Exterminator, The
Dir James Glickenhaus / 1980 / USA
Roadshow originally had this banned in December 1980, but an appeal to the Review Board the following month saw this released uncut. This was not the end of the saga, as Cinema Papers explained at the time"An independent American production, The Exterminator was refused registration by the Commonwealth Censor in December 1980 for excessive violence. An appeal was launched by its distributor, Roadshow, and the Film Board of Review registered the film R uncut in January. A few days before its Adelaide release, however, President Reagan was shot with an exploding bullet. As the film showed the making of a similar type of bullet, various groups in South Australia asked the Attorney General, K.T Griffith, to ban the film; this he did. Then Western Australia joined the fray and banned the film, followed by Queensland which took the unusual step of banning it from drive-ins but not hard tops. The film is now in release in New South Wales and Victoria."
A 97min uncut tape release followed on the Thorn-EMI label, but this video was banned in April 1985 because of excessive violence. The following month Pioneer Electronics also had the 97min (v) tape banned.
In June 2005 it was back before the censors. This time it was rated MA15+ (Strong Violence, Coarse Language). The DVD was released on by Paramount- Rialto Home Entertainment in October 2005. The cover of the disc promises:
"Finally witness the Director's cut, featuring never before seen footage from one of the most cold blooded tales of revenge ever to hit the screen"
Unfortunately this is not true. Paramount have sourced a censored print that is missing nearly four minutes of footage found in the old Thorn EMI tape. This is entirely the fault of the distributor. In which case this is false advertising on their part. The running time is 94m 00s, and the cuts would seem to be the same as the 1991 Braveworld UK VHS release. It is quite a mystery how this print came to be released on DVD in Australia. An uncut version would have easily passed through with an R18+. The following cuts describe what is missing and come from the Melon Farmers site.
Braveworld version cut in 1991Cuts 3:38s
44s cut for the cinema version and the Pre-VRA Intervision version. A further 2:54s were cut for the Braveworld video.
The cinema version suffered the following cuts:
 | The opening Vietnam scene has lost 2
shots:
The attack on Jefferson at 17mins loses 2
shots.
|
The torture of a hooker at 50mins
|
The mugging of an old woman is missing 2s | |
The following additional cuts were inflicted on the certificated video version
| The opening Vietnam scene has a further 4
cuts:
The attack on Jefferson suffers 2 further
cuts.
|
The torture of a hooker is well shortened
|
The scene where Eastman (Robert Ginty)
fills a dum-dum bullet wth mercury has been heavily cut, almost 2.30
minutes, missing 12 shots | |
Exterminator 2
Dir Mark Buntzman / 1984 / USA
The censors were obviously ready for part 2 of this vigilante series. Between 1984 & 85 Hoyts cut the movie three times (for excessive violence) from 90, down to 88mins, only to have it refused each time. Finally, in 1985 an 83min version was approved with an R rating.This cut print can be found for rent on the RCA/Columbia label, and runs 79m 27s.
Foxtel's Encore channel premiered this in November 2002 with a running time of 84m 29s. Over five minutes longer than the video release!
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RCA/Columbia (Australia) VHS 79m 27s |
