BYU's students and faculty expressed frustration that the highly anticipated film "Hero" was cancelled Monday, after it had been on the schedule since the beginning of September.

With concerns about a 20-second scene of sensuality, Van C. Gessel, the Dean of the College of Humanities, and Travis Anderson, the director of the International Cinema, replaced the film, which was to play this week in the Varsity Theater, after receiving complaints about the same scene from people who had already seen it.

"The film was cancelled out of concerns that this 20-second scene would offend some patrons," Anderson said. "The scene was restrained and tasteful, but it suggested that two people had sex."

Gessel said there are different levels of sensitivity at BYU and taking another look at the film, they decided to cancel the film that might have turned out to be inappropriate for a BYU audience due to the sound effects of the scene.

BYU student Tim Funk had been looking forward to seeing this film for the past two weeks. He said that he could see canceling it from both sides of this moral issue.

"Even though the film doesn't show anything, the sounds could put the picture in your head and that can be just as bad," Funk said. "It's just like not reading a book with sexual content."

He said canceling a film due to a sensual scene would never happen at another university.

"The moral issues at BYU are almost black and white when compared to the moral issues at other schools," Funk said.

Although the film didn't necessarily violate any BYU visual materials standards, Anderson said there is a small, but vocal minority of people in and around BYU who would have complained and misrepresented the film in letters to the editor and administration.

"When you receive complaints before the showing, you know it'll just get worse if you show it," said Anne Thomas, International Cinema secretary.

Anderson said he is disappointed about the film being cancelled and has already received many e-mails and phone calls from others who say the film should have remained on the schedule.

"The film is absolutely beautiful and the photography is nothing less than astounding," Anderson said. "Every episode is color coordinated to reflect the identities and personalities of the characters who populate them, and the battle scenes are choreographed with such sensitivity and skill that at times, the film seems less a martial arts movie than a ballet."

Winning "Best cinematography," "Best visual art" and many other distinctions at the Hong Kong Film Awards, this film not only stands above the norm as a visionary wonder, but also the director Yimou Zhang integrates philosophical values into his films. Anderson said Zhang creates a universal appeal as his films harbor a deep moral core that address genuine and timeless ethical issues and are among the most moral films he has ever seen. He said "Not One Less," an earlier film, teaches the lost sheep story from the New Testament better than any conference talk.

"'Hero' is no exception," Anderson said. "Like 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,' the martial arts are a metaphor for spiritual battles that everyone has to fight."

Situated in the historical period when China was first united by the emperor who built the Great Wall, "Hero" presents a timely message.

"The message is that the moral high road in a violent world will be traveled by those who renounce violence altogether, and that national or world unity can be achieved only through self-sacrifice, not through bloodshed and armed conflict," Anderson said.

He said the nameless central protagonist, capable of assassinating the emperor to save his own people, opts to spare the emperor's life knowing it will mean his own death. Anderson said this warrior chose this path because he realized, through the self-sacrifice of other warriors, that to protect his own life and the life of his own community would be at the expense of other innocent lives. Anderson said if the nameless warrior had followed through, it would have cheapened human life in general and undermines the moral structure for which he was fighting.

"Who could not find such a film virtuous?" Anderson asked. "But at the same time, we want to show films in which such virtues are not eclipsed for the viewer by other potentially offensive material-which is part of what makes a BYU education unique."



Copyright Brigham Young University 10 Nov 2004