LINCOLN, the Spielberg film about the President who ended slavery, is a historical drama which involves some knowledge of the Civil War. For most American audiences, that knowledge is a given as it's part of the history curriculum in schools. However, for audiences abroad, this is often not the case. So the filmmakers
created a different opening of the film for its international release, involving the use of black and white photos and some title cards.
The Hollywood Reporter wrote about this in an interesting item on their website about how some
famous films were altered for their international rollouts. Not surprisingly China is the most censorious, eliminating scenes and Chinese characters in a number of major American films for scenes which they deem "offensive". The most recent film to hit the Chinese chopping block was SKYFALL and some of it's scenes set in Shanghai.
