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"Public opinion has a way of changing."

On one of the bonus features found on the Evil Dead 3-disc "Ultimate" edition, Bruce Campbell mentions how he realized how much had changed when a movie like Evil Dead could be found for sale at K-Mart. Evil Dead probably would have never shown up in a regular, retail store during its initial release. Though not as controversial as it was overseas (where it was consider a video nasty), it was not something you could say had a wide audience. If anything, the amount of gore and violence in the film still turns people off -- while others love that stuff.

In hopes that I don't sound like a future member of the Uptight and Humorless Adults Who Think Children Are Idiots club, I found things to be odd when I saw A Clockwork Orange on sale at Target over the weekend.

It's been reported/debated for quite some time as to why retailers like Wal-Mart, K-Mart and Target won't carry CDs carrying a "Parental Advisory" sticker while they carry R-rated movies on VHS and DVD. Rather than getting into that debate, I'm a little amused by seeing a non-mainstream movie be available in such a mainstream type of store. As much as I love Clockwork Orange, there's still plenty of stuff in it that disturbs me. Knowing my family, they'd probably find most of (or all of) the movie repulsive.

So it makes me think: what will I see next in Target? The unrated cut of Caligula?

I'm not saying movies like these should be hidden. I'm not saying movies like these should not be sold in stores like these. But it makes me wonder about the buyers that choose the stock. Can a once-highly-controversial film be considered tame by a mainstream buying audience in the future? I guess so. Still, isn't that strange?

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