Blade Runner-has four versions. Brazil has three versions. Major Dundee has two versions. Army of Darkness has four versions-the theatrical, Director’s Cut, International Cut and the TV version. The Thing-theatrical and TV version.
The first one I was really aware of was Brian DePalma's Dressed to Kill, where he had to cut about a minute out in order to go from an NC-17 rating to an R. I actually worked on dropping the original "unrated" scenes back into the film for the 1982 or 1983 home video release, I think for Warner Bros.
@Vidiot: DRESSED TO KILL was indeed a WARNER HOME VIDEO release. I've got a Warner clamshell release from the early '80s which mentions "UNCENSORED INTERNATIONAL VERSION" on the insert sleeve art on the back. ALSO: I'm ashamed I forgot about the 'Tv version' of HALLOWEEN, esp. because I've seen it. BLADE RUNNER does have more than 4 versions extant. I believe there's 7 versions of "Blade Runner" known to exist. There's also mention on Wikipedia of an 8th version that director Scott showed to studio personnel way back when that ran almost 4 hours. There's enough versions of BLADE RUNNER extant to make one's head spin!
'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes' has the theatrical cut, and then when the Blu-Ray set came out in 2008, they released a version with more scenes and some more of the original score put in. It was marketed as the original theatrical cut, but @apesfan says it's still not the truly original cut of the film. One reason being that the original prologue was never restored. 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' has the theatrical version, and there's another version with a few scenes extended and the atomic bomb subplot restored.(This second version was shown on TV here in the USA, and they got a home video release on laser disc in Japan, but we didn't get the extended cut on DVD until years after they originally released the 'Apes' films on DVD.)
Conquest on blu ray has 2 versions as you know. The version that everyone knows when it came out in late June 1972. And a basterdized version on the blue ray. The blue ray of 2008 has what Fox called the original version before the scissors came out and the last 3 reels got altered immensely. The pre title scene is still not here and some of that footage was repurposed for Caesars running around Century City before being caught for execution. From what I gather the footage was too nice to leave off the film so when they edited the s$$t out of Conquest they used the city scenes to pad out that scene, plus the film was getting too short so these shots added a couple of minutes back to the film to get back closer to 90 minutes. Part of the original reason for the exit of the pre title scene besides the blood, was to keep Conquest at or below the 90 minute mark. From what I'm told if the original Director's version of the film which previewed in Phoenix Arizona on June 1st was unaltered it would of been about 91 minutes. That very violent version that J.Lee made was shown one or two times and forever mothballed. As I posted forever, the blue ray of 2008 is the found Japanese first run print of the last few reels that are " branched" on the release of Conquest we all know. How Japan got a different version of Conquest, still not the preview version, is up to archivists to one day find out. I bet the original version is somewhere - I hope. Battle pota is another story. They cut all mutant scenes with exposition and shots of the Atomic bomb cause, I really don't know, little kiddies might get upset maybe. Also scenes were cut down with Aldo in them and some exposition and the title sequence was extended and music thrown in and eventually there was like 3 different versions of this. A lot of'ands' in that previous sentence. Unbelievable. No wonder J.Lee Thompson drank himself into oblivion. Just typing this gives me a headache. Take care, John M.
Certainly HEAVEN'S GATE . . . At least three versions on consumer media, not to mention the various undocumented edits. Unfortunately, by the time Criterion let Cimino assemble a true director's cut for their Blu-ray, many of the elements had deteriorated or gone missing.
Does "Legend" count? One version has a score by Tangerine Dream, and there's a version with score by Jerry Goldsmith.
BEING THERE with Peter Sellers had a different end credit scene on some version. I recall seeing it on HBO and then the home video version was different.
it counts for me, in the directors cut, scenes are added, some scenes are moved around as well, changing the timeline and the result is a better film in the Goldsmith version.
I've seen three cuts of The Man Who Fell To Earth. Two of them are longer than the theatrical cut, with explicit scenes and they both also have scenes that the other doesn't.
Yes, the negative had been cut to conform to the 2:29 general release cut but luckily separations were made of the 3:19 premiere cut.
I’m not sure how many versions of Last House on the Left there are but I know the current uncut version was assembled by Wes and Roy Frumkes using an uncut 35mm print found in producer Sean S. Cunningham’s closet.
A Star Is Born (1954) 182 minutes (premiere -- no known copy exists) cut down to 154 minutes (general release) restored in the early 80s to 178 minutes (a full stereo soundtrack was found, but not all the deleted footage, so some scenes in the restoration use production stills over the soundtrack to fill the screen time)
The rather strange 1981 release POSSESSION with Isabelle Adjani and Sam Neill was cut down from its original 127-minute run time to 81 minutes for its American release. much. I endeavoured to watch this confusing mess once on Turner Classic Movies, which was airing the full-length version, and it was a very unrewarding experience. I could see where some folks might "get it" and be in tune with what the movie is trying to do, but I didn't 'get it' myself. If the American distributor(s) of POSSESSION was as mystified as I was I can see why it was hacked to bits! Maybe the 81-minute version makes more sense . . .
'Two Minute Warning' This movie , starring Charlton Heston and John Cassavettes, was originally about a sniper at a football game who starts shooting at the crowd. His motive is never explained. Just a crazed gunman. Sometime later though another version of this movie surfaced where footage from a bank heist was introduced and it was explained that the sniper's presence and actions at the football game were part of a diversion plan. Never understood this. The original was fine as it was. The 'remake' diluted it.
