Have directors lost all their power? Will or can DVD save the auteur?
Julie Taymor's Across the Universe is who-knows-where in editing limbo prior to release. Alec Baldwin's Shortcut to Happiness, formerly The Devil & Daniel Webster is seeing release in no major cities and then probably showing up on pay-cable, re-cut and re-titled, with Baldwin's name removed.
We've heard the reasons given by studios or executives to directors for not just pushing minor cuts, but slicing gaping wounds in movies over the years:
"It's just too long"
"It's not commercial"
"It won't win any awards"
"Audiences won't get this"
DVD has provided a reprieve for some that have received this backward handling from the studio machine. The most prominent DVD Director's Complete Version to date is Terry Gilliam's Brazil, lavishly treated to a 3-disc collector's edition by the Criterion Collection. DVD has more frequently over time given a new life to films formerly crippled by studio slashing and burning, most recently for Payback as well as Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven.
Payback and Heaven
It took eight years for the Helgeland's version to get to anyone's screen legally. Bootlegs have floated around since the controversial re-shooting and re-editing of the film took place at the behest of star Mel Gibson. There were pieces of the original movie lodged in the Theatrical Cut I enjoyed but the new edit, Payback: Straight Up, represents the rock-solid picture people knew it was underneath.
Everyone should believe by now that Ridley Scott can direct movies capably, right? Not 20th Century Fox, who chopped 45 minutes or so out of the movie, which died a quick death for what was supposed to be their end-of-summer epic. It immediately sank the stock of Orlando Bloom and everyone associated with the film, as it was classified by many as something like Cliff's Notes on The Crusades.
It was not substantive, not patient enough with the source material, had a female love interest who kind of dropped off the radar after a limited interlude, and the hero spends about three seconds deciding he's gonna go on a dad-gum Crusade by golly.
I enjoyed Almost Famous in its theatrical cut, but the Untitled Director's Cut adds enough extra "oomph" to really justify the extra minutes of runtime. Why shave off time your audience could spend enjoying the movie enough more to recommend it to people rather than tell them to wait for DVD, or much worse...skip it?
The Downside
Then again, there is something to be said for constructive criticism helping shape a movie such that people will respond to it. Donnie Darko became a massive hit as released, and many die-hard fans prefer the original cut to the director's cut released a couple years ago. Oliver Stone can't manage to recut Alexander into workable shape no matter how many passes he takes (four at last count?). I expect he'll change his mind and decide he'll take another swipe and call the next on the For Real, Seriously This Time Folks, I'm Done With the Fucker Now Edition.
I don't think there's much to say about George Lucas' retooling of his original 3 Star Wars movies that hasn't already been said, but all the big-time fans seem to just want access to the versions of the flicks they saw way back when. There was an episode of the Simpsons that urged this, for crying out loud!
No one is saying he isn't allowed to recut them and squirt CGI all over them, just that they want the versions they love. Spielberg almost made the same mistake with the DVD release of E.T., and decided in the end it was best to balance his additions with the movie everyone wanted on DVD.
I wonder what Elizabethtown would have been like if Cameron Crowe hadn't been unceremoniously shit upon based on a film festival cut. Who knows when we'll see the version of Southland Tales that Richard Kelly wants us to, or if we'll have to wait.
There are some films where the footage is plain lost and gone forever. The Magnificent Ambersons will never be seen again in Orson Welles' original cut, burned in a studio fire. The Other Side of the Wind may be put together by Peter Bogdanovich in something approximating Welles' original version, now that the Shah has let go of his grip on it. Here's hoping.
Welles' The Big Brass Ring script came into being thanks to Bogdanovich protege George Hickenlooper bringing it to life. If there's such a thing as karma, George is living proof.
17 July 2007 brings the release of a completely new director's cut of his previously recut, reshot, and rushed out the door Factory Girl, restoring final authorship of the film where it belongs.
According to reporting from head honcho Jeff Wells, early December saw last-minute reshoots of the film and literally a few days later, The Weinstein Company pushed a cut in front of the National Board of Review so they could jockey Sienna Miller for an Oscar nomination. The rushed to market cut of the film that arrived in February of this year was good, but not the version the director wanted. Thanks to DVD, the world finally gets the cut that would have come out in cinemas had the film and its production staff been given the proper time to put it together.
An advance review of the DVD and interview with the director are forthcoming, so stay tuned.