# Films ruined by editing. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 24, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068 "2009-07-24T01:30:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/21 "2009-07-27T14:26:19Z")
I have the director’s cut of _The Last of the Mohicans_, I prefer watching it on tv, even with the commercials. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/22 "2009-07-27T14:29:55Z")
Here’s one that most folks have probably forgotten: **Disturbing Behavior**. It’s been a long time, so it’s hard to remember details, but really, rent the DVD and check out the deleted scenes. As I recall, the movie was about a family that moved after the oldest son committed suicide. In the new town, there are sinister goings-on, as it appears a local doctor is altering the minds of teenage troublemakers to transform them into upstanding citizens. Unfortunately, a lot of interesting stuff got cut out, such as (again, I think, my memory’s kinda fuzzy) the mother finding a gun which the son had taken from someone at school. You can tell that she’s replaying her other son’s suicide in her head, and you can see how her concern affects her later actions. But of course, they cut that out, so her later being overprotective of her son doesn’t make as much sense. If you play the director’s commentary, you can sense that he’s barely keeping his anger in check for the way the studio chopped up his movie; he sounds like he wants to lash out, but knows that if he does, it won’t make it on the disc. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/23 "2009-07-27T16:30:06Z")
**Quantum of Solace**. All the so-called ‘action’ sequences were edited by someone who wanted to make perfectly sure that not a living soul could follow or understand anything happening on screen. It certainly looked as if some time and miney had been spent prepping and shooting the various action sequences. But it was all for nothing, since the editing was just a mess that _obscured_ whatever was supposed to be happening. Who is hitting whom? Who is winning? Who is in that car? What is that person in the car trying to do? What is that person reacting to? Sorry, we’re not going to show you or even give you a chance to work it out. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/24 "2009-07-27T16:50:14Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Wait a second… what’d the _ape_ do? > > Watching the director’s cut of **Aliens** is always a mixed bag. I like the scene with Ripley’s kid and the sentry gun test. The bit with Newt’s family traveling out to the crash site always struck me as plodding and ruins the pace despite being the most explanatory of the cut scenes. That bit is terrible. What do you need to know? Colony of people got overrun by hideous aliens. That’s it. The process of being told that the colony of people were overrun by hideous aliens is much more effective if you find out about it as the Marines find out about it. (Granted, you can probably guess what they’ll find) But why bother going through all that to tell the audience what they’ll know anyway AND blow the shock and horror of the Marines’ discovery of what happened? And to be honest, I didn’t like the bit with Ripley’s daughter. It made her bonding with Newt just a bit too ham-handed. Most adults like children (there’s a clever little bit in the film where Newt can’t see onto a table where they’re making a plan, and, wordlessly, a Marine lifts her up so she can see. That’s how adults act around children) and so it’s much more subtle and indicative of Ripley’s humanity if she protects Newt just because, well, that’s what human beings do. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/25 "2009-07-27T16:51:13Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Which version are you talking about? I can remember at least three movies of that name…TRM The one with Daniel Craig. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/26 "2009-07-27T16:54:19Z")
The theatrical release of ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ makes no sense at all, they cut out a lot of the scenes with the child king. In the Directors Cut those scenes are put back and it’s an entirely different movie, one that makes a whole lot more sense. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/27 "2009-07-27T17:09:00Z")
> [@FriarTed](#): > > DOGMA, which I love, is even better & makes more sense when you see Bethany asking the abortion client if she’s thought her decision through and tells her own story, AND the ‘Fat Albert’ segment in the strip club. I read the script for _Dogma_ before watching the movie. Although the script makes twenty times more sense than the finished movie, it’s very, very, very, very loooong. I’ve seen some of the deleted scenes they shot, and there are even more they didn’t shoot. One could say that the editing decisions hurt the movie, but really there should have been a re-write before filming. I’m surprised with all the talk about editing in _Star Wars_ Eps. II and III, no one has mentioned yet that Ep. I was ruined by lack of editing. The current trend, mostly disliked here, is frenetic editing and very quick cuts. It’s interesting to me that there is also a trend towards 3D presentations of movies. The two don’t mix. Perhaps there will be completely different edits produced for 2D and 3D versions. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/28 "2009-07-27T17:33:10Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > And to be honest, I didn’t like the bit with Ripley’s daughter. It made her bonding with Newt just a bit too ham-handed. Most adults like children (there’s a clever little bit in the film where Newt can’t see onto a table where they’re making a plan, and, wordlessly, a Marine lifts her up so she can see. That’s how adults act around children) and so it’s much more subtle and indicative of Ripley’s humanity if she protects Newt just because, well, that’s what human beings do. Wow. This is a great reason for disliking that scene. I always hated it because it meant that Ripley had left her kid behind to go on the Nostromo. Not to mention it seemed very retconned since she never even remotely mentioned her kid in the first movie (like where they’re talking about what they’re going to do when they get back). ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/29 "2009-07-27T17:50:35Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > Wow. This is a great reason for disliking that scene. > > I always hated it because it meant that Ripley had left her kid behind to go on the Nostromo. Not to mention it seemed very retconned since she never even remotely mentioned her kid in the first movie (like where they’re talking about what they’re going to do when they get back). I never saw that scene and I’m glad I didn’t. It cheapens Ripley’s motherly instinct from what you describe. Why does she need to have some child from her past in order to care for Newt? ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/30 "2009-07-27T18:01:52Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > **Quantum of Solace**. All the so-called ‘action’ sequences were edited by someone who wanted to make perfectly sure that not a living soul could follow or understand anything happening on screen. It certainly looked as if some time and miney had been spent prepping and shooting the various action sequences. But it was all for nothing, since the editing was just a mess that _obscured_ whatever was supposed to be happening. > > Who is hitting whom? Who is winning? Who is in that car? What is that person in the car trying to do? What is that person reacting to? Sorry, we’re not going to show you or even give you a chance to work it out. I didn’t watch Quantum of Solace because this bothered me so much in Casino Royale. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/31 "2009-07-27T18:04:56Z")
> [@ianzin](#): > > **Quantum of Solace**. All the so-called ‘action’ sequences were edited by someone who wanted to make perfectly sure that not a living soul could follow or understand anything happening on screen. It certainly looked as if some time and miney had been spent prepping and shooting the various action sequences. But it was all for nothing, since the editing was just a mess that _obscured_ whatever was supposed to be happening. > > Who is hitting whom? Who is winning? Who is in that car? What is that person in the car trying to do? What is that person reacting to? Sorry, we’re not going to show you or even give you a chance to work it out. My husband and I saw this in the theater, and didn’t even realize that the film had started - we assumed that the quick-cutting car chase onscreen was a promo for perhaps the latest _Transporter_ film or something, until one of us finally recognized Daniel Craig. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/32 "2009-07-27T18:23:09Z")
> [@smiling\_bandit](#): > > I haven’t seen this, so I can’t comment, but I definitely would agree the latter scene sounds pointless. The nasty but heartbreaking and honestly _scaryiest_ moment in the whole film comes when you realize that Newt ran and survived while her whole family was killed and eaten (from the inside or outside). Newt isn’t really important to the plot as such - she’s there to remind everyone that this empy colony was a place with real people who died horribly. It sets up why Ripley is perpetually pised off at the Aliens. It’s personal, but it’s not _just_ personal. > > But… showing that too obviously would tend to ruin it. It works much better when the audience makes the ugly inference for themselves. There’s another problem with the opening scene, that’s actually pretty subtle. When Newt and her family are leaving the colony to investigate the alien ship they drive past a sign post saying, “Such-and-such Colony. Population: 100” Which completely undercuts a lot of the tension in the movie, because instead of a seemingly endless horde of aliens, you have a hard upper limit on how many there could possibly be. And when you take into account how many aliens the marines killed in the course of the film (particularly if you leave in the sentry guns scene) you figure there’s, like, five aliens left on the planet when the plant goes nuclear. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/33 "2009-07-27T18:52:27Z")
The deleted scenes in **Serenity** can mostly stay deleted. However, there is one, where Inara is talking with a fellow Companion at a “training House”, who tells her that rumor at the Guild has Inara leaving the profession to have an affair with a “pirate”, presumably Mal. While this rumor is, of course, not true, the scene sort of shows that Inara really no longer fits into the Companion world, and has become as rootless as the rest of the crew of the Serenity. They should have left this one in. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/34 "2009-07-27T19:30:37Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > There’s another problem with the opening scene, that’s actually pretty subtle. When Newt and her family are leaving the colony to investigate the alien ship they drive past a sign post saying, “Such-and-such Colony. Population: 100” Which completely undercuts a lot of the tension in the movie, because instead of a seemingly endless horde of aliens, you have a hard upper limit on how many there could possibly be. And when you take into account how many aliens the marines killed in the course of the film (particularly if you leave in the sentry guns scene) you figure there’s, like, five aliens left on the planet when the plant goes nuclear. Just looked it up (the scene’s on YouTube, of course), and the sign says, “Hadley’s Hope, population 158”. Which sort of keeps in line with the estimate given by the administrator, who said that there were fifty to seventy families manning the station. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/35 "2009-07-27T21:00:17Z")
With all the “Han shot first” hatred directed at the special edition of **Star Wars** , something else got lost in the shuffle. In the original cut, we see the Millenium Falcon for the first time just as Luke does. It’s impressive; full-size in the hangar bay, no special effect. We’re all thinking “cool, a spaceship.” Then Luke says “what a piece of junk.” That tells us a lot. In the universe of the movie, these things are commonplace. That new spaceship smell has worn off, and this trip has all the glamour of going to Baltimore by bus. Maybe thirty years of space movies have taken the impact out of that scene, but I like to think not. Lucas made it irrelevant. The special edition has the added scene with Jabba. We get to see the Millenium Falcon for the first time in the background. From then on, it’s no big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/36 "2009-07-27T21:16:26Z")
Ok, I can agree with the criticisms of the “kid scene” from **Aliens**. I suppose I liked it because it helped drive home how long Ripley had been adrift. I mean, nothing else about the world 60-odd years in the (Ripley’s) future seems to stand out. But I can see the ham-handed point of view. Still though… Sentry guns were pretty cool 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/37 "2009-07-27T21:43:23Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Wait a second… what’d the _ape_ do? That was the punishment which Michael the Amorian, a Judeo-Phrygian general who had plotted to kill the Byzantine emperor Leo V in 820. He was jailed, and sentenced to be tied to an ape and then tossed into the furnace of the imperial bath. However, Michael was broken out of jail by his compatriots, and they then dressed up as members of the choir and snuck into the Hagia Sophia church during the Christmas Mass and stabbed the emperor Leo to death. (He tried to defend himself by swinging an incense burner.) After this coup Michael was crowned Emperor - founding the Amorian dynasty which ruled until 867. I swear to God I’m not making this story up. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068/38 "2009-07-27T22:34:54Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Just looked it up (the scene’s on YouTube, of course), and the sign says, “Hadley’s Hope, population 158”. Which sort of keeps in line with the estimate given by the administrator, who said that there were fifty to seventy families manning the station. Yeah, there’s other ways you can figure out roughly how many aliens there are, but something about seeing an exact figure up on the screen like that really cut a lot of the tension for me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-ruined-by-editing/504068.md?page=1)