Originally posted by VitoAndoliniFromCorleone:
There have been many "director's cut" versions of different movies in recent times. Movies like "Blade Runner" and "Alien" just to name a couple.
Is there any reason why there has not been a director's cut of GFI and GFII? I'm talking about versions of each movie with every single deleted scene inserted into their proper place. Why has this not been done? With the advent of DVDs, there's absolutely no reason not to do it, unless it has something to do with the film rights, etc.
Paramount will probably get around to doing just that, the better to sell more copies of the same franchise. Just yesterday, the NYTimes had an article that showed that DVD sales had flattened--in part because people were resisting "direcstors' cuts" and other re-releases of stuff that was already out on DVD. But the GF Trilogy is a global institution.
I've got the chronological TV version on VHS, and it's great to be able to see all the deleted scenes.
HOWEVER, I think most would agree with me when I say the original structure of the two movies is superior to the chronological one.
I don't agree. I think the TV version, despite occasional bowderization of "dirty words," is the best version because it has all the deleteed scenes, and is in chronological order.
There is one scene in the TV version that makes no sense. it comes in after Tom has spoken to Jack Woltz and shows Connie and Carlo fighting. Connie runs downstairs saying something like "They're MY things!" Mama Corleone says "They're fighting again! Connie and Carlo are constantly fighting!" Santino gets up to speak to carlo and Vito tells him not to interfere. He then speaks to Tom and santino about Woltz and eventually says we need to send Luca Brasi to reason with Woltz. The reason this makes no sense is because Tom went to Hollywood on the night of the wedding. He would not have been there for more than a day or two. Then when he's back, Connie and Carlo are fighting? A few days after the wedding? Shouldn't they be on their honeymoon? That would be one scene that should not be included in a definitive director's cut. The way this section is in the movie is fine, with tom leaving Woltz's place and then going straight to the horsehead scene.
Actually, Tom might not have been back from California for even a few days. Vito says, "You're not too tired, are you, Tom?" He says, "I slept on the plane." I inferred that he met with Woltz on the day he arrived in CA, dined with him that evening, and caught the first plane back to NY. Pretty exhausting in the prop aircraft days.
But it's not necessarily true that Connie and Carlo had a honeymoon. Vito did say, "What time is my daughter leaving..." but he didn't say "for her honeymoon." In the novel, Puzo merely says of their wedding night that it was satisfactory sexually, but that Carlo had to blacken one of Connie's eyes to get the wedding purse away from her. So, if they didn't go away on a honeymoon (not everyone did in those days), it'd be logical for them to be visiting the Mall. One of the values of that scene is that it sets us up for Carlo's later brutalization of Connie (and everything that followed), as well as the Don muttering, "infamita," when hearing about Woltz and the little girl--a key to his character.
