© 2006 William Ahearn
Director’s cuts — films that were altered by movie studios
or producers and then restored to their creator’s original form —
are a purely Hollywood invention. The alterations were made — in some
cases — due to political or sexual content and foreign movies were subjected
to being cut up because they weren’t made according to the Hays Production
Code in effect in Hollywood until the mid-1960s. “Wages of Fear”
had what US censors saw as anti-American content removed and “Ekstase”
had its nude scenes cut. Other films were cut for running time (such as Bertolucci’s
“1900”), to simplify the storyline or for numerous other reasons.
Not being a film historian, I don’t want to weigh the
results of every splice in every flick that was ever subjected to the whims
of the suits that controlled the release print.
“Blade Runner” and “The Wild Bunch” are two
of my favorite all-time films and the restored material (or in the case of
“Blade Runner,” the restoration and removal of material) changed
these films with varying results. In one case, restoring the director’s
original intent diminished the over-all effect of the film; and, in the other,
it created an entirely different movie.