@dougmasters4579]

Its problem was that there was too much of Stallone's muscles and not enough characterisation like in the previous two rambo's.

[@Will21st]

always remember what Ferman said about Texas Chain saw Massacre: "this film is fine for intellectuals at the National Film Theatre, but just imagine its effect on the average car worker from Birmingham". That is the attitude of authorities towards 'the subject', not citizens. Complete joke. By the way I agree with another poster that the edits make it a 12. edit: speaking of TCM, I wish the list of cuts for texas Chainsaw 2 would show up, apparently cannon gave Ferman a copy to evaluate and he said that he reckons 20 mins. would need to go and sent Cannon a list. When they asked whether this would guarantee a certificate he apparently replied: maybe. the BBFC says they can't find the list as the film was not officially submitted back then.

[@VideoTasties]

He did go too far on everything

[@Will21st]

@@VideoTasties most definitely. He did have his moments though. Remember that Bad Taste, Meet the Feebles AND Braindead were all released without cuts at the time. Braindead especially was great to see uncut. I remember a friend told me that the examiner felt he couldn’t take the violence seriously and so the BBFC demanded no edits.

[@sparkstron73]

I think they should have cut a lot more, especially stallones mullet and dialogue 😂😂 Nice to see the cuts, some were silly😂😂

[@VideoTasties]

I'd have that mullet now if I could 😢

[@sparkstron73]

@@VideoTasties It is a bit chilly am skipping the clippers fir awhile meself👍😎😄

[@SteveMacSticky]

Not watched this garbage franchise

[@buckrogers4720]

But came here to comment you fucking 🤡

[@warsincs]

😂

[@horrorfanandy4647]

I would say you’re missing out. Until the most recent film, it was really rather good. First Blood especially, stands as one of the best action films of the 1980’s. Get around to them at some point, don’t judge a book by its cover.