Viewers watching the popular gay romance God’s Own Country on Amazon Prime noticed something odd: several key scenes of intimacy between the film’s two lead characters had mysteriously disappeared.
Amazon customers first noticed the cuts, making reference to them in several reviews. Word also gathered steam on Twitter, prompting Francis Lee, director of the film, to weigh in himself.
“Dear friends in USA,” Lee wrote, “God’s Own Country appears to have been censored on @PrimeVideo (Amazon Prime). Until this is investigated please do not rent or buy on Amazon Prime. It is not the film I intended or made. I will report back.”
God’s Own Country follows the romance between a British sheep farmer and a Romanian farmhand. The film debuted in 2017 at the Sundance Film Festival, where it picked up a directing prize for Lee’s work. The film also earned comparisons to Brokeback Mountain.
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Dear friends in USA, God’s Own Country appears to have been censored on @PrimeVideo (Amazon Prime). Until this is investigated please do not rent or buy on Amazon Prime. It is not the film I intended or made. I will report back ??
— Francis Lee (@strawhousefilms) May 20, 2020
According to viewers, the Amazon version of the film cut two key scenes: one where the two lovers mud-wrestle before engaging in oral sex, and another where one of the lovers has a random encounter in a horse trailer with an auctioneer.
Related: Well, the full “God’s Own Country” sex scenes have arrived
Lee published a follow-up tweet questioning if Amazon had ever cut similar scenes of heterosexual intimacy in other films. “Dear friends in USA. I’m interested if any of you have evidence of@PrimeVideo (Amazon Prime USA) censoring naked women or intimate/sex scenes within heterosexual stories on their streaming service? Or if they just censor queer stories?” he asked.
Dear friends in USA. I’m interested if any of you have evidence of @PrimeVideo (Amazon Prime USA) censoring naked women or intimate/sex scenes within heterosexual stories on their streaming service? Or if they just censor queer stories? https://t.co/xDQP4ThaiK
— Francis Lee (@strawhousefilms) May 20, 2020
jayceecook
First, this is a fantastic film. It came out the same year as the extremely overrated, IMHO, film Call Me By Your Name. However it was almost completely overshadowed by the latter especially in the states. No surprise. I highly recommend it although I wouldn’t compare it to BBM. That is a great film too but not much in common other than taking place is small ranching/farming areas in their respective countries.
Second, I could have sworn this was on Netflix in its unedited format. At least it was late last year before I canceled the service. Is that no longer the case? Amazon and Netflix don’t often share films and television shows. Unless Netflix lost the streaming rights to Amazon. If anybody had Netflix can y’all check? Because if it is why are people, including the director, not steering folks there?
abinva
It’s no longer available on Netflix.
jayceecook
@abinva Thank you. That is unfortunate. Not for me as I have the Blu-ray. Hopefully streamers can find somewhere else to either rent or purchase the film intact.
jayceecook
Okay so Amazon is saying they didn’t censor it. They are saying that the US distributor of the film Samuel Goldwyn Films uploaded the edited version because they believed the sexual scenes likely triggered a level of age rating (its version of Mature) on the service, which could have restricted the film’s reach and may have been behind the decision. Not only that but they didn’t inform the director.
So while that is a shite move on the distributor’s part, one still should ask why they were worried those scenes would trigger Amazon’s algorithm and lead to the suppression of the film. That is YouTube level censorship. Amazon seems to be passing the buck a bit.
hansniemeijer
I haven’t seen the Netflix version. I saw this film in an art house cinema, INCLUDING animals being killied and skinned. Made me sick.
Cam
In the scene you’re talking about the animal was already dead. It was skinned so that the skin could be placed on an orphaned lamb so that the dead lambs mother would nurse the orphan.
vautrin
The Netflix version has both scenes.
Cato
The skinning is disturbing, but it’s a traditional and effective practice sheep farmers use to get ewes to foster orphaned lambs. I remember reading about this as a kid in James Herriot’s memoir of being a veterinarian in rural England.
jayceecook
@hansniemeijer I hope you’re a vegan then. Because if not, Hypocrisy would like to have a chat.
And as somebody already said, the animal was already dead and it was skinned to save the life of the calf by tricking the mother lamb with the dead baby’s scent into caring for it. It’s also a very powerful metaphor withing the plot.
inbama
hansniemeijer,
So sorry you’re experiencing this bullying for expressing your understandable feelings.
Whether we are vegans or not or whether the animals were killed prior to the filming, being confronted visually with animal cruelty can ruin a film for some people. It is a perfectly natural response, and no one should have to justify such feelings of revulsion.
Cam
Amazon used to have a category that popped on their main screens “LGBT Films”. They got rid of it. Any excuse from them should be taken with a grain of salt. That category disappeared, and I’ve had religious, ex gay documentaries pop into my recommended list. If it isn’t official policy, they certainly are allowing their bigoted employees free rein.
rray63
I bought the movie. There are so few really good gay themed movies I usually snatch up the ones that get ratings like this one did.
jayceecook
Absolutely agree. I got the Blu-ray as it has some deleted and extended scenes. One of the best blind purchases I’ve made.
Bubbleandsqueal
Kanopy still has the 105 minute original cut, with an “age restriction”. (The Prime streaming version is listed at 102 minutes). Sign up if your local library has an account.
Dymension
I loved the movie! Saw it on Netflix though I see it’s no longer there.
Kieran
Gay sex is the Taboo of all Taboos in America. It seems to deeply disturb a lot of Americans. Lots of emotional repression out there.
Troysky
@Kieran ….only in America, right?
Chris
I agree! I’ve lived in other countries and visited many more. We are the most uptight place I’ve been. (Born and raised in West Texas So we’re the leaders of sexual repression….well, publicly. Let’s say we’re also the leaders in hypocrisy).
Kieran
@Chris Yep, we’ve got a severe strain of uptight homophobic Puritanism that is still evident in the American culture. Just look at the fare they offer on Cable’s “gay channel”…..non-stop re-runs of ‘Golden Girls’ and ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.
My2CentsWorth
So sadly true. Violence is more acceptable.
msc1208
This WAS included with Amazon Prime last week, but I guess because of this being brought to light it has been pulled completely. But here’s what I noticed, the Uncensored Version is available on Amazon Prime. Still is. It’s available to rent or purchase right now. I am guessing the distributor felt that a censored version would go over better with Prime audiences than the more explicit original cut. But the original is there if you want to spend $3.99 to rent it or $12.99 to purchase it. Also the shorter version is still listed, it just states that “Our agreements with the content provider don’t allow purchases of this title at this time.” the shorter one states 102 minutes running time and has no age restriction on it and the longer says 104 minutes and has an 18+ recommendation.
msc1208
This film is also available to stream free on The Roku Channel and the running time is 1:04:54. The Roku Channel is totally free, but I believe has ads.
PoetDaddy
This is certainly not the only time this has happened. Some time back I rented a film from amazon.prime about a young Brazilian street kid that had overt gay content. The gay scene was completely excised with no mention anywhere that the film had been censored, abridged, or in any other way butchered.
Kangol2
Was that film Pixote? It is online now, on Criterion and other streaming services, and all the graphic sexual content (the rapes, nudity, etc.) is uncensored.
nitejonboy
Hope the director gets it off Amazon and back on Netflix where it played uncut until recently when it was removed. Shame on Amazon!
djmcgamester
Wow. This ranks as one of my top gay romance films ever. Can’t believe they’d do this. Maybe time to send Amazon a message myself. It might be worth it to ask for a refund since what they’re now showing isn’t what I paid for.
CurtisIsTheOne
Next move by Amazon Prime: Each of the gay characters is given a wife.
ScottOnEarth
I saw this wonderful movie on Netflix a while ago and loved every minute of it. Hard to believe there’s anything racier than standard hetero sex scenes that warranted censoring. Absolutely ridiculous and clearly discriminatory, whether it’s Amazon or the distributor. But, I highly, highly recommend the uncensored version of this great movie.
shopchuoivang
That is unfortunate.
Woteva
It is indeed a great British movie. Went to see it at the cinema here in the U.K. the day it was released and consequently bought the DVD.
To cut the sex scenes is barbaric. Who the hell are the censors at Amazon? A bunch of nuns? More like a bunch of TWATS. It’s 2020 not 1920 ffs.
Jerry
There is an update to all of this on his twitter feed. It wasn’t amazon, it was the us distributor.
Paulie P
Amazing has the original cut and watched it this morning… It is another version of Brokeback but with a happier ending……
Watch out for the one scene that involved a hanging green shirt. There is NO WAY the writer director did not have that pivotal scene from Brokeback in his mind when he wrote it.
I’d glad live with either lead actors!
triguykeith
That seems odd. I watched this film on Amazon Prime or Netflix, I can’t remember which one, and both those scenes were in the film. And i want to say it was maybe January when I watched it. Were these cuts super recent?
jayceecook
It was probably Netflix as it had been there since 2018. I guess it switched to Amazon. But if you watched it on Amazon was it through Amazon Prime Video or did you rent it from Amazon?
Apparently the US distributor uploaded the edited version to Amazon Prime Video because they were afraid Amazon would suppress the film based on their algorithm.
Manchester
I really struggled to like this movie. I just found it meh. There are way better LGBTQ movies out there. it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as good as the hype.
marcus8890
what is the name of your watches on your wrist