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Comparison between the cut 4K-remastered Blu-ray from Shout and the Spanish Blu-ray from Warner
- One cut
In the 1998 film Pleasantville, teenage siblings David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) cope with their loneliness in different ways: David likes to immerse himself in the harmonious, idyllic world of the eponymous ’50s sitcom, while Jennifer passes the time with numerous male acquaintances and flings. Due to a supernatural incident, both are suddenly transported to the naive and innocent Pleasantville, and while David behaves in accordance with the local customs, Jennifer “corrupts” the people of that era with her romantic escapades, causing the black-and-white world to suddenly take on selective color. As a key plot twist (obviously: spoiler), Jennifer ends up staying behind in the parallel world and justifies this, side from the opportunity to attend college there, by saying she’d now like to put “the slut thing” behind her. So she actually refers in a critical way to her sex life in a short sentence, and curiously, this brief scene is now missing from the worldwide 4K release, which has been available in the U.S. from Shout since July 2026. In addition to various niche home theater websites, this was also picked up in the U.S. by major media outlets such as Entertainment Weekly. There was no mention of the adaptation either beforehand or at the time of release, nor have the filmmakers commented on it so far. Of course, this carries overtones of censorship, and there have been frequent comments about “slut-shaming.” Even though Witherspoon’s character says it herself (rather than being criticized by a different character) such a statement clearly implies that her sex life doesn’t quite conform to the norm or is, at the very least, somewhat reprehensible. Ultimately, however, it’s just speculation at this point whether the zeitgeist or similar factors played any role in the edit, or whether director Gary Ross (who approved the new transfer) simply didn’t want it in the film any longer for some other reason. After Warner/New Line released a Blu-ray internationally in various countries in 2011, e.g. the US or Germany have so far been stuck with the DVD format. In any case, those would be the physical options featuring the uncensored original version. The 4K version is currently available exclusively from Shout in the U.S., but it will be interesting to see which version becomes the standard in the future. Given the minor backlash, one can at least hope that the Shout version remains a one-time slip-up.
Runtime information is organized according to the following scheme A slightly longer black screen at the beginning of the old Blu-ray.
To start with, a quick comparison: The Shout version is back in the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, offering slightly more visual detail on the sides - while at the same time the older 1.78:1 transfer had a little more picture on the top and bottom. Otherwise, it’s not visible in these small screenshots, but the 4K version is clearly superior in quality.
109:37 / 109:38–109:45 The cut occurs after the following dialogue: David: “Do you have your admissions letter?” Jennifer: “Yeah, it’s right here.” Then David actually looks down briefly, and Jennifer adds: “I did the slut thing, David. It got kind of old.” David then says again, even in the shortened version: “I’ll come back and check on you soon.” 7 sec
124:22–124:28 / 124:30 After the identical end credits, the Shout version also includes the MPAA rating card. + 6 sec
A few notes on this brief comparison to clarify that content with roughly comparable themes remained untouched: 1) When Jennifer picks out a dress at the 8-minute mark, “It’s not slutty!” can still be heard in the Shout version.
2) When the date shows up at Jennifer’s door at the 14-minute mark, he still says “Bitch!” on the Shout version.
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