Freeway
Dir Matthew Bright / 1996 / USA
In 1997 Columbia Tristar cut this from 104 to 102mins (f) for an R18+ (Adult Themes, Sexual References, Medium Level Violence) rating.(ARCHIVED) Freeway to open despite Detours. The Australian 18.09.97
In this article, Lyden Barber looks at the problems the film had with the OFLC.
The Office of Film and Literature Classification has taken such a dim view of parts of a new American film called Freeway that it has demanded two minutes be cut before granting it an R certificate. The film, which has Oliver Natural Born Killers Stone as an executive producer and is the debut feature for writer director Matthew Bright, is to be released locally in its censored version in November.
According to distributor the Globe Film Co, two sequences have been censored: one where Sutherland repeatedly insults Witherspoon with profane language and asks her in a highly ungenteel manner if she would care for a spot of anal intercourse. The other shows dead grandma with her legs spread, her private parts concealed by a vase.
The censored version was eventually released on VHS by Columbia Tristar Video and runs 97min 43sec.
According to the article above, two sequences were removed.
"one where Sutherland repeatedly insults Witherspoon with profane language and asks her in a highly ungenteel manner if she would care for a spot of anal intercourse."
This presumably takes place around the 32min point in the VHS release. This is where Bob is talking to Vanessa as they drive. It starts with him listening to her problems of abuse at the hands of her stepfather, to him threatening her with a scalpel.
"The other shows dead grandma with her legs spread, her private parts concealed by a vase."
The first shot of the dead grandma is around the 91min point of the VHS. Bob takes Vanessa to her body. Here we are only shown the top part of her naked torso, with a rope around the neck. The second shot is around the 93min point where the cops enter the trailer and view the body. Again only the top half is shown.
The New Zealand VHS on the Academy Pictures label contains the same censored version. In the US this was originally passed uncut with an NC17 rating, before being edited for a more commercial R.
In January 2007 Force Entertainment gave the film its Australian DVD premiere. Thanks to David V for sending in this disappointing news about the disc.
Being well aware of the censorship issues the film FREEWAY had here in Australia I was quite interested to see what the R4 DVD released by Force Entertainment on Jan 17 would be like. If the details of what was censored from the Australian version listed on your site through the article is accurate, than it appears we are still faced with the exact same censored version of the film. We still only get to see the two quick above the torso shots of the dead grandma on this DVD release, the other shot detailing her with her legs spread out covered by a vase is not to be found - a line of dialogue also looked to have been edited out during the Freeway conversion when the character played by Keifer Sutherland quizzes Reese Witherspoon's character sexually about her past. The last question he asks her before she starts to flip out and verbally abusing him back seemed abruptly cut almost like a whole bit of middle dialogue was taken out. However the line that was edited from the US release (Reportedly 'Get your pants down you fucking cunt') by the MPAA is actually still present in the Australian version.
Interesting things to note about this release by Force Entertainment is that the DVD version still carries the same consumer advice of "Adult Themes, Sexual References, Medium Level Violence" it received in 1997, infact according to the OFLC database, that was the last time the film was submitted for classification. Another thing is the DVD version of the film runs in at just under 102 minutes (101m 57s I think to be exact) and appears to be a NTSC-PAL conversion - 102 minute version listed as being the censored version.
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