Alternative Cuts of Films: R-Rated Batman, X-Men Rogue Cut, And More!

On July 19^th fans will get to watch an R-rated version of the recent “Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice”.  Not only does this cut offer 30 minutes of additional footage but it also has more violence and stronger language than the original. "The Killing Joke" which releases this summer is also rated R, and Suicide Squad is PG-13 (we'll see if there is an R version coming on video release)

Batman vs. Superman is obviously not the first film to get a “Director’s Cut”. Another recent example is X-Men Days of Future Past: Rogue Cut. Anna Paquin’s Rogue did not appear in the theatrical cut of this film and in the new cut fans get a whole new character. 

Director’s have been releasing their original cuts of films since the 70s. This is usually because studios did a hackjob of the artists original vision. One famous example is Superman II (The Donner Cut). Richard Donner was the film’s original director, but was replaced after some tension with the studio. Much of the footage he shot was not present in the 1980 theatrical cut of Superman II. Fan pressure finally caused Warner Brothers in 2006 to re-edit the film with significant amount of lost footage and an alternate ending.

There are some directors that are more likely to release “Director’s Cuts” than others. Many of these directors just like to make really long movies that studios find are too long for cinemas. Batman vs. Superman is not the first time Zach Snyder has released a director’s cut. In fact, his Watchmen film, has two alternate cuts. The “Director’s Cut” adds 23 minutes of extra footage where his “Ultimate Cut” adds 52 total minutes (which includes an animated Tales of the Black Freighter sequence).

Here are some other directors that have offered extended cuts:

James Cameron

Aliens- 17 minutes extra footage

The Abyss- 28 minutes extra footage

Terminator 2- 16 minutes

Avatar- 16 minutes

*Also Neil Degrasse Tyson convinced Cameron to change the night sky in the 3D version of Titanic to reflect the way the night sky actually looked on the night of the sinking.

Peter Jackson

Fellowship of the Ring – 30 min extra 

The Two Towers – 44 min extra

The Return of the King – 51 min extra

King Kong- 13 min extra 

An Unexpected Journey – 13 min extra 

The Desolation of Smaug - 25 min extra 

The Battle of Five Armies - 20 min extra 

Ridley Scott

Alien- adds 4 minutes extra footage / subtracts 5 minutes of other footage

Legend – 19 minutes extra footage

Kingdom of Heaven – 45 min extra

The Martian - 10 minutes extra footage

Gladiator- 16 minutes extra footage

*Also Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” has two alternate cuts adding extra and alternate scenes but no overall extra length to the film. The first was the Director’s Cut in 1991 and the second was the Final Cut in 2007)

Another famous example of a film being too long for cinemas was Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” which had to be sliced in half to fit into cinemas. Fortunately Tarantino released Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair in 2011 to select cinemas. Unfortunately this version is not yet available for home media.

These types of Director’s Cuts are great for fans because they get to see the unadulterated versions of the films that the directors originally intended the audience to see. However there are other types of alterations that are a little more weird. These are film “updates”, where directors take their original films and update them in some way (To conform to modern day standards of film or just to make more money)

I have already written about the many versions of Star Wars in a previous post.The reason that it was odd that Lucas did what he did, is that the studio never questioned his original cut of Star Wars. 1977 Lucas was fine with the original cut. Why he went back time after time to re-film sequences, add CGI, and change actors is kind of a mystery to me. Especially since he went to congress in 1988 to fight against the colorization or alteration of classic films.

It is hard to find other examples of directors or studios altering old films to the extremes that Lucas did. Spielberg did edit the guns out of ET and replace them with walkie-talkies for the 20^th anniversary. Disney also added a new musical number to Lion King called “The Morning Report”, this was a new animated sequence with a new voice actor for Young Simba. Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas also featured new songs in special releases of the film. These songs do not make the films better, but instead gives the studios new opportunities to make money. This is different than a director releasing their original uncut version of a film.

In the internet age, fans have offered their own re-edits of films. I’ve seen multiple fan cuts of Star Wars. The Phantom Edit might be the most famous. There are de-specialized versions of the original trilogy (there’s even one where Chewbacca gets a medal at the end) Topher Grace even took all three prequels and edited them into an 85-minute film. Similarly many people have re-edited Peter Jackson’s Hobbit Trilogy into a single film.

Other famous alterations of films include “Memento Chronological Order Cut”. This is actually a hidden Easter Egg feature in a limited edition DVD of the film. Find the Easter Egg and the film will play in chronological order. There is also an Easter Egg on the Rocky Horror Picture Show DVD called the “Wizard of Oz Cut” where the entire movie is black and white until The Time Warp song, where the film suddenly changes to color. Many people have even watched “The Dark Side of the Rainbow” in which you play Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side of the Moon” over “The Wiazard of Oz”. The rumor was that the two line up pretty perfectly. This concept became so popular that TCM even aired a version of Oz with the Dark Side album as an alternate soundtrack in the year 2000.

It can be fun to watch movies in new ways. Over the years films have been colorized, and converted to 3D. You can watch them with commentaries from the makers or even fan commentaries. As we head into the future new technologies will make altering films easier and easier. At its best, this practice allows directors to give fans their original edits of the film before studios started cutting it to ribbons. At worse we get something like “Jedi Rocks” or Greedo shooting first.

Until next time Fanboys!