Make your own cut of a movie

[Jeyl]

Yesterday I pulled out my copy of Close Encounters of the Third Kind on BluRay and decided to watch and compare all three versions of the film. To put it mildly, it was quite jarring. Some of the edits just don't make any sense and there are so much good material in some cuts that aren't in any other cut. You will always miss something with either cut. Since I got a broad scope of all the material, I decided to make my own edit list on how I would have made a version of the film. Again, this is not me saying "Close Encounters is broken! My cut fixes it!", this is just a cut of the film that would be "my" version

1. Train Fractions. I would like to have a hybrid version of both the Theatrical and the Special Edition cut of Roy teaching his son fractions with trains. The spinning musical Pinocchio piece that chimes "When you wish upon a star" I consider to be important since the musical notes for it appear in the actual score.

2. Roy goes to work. I've always had a soft spot for this sequence even though it does take us longer to get to get to Roy driving his truck. The sheer confusion of every one in this scene I think adds more pressure to Roy's position and makes his being fired less out of place.

3. Looming Shadow. Oh, yeah. That shadow of the spaceship flying over Roy's truck is staying in. It's very effective considering there next to zero light. It's also a little guilty "Oh, now it makes sense" moment for me since this ship obviously is not the same as the four ships we see later on. Those buggers are everywhere.

4. Shortened Tunnel. I think it works best in it's shortened form, but it also makes it feel a bit awkward since the truck's top lights make it look like it's going in reverse! Only in the long version do I not get the impression he's going in reverse.

5. Checking out the sign. I think we can live without the detailed shot of the UFOs detailing the Big Mac advertisement, don't you?

5. Onlooker's line. After the UFOs fly past our main characters, the whistling onlooker says "They can do circles around the moon, but we're years ahead of them on the highway". I'm going to keep that in for no other reason than to add justification to Roy's line "This is nuts".

6. The Pillow. While I love Roy's delivery "It's not right" when he observes the pillow, I think it works best when he starts being vocal about it after the mash potatoes dinner.

7. The Cotopaxi. This addition I'm not too sure about. It's a cool looking scene that fits the context of the movie, but it's too similar to the film's opening. And unlike the discovery of the planes who's missing actually pays off at the end, there is no evidence of Cotopaxi's seaman coming out of the spacecraft after the flight crew.

7. Roy in the shower. This one has got to go. I know the acting here is great, but I can only take so much family drama all at one time. I know Spielberg won't make a movie unless there's family issues, but this one just took things a little too far, especially considering what's coming up next.

8. Roy makes a mess. Full scene including Roy crashing himself through the window!

9. Roy looks out the window. I'm going with the short take on this one.

10. The unsympathetic CARL WEATHERS. I'm leaving this scene in for two reasons. One, I like how Carl plays this soldier in a very unsympathetic way, and two, I like showing obstacles. I know Roy has a plan on getting to Devil's Mountain, but he shouldn't know everything like knowing how to get through the blockade without seeing it. I'm also keeping the shot of Roy putting the gas masks and bird cage in.

11. Roy, Jillian and Larry make a break. It stays. I never figured out why this particular shot was cut, because I like it a lot. It shows that Roy, Jillian and Larry were not the only ones who wanted to leave the helicopter. You can clearly see at least two other characters trying to get out, but the armed forces keep them held back in the helicopter. Now I know why no one was immediately chasing them when they made a break for it.

12. Inside the Mothership. GONE. I grew up with the Special Edition and I always thought that little alien who communicates with Lacombe was Roy since what happened in the mother ship was so messed up.

So there's my ideal cut of Close Encounters. I'll probably do Alien next. Anyone else have any movies that have received alternate cuts that you didn't agree with and felt it should be different? Or is there just a movie you want to recut just for the heck of it?

 

[jackdoud]

If you haven't yet seen it, check out fanedit.org specifically: Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind » Fanedit.org – Home of the fanedits

 

[Wes R]

This makes me want to rent it just to see all the differences. I've never been a real fan of this movie despite loving the genre but sounds like i may like this edition with the three cuts more.

 

[robn1]

...I always thought that little alien who communicates with Lacombe was Roy...

I always thought the alien looked like the little boy Barry. I don't know if it's intentional or not, but when he smiles he looks just like Barry.

 

[Jeyl]

Ok, ALIEN time. As Ridley said in an interview "We've added about six minutes" he also took out seven. First off, I'm just going to lay out the "movie wide" changed first before I get to the whole scenes in question.

Movie Wide

1. Trims. I wasn't a fan of any of the trims so they're all back in.

2. Effects. Most didn't notice this when I saw the Director's Cut with fellow die hard fans in the theater, but there are some effects changes. Most notably for me are the enhanced star field shots throughout the film. There are even two in the original that don't have any star fields at all! There was also an added fog effect in the shot where you see Dallas, Kane and Lambert walking right next to the derelict ship. These new effects stay.

Scenes

1. Alien Transmission. I remember seeing this deleted scene on the original 20th Anniversary DVD and thought it was cool. When Ridley Scott said he was going to change the transmission itself, I was understandably curious. The result was, in a way, quite brilliant. He actually used parts of Jerry Goldsmith's score from the films opening as the alien transmission! So the music we hear in the opening credits while panning across LV-426 is actually the alien Transmission! It stays. Although I think the new transmission could do without the "Droid Scanner" sound from the Mos Eisley Cantina.

2. Ripley and Ash chat. Don't know why a good chunk of this scene was deleted. I like how Ripley asks if there's any update on the transmission they picked up and when there isn't one, she decides to check it out herself. It shows that she's doing things by the book and for very good reason.

3. Kane draws his gun. While showing Kane draw out his weapon would be put back in, I would have it edited differently. For instance, the moment the egg reacts and he draws his hand back, we than cut to him drawing his gun instead of the shot panning down the egg showing the interior. I just think it's weird how he would draw his gun a few seconds later after hearing that reaction.

4. Lambert slaps Ripley. Again another scene I would add in but would edit differently. Here's how it would go down. We open with the shot of Dallas and Ash cutting through the helmet, but we only see a few seconds of it before we cut to Brett and Parker watching what's going on. After Ripley has her argument with Dallas and Parker shouts back him, we than cut to the shot of Dallas and Ash finally cutting all the way through the helmet revealing the face hugger. This way you can have the scene with Ripley and Lambert intact without taking away the focus of the Facehugger when it's been revealed.

5. Brett's death. I liked the cutaway shots of showing Brett from above rinsing his face off, but I wouldn't use the shot of the Alien dangling along with the chains. I think seeing Brett from above gives a nice subtle impression that something is just now watching him. I'll be leaving in the extended shots of Ripley and Parker rushing simply because I love how it transitions to the next scene.

6. Dallas talks to mother. This one I can sort of understand why it was deleted. In the scene before this, Dallas is pretty much explaining the plan and telling everyone what to do. It seems awkward that he would want to discuss his with Mother immediately after telling every one that they're going to do it. So I thought to myself. How would you make the Mother/Dallas conversation more relevant? Change the conversation!

But change it to what? What would Dallas go over with Mother before he would go through his dangerous plan? Than I thought about "what things have we heard of before that we can put to use here?" The being blind on B and C decks. Dallas could ask Mother if she's been monitoring the activity of the creature through the vents since they would have sensors, but Mother would say that information is unavailable due to sensor malfunction on B and C decks (Which Ripley pointed out but he quickly ignored). To further emphasize that he's been wrong on more than one account and end the shot with him pondering on the console kind of adds a self-obligation to do this job himself since it was his orders alone that got everyone into this mess.

I just can't pass an opportunity to edit a scene like this, because it's SO EASY TO DO! No one is talking and you can easily replace what's on the screen. I just need to figure out how they made that awesome interface.

7. Ripley finds the nest and Dallas. It breaks my heart to do this, but this scene has to go. Though in my mind the Alien is still doing the horrible things to Dallas and Brett that was indicated in the deleted scene, it simply breaks focus of Ripley trying to escape.

8. Cat Toss. I'll be honest. This scene had my friends and I laughing out butts off when we first saw this happen. It took us completely by surprise because we all remembered how the scene just cuts out. I'm this close to saying it shouldn't belong there just because of that, but I'm keeping it in because it's so unexpected. Why would the Alien violently toss the crate that Jonesy was inside of and than leave it alone after Ripley finds out the cat is still ok? I like that.

So that would be my cut of Alien. More true in form to the Theatrical Cut, but also taking the tiny good bits from the Director's Cut.

As for ALIENS? Well, I find the Special Edition cut to be just fine. Heck, even James Cameron vocally expresses that this is his preferred cut so it's nice to have an alternate edition I can agree with.... well, ok. There is ONE THING I would change.

1. Newt's family discovers the Derelict. The Derelict is too freaking small! If I had an inch of Adywan's knowledge on replacing/altering shots, I would bump the size of the derelict up to the same size that it was in Alien. I seriously doubt that the derelict ship shrunk to 1/6 it's size in 57 years when it's so obvious that the ship has been there for a lot longer than that. Well, depending on what the prequel movie will tell us. It's just too tiny looking. I would also try and delete those wires hanging from the cracks. This is a bio-mechanical ship dangit!