This title may not make a lot of sense to you , but I had to write just as is. I am a movie buff, I usually watch every movie more than once, and therefore I remember most of the scenes. Last night I was watching Tombstone, great movie. I did see this movie two times before and I enjoyed a lot, only this time I have seen it on a DVD made in US. The previous instances I have seen it on a European TV channel. I am not sure how many of you have seen this movie, but the US-DVD version is incomplete. This is not the first time I notice this, I have seen it in many instances when I rented DVD’s from Blockbuster or purchased DVD’s.
In Tombstone the version that I watched in Europe had all the scenes, and it seemed complete. In US-DVD version there are a boat load of missing scenes, which the movie lack continuity. For example, at the beginning of the movie Curt Russell is invited by the actress to dance, that scene is missing from the DVD. Moreover, there is another scene where one of the cowboys kills the old marshal when he was asking for his guns.
About 4 years ago I purchased The Lawnmower Man on DVD on the box it said Unrated. I believed to be the complete movie, but when I started viewing the movie I realized that there were missing scenes also. In addition I wanted to review Basic Instinct and that too had missing scenes. I don’t understand why they cut important scenes form movies here. It is just crazy.
I started looking into it and it becomes more chaotic, they release the Director’s cut, the unrated cut, the producer’s cut, this drives me insane. Why don’t they just make a movie and stick with the god damn thing? In addition now they come out with alternate endings. What the hell is that? Is like I am customizing my own movie, and I get the final outcome to suit my moral and viewing pleasure. To me is like that scene in Analyze this, where Billy Crystal gets that huge fountain that contrasts his suburban house, is of poor taste. People, get to a compromise and stick with it!!! I don’t need alternative endings and director’s cut, and all other stupid crap. How would it feel seeing Heat with a different ending where let’s say Al Pacino let’s DeNiro get away and everything is fine and dandy? Or some cheesy ending where Al Pacino get’s half of the loot and they remain friends for life and their wives exchange cooking recipes over the phone and they send their kids at the same camp or they go in vacations together?
Moreover, when I buy a DVD I feel cheated because either not all the scenes are there, or it has a different ending and so on. It would feel like in those silly movies where some kid pees his pants in his sleep and then being late for school shows up to school all stained and smelly.
I am really pissed. It was enough the twelve years of communist censorship. Back then people had to fight or go through tremendous efforts to get a piece of real literature that wasn’t filtered or censored. Now being in US where everything is supposed to be wide open, it enrages me when I see that measly DVD is censored. Maybe people that went trough that 1984 type of experience would identify better with my frustration. I remember the felling when my parents were looking for some books, and I could see the glitter in they’re eyes when they would hear that a certain book has the authors original thought and it hasn’t been altered.
