This is a thread to talk about cases where there are multiple edits of a movie, usually with the longer one being the harder to find thing…and then when you finally have the long cut you realize the movie isn’t any better.

Obviously Blade Runner and Brazil had messed up theatrical editions, and those Lord of the Rings movies mostly did get better when bloated way beyond their original already super long running times. That’s non-controversial. But what about when the opposite is true? Like those Hobbit movies that came later?

There are a few instances where I prefer the short version of something but the one that got me thinking about this enough to start a thread is New Order Story. This is a documentary about the band New Order that I’ve been a big fan of for a long time.

Originally I saw Story on American VHS when it came out more or less as part of the Republic campaign. As an American we didn’t get a lot of NO on TV or in music magazines so this release was a big deal for fans like me and my friends who were stuck in the middle of nowhere and wanted to know more about the people that made these cool records. It has the entire band interviewed together and separately and also lots of time with Rob Gretton and Tony Wilson…Factory was gone by this point but everyone was still around and talking to each other. This was all pretty much *right* before they broke up for the first time so it pretty much encapsulated the history of the band and was considered “current” for longer than most rock documentaries about still existing bands usually do. It’s a great feature. I love it. It also had edited into it most of the videos that weren’t on the Substance 1989 VHS, another favorite of mine when I was like 20.

Now at some point I became aware that there was a Japanese LD that was so much longer than the 60 min version I had that it needed to be a 2XLD but I never found it for a good price so I always just wondered about it…

…until many years later when a DVD called Item came out. Item was essentially two different releases in a slipcase. One DVD of all their videos and the other DVD was the long version of Story. US region and cheap, I bought it. I watched it. It’s long! 140 minutes, way longer than twice as long as version I originally knew. WTF? That’s a huge difference in running times. So what do you get?

Well, amazingly not much. You get more videos and you get all that weird as heck Baywatch semi-live beach music video they did for Regret with The Hoff cut into it. (Bizarre stuff.). For the most part though it’s just way more talking, longer cuts of the same sequences. Lots of words, yes, things seen, factoids acquired, but man it’s *long*. You’d think it was a thing about the Civil War or something, sheesh.

I’m told that this long cut originally ran on ITV. Don’t they run ads on ITV? This thing must have taken up and entire afternoon!

So honestly I think I prefer the much shorter version. The Baywatch real is…bad. It’s bad and dumb and really uncool so it seems strange putting it into a movie about how cool the band is. If anything maybe I’d have shortened the thing down from 60 min by simply pulling all of the footage of Bono out of it. All his footage is him pointing a Handycam at his face and doing a Cory Feldman impression. I think he may have literally mailed in his footage so he’s never on screen with anyone and cutting all his clips out wouldn’t leave any detectable hole.

The only thing I would want more of is the parts where they’re all drunk and laughing at the dinner table.

What movies do you prefer a shorter version of?

This is a good subject. Thanks for bringing it up. Dune (1984) comes to my mind immediately. I think I prefer the theatrical (shorter) version of T2. I will have to think a bit but I am sure there are many more.

Ah finally a topic about films and not just how someone spent 400 dollars on killer klowns from outer space or how do I fix my S-201 again.

There are way too many films like this, in recent times I've been trying to get the theatrical versions of some films since they haven't been re-released
on newer formats, probably due to the copyrights or something like that.

Dune is a great example, but I do have to say I do like the longer version better than the shorter, but haven't seen either in years so may watch that
shorter one in the next few weeks as I do enjoy the film much more after reading the book.

Highlander, while only a few minutes longer doesn't really add much at all to the story.

Most of the time its only 3-10 minutes longer. I think its more of a recent issue where they started adding hours to the films to make them
as a pitch to sell more, see it in the theater then buy the longer DVD, sort of something I would pull to make more money

I know there are some scenes extended in the Conan film but never saw the longer version, nor do I need to.

There are others, like Alien, Aliens, T2 like Substance mentioned, but I personally can't watch T2 anymore, used to love that film
but now I see its too focused on kids, maybe since I've grown up I don't need to see them anymore?

That's kind of funny since it's still an R-rated movie. I think the issue isn't so much that it's "for kids", it's that it's way more mainstream than its predecessor.

Speaking of R-rated movies, the R-rated version of Re-Animator actually runs a little longer than the unrated one due to all the deleted scenes that were added back in to pad up the runtime for all the scenes that got cut in return. Well, you can now get a version of the movie that keeps the footage from both cuts but I still think the unrated version is the better one, and I'm not talking about the gore here (I've never seen the actual R-rated version anyway).

The dinner scene runs a little longer; after Dan and Megan leave, Dr Halsey and Dr Hill continue their conversation, during which Hill hypnotizes Halsey into getting rid of Dan. While this scene does explain why Halsey acts uncharacteristically hostile towards Dan when the latter confronts him about what West has been up to, it also spoils the surprise of Hill having any sort of hypnotic ability.

Terminator 2 I think is still a valid mention, but I'm referring more to the extended cut with the coda ending, which to me just feels unnecessary and cheesy.

Yeah I guess I was trying to say kids movie as the story revolved around a kid and his buddy until his buddy went away then got another buddy being the Terminator.
Like most Spielberg films, just revolving too much around kids, his early films didn't have that issue, not that I care too much for those but Jaws and Close Encounters
don't really have the kid deal like his War of the Worlds did.

Guess its that WC Fields coming out of me now

I would put my vote toward Robocop.

The extended edition on Criterion was supposed to be the original cut but the MPAA slapped an x-rating on it until it was re-edited. The funny thing (as many have commented on before) is that the edit that we ended up seeing in theaters makes the film more serious when it was really meant to be more a satire. I kind of like it as a serious film (shorter cut) because I feel it does make those dramatic scenes more meaningful to the plight of our protagonist.

Wasn't robocop just cut in seconds rather than actual minutes?
I actually haven't seen the original release since I sold it off when I picked up the criterion release, guess I should get a copy since its technically the theatrical release.

Yeah, IIRC the only added footage is a few seconds that extend the deaths of Kinney, Murphy and Boddicker. They're otherwise exactly the same.

Verhoeven in the DVD Making of mentioned that he wanted the extra violence and framing to make Murphy more of a Jesus figure being crucified, then resuscitated.



Julien

The Alien movies definitely come to mind. Haven't seen them in awhile but I remember preferring the shorter version of one of them for sure.

This can be relevant for anime as well. I really prefer the movie trilogy for the OG gundam over the series these days.

Indeed. The movies are a vastly superior telling of Gundam. No sponsors, no cancellation, way more money per frame, existing fan base…it all makes it easier.

I’m told that fan edit of Jackson’s Hobbit that cuts it down to one movie is the best version and I have no reason to doubt it. It shouldn’t take longer to watch a movie of a book than it takes to read the book.

The Hobbit definitely should have just been one movie. That fan edit sounds intriguing.

Oh yeah, Aliens, when you cut those scenes shorter with newt its better, used to like the extended cut but the pacing is better.
Did they ever release the first Alien with the cocoon scenes intact? I've only ever seen the LD box set and never had any DVDs or anything of that film.

Just picked up the LOTR theatrical cuts, I've never seen the 2nd and 3rd theatrical only those extended versions, but now it would be interesting to see them
cut shorter.
I doubt I could read one of those books a day, I know I'm a slow reader but that would be a feat.

Does someone know where the Phantom Edit of SW ep.1 removing all of Jar Jar Binks and some other annoying material can still be found/downloaded?

Julien

The Hobbit is 300 pages. It would be a race, but the movie version is NINE HOURS so it could certainly be done.

VERDICT: Where there’s a whip there’s a way. Topcraft, Kubo, Rankin & Bass did it best even though they only half did it.

I though LOTR not hobbit, f**k hobbit terrible book and I would never sit through that many films for one horrible story.
I've slogged through that crap and it turned me off of any of his other books.

The "director's cut" of Alien is such a weird creature. Calling it a director's cut is a bit of a misnomer anyway since even Ridley Scott himself admits that he prefers the theatrical cut; the alternate cut that's been included with the film probably at least since the DVD box set is basically just an interesting effort to place the formerly deleted scenes into the full context of the movie. Which I wouldn't necessarily say I like, but I do appreciate.

This is a good topic to discuss. Generally, by the time home-video versions of movies are made available, any true problems or shortcomings of the theater versions have been discussed or announced to the public. So, with that in mind, unless there is a general consensus of obvious faults with the original theater version of a movie, I accept and prefer -that version- of a movie as the "correct" one.

One good example for me was "Once Upon A Time In America" in about 1990 or so, when the studio chopped major parts out of a long movie for theaters but fortunately the laser disc version was "uncut".

What I -do- wish to see in movies is restoration of cut scenes, such as the "lying in the median" scene from "The Program", or the "hijack" scene from "The Out-Of-Towners". (I do not care whatsoever about "Hi, Carrie" or who pointed the gun first or whatever from the "Star Wars" movies, though.)