Censorship Is a Class Issue

There is a scene in the filmThe Bad Lieutenantin which the protagonist, played by Harvey Keitel, blackmails two young women into titillating him - one of them shows her ass, the other mimes performing oral sex - while he masturbates. It is the best-known and most controversial scene in the film.

Recently, I watched the film on Netflix instant streaming. The scene had been cut out, altering the meaning of the film.

During the U.K. obscenity trial ofLady Chatterley’s Loverin 1960,the chief...