I prefer the “melon farmer” TV version of Repo Man to the original. The insane choices for the overdubbing add an extra layer of absurdity to an already whacked-out movie.
I agree that that “re-edited” is a better term, though it doesn’t always have to be “cut-down” as international and director’s cut versions are often longer, though some scenes may be have removed or rearranged.
As for color grading, yes all video releases are color graded for home release because of the much smaller color space of even the latest UHD displays. I can’t find it right now, but there was an excellent article that talks about how the color grader must make changes to the theatrical master for the limitations of consumer displays.
Add in the fact that most people don’t watch their displays in a properly darkened room and the color space is further reduced (in a sense edited).
IMO, the greatest fraud pulled on the public is advertising UHD displays as 4K. True 4K is 4096 x 2160, while UHD is 3840 x 2160. I used the term “resolution edited” to fit the theme of this thread, but mean reduced resolution/converted. And in the case of UHD, the image is cropped either on the sides or top/bottom. At least 1080p displays matched the resolution of 1080p cameras.
Ironically, in the days of film, particularly in Cinerama theaters (which didn’t mask the sides off the screen with curtains, if you saw a first run screening, you were seeing the movie as “unedited” as possible. Full color, full screen.
I’ve lamented and gotten no sympathy on a video forum that we’ll likely never have a true theatrical (“unedited”), video release for the home because the studios would never allow that. While there may be some very well connected individuals who have the connections to receive the multi-terabyte theatrical masters and IMAX (starting at $2mil) or THX certified “home” theaters to view them in, they’re far fewer than those in the film days when theatrical prints were legally or illegally obtained and kept.
I only half-remembered that from a different long-ago thread, but now that you say this, yeah, I’ll take the edited American version over a creepier French original release any day. Natalie Portman was (or at least appeared to be) prepubescent in that movie.
Can we send you back in time around 6 months so you can explain this to the people who make Game of Thrones?
Their color grading in episode 3 this season was so poor that the majority of home viewers couldn’t see what the hell was going on because it was so dark, which was particularly unfortunate because it was the biggest, most epic battle they every put on screen.
I don’t watch Game of Thrones, but I wonder how much of the bad reviews were because of improperly set displays or improperly lit (i.e. overly bright) rooms.
Years ago, I was watching a Korean horror movie set primarily in a dark morgue. There’s a scene where the heroine is hiding in a corner and she’s barely visible. I was thinking about how difficult it must have been to setup and light that scene, when it dawned on me that if I wasn’t watching this on my beloved plasma and a nearly pitch black room, I wouldn’t have been able to see that she was in that corner.
When Halloween and Alien were originally shown on TV, they had to brighten some scenes, particularly when The Shape steps out of the shadows and the alien uncurls in the shuttlecraft, because their appearance (on normal TVs) would have been delayed or lost to most viewers.
I saw Battle for the Planet of the Apes when I was a kid. The only two scenes I remembered were one where a human tells a character how the word, “No” is verboten to Apes because they heard it so much when they were slaves and a scene at the end that reveals how the group of mutants in Beneath the Planet of the Apes started worshiping a bomb. It turns out both those scenes were only added to the TV version and weren’t in the original theatrical release.
I don’t know if it’s still true today, but in the 80’s and 90’s, Hong Kong movies were usually released in Taiwan first and often these releases contained extended or different scenes from what was later released in Hong Kong. The most well known (for Asian cinema enthusiasts) is the “extended” version of John Woo’s The Killer which was first shown in Taiwanese theaters, then redited for Hong Kong release. As I stated above, IMO, the “official release/edit” of a movie is the one released in theaters of the country of origin.
As for Singapore and Mainland China versions of movies, this is usually less a matter of directorial editing by choice, but (I hate to use the word) censorship due to local standards.
Then there’s movies like The Great Wall and other Chinese/Hollywood co-productions where scenes and storylines are altered for Western and Eastern audiences. Which version is the “real” version?
BTW, I completely agree with you about My Sassy Girl. The “edited” international version fills out the storyline so much better. And while I have the theatrical version of A Moment to Remember, I’ll probably never watch it because the international version of the movie is perfect as is it.
Even then, the various home releases over the years had minor changes here and there, well before the Special Editions were released (to theaters! They also have changes in the subsequent DVD and BluRay releases).
Disney should release an edited and improved version of The Star Wars Holiday Special. It originally aired at 98 minutes. If they cut all the bad parts they could go straight from the opening credits to the end credits.
Even that is too much.
The Italian coming-of-age film Cinema Paradiso included, in the original cut, the protagonist tracking down and having a brief, awkward, sad affair with his former teen sweetheart. Miramax’s cut of the film for American release omitted this postscript, and was much better for it.
I have heard this suggested a number of times, and I always bristle at it. My 70” 4K set is carefully calibrated, and any other source of 1080p or greater looks awesome on it. And I watched in a dark room, as usual. But that episode was still very murky.
Apocalypse Now. I’ve seen the theatrical version (saw it in the theatre, actually), and it blew me away. The story moved; it was gripping, it was challenging, and it engaged you for every minute. But the version with added scenes (most notably, the Playboy Bunnies’ sex scenes and the French plantation in denial) just drags.
Another vote for the theatrical release of Blade Runner. I like ther version with narration; it explains a lot.
The TV edit of My Favorite Year has a few added tidbits, including the complete “Boss Hijack” sketch in the run-through early in the movie. It’s actually pretty funny, in that 50’s TV style of comedy.
Any “adult” themed TV comedy that has curse words in it, but bleeps them out is much funnier to me than with the curse word in it. Examples include Family Guy, South Park and some of the Adult Swim shows. A bleep is funny, using the word is just vulgar.
Don’t know why it’s that way to me, but 'tis.
Or the “bleeping” in Glengarry Glenross…“fouled up”…“FORGET YOU!!!”
Oddly enough, while I can swear like a drunken sailor when need be, I prefer to watch movies with much of the swearing edited out. Truly have no idea why I am this way, but there it is.
(Second post today citing this film.)
That Thing You Do! has an extended version that has been on cable. Best part: more of Marguerite (Rita Wilson) and a bit with Tom Hanks getting nagged by his “special friend” played by Howie Long. Oh, and more Charlize Theron.
I feel this way about the TV version of Fargo. It’s kind of amusing to hear all the different “clean” f-words they used to replace all the f-bombs Steve Buscemi drops.
Yes, Arrest Development was masterful at this. Reportedly Tony Hale didn’t like to swear, so when they bleep Buster he’s saying something else, so there’s no unedited cut to release.
Goldbergs also has a lot of hilarious bleeps, usually when the mom says (presumably) fuck.