10 Controversial Movie Scenes That Were Cut Before Release

It’s often said a little bit of controversy never hurt a movie. In fact the more attention it draws to itself the better, since that gets tongues wagging and creates demand. This works best for low budget horror or indie movies, which may not have the marketing budgets to get word out otherwise. This approach may not work so well for mainstream blockbusters, though.

Generally, the blander a movie the better studios feel about it, since they don’t want to risk offending anyone. If parents or activists kick up a stink about a sequence within a film, they’ll usually take the safe route and either alter them or remove the offending moment completely. Sometimes they’ll do this in response to a real-life tragedy and take out a scene if it has close parallels.

This has happened a lot over the years, with many “offensive” scenes being ripped out and never released to the public. Let’s take a look at some of the most controversial, and examine the reasons for their removal.

Gangster Squad was like a slick, dumbed down remake of The Untouchables, where a great cast was wasted on a hollow action movie. A few years later it’s mostly forgotten, but before it came out it had to make major alterations because of a real life tragedy.

In 2012 a gunman walked into a screening of The Dark Knight Rises in Colorado and opened fire into the crowd, killing twelve people and injuring seventy. This horrific act sent shockwaves across America, and soon movies depicting excessive gun violence came under scrutiny. Gangster Squad, in particular, had to make adjustments, since the trailer depicted a key action scene where gangsters try to assassinate the heroes in a crowded cinema.

Warner Bros knew instantly such a scene wasn’t going to fly, so they removed it and replaced it with a sequence taking place in Chinatown. To date, the cinema massacre hasn’t been released in any form, and with Gangster Squad having faded into memory that’s unlikely to change.