Deleted Scenes

Wedwood

Looking at the latest Bluray releases, one of the increasing selling points are the deleted scenes.

When DVDs/BluRays originally included them they were a novelty, such as the Star Wars movies. Now deleted scenes are used as a marketing tool, or cynically to 'fix' poor movies like the recent DC films, when all they're really doing is inserting padding that slows or damages the pace of the movie, which was usually the reason it was deleted in the first place.

The only good examples of restoring deleted scenes I can recall is when David Lean restored Lawrence of Arabia to its full glory, after cinema owners in 1962 asked to shorten the running time by 26 minutes to get more daily shows in.

The other example is Superman II the Donner Cut, which restored the scenes shot by Donner, including Marlon Brando's scenes, which had been deleted by the Salkinds to avoid paying both him and Donner. It shows what Superman II might have been, rather than the otherwise good Richard Lester directed version, which had reshoots to make over 50% of the movie Lester's so he got the director's credit.

There's a value to seeing these otherwise lost scenes restored, unlike the junk we're now being served and paying top dollar for.

smash

Deleted scenes, alternative endings and out takes were always on DVD. This is nothing new.

Mickeroo

smash wrote: »

Deleted scenes, alternative endings and out takes were always on DVD. This is nothing new.

Their issue seems to be with extended cuts rather than stand alone deleted scenes.

Fysh

There are plenty of films that have had too much material cut in post-production - Prometheus and Scott Pilgrim are two examples off the top of my head. In both cases the deleted scenes help round out the story, and also in both cases faneditors have created extended cuts reintegrating the deleted material into the original release. (The Raid 2, overlong though it may have been, also had this happen as it had a significant action scene cut during post). This phenomenon is the main reason I'm in favour of deleted scenes being included in home releases - sure, often you can see why they were cut, but other times they help to round out characters or plot elements which are under-served.

I also own 3 copies of Metropolis, because there were repeated instances of discovering lost footage which was then reintegrated into the film and re-released...but that's an exception as there are few films I'd buy multiple copies of.

Nobody's making you buy the Bu-ray version that has all the deleted scenes and extras, if you don't feel that they add value to the film.

Duggy747

In other cases I like seeing different versions of endings, like the ending to Die Hard 3 where Jeremy Irons gets away but McClane tracks him down to a little cafe in Europe and forces him to play a game.

Squall Leonhart

Another one that comes to mind is I Am Legend, not quite deleted scenes, but the theatrical end and the dvd end were different, and changed the feel completely.

arch_stanton

Kingdom of Heaven is another example where the directors cut with restored scenes is far better than the cinema release.

I still cling to the hope that Ridley Scott has a better version of Prometheus filed away somewhere

xalot

Leon: The professional. The international cut adds 22 minutes and brings a very different tone to the film. I think I prefer the theatrical cut.

mikhail

Fysh wrote: »

I also own 3 copies of Metropolis, because there were repeated instances of discovering lost footage which was then reintegrated into the film and re-released...but that's an exception as there are few films I'd buy multiple copies of.

Metropolis is not a representative example, seeing as the scenes you are talking about were lost rather than removed in a deliberate editing process.

johnny_ultimate

I think unnecessarily deleted scenes are pretty much solely an issue with big budget blockbusters. Whether that's because it was 'too long' for a commercial release (ah, the days when four hour films were happily accepted by audiences), or because the director was overpowered by studio interests. The vast majority of worthwhile director's cuts or extended versions are a result of clear clashes between creative and commercial interests.

Off the top of my head there's a few noteworthy examples outside Hollywood where films exist in multiple versions - stuff like Fanny & Alexander or Out 1. In those two cases anyway the difference between the full and 'theatrical' cuts (and that's a good eight hour difference :pac:) are a result of them originally being intended for television. When it comes to silent films, multiple versions sometimes exist for purely practical, historical reasons - it's a miracle we have some of them at all.

Extended or uncut editions are, IMO, mostly marketing ploys. There's a few exceptions, of course - I think the Lord of the Rings versions largely strike a decent balance: the extended edition is a nice bonus that provides some welcome breathing space but the original versions work perfectly fine on their own terms. Still a bit of a marketing ploy, though, especially with the way they handled the Blu-Ray release :cool:

'Deleted scenes' used to fascinate me, but truth is most of them are cut for good reason. Their inclusion on a DVD or Blu-Ray can be intriguing in illustrating the thought process behind a film's editing, but again outside Hollywood where directors have more control there's no major need for them to see the light of day beyond the curiosity factor.

Fysh

mikhail wrote: »

Metropolis is not a representative example, seeing as the scenes you are talking about were lost rather than removed in a deliberate editing process.

The material was removed by a distributor-appointed editor after its premiere, because the distributors considered it to be "too long and unwieldy" in the cut that was originally premiered; it was considered to be lost but most of it has since been recovered more through . Which makes it a textbook case of business interests interfering with the shape of the film for non-aesthetic considerations

Skerries

I rather enjoyed the "This time it's more" cut of Aliens with 17 minutes of added cuts
It gives you more insight into why Ripley is so attached to Newt and more of her background on the planet, also that sentry gun scene was tense

Sometimes it is interesting to see what a director decided to change that vastly improves the film
Case in point Tony Scott's True Romance where he had an argument with Quentin Tarantino the writer who wanted it to have a bad ending until Scott did both versions and after Tarantino agreed that his (Scott) happy ending was better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx7VH-CApns

rockatansky

I'm an absolutely massive fan of both Terminator 1 and 2. There's 9 minutes of Terminator 1 that never made into the film. Most of it is just filler but there's one scene where Kyle Reese has a slight mental breakdown in a forest. I'm delighted it landed on the cutting room floor as I don't think it belongs in the film however I still really enjoy watching these parts that the actors and director that you get to know well have put effort into.