- NEW YORK POST - Post Editorial Board - MAY 3, 2022 -
With great power comes great responsibility — a motto taken to heart by Sony recently, when it defied the demands of the Chinese Communist Party to delete the Statue of Liberty from “Spider-Man: No Way Home” ahead of its release.
Apparently, China’s censors asked the Japanese entertainment giant if it could cut Lady Liberty from the film’s ending, but was rebuffed given the prominence the statue plays in the film’s climax, in which the three spidermen swing around one of the world’s most identifiable markers of freedom whilst battling supervillians.
Never one to take rejection well, China came back asking if the monument could be “minimized.” Specifically, Puck reported, “if Sony could cut a few of the more patriotic shots of [Tom] Holland standing atop the crown, dull the lighting so that Lady Liberty’s visage wasn’t so front-and-center.”
It’s refreshing to see such a massive company defending freedom, especially when such a move could threaten the purse strings: The previous two Holland “Spider-Man” movies grossed $116 million and $200 million at the Chinese box office.
And it isn’t the first time Sony has stood up against China’s censors; when Beijing asked director Quentin Tarantino to omit Bruce Lee’s portrayal from “Once Upon A Time in Hollywood,” and he refused, Sony backed him. China canceled the movie’s release.
Sony’s leaders seem to realize that freedom hangs on slender threads, and that bowing to bullies for profit is a long-run loser. Good for them.
LEIA MAIS >