Yahoo News 7 movies you didn't know had better alternate versions
It's super common now for a film to release multiple cuts, though not all of them, we'd argue, are better. The Exorcist does not need the crab-walk scene. The Donnie Darko director's cut makes less sense than the original. And everyone knows that Blade Runner has a approximately a bajillion different versions.
But here are seven times a recut version was absolutely the right move.
1. Aliens
For his 1992 Special Edition of Aliens, James Cameron reinstated 17 extra minutes into the movie adding extra bits of dialogue and extending some scenes. Most crucially, it showed Newt's family first encountering the abandoned spaceship and Ripley learning that while she was in hyper-sleep her daughter had died, adding extra poignancy and resonance to her relationship with Newt.
You can find it here, if you're so inclined.
2. Superman II
Here be controversy... Richard Donner, the director of Superman, had an original vision. He would shoot Superman and Superman II back-to-back as a two-part epic. But with 75% of the super-sequel already shot, Donner had to pause to complete the edit of the first movie.
After releasing Superman, though, the studio didn't ask Donner back. They made decisions that Donner didn't like, and accused him of going wildly over budget and schedule. Eventually they hired another director, Richard Lester, to finish the film.
Years later, after much nagging from the fans, The Richard Donner Cut was finally released, restoring loads of Donner's original footage (keeping Lester's material in only where there were scenes Donner hadn't filmed and were needed for narrative sense).
Is it actually better? Well, being incomplete it's hard to say. It's different and it's a treat to have the chance to see both.
3. Brazil
Dystopian nightmare Brazil was given a stupid happy ending when studio execs knocked a whopping 48 minutes off Terry Gilliam's edit. This included the twist ending, when we realise a chunk of what's just happened is just taking place in Jonathan Pryce's head and that the "happy ending" where he gets the girl and they escape is just the delusion of a man undergoing extreme torture. Fortunately the "European" version – Gilliam's intended cut – remains the definitive.
4. Heaven's Gate
A movie legendary for its failure, Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate has SEVEN different versions, with the final 216-minute director's cut (that's more than 3 and a half hours, guys), the one that Cimino, at least, sees as definitive.
As well as being one of the biggest financial flops ever, Cimino's movie also has the dubious honour of collapsing its studio United Artists and pretty much putting a lid on the director's own very promising career (he made The Deer Hunter before it). However, it did also popularise the concept of a "director's cut" after the first version – at 219 mins – was rushed out then immediately pulled from cinemas and hacked down to 149 mins. Not until 2012 was a digitally restored director's cut overseen by Cimino finally released.
5. Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
At release, Steven Spielberg felt his edit on Close Encounters was rushed by the studio, Columbia, who were having some financial issues. It was a massive success, so when Spielberg asked for a director's cut, Columbia agreed – with the proviso that it include a shot of inside the mothership.
The 'Berg complied, but later felt like it showed too much. Consequently in 1998 he had another snip, producing the Collectors' Edition. All three are available but this is Spielberg's favourite, and who are we to disagree?
6. The New World
Terrence Malick's dreamlike tale of the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas boasts three different versions. The first, released to meet awards season deadlines and shown to critics, ran at 150 minutes. The theatrical version was then edited down to 135.
But Malick's final version, titled the Extended Cut, was released in 2008 and ran at 172 minutes. This longer version is regarded as the best – even more mesmerising and dreamlike (ie long) than the other two, which are plenty mesmerising and dreamlike enough.
7. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
We said "better" – we didn't say "good". It's not better because it's three hours long but it does at least feel like the film Zack Snyder wanted to make. It gives the characters more motivation – up to a point – fleshes the story out a bit and makes Superman somewhat less of a terrible journalist.
It is though, as discussed, THREE HOURS LONG.
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