It’s a sad business. Given the number of abandoned airfields around the country (many of which are still retained by by the MoD), one would think that it would not be much of an effort to keep lots of airframes, even if they’re simply left in open storage. Doubtless they wouldn’t last forever but it would be far better than simply destroying them. I accept that there’s a drive to recover as much money as possible even if it’s only scrap value, but it is a shame that there are not some enlightened souls around who would accept that some aircraft could be kept for posterity. What goes-on at Wroughton these days, for example? Why is it such a difficult concept to simply retain aircraft somewhere? Heaven-knows there’s enough space around. There seems to be an absurdly eager appetite to destroy aircraft almost for the sake of it, it seems, and yet there are acres of empty concrete around the UK, slowly getting covered with grass.

Raising the old issues is essentially a separate subject. One can argue the rights and wrongs of political correctness forever, but they have no bearing on a movie. This is simply a case of the production team and financiers sacrificing historical accuracy for fashion. I’d be willing to bet that not one black person would give a stuff about the issue if it was ever brought to their attention, much in the same way as I said earlier that if the dog had been called “Fag” then I’d expect it to be called the same in the movie. What happens the next time somebody tries a movie about the slave trade? Are they going to invent some cosy words to use in the script, instead of sticking to reality?

I just think that if they can be so careless about a simple word, then the rest of the movie is going to be equally tiresome. A triumph of presentation, hype and hysteria over accuracy, I fear. I really do wonder what Fry was thinking of, getting involved with such garbage.

However, Im surprised that Stephen Fry wants to re-write history.

Exactly. He surely can’t need the money and frankly I’m surprised that he didn’t insist on historical accuracy on principle, or simply walk-away. As you say, the term “nigger” is used widely in the black community in much the same way as us poofs call each other “faggots” – the deal is that you can call someone such a name if you are one and thereby divest the word of its perceived power.

But this is totally irrelevant to the movie. Even if the word was being used in its most offensive form, it should still be used. Repeating it in a movie is simply re-tracing history as it was. It isn’t about right or wrong, it’s about fact.

Shame on the lot of ’em. Given the amount of feeling here, I hope the Admin staff send a link to the newspapers about this. Absolute disgrace and an insult to Gibson and his mean.

Collapse is only a matter of opinion

… or a matter of semantics, it seems :rolleyes: