A few random thoughts about the increasingly questionable practive of "director's cuts"... It seems to me that this is becoming more of a marketing tool than a legitimate way of preserving a director's intentions. (In the case of "The Exorcist", we even have the restoration of material that Friedkin had long claimed was removed at his insistence over the objections of the producers...)As for "director's cuts" that were inferior to the original, I'd point to the "Special Edition" of "Close Encounters" and the revised version of "Star Wars"...
As for "Blade Runner", does anyone know the origin of the unicorn footage? I've always thought it looked like outtakes from "Legend".
Scorsese has reportedly said that there will be no longer version of "Gangs of New York"... and I'm not sure that a longer version would necessarily be an improvement. I was reminded in some ways of Coppola's ordeal with "Tucker"; I suspect that Scorsese ended up making far many compromises just to get the film made....
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