Space Is the Place - One of my favourite all-time movies is ruined in the uncut French version with some doc/nurse porn that totally detracts from the flick’s awesomely insouciant dingbattery.
Another one on my stellar shelf is Man Bites Dog. I’ll take the edited (US) version, thanks, which leaves out the scenes where a screaming child (at least in almost total darkness) is chased down and killed, and the rape scene that has the doc filmmaker Remy “ingeniously” (um, nah, not really) finagled into the action.
Probably a big ask*, but can anyone think of their own?
*ok - I promise never to use that annoying catchphrase ever again.
The Director’s Cut of Aliens has a few good bits but the longest section is the dull “Newt’s parents find the eggs” sequence that is poorly paced and just sort of plods along. If I was showing it to someone for the first time, I’d definitely go with the theatrical version and if they ever care enough to see the other parts later, it’ll be there for them.
The TV version of Ace Ventura which cuts the few sex scenes which aren’t that funny, and instead adds in a bunch of new scenes that are both funny and actually important to the plot.
Not quite what you’re looking for perhaps, but I nostalgically prefer the TV edit of Die Hard from my childhood. Yippee-ky-ay, Kimo Sabe (sp) is real to my mind, even if ‘Motherfucker’ might be the proper line.
Donnie Darko, of course. The DC helps explain a bit more about what’s going on, but I find it to be “dumbed down” too much for my taste, with way too much foreshadowing. Plus, I like the original soundtrack better than the one in the DC.
The director’s cut features comic frame caricatures to herald some scene changes. Mostly it’s OK ( if a bit hokey ) but in one instance absolutely kills the suspense of a key scene.
When the gang scatters to escape the police inside the 96th street subway station, the first ones to exit to the street are in a panicky state. A member asks agitated-ly “Where are they!!??” ( as to the missing members ) and you see him quickly gaze to asses the situation. Just then the camera ( ostensibly his and other’s gaze ) catch sight of the ‘Baseball Furies’, a greasepaint faced ghoulish looking gang wielding baseball bats; they’re barely visible in the night surrounding the station exit. Truly terrifying and unexpected.
In the director’s cut, before the camera cuts to show the Furies waiting for them, a comic slide that says “Holy shit, the Baseball Furies!” is shown first. Completely kills the suspense and surprise.
I find it strange that people are referring to theatrical release versions as “edited.” Whatever gets released in theaters is the real movie. Director’s Cuts are the edited versions.
The ‘Love Conquers All’ version of Brazil is the best…
In all seriousness, the released cut of Dune (Lynch version) was probably the best. The ‘directors cut’ of the movie wasn’t so much a movie as it was all the unedited film.
:dubious:All versions of movies are edited to some extent or another. And various versions may be released theatrically, as well as on TV. Which one of those is the “real” movie?
Director’s cuts are usually longer and contain material not in the theatrical release. The theatrical release may have been further edited from that originally planned by the director, sometimes by the director himself at the studio’s behest, and sometimes by others. But a director’s cut is of course closer to the “real” movie as planned by the director.
If you want to impose your own personal definition of “real movie,” go ahead. But saying that “everything else is edited” makes no sense. Generally “edited” means to have material removed or changed from the original version. And the theatrical release will normally have had material removed and be shorter than the director’s cut.
Yep, and if there was a movie with no edition, then you would get monstrosities of movies lasting hours or days, with every error, alternate take or mikes showing in frame. Only guys like Andy Warhol got away with it.
You would also see movies where thanks to scheduling or other reasons the beginning was filmed last, ruining the movie even more.
i prefer the director’s cut of ALIENS over the theatrical cut myself. I own The Alien Quadrilogy box set which has both theatrical and directors cuts of the first four alien movies. Of note Ridley Scott’s director cut of the first film–Alien—is actually a minute shorter than the theatrical cut. Scott restored roughly four minutes of deleted footage while cutting about five minutes of other material.
And of course there is always the debate about which versions of The Original Star Wars Trilogy is better----the original theatrical versions or the Special Edition versions. Diehard Star Wars fans always say the original cuts were better but I actually prefer the Special Editions myself.
I admit one factor that affects my preference for The Special Editions is that I only saw the original version on television–either on cable or VHS tape. So when I saw in theaters for the first time when The Special Editions were released they looked and sound a lot more crisp than I have ever seen them before.
