# What Director's Cuts are better or worse than the official release?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-directors-cuts-are-better-or-worse-than-the-official-release/474617>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 26, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-directors-cuts-are-better-or-worse-than-the-official-release/474617 "2008-11-26T22:29:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**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:** [November 28, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-directors-cuts-are-better-or-worse-than-the-official-release/474617/41 "2008-11-28T15:23:47Z")

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> [@Tenebras](#):
>
> I came in to say _Aliens_. There’s a difference between “makes the movie better” and “fills in background” and the scenes cut out of _Aliens_ should have stayed on the cutting room floor. The (pre-scouring) colony scenes just weren’t any good and didn’t need to be there. There’s no need to see kids on bigwheels.

I agree that the colony scenes are a drag. On the other hand, I like the scene where Ripley learns about her daughter and the scene with the sentry guns is just plain cool (“Next time they walk right up and knock” “Yeah, but they don’t know that”).

Dump the Big Wheel/whiny middle-management drone/ship exploration section and leave the rest, in my opinion. As is, I tend to just fast-forawrd through the colony scene.

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**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-directors-cuts-are-better-or-worse-than-the-official-release/474617/42 "2008-11-28T15:39:13Z")

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Let us not forget that there have been _two_ significant revisitations on at least two of the films getting talked about here.

_Close Encounters_ got a “Special Edition” in 1980, which added some nice new effects, rearranged a few scenes, and added that horrible inside-the-mothership ending. It then got a “Collector’s Edition” in 2002, which returned to the original ending.

_Blade Runner_ had the “Director’s Cut” in 1992 without the noir-inspired voiceover and happy ending and with the unicorn dream sequence. It then got a “Final Cut” in 2007, which IMHO is the best of them all, with better pacing and a finer attention to theme. (There were of course, other versions like the 1982 “International Cut,” but I’m going with widely-available-in-the-US versions here).

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**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-directors-cuts-are-better-or-worse-than-the-official-release/474617/43 "2008-11-28T15:49:26Z")

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> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#):
>
> There’s at least two extended cuts of Aliens that Cameron oversaw. One isn’t bad, the other completely runs the movie off the rails by revealing the colony almost immediately making the first hour of the film completely pointless. Yes the audience knows the buggers are going to show up eventually but showing us a few ineffective scenes of the colony being overrun and then going back to the marines who spend a lot of time wandering around in the dark saying, “What’s going on here?” undercuts the dramatic tension.

Exactly what I came in here to say.

The directors cut of _Last of the Mohicans_ is bad, randomly thrown in scenes that do nothing for the story but slow down the action. Yeah, that fact makes it more like the book, but that’s not always a good thing.

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**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-directors-cuts-are-better-or-worse-than-the-official-release/474617/44 "2008-11-28T22:22:41Z")

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> [@Rilchiam](#):
>
> Whoa. Is there a full director’s cut of that? Because as I understood it, it was more like an alternate turning point than an alternate ending; that more than just the final scene was changed. \>snip spoiler\< Was enough of this alternate final act filmed to flesh out a separate version?

It was a few years ago that I saw it and looking around online I find it isn’t available on DVD, only VHS. I do remember it was a VHS movie that I watched. I found the VHS [here](http://cgi.ebay.com/Fatal-Attraction-Directors-Cut-VHS-Widescreen_W0QQitemZ250320546032QQihZ015QQcategoryZ309QQcmdZViewItem).

Your spoiler was right on the ending because she never goes to their house at the very end to surprise Anne Archer.

In fact, there is something of a small hint to the director’s ending in the scene where he goes to her apartment and they fight (the scene where she runs at him in the kitchen with the knife).

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