8 Classic Movies That Were Released Unfinished

2. Cinema Paradiso

A story told mostly in flashback with a modern-day epilogue, Cinema Paradiso is structured very similar to Once Upon A Time In America, and also deals with similar themes of recollecting on childhood. In less-happy parallel, they were both also heavily cut to make them more palatable.

The big difference between the two is that while Leone had to sit by as Once Upon A Time... was ruined (he didn't have a hand in the 139 minute version), director Giuseppe Tornatore oversaw Paradiso's reduction from 155 minutes to 123 for its international release (the longer one only was shown in its native Italy), meaning what was there was complete and still fit his original vision. In fact, he later revealed he preferred this second cut, a rare case of the art actively developing after it was first unveiled.

After the shorter version became an incomparable hit (and rightly so - it's one of the most evocative films ever made), this original cut was lost forever, although we can figure out what was broadly in it from a longer, more traditional director's cut released over a decade later.

Which Version Is Better? Assuming the original version was similar to the director's cut, this one's incredibly debatable. Unlike other examples on this list, an entire third act reveal has been removed, meaning we're essentially talking about two films with similar themes, but different explorations; the shorter one is all about regretful nostalgia, while the longer furthers that with a failed attempt to regain the past. I'd go with the shorter one, just because there's something more true about it.