10 Director's Cuts We'd Rather See Than Snyder's Justice League

2. Catchfire/Backtrack

Sam Neill Event Horizon 2
Vestron Pictures

Dennis Hopper's career can be divided up into two parts: drug-induced haze and non-drug induced haze. The latter Hopper has his share of flops, but at least he won't urinate on your desk during a studio meeting.

Catchfire, or Backtrack, is a film that could have used some of that old school Hopper attitude. Hopper directed Backtrack from a script by Rachel Konstradt Mann about a serial killer, played by Hopper, who falls in love with his next victim (Jodie Foster).

The shoot was troubled from the start, with Foster and Hopper constantly fighting. Matters worsened when Vestron Pictures took the film from Hopper without telling him, retitled and recut it. The theatrical cut ran only 98 minutes.

Backtrack would eventually see the light of day, but not all of it. Hopper took an Alan Smithee credit on the 98-minute film, but he reclaimed the two-hour cut. That doesn't account for the other hour of footage left on the cutting room floor. Footage that may not be essential to the story, but at the very least probably includes more inexplicable acting from the likes of Vincent Price, Joe Pesci, Charlie Sheen and Bob Dylan as a chainsaw-wielding artist.

Contributor
Contributor

Kenny Hedges is carbon-based. So I suppose a simple top 5 in no order will do: Halloween, Crimes and Misdemeanors, L.A. Confidential, Billy Liar, Blow Out He has his own website - thefilmreal.com - and is always looking for new writers with differing views to broaden the discussion.