A-List: Director's Cuts
By Josh Spiegel
August 26, 2010
The doldrums of August are about to come to a close, and fall is finally coming to most of the nation. But, before we can say goodbye to high temperatures, humidity, and other unwelcome elements of the summer, multiplexes across the nation are having one last stab at summer glory. Well, rather, one overconfident director wants another stab at summer glory; the director is James Cameron and the movie is Avatar. Long since have passed the days when we all thought that Cameron would finally miss his target with an epic-length, science-fiction action adventure about a futuristic planet called Pandora, populated by the Na’Vi. Despite all the negativity, Avatar is now the highest-grossing movie ever, everywhere. So why is Avatar being re-released this weekend? Say the magic words with me, kids: director’s cut!
Yes, Avatar is being re-released in an even longer format; this version is eight minutes longer, making the film run 170 minutes. When it’s released again on DVD and Blu-ray, there will be even more footage. James Cameron is one of the greatest offenders among directors, constantly going back to the grindstone, editing and re-editing footage, all to make clearer his vision of a film. He is, of course, not the only one. People like Ridley Scott and Michael Mann are well-known for updating their previous films, sometimes by excising footage and adding in new shots of similar scenes. Though I’m not talking about it in today’s A-List, the quintessential director’s cut is Blade Runner, which, honestly, might have a few editions left. Today, though, let’s look at five movies whose director’s cuts have been released, but not with such fanfare as Avatar.
Kingdom of Heaven
As I said in the previous paragraph, one of the reigning kings of director’s cuts in cinema is Ridley Scott. Even when they’re not necessary or even official director’s cuts (see his 2003 version of Alien, which he has admitted is pretty pointless), Scott loves tinkering with his films. Blade Runner has countless versions, as does Alien, but his most notable director’s cut is from only a few years ago: the 2005 sword-and-sandals drama Kingdom of Heaven. This film tanked at the box office, running for 144 minutes and making only $47 million in North America. However, the film’s extended version is meant to illuminate the theatrical cut’s many problems, enhance some characters’ roles, and adds nearly 50 minutes to the running time. Most people who are fans of the film are fans solely thanks to the director’s cut.
So why would such a film end up in such a truncated form? Well, even though Ridley Scott is Ridley Scott (and the film came after his Best Picture win for Gladiator), 20th Century Fox was unwilling to release a movie that ran more than three hours, because executives assumed - probably incorrectly - that people wouldn’t want to watch such long movies. The shorter version, of course, tanked, partly because of faulty marketing. Does the longer version of Kingdom of Heaven do better in theaters? It’s hard to say, but as a clearer story, it seems to succeed. Unlike most of Scott’s various extended versions (with perhaps an exception for the versions of Blade Runner that excised the awful voice-over narration), Kingdom of Heaven’s extended cut is a must-see, if only to see the right movie Scott wanted to make.
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