Inspiration drawn – with no apology – from another post.

What films were made worse by the Director's Cut?

Apocalypse Now redux

awful film.

The original Star Wars trilogy

The original Star Wars trilogy

Good call. The scene with Jabba the Hutt in the space port at Mos Eisley was truly awful and a hint of what was to come with Jah Jah Binks

Bladerunner, the original with the comentary had a hell of a lot more atmosphere adn was just….better.

Simon

Apocalypse Now redux. Agreed. The insertion of totally spurious pointless scenes which added absolutely nothing.

Good call. The scene with Jabba the Hutt in the space port at Mos Eisley was truly awful and a hint of what was to come with Jah Jah Binks

would that strictly be termed a director's cut or was it a remake with new fangled SFX?

It was shocking though.

time constrictions aside, most 'director's cuts' are just adding the bits back in that the director or his team thought were rubbish in the first place but it sells more dvds

the exception is LOTR where Peter Jackson effectively shot two separate story boards

The worst bit in the Star Wars re-edit was when Han Solo shot Gredo in the bar. In the 1977 version Solo murdered him. In the edit it was self defence.

Pah.

Bladerunner, the original with the comentary had a hell of a lot more atmosphere adn was just….better.

seconded. But that still only makes two of us against the rest of the planet…

thirded, the original was the best

seconded. But that still only makes two of us against the rest of the planet…

Make that three. I have the original version on VHS. Don't know if you can get it anywhere on DVD!

the narrated bladerunner was awesome

AIUI the narration was only put in because the first screening audiences couldn't work out WTF was going on. And the happy ending of that version is just bollox – plus they cut the unicorn sequence which makes the final origami model outside Deckard's flat make sense. Directors Cut for me then! But as for Star Wars… why spend so much money ruining a classic.

plus they cut the unicorn sequence which makes the final origami model outside Deckard's flat make sense

In the book, it is not made clear whether Deckard is or is not a Replicant. Ridley Scott, in his Director's Cut, has explicitly told you, instead of leaving it open to interpretation as in the original story. So he's force fed you his idea, instead of letting you work it out for yourself.

Apoc-….yeah that one

Deckard was a replicant??!! FFS How did i miss that? In my defence i only saw the directors cut once, so may have missed that 'slightly' significant plot point!

Well dunnon aobut bladerunner, but in the movie (the standard version) it is actually not even wispered about deckard being a replicant.

I've just finished reading 'Do androids dream of electric sheep'. Been meaning to for ages. Firstly, its not very good – rather dated. IMO, there's no hint that Deckard is a replicant in the book, since he develops empathy for the replicants themselves and is why he couldn't carry on after retiring Pris and the Batys and his subsequent breakdown.

The film is really only loosely based on the book, and is one of those rare occasions where the film is better. You do of course, lose all of phillip K. Dicks existential musings and navel gazing on what it is to be human, but thats no great loss IMO.

Blade runner was first in my mind

lose all of phillip K. Dicks existential musings and navel gazing on what it is to be human, but thats no great loss IMO.

That and the sheer quantity of ideas are what made him a great writer. Technically he was terrible…

Another one for Bladerunner.

I missed the whole Unicorn nod to Deckard being a replicant. Maybe I'm dumb but it was quite a subtle suggestion. Deckard dreams of a Unicorn. Later in the film he finds an origami unicorn in his apartment, left by one of the designers of the replicants. The suggestion being that the designer built Deckard's dreams to be about unicorns. A bit too subtle for me 😀

if he is a replicant why do they spend the entire film kicking the sh1t out of him?.

Can I go foreign and suggest

Cinema Paradiso

I like both the 'theatrical release' and 'directors cut' bladerunner. The 'Final Cut' Blu-ray version that I watched last week is far and away the best – visually stunning.

I know better than to get into the is/isn't Deckard a replicant argument but would you leave a replicant unsupervised on Earth with a gun?

That and the sheer quantity of ideas are what made him a great writer. Technically he was terrible…

Agreed. Awfully written and not that fun to read.

The navel gazing is very deep, and intelligent but its quite self indulgent and annoys me, hence my 'no great loss' comment. As far as ideas go, the man was in the stratosphere though.

Later in the film he finds an origami unicorn in his apartment, left by one of the designers of the replicants. The suggestion being that the designer built Deckard's dreams to be about unicorns. A bit too subtle for me

The origami unicorn is made and left by Gaff, the other cop, he makes several origami pieces during the film. It suggests that Gaff knows that Dekkard is in fact a replicant, and when he says "It's too bad she won't live; but then again, who does?" the suggestion is that Dekkard relizes that Gaff knows…something. Complicated, and straight over the heads of the US audiences, hence the different ending and talk over.

cheers nickc, I was on the right lines. Still far too subtle for me. What other subtleties did I miss in Ridley Scott films I wonder…

Or Gaff is also a replicant and has the same dreams?

What other subtleties did I miss?

The visual similarity between Deckard and the cop/bladerunner shot by Leon – from the same mould?

Ridley's mostly about lighting and attention to detail. He dismissed the Alien Directors Cut for instance because he thought the original was pretty much spot on, despite the fact that some scenes made much more sense after the deleted parts were put back in.

What other subtleties did I miss?

Apparently the replicants' eyes glow/glint in some scenes, and Deckard's eyes do the same thing briefly – I'd missed that one too. And at the end Gaff tells him 'You've done a man's job, sir' – alluding to the fact he's not a man?

Donnie Darko, Directors cut is terrible!

BTW id Like to put a vote in for the recent Blade Runner 'Final Cut' much prefer it to either the origional or Directors cut.

Pink Floyd live in Pompeii, modern CGI in a 1972 music vid just does not work. Complelety ruined the atmos.

Pink Floyd live in Pompeii, modern CGI in a 1972 music vid just does not work.

Now I'm annoyed. I didn't even know there was a butchered version. Some things are best left as they are and 'Live in Pompeii' is one of them. It is what it is and it's wonderful for it.

ET, the godawful CGI scene where it runs.