List of films cut over the director's opposition

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Following is a list of films cut over the director's opposition. At times, a movie studio will cut a film, usually to give it a more upbeat ending or to shorten it. This list is restricted to those films in which the director actively fought against the changes.

Year Film Director Notes
1924 Greed Erich von Stroheim Von Stroheim made an extremely long 42-reel (over 9 hours in length at 20 frames per second) rough cut. Under pressure, he shortened it to 24, with the intention of showing it over two nights. Goldwyn producers were still dissatisfied, so von Stroheim sent the film to his friend and fellow director, Rex Ingram, who turned it over to his editor, Grant Whytock. After many more cuts, Whytock quit. New editor Joseph Farnham got the job and cut it even further to 10 reels. Von Stroheim said that the movie "was cut by a hack with nothing on his mind but his hat" and disowned the film as edited by the studio.
1925 The Phantom of the Opera Rupert Julian After its initial preview was poorly received, Universal was advised by Lon Chaney and others to order a reshoot of most of the film. Julian refused to comply, and left. Edward Sedgwick directed the reshoot, and the film was re-edited twice before being released.
1932 Freaks Tod Browning MGM cut the film from 90 minutes to just over an hour, against Browning's wishes, because it was too gruesome for test audiences to handle. Some viewers reportedly fainted or became physically ill and one woman claimed that it caused her to suffer a miscarriage. The movie's negative notoriety destroyed Browning's career.
1937 The Road Back James Whale Universal, threatened with a boycott of their movies by the Nazi German government, reshot and reedited the film extensively to tone down its anti-Nazi sentiment and added more comedy. Whale was disgusted at how the studio had caved in to political pressure and left after completing Wives Under Suspicion. He returned to Universal for one last film, 1940's Green Hell.
1942 The Magnificent Ambersons Orson Welles RKO cut 43 minutes from the film and added a happy ending while Welles was shooting a documentary in Brazil.
1951 The Red Badge of Courage John Huston MGM cut 51 minutes from the film and added narration over Huston's protests following poor audience test screenings. Huston said that his original version was "the best film I ever made". The scenes that were cut were grim, intense sequences of war and its effects; some were based on Huston's own war experiences, which he documented in The Battle of San Pietro and Let There Be Light. The studio also feared that the audience would be reminded of the Korean War. It is believed that the cut footage was lost in the 1965 MGM vault fire.
1962 Merrill's Marauders Samuel Fuller Fuller's original cut featured the battle at the Shaduzup railyard, done in one sweeping take that included American soldiers being accidentally killed by their own men. Producer Milton Sperling convinced Jack Warner the scene was "too arty". An ending showing Brigadier Merrill regaining consciousness at the Myitkyina operational airfield to be told of his men's casualties. That sequence was deemed too negative and was replaced with a scene of modern 101st Airborne Division soldiers on parade.[1]
1965 Major Dundee Sam Peckinpah Peckinpah's original cut, which may have been more than four and a half hours long, was edited to 136 minutes before its premiere. A score that Peckinpah greatly disliked was also added. Following the movie's extremely negative reception, it was cut further, despite the protests of Peckinpah and producer Jerry Bresler, to 123 minutes.
1971 Wild Rovers Blake Edwards Originally intended as a three-hour epic, MGM cut 40 minutes from the film during post-production without Edwards' knowledge or consent. Edwards disowned the finished film and later satirised his battle with the studio in his comedy S.O.B. In 1981, most of the deleted footage was restored for the film's home video release.
1972 1776 Peter H. Hunt Producer Jack L. Warner bought the film rights to the 1969 stage play and hired most of the original cast and crew, including stage director Peter H. Hunt for the film adaptation. Believing his final cut of approximately 170 minutes to be locked shortly before the film's premiere, Hunt went on vacation. When he returned, he discovered that Warner had re-cut the picture to 141 minutes, including the removal of the song "Cool, Cool Considerate Men", allegedly at the request of Warner's friend President Richard M. Nixon, due to the song's negative portrayal of conservatives. Warner led Hunt to believe the deleted footage was destroyed but the original negative elements were found in the late 1990s. Originally only workprint footage had been found and reassembled into the film for its 1991 re-release on laserdisc. The laserdisc cut was 180 minutes long, with approximately 10 minutes of Overture and Intermission music newly created exclusively for the release. After the negative footage was found, it was reincorporated into the film for a 2002 release on DVD. The DVD was labeled a director's cut, 165 minutes long. A final director's cut of 166 minutes was released on blu ray in 2015 with additional footage restored. The blu ray also included an extended cut which contained three minutes of additional footage. Approximately one minute of footage released exclusively on the 1991 laserdisc remains cut.
1979 Caligula Tinto Brass Brass started editing the film but was not allowed to continue after he had edited approximately its first hour. His rough cut was discarded and the film was edited by several editors, changing its tone and structure significantly by removing and re-arranging many scenes, using different takes, a slower editing style and music other than Brass intended, including incorporating unsimulated sex scenes shot by producer Bob Guccione, which Brass had refused to film (his original cut only included simulated sex).[2] Brass intended Caligula to be a satirical historical drama about absolute power corrupting Roman emperor Caligula, while Guccione's edits transformed it into an erotic film.
1979 1941 Steven Spielberg After test screenings and a two and a half hour preview, Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures felt they were too long to be a blockbuster and edited the film to two hours, against the wishes of the film's director Steven Spielberg.[3]
1980 The Watcher in the Woods John Hough Following the rushed original 1980 release, the film's original ending (the UFO sequence) was left unfinished. Reshoots were done with a new ending shot by Vincent McEveety.[4]
1982 Blade Runner Ridley Scott After test screenings, The Ladd Company and distributor Warner Bros. changed the ending to one considered more positive and added a narration that takes place throughout the film. Several versions of Blade Runner were made after the original release, until the Ridley Scott-supervised version titled Blade Runner: The Final Cut was released in 2007.[5]
1984 Once Upon a Time in America Sergio Leone Leone had already cut his original 269-minute version down to 229 minutes to appease distributors but for its American release, it was cut to 139 minutes against Leone's wishes by The Ladd Company after "disastrous test screenings".[6] It was Leone's last film.
1985 Brazil Terry Gilliam Universal Pictures chairman Sid Sheinberg insisted on dramatically re-editing the film to give it a happy ending and make it shorter, a decision that Gilliam resisted vigorously.[7] Though Gilliam's 142-minute version was shown everywhere else by 20th Century Fox, there was no sign of it being released in the United States, prompting him to take out a full-page advertisement in Variety which said simply:

Dear Sid Sheinberg
When are you going to release my film, "BRAZIL"?
Terry Gilliam[8]

Eventually, Universal released a modified 132-minute version supervised by Gilliam.[9] Sheinberg's 94-minute version was televised. Both U.S. versions and a full-length version are available on home media.

1990 Nightbreed Clive Barker Adapted by Clive Barker from his novel Cabal, Nightbreed underwent significant reshoots and editing after a change in leadership at the production company, Morgan Creek Entertainment, leading to Barker effectively disowning the final product; an estimated 40 minutes was removed from the film and was considered lost. After a VHS tape containing the workprint of the film was found and screened in 2009, the original footage was located and a director's cut featuring the lost footage was assembled and released in 2014.[10]
1992 Alien 3 David Fincher After a troubled production and difficult shooting schedule, 20th Century Fox ordered David Fincher to replace the ending following a negative test screening, forcing the director to make a cut that he did not agree with. Further demands led to Fincher quitting production, and the film was partially reshot without Fincher's involvement. A version of the film closer to Fincher's intended vision but without his involvement was released in 2003.[11]
1994 I'll Do Anything James L. Brooks After test audiences reacted negatively to the music in the initial cut of the film, the musical numbers were cut, forcing the director to let Columbia to turn it into a non-musical movie.[12]
1997 Event Horizon Paul W. S. Anderson When the original 130-minute cut was poorly received by test audiences, including complaints about the extreme amount of gore and members of the test audience allegedly fainting), Paramount demanded a shorter length time with less gore, forcing the director Anderson to make a significantly shortened cut of the film. The approximately 40 minutes of removed footage was improperly stored and accidentally destroyed, and only fragments of the lost footage have been located.[13]
1998 Disturbing Behavior David Nutter David Nutter's original 115-minute cut was poorly received by MGM, he had to let studio cut the film to 84 minutes. A fan cut (though not the real director's cut) was shown on TV, clocking in at 103 minutes.[14]
2003 Gigli Martin Brest Initially, Brest conceived the film as a "straightforward mob film" with flashes of black humor in a dark and violent mob film. Originally, Gigli ran around 160 minutes long, but due to the highly publicized romance between the film's stars, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, the studio forced Brest to have the film on focus primarily on their characters' relationship and love affair. Brest was forced to cut 40 minutes and had to re-write and re-shoot several scenes to convert it to a romantic comedy. The film was panned and ridiculed when it came out and was declared one of the worst films ever made. Brest has not directed another film as of 2021.
2008 Babylon A.D. Mathieu Kassovitz After test screenings, which was poorly received by audiences, production studio 20th Century Fox and studio executive Tom Rothman to edit the film, forcing the director Kassovitz to make a cut he did not agree with.[15]
2017 Justice League Zack Snyder After original director Zack Snyder left the project following a personal tragedy, Joss Whedon was hired by production studio Warner Bros to film extensive reshoots to significantly alter the content and tone of the film, releasing it in November 2017. Justice League received mixed reviews and underperformed at the box office due to the inflated budget caused by the reshoots. A director's cut of the film, titled Zack Snyder's Justice League, was released in 2021 to a positive reception from audiences and critics.[16][17]

See also[]

  • Alan Smithee, an official pseudonym used when a director wishes to disassociate themselves from a project

References[]

  1. ^ Fuller, Samuel (2002). A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40165-2.
  2. ^ "Analysis and reconstruction of Tinto Brass' intended version of Caligula (PDF, 15,2 MB, 106 pages)" (PDF). Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  3. ^ McBride 2011, p. 298.
  4. ^ "Harrison Ellenshaw Interview "Watcher In The Woods" (Second Ending)". 2018-02-18. Retrieved 2021-08-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ "Blade Runner's Multiple Cuts (& Differences) Explained". ScreenRant. 2020-06-08. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  6. ^ Terry Paley (August 3, 2012). "Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America is withdrawn from circulation". The Guardian.
  7. ^ "I feel every cut Terry Gilliam's Brazil letter to Universal (1985)". June 7, 2012. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  8. ^ Gillam, Holly; Connor, Michael (June 15, 2011). "Magnificent Obsessions: The timeless dystopian vision of Terry Gilliam's Brazil". Museum of the Moving Image. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  9. ^ Paul Risker (September 18, 2012). "Terry Gilliam Retrospective Part 3: The Maverick Expatriate". eatsleeplivefilm.com. Retrieved September 27, 2012.
  10. ^ "All The Versions of Nightbreed Explained – Update". The Clive Barker Podcast. 2020-04-09. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  11. ^ "Alien 3: Comparing the Assembly Cut to the Theatrical Cut". Den of Geek. 2017-05-10. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  12. ^ Robert W. Butler (1994-02-03). "Anything to save the movie James L. Brooks dumped the music, rewrote the scenes and did more filming for 'I'll Do Anything'". The Kansas City Star. p. E1.
  13. ^ "Exploring the Deleted Footage From Event Horizon". Den of Geek. 2017-10-19. Retrieved 2022-01-06.
  14. ^ "In Defense of: Disturbing Behavior - 20 Years Later". 24 July 2018.
  15. ^ "Babylon A.D.'s Mathieu Kassovitz Opens Up About Fox Negatively | FirstShowing.net". www.firstshowing.net. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  16. ^ "Joss Whedon Reportedly Threatened Gal Gadot's Career During Justice League Reshoots". ScreenRant. 2021-04-06. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
  17. ^ Rouse, Lauren (2020-09-24). "Justice League Drama: Joss Whedon's Reshoots Were Reportedly Messy & Tension-Filled". The Direct. Retrieved 2021-08-14.
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