Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Theatrical releases are work in progress: Wait for the DVD

Cynthetiq · 04-06-2004, 05:46 PM

Quote:

this month's DVDX Academy Spotlight Q&A, Leonard Maltin questions whether DVD has led to theatrical releases that are essentially works in progress as the result of compromise under tight deadlines.

One could certainly consider that to be the case with extended DVD editions of many titles being produced for DVD, titles as diverse as From Justin to Kelly and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

Years from now, will anyone be interested in the original theatrical versions of The Lord of the Rings even though it was those editions that were nominated for Academy Awards for best films of the year?

Will anyone ever again see the original cuts of Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Star Trek: The Motion Picture? How about Pearl Harbor or The Lion King, the latter of which has a new musical number added for the upcoming DVD?

In these cases, we are not talking about a collection of deleted scenes included as part of the package of extras; we're talking about deleted or newly created scenes that have been seamlessly interwoven into the film as if they had been there all along.

Often these are scenes that can dramatically alter the story or a character.

Certainly, at the very least, the pacing is changed (though one could argue that most people see most movies at home anyway, where the pacing and flow are frequently disrupted by phone calls, commercials and even viewers who scan or skip forward past certain scenes).

In some cases the revised editing or added or excised scenes might arguably diminish the quality of the film that was initially praised.

Of course, DVD isn't the only outlet for revised editions of movies. Some have been rereleased theatrically with additional scenes like the re-inserted musical number in the Oscar-winning Chicago this summer or the digitally updated Star Wars trilogy and E.T.

In some cases, the original theatrical release continues to be offered as an option on DVD.

Spielberg chose to include both versions of E.T. on last year's collector's edition, and Miramax's DVD of Chicago offers the extra musical number a la carte.

At the very least, DVD offers movie lovers the widest selection of choices when it comes to various versions of a movie.

Some would argue DVD is beginning to become the format of choice for the filmmaker's preferred version of the movie.

By design or default, it appears that the movie that winds up on DVD is becoming the definitive edition, either in the short or long term.

---

This question is currently being debated in this thread about Original Star Wars vs. Star Wars SE. Leonard Maltin seem very on point with this article. It's not just if Han shot first, but is what you are buying truly what you expected it to be?We will see more and more of these types of movies were there's several editions on top of the original theatrical release.

I believe Deflok mentionis that he has more than several different copies of The Crow, and I know that there's plenty of other copies to go round and round. If we keep buying them they will keep producing them. I don't worry too much about it right now since I work in the industry and I seem to find myself getting them comped, but one day that will end.

One of the other issues with this is that for the casual buyer, they sometimes feel ripped off not knowing that a future release is going to be the one that they truly wanted had they known they would have held off on the purchase. I think that it will eventually further alienate the consumer just like it did with the CD market.