Censors scrub a 50-year-old film to remove a racial slur that kids hear every day in popular music.
A highlight of moving to New York City after college 30 years ago was the second-run movie houses that afforded me the chance to see classic films—“Lawrence of Arabia,” “Ace in the Hole,” “Rear Window,” “Sweet Smell of Success”—on the big screen, as they were intended to be viewed.
Some showings were packed with fellow film buffs while others were oddly deserted for a city of more than seven million. One evening in the late 1990s I caught “The Exorcist” at a multiplex on 42nd Street. Maybe a dozen other people showed up. The only thing more surprising than the near-empty theater was how much I disliked the film, especially given its reputation as one of the all-time greatest horror flicks. The acting seemed fine, and the special effects were impressive for a film released in 1973. Still, I found the story about a 12-year-old girl possessed by the devil far more repulsive than spooky.
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator. Follow him on Twitter here.
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