Tag: Director’s Cut

The fantasy drama Mood Indigo was released on DVD and Blu-ray in the US where it included the theatrical cut and director’s cut of the film. The director’s cut was released theatrically in France and in other countries. The UK Blu-ray release includes both version of the film. Film Comment interviewed director Michel Gondry in 2016 where he was asked about the director’s cut:

Film Comment: I really loved Microbe & Gasoline, but I also enjoyed Mood Indigo, and I was surprised how resistant people were to it. Do you have a sense of why? You did release a director’s cut.

Michel Gondry: I don’t know if I prefer the director’s cut or not. It’s hard to talk about that because I don’t want to dismiss a film that I like so much. One of the reasons was maybe that it’s from a novel that everybody has read, so everybody has their own idea. It’s very visual even in the writing, so I put my own vision on it and many people didn’t agree with it.

Source: Interview: Michel Gondry, Film Comment

The director’s preferred edition: Undecided

In 2004 director Peter Bogdanovich finally got to release his preferred version of the 1985 drama Mask – only one year shy from the 20th anniversary of the film. His director’s cut of the film included new scenes and more importantly, the right music that Bogdanovich wanted to include in the theatrical cut of the film. In a featurette on the 2004 director’s cut DVD Bogdanovich states the following:

“It has taken 20 years for me, for us all to get to the place where we could show this version. It’s thanks to Universal’s home video department and Bruce Springsteen, who made, I think, an offer to them they couldn’t refuse, finally getting this out there. Because I know Bruce always liked the original version and was sorry nobody saw it.”

“Eric Stolz, Cher and Sam [Elliott], We all… This is the version we made, and the version we wanted to put out there and for various reasons, couldn’t. So 20 years later, here it is.”

Source: Mask Revealed: A Conversation with Peter Bogdanovich on the director’s cut DVD

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

The action adventure film The Rundown, or Welcome to the Jungle as it’s called in some countries, is one of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s first films. A director’s cut of the film was released on DVD in the UK but is in fact simply the theatrical cut without edits that the distributor had made to ensure a lower rating for the theatrical run of the film. Therefore there is no director’s cut, just the theatrical cut. The theatrical cut is available on DVD and Blu-ray in the US.

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

The 1984 Robert Redford’s sports drama The Natural is widely considered one of the best sports movies of all time. In 2007 director Barry Levinson released a director’s cut of the film on a special edition DVD. The theatrical cut is available on DVD and Blu-ray. In an introduction to the director’s cut Levinson states:

“I think what makes this DVD of The Natural interesting to me, is I’m not simply expanding couple scenes here and there, but re-doing the entire first act. Which is much closer to the original intention and we never got that opportunity when we were originally cutting the movie because of the time frame that we had and this post-production schedule that was so compressed that we never got to sort out the opening. there were a lot of elements that had to go together and the beginning wasn’t quite working and we had so many things to do that that we ultimately abandoned that, and gave up on that, just to complete the work at hand. This DVD version is much closer to the intention that we had in mind.”

Source: Introduction by director Barry Levinson on the director’s cut of The Nautral on DVD

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

James Grey’s sophomore crime drama The Yards was shelved for two years by Miramax before it was released in 2000. The theatrical cut is available on DVD and Blu-ray but the unrated director’s cut is only available on DVD dubbed as a “exclusive unrated director’s cut”. The unrated director’s cut includes a commentary track with Gray and fellow director Steven Soderbergh that starts like this:

Steven Soderbergh: Hi, this is Steven Soderbergh, I’m with James Gray. Co-writer, director of The Yards. Which are about to get into here now. First, most importanly, what version of this film are we about to see, am I now going to see a different version than I’ve ever seen before?

James Gray: You are indeed.

Steven Soderbergh: What? Because I heard about this legendary alternative cut that I guess you screen for impressible young women, or something.

James Gray: Well, no. This was screened actually only for about five hundred fellow Americans at a mall in New Jersey.

Steven Soderbergh: Oh?

James Gray: Yeah, this is the cut of the movie as I had wanted it, you know. It was sort of my ideal version of the movie. And I think the final version fairly similar. This version, believe it or not, is about 2 minutes shorter than the final version that came out.

 

Source: James Grey’s and Steven Soderbergh’s commentary on the unrated director’s cut of The Yards on DVD

The director’s preferred edition: Unrated Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

The Hong Kong martial arts director John Woo helmed the run-of-the-mill World War II film Windtalkers in 2002. The theatrical cut has been released DVD and Blu-ray but a director’s cut of the film is only available on DVD. In a introduction to the director’s cut Woo states:

“Hello, I’m John Woo. Welcome to the director’s cut of Windtalkers. This is the first time I’m given the opportunity to present my cut of this film to the public and I’m very pleased with what you will be seeing. Often the hardest thing about making a movie is deciding what needs to be cut and with this version I’m able to feature the material I felt needed to be put back in.”

Source: John Woo’s introduction to the director’s cut of Windtalkers on DVD

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

The lackluster Reindeer Games was slammed by critics and audiences alike when it was originally released in theaters in 2000. It was the last film that the legendary John Frankenheimer directed and only a year before he died a director’s of the film was released on DVD. The director’s cut on available on both DVD and Blu-ray while the theatrical cut is only available on DVD. On the commentary track of the director’s cut Frankenheimer states early on:

“This version, you’re about to see is a combination of the released version and my final director’s cut. Before we did the first preview of the movie. I feel that the preview process hurt this movie. We had expected that the audience would embrace the movie in the previews more than they did. When the first results came in they were not bad but they were not what the producers had expected. There became a enormous pressure on me to cut the picture because the distributor were convinced that the audience were reacting to the fact that the film was too long. In retrospect I should not have cut the movie. But I did and I feel that you the audience were the people eventually the one who were cheated by this. I think this version of the movie you’re about to see really represents the film that I set out to make. Which is quite honestly is a very edgy, hard movie. And there is no doubt about the fact that the released version lost a lot of its edge. It was much softer than the film that I originally had directed.”

Source: John Frankenheimer’s commentary on the director’s cut of Reindeer Games on DVD

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

In 2006 the all-monster-movie channel Monsters HD premiered Stuart Gordon’s director’s cut of the horror film From Beyond from 1986. The director’s cut was Gordon’s original cut of the film before he submitted it to the MPAA for a rating. The US and UK Blu-ray release of From Beyond is the director’s cut.

A press release from the now defunct channel upon on the premiere of the film says:

“Forced to cut his film by the MPAA in order to get an “R” rating, Gordon has waited two decades for his vision of From Beyond to escape the darkness and now, to commemorate the film’s 20th anniversary, Monsters HD and Stuart Gordon have teamed up to finally bring the “Director’s Cut” of From Beyond to terrifying light.

In 1986, Gordon, who also founded Chicago’s famed Organic Theater, had just come off of Re-Animator, which screened at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival and quickly became a worldwide hit with critics and audiences – all without a rating. As a result, Gordon says, “They were very upset and, I think, trying to get revenge for the unrated Re-Animator. So we had to submit the film at least a dozen times, maybe more.” According to Gordon, meeting with the ratings board “was like going to the principal’s office to get scolded. They sat me down and the woman I was meeting with said, ‘This is disgusting. Instead of pulling away, you keep pushing in and pushing in and pushing in!’ and I was like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry!’ We ended up cutting out over a minute’s worth of material to finally get it released with an R-rating. They really took out some of the best stuff.”

Source: Monster HD & Filmmaer Stuart Gordon Unite for the 20th Anniversary High-Def Restoration of the Horror Classic “From Beyond” press release

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

The Exorcist is without a doubt one of the influential horror films of all time and is one of two horror films that have been nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The other being Silence of the Lambs which won Best Picture in 1991. In 2000 director William Friedkin edited a new cut of The Exorcist, billed as Extended Director’s Cut – Version You’ve Never Seen. Warner Bros released the new cut in theaters where it made $40 million dollars at the box office. Not bad for a 27 year old film.

When The Exorcist was released on Blu-ray in 2010 Friedkin changed both the theatrical cut and extended director’s cut where he removed stone demons in two scenes resulting in the altered theatrical cut and altered director’s cut. On the Blu-ray released Friedkin states in a featurette:

“The original cut of The Exorcist, Bill Blatty [William Blatty] and I disagreed about. I cut a number of scenes out, more than 12 minutes’ worth…So there are all these versions of it, and I now tend to believe with Blatty that the best version, the most complete version is the 2000 version, The Version You’ve Never Seen.”

Source: William Friedkin, Faces of Evil: The Different Versions of The Exorcist” featurette on Blu-ray

The director’s preferred edition: Altered Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com
Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com – The Altered Cuts

Cop Land is James Mangold’s star-studded sophomore film. In 2011 Miramax released a director’s cut of the film on DVD and Blu-ray. The theatrical cut is available on DVD in the US. On the commentary track on director’s cut Mangold states the following:

“One of the things I wanna do while I’m here and this is running just to thank first of all the three people that are right there on that card: Bob [Weinstein], Harvey [Weinstein] and Meryl [Poster] for letting us go back and do this again, and kind of put it back the way I first showed it to them. And have the understanding and also the financial support to let me do it and put it out there.”

“… and how proud I am that we got to put out the version that we all set out to make when we started.”

Source: James Mangold on the director’s cut commentary on Cop Lands on Blu-ray

The director’s preferred edition: Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com