The Medium is Not Enough TV blog: Microfeed for "Question for the day: directors' cuts - good or bad?" http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/2007/09/question_for_the_day_directors.php Comments for the entry "Question for the day: directors' cuts - good or bad?" en-us Movable Type v4.32-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:44:45 +00:00 Comment from Kev The Lord of the Rings jumps to mind. The "Extended Editions" were planned from very early on, so were designed rather than bolted together late in the day. I'm not saying it wasn't a way to fleece the punters, just that they were honest enough about it up front and managed to come up with two cracking versions of each film (if you like that sort of thing)

]]> 3545@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c22276 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 12:44:45 +00:00 Comment from Phoenix I cannot think of *any* directors' cuts that are better, or even as-good-as, the theatre releases. I'm sure at least one must exist, I just can't think of it.

I think directors often don't really know why their movies are good (or bad), so how can giving them free reign to make their movie "their way" make them better?

Most often (always?), a director's cut is longer than the original release. But, if the footage originally cut were essential, it wouldn't have been cut in the first place, and putting it back in just waters down the experience.

Don't take 130 minutes to tell a 90 minute story.

]]> 3545@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c22277 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 19:57:48 +00:00 Comment from frisbee Phoenix

Kingdom of Heaven: butchered on release. Director's cut is a different and far greater film.

Abyss: directors cut makes more sense. in general, the dirctor's cuts are better in James cameron's work, titanic excepted.

The reason lots of movies get cut aren't for artistic reasons but finanial: too long= not enough screenings per day= not enough money made. Lots of films are cut for time restrictions from the studio, not to remove bloat.

]]> 3545@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c22278 Fri, 28 Sep 2007 22:45:28 +00:00 Comment from Mark H Wilkinson The one I would've made the case for being "indisputable" is Blade Runner. But as you've just disputed its betterness, I can't really go with that one.

Ok, then, it'll have to be Welles's original cut of Macbeth and Kubrick's restored version of Spartacus.

]]> 3545@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c22281 Sat, 29 Sep 2007 07:59:12 +00:00 Comment from MediumRob Was never sure about Hopkins' impression of Olivier for that version. But, it is good, I will agree.

I've also had a think about other directors' cuts and it occurs to me that the director's cut of Lethal Weapon is better than the original.

]]> 3545@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c22289 Sun, 30 Sep 2007 15:14:38 +00:00 Comment from Stu Nathan Speaking of Welles, does the restored version of 'Touch of Evil' count? It's done according to Welles' notes. And it's definitely better.

]]> 3545@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c22290 Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:41:48 +00:00 Comment from MediumRob It almost counts. If the idea of a director's cut is that the director says "That's the version I'm happiest with", then clearly no, it isn't. It's more like an artist's impression of a director's cut. Close, but no one can say for sure if the director (ie Welles) wouldn't have wanted to do a little more fiddling once he was sat in the editing suite.

]]> 3545@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c22291 Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:45:41 +00:00 Comment from Rullsenberg With you all the way on the issue of Blade Runner: I'm holding onto my video copy of the original cut just for that purpose.

However, I also much prefer the longer Director's cut version of JFK, which in its shorter (and yes I know its still umpteen hours long) just seems to lose a lot of its internal coherance. Yes, I know I just said that about an Oliver Stone film, but I'm a JFK assassination story freak and I love the flawed genius of Stone's version!

]]> 3545@http://www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com/#c22481 Fri, 19 Oct 2007 19:43:31 +00:00