Should we change a name for a film?

[Jim Hardie]

 

[and ask yourself - would you decry this as outrageous revisionism if the dog's name had been "spot" and they changed it to "spike"? Would you/anyone have cared or noticed?]

 

Of course not. There would be no point in changing one innocuous name for another. The true name of the dog should be used if only to illustrate how some things have changed for the better over the last seventy years.

By the way I do not subscribe to the view that in those days it was just a harmless word that simply meant black (the colour). I think there may have been more to it than that.

[Nagel]

[and ask yourself - would you decry this as outrageous revisionism if the dog's name had been "spot" and they changed it to "spike"? Would you/anyone have cared or noticed?]

 

I don't decry the revisionism, but unlike the N-word, neither Spot nor Spike are contentious words.

 

I fully expect the movie to be dross too. The original is good, but has to be seen in its context as a 1950s morale booster and contains loads of innacuracies.

[megalithic]

Replace the dog with a tiger cub and call it Tigger

 

Replace it with an elephant and call it "Bigger".

[Jim Hardie]

I don't decry the revisionism, but unlike the N-word, neither Spot nor Spike are contentious words.

 

I fully expect the movie to be dross too. The original is good, but has to be seen in its context as a 1950s morale booster and contains loads of innacuracies.

 

If you don't decry the revisionism why don't you think that when the 1950s film is broadcast the name should be bleeped out?

[Phanerothyme]

Of course not. There would be no point in changing one innocuous name for another.

 

Thing is, it happens all the time.

 

It's only "news" (This has been rumbling for about 5 years - this from wiki:

Peter Jackson, producer of the remake that later began, said in 2006 that

"It is not our intention to offend people. But really you are in a no-win, damned-if-you-do-and-damned-if-you-don't scenario: If you change it, everyone's going to whinge and whine about political correctness. And if you don't change it, obviously you are offending a lot of people inadvertently. … We haven't made any decisions about what we'll do."

 

Stephen Fry, writer for the remake, was asked to provide several alternative names for the dog, and came up with several suggestions. Executive producer David Frost rejected them all, saying

 

"Guy sometimes used to call his dog Nigsy, so I think that's what we will call it. Stephen has been coming up with other names, but this is the one I want."

 

Jackson's assistant contradicted this a week later, however, saying "To stay true to the story, you can't just change [the name]. We have not made any decisions yet. The script is still being written; and that decision will be made closer to the time."

 

The true name of the dog should be used if only to illustrate how some things have changed for the better over the last seventy years.

 

I only think that is true if that [how things have changed for the better] was the point of the film. But the point of this film is to be just good enough in the trailer to earn the makers pots of money.

 

I think they've shot themselves in the foot by even starting the project. Having a bloody summit conference on what to do about the word ****** just compounds the stupidity of it all.

 

I do wish people would stop remaking old films and try and think up some new ones.

 

By the way I do not subscribe to the view that in those days it was just a harmless word that simply meant black (the colour). I think there may have been more to it than that.

 

Oh no, I think Gibson meant it as if he'd called the dog Golliwog, or Fuzzy Wuzzy.

 

I found this on the subject of the dog:

However, only hours before the raid Gibson was

informed that ****** had been run

over by a car outside the camp and

he was killed instantaneously. But

this would not have been possible as

the camp was sealed, and especially

before such an important operation,

so the gates would have been shut.

[Rupert_Baehr]

The name has already been censored. The Squadron's operation callsign is 'Black Dog Ops' - somebody objected to the original name.

[Phanerothyme]

And the film runs on TCM unedited anyway.

[Phanerothyme]

I don't decry the revisionism, but unlike the N-word, neither Spot nor Spike are contentious words.

 

If it's the revisionism that is the problem for people (changing history!) then changing the name of the dog should be just as egregious as deliberately using the wrong make of car or making Gibson teetotal or whatever. If Gibson doesn't drink or smoke in the film, will there be an outcry?

 

If people are concerned about history being changed, then I'd say the dog's name is going to be the least of their problems. I'm just waiting to see the majestic B-24 Liberators skimming the water as they approach the dams deep in the heart of Bavaria, releasing the brilliant Howard Hughes invention of the "skipping bomb" in bid to drown Hitler in his mountain hideout.

[Nagel]

If you don't decry the revisionism why don't you think that when the 1950s film is broadcast the name should be bleeped out?

 

Because I'm full of contadictions

[hotrock]

his gravestone

http://www.raf.mod.uk/rafscampton/aboutus/museumgallery.cfm?viewmedia=3