Viewers Cuts

As a cineast, I watch as many movies as I can and naturally I will seek out a "director's cut" so I can see the director's vision in its full expression. Sometimes, the director was cheated by the studios (this is often the case with James Cameron; his d.c. of The Abyss, for example, is an awesome movie... I've never seen the released version, which is why I love it and most people barf when they hear the title).

Now, in the age of DVD, we can enjoy the deleted scenes at our discretion instead of suffering through a release of a DC. Sometimes, the directors ONLY release the DC on DVD so we're forced to live through their reheated bad judgment. Case in point, my beloved Blues Brothers. It is the second best movie ever made, and only the DC is available on DVD. The extra scenes are wild but wholly unnecessary - they should have remained extra.

Most of the time, however, my irrepressibly critical eye creates a "viewer's cut" while I'm watching the movie. You can see how the movie could be better, or even just good, were certain cuts made.

One example of this, in an odd milieu, is to eliminate certain narrative anachronisms (narrachronisms). I was watching Magnum Force the other day (got it cheap, had to see if it worked, hoo hah) and besides the long slow stretches that could have been pruned, the movie suffers from Black Sidekick syndrome - common until the early 80s - that the black character is both subordinate to the hero and one of the first to die.

In Magnum Force he dies, after surviving a few attempts, and it made no narrative sense. I propose that I should be allowed to change the movie. In this new digital age when we will download and watch our Hollywood treats, when addled tyrants can make Greedo shoot first, I think we should be able to change these culturally iconic films to fit narrative logic.