Comments on: 10 International Movies That Were Cut For U.S. Release

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 13 May 2016 08:51:34 +0000

Ridley Scott's "Legend," re-cut and totally re-scored by Tangerine Dream for US release seems like a really obvious one to me.

By: Anthony E.

Anthony E. — Fri, 13 May 2016 08:51:34 +0000

Two big ones appear to be omitted from your list: Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate & Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.

By: Adam Scott Thompson

Adam Scott Thompson — Fri, 13 May 2016 08:51:34 +0000

I bought that 2003 DVD of "Once Upon a Time in America." Makes my eyes water. Every. Single. Time.

By: Christopher Derrick

Christopher Derrick — Fri, 13 May 2016 08:51:34 +0000

There's always a few key films that are missing from a list like this, usually because the original cut can't be found or restored, e.g. The Magnificent Ambersons, Major Dundee and The Private Lives of Sherlock Holmes… the excised footage apparently doesn't still exist for any of these (save, supposedly the Wilder film).

However, it's sort of a crime to leave off Welles' Touch of Evil, Kubrick's Spartacus and the full version of Lawrence of Arabia, which I believe kicked off the restoration movement in the late 80s/early 90s.

Also, Ridley Scott's director's cut of Alien is very much worth seeing, and people say his Kingdom of Heaven is better in the longer version…

I also don't think the restored The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is superior to the released version, and what's the deal with Fincher's Alien3?

By: Steven Flores

Steven Flores — Fri, 13 May 2016 08:51:34 +0000

I have seen the 130-minute cut of "The Grandmaster" and the shortened U.S. cut and the long version is the definitive version while the shortened U.S. cut is an atrocity. Lot of the emotional impact of the story and some of its non-linear narrative gets lost along with some small details.

By: Gary Palmucci

Gary Palmucci — Fri, 13 May 2016 08:51:34 +0000

After three decades, more misinformation continues to swirl around Once Upon a Time in America than virtually any other film. There was never a publicly screened 4 1/2 hour version; the 1984 Cannes premiere was Leone's 227 min original theatrical cut which had been disastrously previewed in Boston earlier that year, prompting the Ladd Company's ill-advised (and now, fortunately, hard to find) 139 min re-cut. The longer version played theatrically in Europe and subsequently appeared on US vhs, laserdisc and repertory cinemas via Warners.
Cannes 2012 saw the premiere (I was there) of a longer, ca 250 min cut with numerous heretofore unseen snippets and fuller scenes inserted in black and white workprint. It received a mixed reaction from critics (and possibly had some unresolved legal issues with the 'talent' over the new footage) and to my knowledge still hasn't been screened outside of Europe, or released anywhere on DVD.