Movies I've Walked Out Of and Bobby DeNiro

I don't recall how I got onto the subject, but I was talking with Valerie about movies I've walked out of during the showing in a theater.  In all the hundreds of movies I've seen, there have been only four that were so bad that I had to leave before the end.  It occured to me, when I was talking with Val, that out of those four, three of them featured Robert DeNiro:

1977 - Damnation Alley - The huge scorpions totally grossed me out;
1980 - Raging Bull - The violence and the work "fuck" in every third sentence disgusted me;
1982 - King of Comedy -  I was in the mood to see Sophie's Choice, but the gang wanted to see this;
1994 - Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - Again, too violent, too gross, and Kenneth Branagh was just not enough temptation to make me stay through the end.

And it just so happens that one of the movies that I should have walked out of, but didn't was Heat, also starring Mr. DeNiro.  Heat wasn't gross, and the gun battle in the early part of the movie was a real thriller, but it just collapsed into a long, boring, talky film. 

Pity, because DeNiro is one of the great ones.

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AmazonFail Update

Well, it seems that the de-ranking of "adult" material that I discussed yesterday finally caught the attention of Amazon personnel.  Instead of fobbing off authors with "we don't rank adult material" they actually paid attention and looked into the problem.  According to the company, the de-ranking was the result of a system glitch accidently implemented by a worker in France, but it was initiated by comments and tagging of titles with certain search terms.  Amazon hasn't provided a full explanation of how this happened, but has "vowed" to correct the problem and minimize the possiblity of it reoccurring.

They did admit that over 57 THOUSAND book titles were de-ranked according to this glitch, and they were restoring the rankings as soon as possible.   I don't really trust the explanation, but it does make more sense than the company being infiltrated by right-wing culture police.  Someone, or some group (more likely) outside of Amazon has taken advantage of the ranking/tagging loophole to impose their own set of values.

Me, I believe in two things:  freedom of expression and free choice.  Say what you like, write what you want.  That doesn't mean I have to listen to your or I have to read what you wrote.

Amazon clearly has some holes in its search feature, and I do think they need some form of parental controls (like iTunes, maybe).  I've searched for juvenalia and have gotten some pretty NSFW results (including one with pictures of jumbo-sized battery operated marital aids).  But I don't think that any safety net that results in censorship is acceptable.

But that's just me.

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Amazon Is Now In The Censorship Business

It's all over the 'net today - Amazon is now removing all so-called "adult content" from their page-rank systems.  Anything that has a reference to sex, sexuality, or GLBT content has been stripped out of the very important Amazon search function.  Apparently, it's a so-called glitch that activates if something's been tagged "adult content" and someone or some group has been combing the site and tagging anything deemed "objectionable". This includes scholarly work as well as fiction.  Titles that  are clearly romantic fiction and urban fantasy* have been removed from the search ranks, as well as books that sit firmly in the "literature section"**.  By stripping a title out of the search rankings, it effectively makes the book invisible unless you search by title or author. 

As of this morning, if you search for "homosexual," the listing that comes is a "parental guide " on how to prevent/deprogram homosexuality in children.  However, Dr. Nathanial Frank's Unfriendly Fire:  How the Gan Ban Undermines the Military and Weakens America has had its rank stripped.***

It's also worth noting that biographies of several porn stars are still available, as are books on dog-fighting and Mein Kampf.****

This is a travesty of the first and worst order.  Amazon has, through innovation and commitment, become both a publishing and purchasing powerhouse - it has filled the void that was created by the closing of so many small and independent booksellers.  It defined the "long tail".  By shutting out a huge section of books from the searching public, it is flying in the face of its own mission.

I buy a lot of books and other stuff from Amazon.  It's my go-to site for just about everything, and I'm having a hard time reconciling my desire to do right and my need to shop.  Besides, I don't think my departure is going to make one bit of difference.  But I won't be silenced.  The Smart Bitches have devised a neat little Google Bomb that just may get Mr. Bezos' attention.  And I'm happy to jump in this dog pile.

Amazon Rank
Amazon Rank
Amazon Rank
Amazon Rank

For a somewhat complete list of the delisted titles, check out Meta Writer on Live Journal.  The length of the list is really scary.

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*Fae Sutherland, Maya Banks, Jaci Burton, Patti O'Shea and Larissa Ione have had search rankings stripped from some or all of their titles, regardless of content.
**Maurice by E.M. Forester, and Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx
***As noted in the L.A. Times blog, Jacket Copy on April 12, 2009
****This information has been provided by the Ja(y)nes at Dear Author.  Thank you very much!

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