A-List: Director's Cuts
By Josh Spiegel
August 26, 2010
Touch of Evil
Calling this a director’s cut is something of a misnomer, but Touch of Evil is perhaps the best and saddest example of a director having his film taken away from him that it’s worth including on this list. Unlike some of the other films on this week’s A-List, Touch of Evil is best seen with the director’s intentions at heart. The theatrical cut of this 1958 noir classic, set on the Mexico border, is 95 minutes long. Over the years, the cut from director and co-star Orson Welles has been lost. However, over a 40-year period, Universal Studios and dedicated film restorers, including famed editor Walter Murch, have worked on two different, longer versions. One is 108 minutes long, one is 112 minutes long. The latter, Murch’s version, tries to meet Welles’ vision as much as possible.
But is Touch of Evil even worth seeing, you may be asking. You, dear reader, are missing out on a stylish, atmospheric classic of film noir. The plot revolves around a bomb that goes off near the border of Mexico and the United States, and the ensuing investigation, which brings together a straight-arrow federal agent (Charlton Heston, playing a Mexican-American), his wife (Janet Leigh), and an overweight policeman who wants to keep control of his little town as much as possible (Welles, in one of his most iconic roles). Touch of Evil is never going to be as perfect as it may have been back in 1958, but the work done by Murch and his colleagues for the 1998 restoration is as close to perfection as we’re going to get. If you haven’t yet seen Touch of Evil, do so, and so quickly. It’s one of the all-time greats.
Apocalypse Now Redux
Apocalypse Now is one of those movies. It’s one of those movies that has been regarded as a classic since its release that I…do not love. There is no question that the scope of the film, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, is staggering, and the performances from Marlon Brando and Dennis Hopper are electrifying and make the film’s third act one of the most memorable in movie history. What’s more, the supporting cast (including Robert Duvall and Laurence Fishburne) is excellent. I can’t say much bad about Martin Sheen either, though I’ve preferred him in less cipher-like roles. So what is it about Apocalypse Now that I do not love? Well, I’ve only ever seen the director’s cut, which retitles the film to Apocalypse Now Redux, released in 2001. The original film is 153 minutes long; Redux is 202 minutes long. There is clearly a big difference, but not for the better.
Though Coppola’s vision for the film, presenting Vietnam as the ultimate hell, remains intact, it also sags in many places. The extra 50 minutes of the film are made up of a few added scenes to sequences we’re all familiar with, such as the sequence dominated by Duvall’s flamboyant soldier and the Playboy section, but there’s also a lengthy subplot set on a French plantation that appears in the Redux. Does it need to be in the movie? According to Coppola, sure; still, this is one of those times where we have to ask if the director’s intent is the intent we should stick with. Just because he says it’s part of the true movie, should we agree that it’s so? Apocalypse Now is filled with memorable visuals, iconic lines, performances, and so on. Its Redux is too expansive, pushing the limit on what we should accept from even the most visionary directors.
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