Director's Cut

A Director's Cut (also known as an "Extended Cut", "Uncut Version" or "Original Version") is an edited version of a film or television show that is supposed to represent the director's original vision. 'Cut' explicitly refers to the process of film editing: the Director's Cut is preceded by the Rough Edit and followed by the Final Cut meant for the public film release.

Several director's cuts have garnered positive reviews as opposed to their theatrical cuts that were ruined by test screen audiences that had important content edited and/or removed, or vice-versa.

Director's Cuts of films are not generally released to the public; with most film studios, the director does not have a final cut privilege. The studio (whose investment is at risk) can insist on changes that they think will make the film profit more at the box office. This sometimes means a happier ending or less ambiguity, or excluding scenes that would earn a more audience-restricting rating, but more often means that the film is simply shortened to provide more screenings per day. The most common form of Director's Cut is therefore to have extra scenes added, often making the Director's Cut considerably longer than the Final Cut.

Roger Ebert approves of the use of the label on unsuccessful films that had been tampered with by studio executives, such as Sergio Leone's original cut of Once Upon a Time in America, and the moderately successful theatrical version of Daredevil, which were altered by studio interference for their theatrical release. However, Ebert considers adding such material to a successful film a waste.

Notable examples of Director's Cuts

Films

In the remake of the 1986 horror-comedy musical film Little Shop of Horrors, it shows the original ending where the main antagonist Audrey II eats both of the main protagonists, Seymour and Audrey, and subsequently conquering the world by destroying and eating all that remains of human civilization. The theatrical version instead ends with Seymour destroying the plant. The original ending was made available in Blu-Ray versions of the movie.
The Thief and the Cobbler was meant to be Richard Williams' magnum opus and was in production for about 30 years until some film agents threw Richard out from development and Miramax had it rushed out to theaters as Arabian Nights, which was universally panned by critics. However, Richard's fans have since found the original workprint and have created a restored version closer to his original vision known as the "Recobbled Cut".
Superman II's original director Richard Donner was fired and replaced by Richard Lester, who reshot most of the film. The original theatrical cut is about 35% Donner footage and 65% Lester footage. In 2006, Richard Donner released his own cut of the film on DVD, which is composed of about 90% of his material and makes use of rehearsal footage and screen tests to make up the parts he never got a chance to film properly.
The Special Editions of both Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King have an additional musical number; in both cases, the songs were taken from the stage versions, although in Beauty and the Beast, "Human Again" was really a cut song from the movie mainly due to its pacing issues and its length. Disney had the foresight of making both the original and special editions included on the DVD releases, although neither "original" one was the original animation.
Daredevil had 30 minutes trimmed per Tom Rothman’s request but got restored for the 2004 director’s cut, which is considered better than the theatrical version. The 30 minutes restored included an R-rating, a more adult oriented tone, a subplot featuring Coolio and better pacing. The directors cut is the only version to be shown on Blu-ray.
Pocahontas is another example of this. The Special Edition featured a deleted song that wasn't from a stage production, but instead a deleted song from a test screening. The song, "If I Never Knew You", was deleted because kids found it boring. Despite this, the animation was 90% completed at the time. In 2005, the song was completed and was restored on the 10th Anniversary Edition DVD.
Muppets Most Wanted had 12 additional minutes of footage not shown in theaters, luckily available on the Blu-ray. Some deleted scenes were used in the film's junior novelization.
Alien 3 - The Assembly Cut on DVD of Alien 3, It does try to fix things and is considered receiving better reviews by the fanbase, and critics alike.
Bedknobs and Broomsticks had lost footage until 1996, when the film celebrated its 25th anniversary. This version can also be found on the 30th Anniversary Gold Classics Edition and Enchanted Musical Edition DVDs. However, the Blu-Ray version only features the extended scenes as bonus features instead of incorporating them back into the film like the DVD versions did.
The Muppet Christmas Carol featured the deleted song "When Love is Gone" which was commonly exclusive to the fullscreen versions on the VHS and DVD versions, while a widescreen letterbox version can only be accessed with Laserdisc. It was originally going to play in theaters, but then-Disney CEO Jeffery Katzenberg removed it because he believed that the following scene would not appeal to young children.
Spider-Man 2 has an extended cut titled Spider-Man 2.1, which added 8 minutes of additional footage into the film, which was not shown in theaters and on the original Spider-Man 2 VHS and DVD. It even airs on television channels like FX (albeit in fullscreen instead of its original widescreen format).
The Pebble and the Penguin: Family Fun Edition, is a re-edited version of the theatrical release from which Don Bluth and Gary Goldman supervised to fix all of the errors that the Hungarians made.
The Iron Giant received an extended cut titled Signature Edition featuring 2 new animated scenes released in September 2015.
Justice League has a director's cut called Zack Snyder's Justice League (a.k.a. The Snyder Cut) which was released on HBO Max on March 2021 and it is miles better than it's theatrical cut. When the film's director Zack Snyder stepped out from post-production in 2017 to deal with the death of his daughter, Autumn. Warner Bros. then bought in Joss Whedon to rewrite the script and help on the extended reshoots, He added nearly 90 more pages on the script, and many of Snyder's footage has been cut which only 10% of it remained. Warner also didn't decide to delay the film's release date which makes the production felt more rushed and it resulted the film to have an inconsistent tone that badly clashes on Snyder's intended dark setting with Whedon's light-hearted and campy tone and subpar CGI. The director's cut of Justice League restores all of it with Snyder's vision for the movie and added more original scenes that were recently shot in 2020.
Thomas and the Magic Railroad is awaiting a director’s cut, which has been in the works for at least 10 years. For the 20th anniversary, Shout! Kids has released all the P.T Boomer scenes as deleted scenes.

TV shows

Looney Tunes - Some of its cartoon shorts which had scenes which were cut or altered before their theatrical releases (or Blue Ribbon re-releases) for various reasons, either due to disapprovals from either studio executives or the Hays Code censors of the time or the irrelevance of certain gags over time, have been restored in one way or another on various home media releases, ranging from LaserDisc to Blu-Ray.
- "Have You Got Any Castles?" (Frank Tashlin, 1938); On it's original 1938 theatrical release, the cartoon contained the scenes involving a caricature of Alexander Woolcott as the Town Crier. Due to Alexander Woolcott requesting that his scenes involving his caricature is cut from this cartoon when he dies out of respect of the late actor, all scenes involving the Alexander Woolcott caricature as the Town Crier have been cut from the cartoon's Blue Ribbon re-release. Though it's original titles are still not found, when this cartoon has been released fully restored and remastered on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 2 DVD release, all the scenes involving the Alexander Woolcott caricature as the Town Crier have been restored, making the cartoon very close to how director Frank Tashlin himself originally intended, save for the altered Blue Ribbon title sequences.
- "Hare-um Scare-um" (Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton, 1939); This cartoon notably had a lost ending which was cut prior to its original theatrical release in 1939: In the cartoon's theatrical cut which has been seen for many years on television and (unrestored) on early home media releases such as The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 2 laserdisc set from MGM/UA Home Video, the cartoon ended rather abruptly after the hunter gets surrounded by Happy Rabbit (Bugs Bunny prototype) and his entire family after the hunter attempts to pick a fight with the rabbit and his whole family. But in the actual ending it doesn't stop there; instead the scene continues with the rabbits violently beating up the hunter, as well as Happy Rabbit destroying his hunting rifle. Happy Rabbit then dumps the hunter's broken rifle right at where the hunter is, sternly tells the hunter off "You oughtta get that fixed. Somebody's liable to get hurt," before going crazy and hyperactively bouncing away on it's head while laughing (ala Daffy Duck). The hunter goes insane, and proceeds to do the same thing, thus ending the cartoon. Prior to 2011, there were many false rumors of the abrupt ending that occurs after the hunter threatens to beat up the rabbit and his entire family and finds himself confronted by everyone in the rabbit's family (which is the version seen on television and most home media); Two endings of this cartoon were said to exist: one ending featured the rabbits beating up the hunter as the cartoon closed out, and another, featuring the same ending, only with a rather darkly hilarious punchline of the hunter's and his dog's head being the only thing left from the fight and rolling off into the sunset. Once this real lost ending is found, Gerstein theorizes that the ending was cut before release due to it's similarity to the ending of the Looney Tunes cartoon, "Daffy Duck and Egghead" (1938), which was directed by Tex Avery the previous year. This cartoon was then eventually fully restored and remastered with it's lost ending reinstated on Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 Blu-Ray/DVD release, hence restoring this cartoon to just like how directors Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton themselves had originally intended.
- "A Wild Hare" (Tex Avery, 1940); When this cartoon was originally released in theaters in 1940, during Bugs Bunny's game of "Guess Who?" with Elmer Fudd, Elmer's second guess was "Carole Lombard. Following the death of Carole Lombard from a plane crash in 1942, when this cartoon was re-released in theaters as "The Wild Hare" in 1944, Elmer's second guess "Carole Lombard" has been redubbed with "Barbara Stanwyck", out of respect of the late actress. This "Barbara Stanwyck" Blue Ribbon version is the one that has been commonly seen on television and home video releases for years, including the compilation documentary film Bugs Bunny Superstar and the cartoon's 1995 Turner "dubbed version" remaster commonly shown on the Turner-owned cable networks such as Cartoon Network and Boomerang, though the original 1940 version of the cartoon (complete with it's original titles and the original "Carole Lombard" line, just like how director Tex Avery himself originally intended) has been released on The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 4 laserdisc and fully restored and remastered on later home media releases such as Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection DVD release, The Essential Bugs Bunny DVD release, Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume 2 Blu-Ray/DVD release and Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection Blu-Ray/DVD release.
- "The Crackpot Quail" (Tex Avery, 1941); This cartoon originally had the quail repeatedly make a razzing noise in order to keep his top knot from falling down over his eyes. However, since the razzing noise was heavily disapproved by the Hays Code censors at the time, it was replaced by a whistle before its original theatrical release. The "whistle" version is the version commonly available for years, such as on television airings, including the cartoon's 1995 Turner "dubbed version" remaster commonly shown on the Turner-owned cable networks such as Cartoon Network and Boomerang, and it's appearance on The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 1 laserdisc release. Even though the cartoon was restored by HBO Max using its "whistle" soundtrack as seen on it's original theatrical release, Warner's Motion Picture Imaging (MPI) rescanned and remastered the audio with its original razzing sound, which was released on Tex Avery Screwball Classics Volume 3 Blu-Ray/DVD release as a special feature (although the actual restoration still uses the visuals from HBO Max), hence restoring this cartoon to just like how director Tex Avery himself had originally intended.
- "Hare Ribbin'" (Bob Clampett, 1944); Originally, director Bob Clampett intended for the ending of the cartoon where after the Russian Dog, distraught over Bugs Bunny's "death", wishes he was dead too, Bugs obliges by pulling out a gun and shooting the dog through the mouth. Due to the brutally violent nature of that scene, the Hays Code censors of the time heavily objected that scene, and therefore forcing Clampett himself to change the ending for it's theatrical version so that Bugs actually gives the dog a gun to shoot himself instead of actually shooting the dog himself with the gun. In addition to the ending change, the theatrical version also had other alterations, such as adding in a short scene where Bugs looks at the camera and winks to the audience as he lifts up part of the sandwich and curls up to just beyond the dog's reach in-between the scenes of Bugs using a triangle and saying "Come and get it!" to the dog relating to the "rabbit sandwich" and the dog about to bite down on the sandwich, in order to assure audiences that Bugs was never in any real danger of being eaten alive since in Clampett's original intention said scene in question is left ambiguous, as well as shortening the scenes where the Russian Dog sniffing for Bugs at the beginning and both the dog and mermaid Bugs playing tag underwater. This cartoon's theatrical version is the one that has been commonly seen on television and home video releases for years, including the cartoon's 1995 Turner "dubbed version" remaster commonly shown on the Turner-owned cable networks such as Cartoon Network and Boomerang (though the scene from the ending where Bugs gives the dog the gun to shoot himself is often cut from television airings in the United States due to gun violence). However, this alternate "director's cut" version of this cartoon just like how director Bob Clampett had intended is finally discovered by both historian Jerry Beck and film collector Phil Johnson in the early 1990s , and therefore has been released as a bonus feature on The Golden Age of Looney Tunes Volume 5 laserdisc release in 1997. Ten years later, both the theatrical and "director's cut" versions of this cartoon have been made available on Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume 5 DVD release, and then on Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection Blu-Ray/DVD release 13 years later, with the "director's cut" version as a bonus feature on both home video releases. But there's a catch though: while the cartoon's theatrical version is fully restored and remastered both home media releases, the "director's cut" version released as a bonus feature on the same home media releases however is still unrestored, and in the case Bugs Bunny 80th Anniversary Collection Blu-Ray/DVD release, still presented in standard-definition instead of high-definition like its theatrical version (hence, you can tell the difference between both the theatrical and "director's cut" version of this cartoon on both home media releases by the massive difference in their color-correction).
Rurouni Kenshin (a.k.a. Samurai X) - The Rurouni Kenshin (a.k.a. Samurai X) anime's OVA television special Rurouni Kenshin: Reflection (a.k.a. Samurai X: Reflection) is an example of this. It has a Director's Cut version which basically restored the OVA to just like how director Kazuhiro Furuhashi had originally intended, including new scenes not present in the general release version, as well as the restoration of some of its' altered background artwork, and the restoration of it's original music score which is actually reused from the OST from Samurai X: Trust and Betrayal (the general release version of this OVA had the music score entirely replaced).

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Director's Cut

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Notable examples of Director's Cuts

Films

TV shows

References

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Director's Cut

Notable examples of Director's Cuts

Films

TV shows

References

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