Apocalypse Now
The Exorcist
Blade Runner for me. I’m probably the only one lol.
I agree with Apocalypse Now (plus, it’s my favorite film). While I enjoyed the scenes put back in, they didn’t really ad to the story and slowed the film down, where as the 79 release was perfectly paced.
Dark City is another film I prefer the theatrical release over the director’s cut
I haven’t yet seen the DC of Kingdom of Heaven, but am interested to compare the cuts
Would agree on both Apocalypse Now and The Exorcist. Sometimes an editor is a good thing ; )
As I have in another thread, I would disagree with Apocalypse Now. I think the director’s cut inclusion of the French plantation material adds a wonderful new dimension to the film.
I much preferred the original release of Donnie Darko. The director’s cut had better music but way too much wormhole storybook mumbo-jumbo.
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
E.T.
Apocalypse Now
The Exorcist
Blade Runner is the only example of an improved director’s Cut I can think of.
While not a technically a director’s cut, the restoration done on Touch of Evil according to Welles’ notes was also an improvement.
I liked the director’s cut better for Donnie Darko. It made the things going on seem less random.
But they were random, Jirin. The director’s cut was an exercise in ham-handed over-explanation.
I really might be by myself here, but I hated (or really disliked) the director’s cut of Cinema Paradiso. It completely changed my feelings about the characters in a really bad way.
Friedken bowed to pressure from Blatty to make a Director’s Cut. It in my opinion was made it worse by the emotional catharsis.
I’ll have to agree with Brad on several counts, especially with Blade Runner and Touch of Evil.
Michael Mann has a distressing habit to tinker with his films for DVD release – I think “Miami Vice,” in particular, is hurt by the changes he made in the director’s cut.
The strange part of this question is that there are a number of so-called director’s cuts which have absolutely nothing to do with the director – that bizarre TV version of Lynch’s “Dune,” for example, or the equally strange longer versin of “Alien” that Ridley Scott put together at the studio’s request.
More complicated still are those films that get reconstructed to respect the director’s original intentions, even while the director is no longer alive to supervise – “The Big Red One,” “Touch of Evil,” “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid”…
I think having some kind of physics structure spelled out, however arbitrary it may be, makes the sacrifice more interesting. When I first saw the film it just seemed he randomly went back in time for no reason and committed an act of faith. When I saw the Director’s Cut, it was pretty clear he knew what exactly what he was doing and what effect it would have, which makes the whole love/fear narrative more suspenseful.
That depends…. like ether cut (Director’s Cut mostly).
Lol @ “SUNNY”
America History X.
@Z Bart – excessive tinkering killed Donne Darko. George Lucas is the touchstone for going down a wormhole of trying to over-explain or “prefect” a work that doesn’t need to be touched.
^I was not aware that a director’s cut of American History X was even released.
According to what i’ve heard, the theatrical cut was more ‘preachy’.
Donnie Darko and Miami Vice were the first to come to mind for me.
I don’t see how anyone could prefer the music in the director’s cut of Donnie to the theatrical. Echo and the Bunnymen, Tears for Fears, Joy Division, etc etc. How the hell did Kelly think his INXS nonsense was better than “The Killing Moon” to open that movie? Outrageous.
I wholeheartedly agree with Bijoux, the Director’s cut of Cinema Paradiso somehow takes away from the love story in the movie by revisiting the characters after your mind (and heart) had already dealt with the “theatrical” conclusion.
As to Donnie Darko, I do prefer the music in the theatrical version more, a lovely compilation.
I rather wish I hadn’t even seen the director’s cut of Donnie Darko since the theatrical was just across the board better.
Finally saw the director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven, and it really is exceptional.
Definitely Donnie Darko
Yeah, Apocalypse Now Redux is a trainwreck.
What was changed in Miami Vice? I was not aware that the DVD was different. Manhunter has an added scene in the Director’s Cut that I can take or leave – it’s not that big a change (although it is debatable).
I disagree on THE EXORCIST…I think “the version you never saw” was terrific.
And while I don’t think Apocalypse Now Redux was quite a trainwreck, I do think Coppola was prudent in exercising the plantation episode…
Tony Richardson brutalized TOM JONES some years back, releasing a trimmed Director’s Cut of the film in the early 90s. After his death, the film was put back in the state it should never have left.
APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX — The plantation scene was bad enough, but the dreadful scene with the bunnies is inexcusable. It should have stayed on the cutting room floor, at best as a Deleted Scene. I was more annoyed by the extra moments of Col. Kilgore, he’s far more buffoonish in this version.
Also — Chaplin’s butchering of THE GOLD RUSH for the sound re-release. There is no comparison at all between the two films — Chaplin’s delusion that the sound version is in any way an improvement is the clearest proof imaginable of his artistic and intellectual decline.
Alien
I cannot believe I’m writing this, but Peckinpah’s cut of THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND was tragic.
Step Brothers.
BALISTIK
Do you know any examples of a theatrical cut being better than the director’s cut?