10 Movies That Were Re-Edited After Release (And Why)

2. The Shining

The Shining 940x460
Warner Bros

Kubrick was at it again with 1980's The Shining, tweaking his film after it had already begun playing in cinemas.

Shortly after it began playing in the U.S., the director opted to cut a brief two-minute scene from the end of the film. The scene showed Wendy Torrance chatting with hotel manager Mr. Ullman, who explains that no supernatural evidence was found to support her story. Ullman then gave young Danny Torrance a yellow tennis ball, the same one from earlier in the film.

The scene was removed from all prints of the movie at the suggestion of distributor Warner Bros, bringing its runtime from 146 minutes down to 144 minutes. Kubrick reportedly liked the scene because it informed the audience that Wendy and Danny were okay, but for viewers, Ullman giving Danny the tennis ball was just confusing - was Ullman a ghost? Was anything real? What just happened?!

Kubrick's edits didn't stop there, either: for the film's European release, over 20 minutes were cut. Despite being revered today, The Shining was a tough sell at the time, so Kubrick decided to make the film shorter so it was more digestible and less ambiguous.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!