Education

‘American Sniper’ Censorship Spreads To Fancypants Engineering School

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The campus movie theater at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has postponed an April 10 screening of “American Sniper.”

The postponement comes after the Muslim Students Association at the private, $63,436-per-year, science- and engineering-heavy school requested an all-out cancellation of the blockbuster film, reports Campus Reform.

“RPI has long upheld the values of respect and coexistence, thus it is only our highest concern that this screening would not create any tensions or hatred among students at RPI,” explained a Thursday afternoon run-on sentence Facebook post from the Student Union-run movie theater on the Troy, N.Y. campus.

“We realized that this movie has caused heightened tension across communities and college campuses nationwide, including violent actions and even murders. We decided that instead of showing the movie as a regular Friday Night Movie, it should be coupled with an educational forum,” the Facebook post further stated.

Speaking of “violent actions and even murders,” on Saturday the very same student-run RPI movie theater is scheduled to show “The Losers,” a movie utterly filled with brutal executions. One character tears out another character’s eyeball. A bunch of kids die in an explosion.

On Monday, the RPI student-run movie theater will feature a special advance screening of “Unfriended,” a slasher film somehow involving the Internet.

The Motion Picture Association of America has given “Unfriended” an R rating because a guy puts his hand in a blender and another character gets hit by a truck. There’s also an attempted suicide.

A brief perusal of the Facebook archives of the RPI Union Programs and Activities Committee Cinema shows an impressive array of violence, gore and mature content.

“The Wolf of Wall Street” — which objectifies women for 180 straight minutes and shows a woman sticking a candle up a guy’s butt at one point — is an example of recent RPI cinema fare.

Another recent example is “Django Unchained.” The Quentin Tarantino western features an unremitting stream of violence. There’s considerable torture, including upside-down-and-naked torture. There’s someone mauled viciously by dogs. Also, the word “nigger” is used 102 times — once every 97 seconds.

The educational forum which will accompany “American Sniper” is unique. No other movies appear to have been accompanied by such instructional forums despite the “violent actions and even murders” they show.

Earlier this week, the University of Michigan cancelled an on-campus screening of “American Sniper” and then reversed the cancellation in the face of a national uproar, calling it a “mistake.” (RELATED: University Of Michigan: ‘American Sniper’ Screening WILL Happen)

“The initial decision to cancel the movie was not consistent with the high value the University of Michigan places on freedom of expression and our respect for the right of students to make their own choices in such matters,” vice president for student life E. Royster Harper said, according to Fox News. “The movie will be shown at the originally scheduled time and location.”

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh had declared on Twitter Wednesday night that he would show the movie to his players, saying he is “proud to be an American” and didn’t care if it might offend anyone. (RELATED: Michigan Football Coach To PC Police: The Team Will Watch ‘American Sniper’)

The “American Sniper” screening at Michigan was cancelled on Tuesday due to some students claiming that the film’s subject, Navy Seal Chris Kyle, was a “racist” and “mass killer.” (RELATED: University Cancels ‘American Sniper’ Screening Because It’s ‘Racist,’ Kyle A ‘Mass Killer’)

Back at RPI, a petition demanding that “American Sniper” be shown on campus before the end of the semester has garnered over 250 signatures at the 7,000-student school.

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