Director’s Cut

I’ve been going over my thoughts on Director’s Cuts. Usually, these fall under a similar category to deleted scenes – they don’t add much to the existing work (sometimes significantly subtracting from what’s otherwise a tightly plotted movie), and in many cases it’s self-evident why they ended up deleted in the first place. Directors often shoot far more footage than they really need, and a film’s storyline can benefit from a good trim here and there from a talented editor.

But there are cases where a movie unquestionably improves when given the Director’s Cut treatment. Take one of my favorites, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Director Robert Wise was finally given the opportunity to fix many of the film’s major flaws with a special director’s edition a few years back. The movie is still a very flawed creation (perhaps an appropriate result given the central thrust of the film), but was greatly improved. Some smart editing clipped some lengthy exchanges of dialog, and most importantly, many special effects shots were fixed and made far less static. The idea that the film was released all those years ago and you never actually saw the antagonist (the alien spacecraft, V’Ger) seems pretty astounding, really, but the DE repaired that long frustrating oversight. It’s still a slow going feature that likely appeals only to hardcore Star Trek fans, but at least the DE appeals to more of them than before.

Another movie that really improved with a director’s loving care is James Cameron’s Aliens. The original is, of course, a benchmark for the science-fiction/action genre. He took the claustrophobic, horror-inspired original and expanded it in almost every way. In the case of the aliens themselves, it was a literal expansion, as he could no longer rely on flashes or hints of the creature, given its full reveal in the concluding moments of the original. So in contrast, Cameron filled the screen with as many of the nasty critters as he could, and added to their variety with the inclusion of the previously hinted at Queen. In the case of Sigourney Weaver’s Lt Ripley, the expansion involved her character’s background (more on that later) and emotional depth. It also expanded the universe in which the character’s lived. Instead of being based on a lone spaceship isolated from civilization, Aliens widens the scope with views of future Earth, sprawling space stations, interstellar marines & colony worlds. While the majority of the action takes place on an isolated moon, you’re given a sense of the scale of the universe in which the story takes place.

Then there’s Paul Riser playing his typical douchey character, just not the ‘lovable’ douche. He had self-serving smarm down to an absolute science in this flick. You just want to punch him in the face from the first scene. It almost makes 7 years of Mad About You worth it. I said almost.

At any rate, one might wonder how a DE or Director’s Cut could improve on what’s already accepted as a landmark film. One way it does so is by giving the Ripley character some very poignant emotional scenes that are absent from the theatrical cut. Early on, we learn that Ripley had a daughter that she promised to return to, and there’s a key moment where Riser’s character shows her a picture of said daughter as an elderly woman who is now deceased that really works. There are also several key moments between Ripley and the sole survivor of the massacre on LV-426, Newt. These moments manage to round out the mother/daughter relationship between the two, and explain Ripley’s immediate and fierce devotion to the girl.

Many of the cuts also explore the budding relationship between Ripley and Hicks. They share some nice exchanges, and there’s a very brief but important moment when Ripley is preparing to leave to rescue Newt where Hicks reveals his first name, Dwayne. In turn, Ripley reveals her first name, Ellen. Again, it’s a very quick scene, maybe 20 seconds, but I think the story is only improved by its inclusion. There’s also a cool, extended introduction to the Sulako (the ship the marines travel to LV-426 on) and the crew in their sleeping pods, reminiscent of a similar shot in the first movie. The DE also includes more dialog between the marines themselves, and fleshes some of the characters out a bit more (including Bill Paxton’s spastic Hudson).

Some of the extra footage does seem to fall into the unnecessary category, such as an early moment where we meet Newt pre-attack, along with her brother and parents, who we discover are sent by Riser’s Burke to investigate the alien ship. Turns out Newt’s father is actually the first person in the colony infected. While I found this subplot interesting, I can’t say the story was hurt by ditching it the first time around. Newt’s parents aren’t around long enough to make much of an impact, and we still aren’t shown how she’s separated from them or her brother. So in the end I was left feeling like it was a pointless diversion. There’s also an early scene of the colony manager and some kids riding around on bikes which felt a bit tacked on. However, those scenes did include a cool shot of ‘the company’ logo with the tagline ‘Building Better Worlds’.

Overall, I thought the DE was a superior product to the original cut. But this is often true of James Cameron films. He seems to shoot for 3 hours nearly every time, and often there’s a lot lost when he’s forced to trim down. This is definitely true of The Abyss, which really suffered from all the edits necessary to trim it to a studio-happy length. Watching the DE of The Abyss is liking watching an entirely different film. Terminator 2 had some great cut scenes as well. Funny enough, the one film of Cameron’s I felt desperately needed to be trimmed, Titanic, was the one he was allowed the most freedom on. Go figure.

What are some films you think improved upon receiving a Director’s Cut? Are there any you think suffered from the same? Are there any films out there that you think deserve one but haven’t been afforded the chance?

David Bowie – Loving the Alien

Tags: david bowie, Movies & TV, TV