10 Deleted Scenes Which Totally Change Classic Films

Batman is the bad guy?

Warner Bros. Pictures

Films are a tricky business. They're less like an art form and more like a kind of clumsy alchemy, where a load of ingredients get thrown in a pot and it's never really obvious what the outcome will be. Everyone involved in the production of a movie does everything they can to ensure that the finished product will be as close to what they imagine as possible and, unlike a magician, they get to go over the end result before releasing it to the world. That means that in the long process of pre-to-post-production a film can totally change from its original script, as revisions and edits and the like can transform characters, scenes, or even entire plots and messages.

One of the most glaring pieces of evidence for the slapshot manner Hollywood movies are put together is the deleted scene. Previously the preserve of rumour and hearsay amongst hardcore fans, the advent of DVD and Blu-Ray special features means that your average Joe can get a peek into the filmmaking process, picking up scenes that were left on the cutting room floor and imagining how they would have fitted into the final film. In most cases deleted scenes were cut out because they didn't add much, or due to time, or they're simply alternate takes on sections that did end up in the final product.

In some cases, meanwhile, these excised portions of movie can radically change how you see the completed film. There are deleted scenes that genuinely would have totally transformed character motivations, important plot points and in some cases even the finales of some of the most famous big screen stories ever put out by Hollywood - here are ten deleted scenes which totally change classic films.

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Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/