As wonderful a film as the original is, it does have one unpleasant element of which I was not aware until hearing Fry discuss it with Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode on their Radio 5 film review show, namely the name of the dog of the RAF pilot who led the bombing raid, said name being used as a code name for the whole operation. That name, rather incredibly, is N*****. Interestingly enough, that name was retained for the 1955 film, though it has since been dubbed to Digger on all subsequent versions on TV, VHS and so forth.
Stephen Fry has quite rightly acknowledged:-
“There is no question that you can have a dog called the N-word. The dog’s name was a code word to show a dam had been breached. In the film you hear, ‘N-word, N-word, hurray’. That won’t happen now. So Digger seems OK.”
Quite why or how it was felt acceptable back in 1943, let alone when the original 1955 film version came out, I do not know and although aviation historian Jim Shortland has said of the intended change:
“It’s sacrificing historical accuracy for political correctness.”
I think we can all agree that sometimes historical accuracy cannot be treated as some absolute arbiter of acceptable content.
The film is to be partly filmed in New Zealand and no release date has been set yet.
Source: The Sun.
I thought that was Reach For The Sky? I distinctly remember Kenneth Moore dropping the N-word like he was straight Gangsta.
I have to say that I disagree with the decision. Yes, of course the N word is not acceptable in the 21st Century but are they not retelling a historical event?
One of the reasons that it’s taken so long for a Dambusters remake is that potential producers wanted to wait for the actual design of the bomb to become public knowledge. For 70+ years it was covered by the Official Secrets Act.
If you’re going to remake a classic film with historical significance and, now, historical accuracy, why not include the N word?
What next? A film about the Crusades without any of the very un-PC ethnic cleansing that took place? History is exactly what it is – history. It’s how things were at the time, not an air brushed version of it.