A History of the Director’s Cut – Part II
When we last left off in Part I Steven Spielberg had just released the special edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, turning heads as a film was re-issued in a version marketed for its differences and "improvements" upon the initial release...
When we last left off in Part I -Steven Spielberg had just released the special edition of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, turning heads as a film was re-issued in a version marketed for its differences and "improvements" upon the initial release... In the late 70s, cinema was undergoing an explosive growth in popularity, bringing Hollywood profits like never before, with films frequently breaking the $100 million barrier. With the blockbusters of filmmakers like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and the personal films of filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola, directors were praised as the autonomous singular force behind a motion picture and granted as much budget and creative freedom as they pleasedwhich ultimately would lead to their destruction and the corporate takeover of the 1980s. Egos ballooned, budgets soared and tempers flared. Richard Donner left Superman II (1980) after having filmed nearly all of it, being replaced by comedy director Richard Lester when the production returned much later to film the missing scenes and reshooting most of the previous footage. While Spielberg and later Lucas would produce Special Editions of their hit blockbusters, other filmmakers would attempt creatively ambitious films, such as Coppolas Apocalypse Now (1979) and One From the Heart (1982), Scorseses New York, New York (1977) and Raging Bull(1980), all of which would eventually lead to the near-destruction of their careers. 
Of these big-budget fiascos none was more influential than Michael Ciminos 1980 effort. With 1978s Deer Hunterbringing him an armful of Oscars, Cimino embarked on an infamous effort to film Heavens Gate; shooting over a million feet of film, the budget almost tripled by the time it was completed, and Cimino delivered his cut of the film at over five hours long. Executives at United Artists forced him to trim it down to a realistic figure, which resulted in the three and a half hour version which premieredit was screened once in 1980, and was so horribly reviewed that it was pulled from theaters. The infamous film resurfaced some months later in a truncated version which ran two and a half hours but this did bad business as well and it quickly disappeared once again. The rescue of this disastrous film would create the worlds first directors cut. In 1981, premiere cable-television movie channel Z Network decided to play Ciminos three and a half hour cut of the film at the behest of programming director Jerry Harvey. The release drew attention, and the term was coined. It was quickly released on home video, advertised with the tagline Heavens GateThe Legendary Uncut Version. With this was changed the perspective of a films life after its releasehome video was indeed a potent new market and represented new and unique opportunities. 
Television offered the chance to re-edit films for the different pacing of the small-screen medium. Francis Coppola re-edited Godfather (1972) himself in the late 70s when it premiered on network TV (mostly for violence), also editing the first two together into a chronological epic in 1977, and in 1992 re-edited all three of the films into a singular chronologic entity, later released on video. David Lynchs failed Dune (1984) had much of its deleted material put back in for its television run in 1988, which extended its running time to over three hours (later re-edited into a directors cut DVD), and 1981s Das Boot would be extended into a five-hour television miniseries in 1985. Home viewing, whether it be television or video, was cultivating a significant audience. As the home video industry slowly worked its way into the fabric of culture, so too did its ability to offer new enthusiasm and appreciation for films. Laserdisc in particular was instrumental in offering high-end quality and in the late 80s came the advent of special editions which offered supplemental features such as documentaries and deleted scenes. This was all leading to a monumental few years which forged the directors cut as a legitimate force. 
First, David Lean supervised a restoration of Lawrence of Arabia (1962) for a theatrical re-release in 1989, adding in much material deleted from the original version, which sometimes required the original actors to return to the dubbing booth to re-record dialog. The following year, 1990, saw an equally ambitious restoration of Spartacus (1960), once again re-instating material exercised from its original release and requiring actors to re-record dialog some forty years later. In 1990, Warner Brothers screened 70mm copies of an early workprint version of Blade Runner, advertising it as a directors cut. The film had become a cult phenomenon since its poor 1982 release, and these screenings sold out quickly. Ridley Scott vehemently protested the mis-labelling of this version as a directors cut, and so he was allowed to alter the version to his preference, having always been dissatisfied with the troubled film. Scott didnt have enough time to properly devote to the impromptu cut, but had made enough changes to make the film more satisfying to him; these mainly were the removal of Harrison Fords voice-over, the re-instatement of the original cynical ending, and the inclusion of an infamous unicorn dream which significantly alters the films interpretation. In 1992 it was released theatrically as Blade Runner: The Directors Cut, later released on video. 
That same year would debut two more significant alternate cuts on video, this time of big-budget action moviesThe Abyss (1989) and Aliens (1986), both from James Cameron. Intended for Laserdisc, these versions were not titled as directors cutsCameron professes preference for the theatrical version of eachbut rather as an extended version for home viewing, adding some twenty minutes to Aliens and thirty to The Abyss, which also received a limited theatrical engagement and was much different in tone from its theatrical cut. The two films were billed under the moniker Special Edition. In 1993 Cameron would give his Terminator 2(1991) the same treatment, adding twenty minutes of deleted scenes to the film in a home video Special Edition." Since then, the advent of extended, alternate, directors or special cuts of films had become commonplace as the mid and late 90s came about (in a Simpsons episode from this time, Homer rents "Free Willy: The Director's Cut" with its alternate ending which sees the whale accidentally kill the young star of the film). Horror movies also became popular for being available in uncut versions which restored gore trimmed for the ratings boards. 
In 1997 the acceptance and popularity of alternate cuts would be cemented with the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition. With the original film requiring $20 million in restoration and enhancementtwice the budget of its original productionthe theatrical re-release would bring in well over $100 million and stayed at number one at the box office for weeks before being dethroned byEmpire Strikes Back(1980). The immense popularity of the re-release, and the much-advertised enhancement of its visual effects, helped foster the special edition craze that quickly followed in the wake of DVD. That format was launched the very same year and became an instant hit, causing a new revolution in home video that swiftly made VHS and Laserdisc both obsolete within a few short years. Directors cut, Uncut and Special Edition ports of the earlier Laserdisc releases were immediately released on DVD and gave new exposure to these alternate versions, which fed into the creation of things such as the 2001 Directors Edition of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) with enhanced effects much like Star Wars had done, and other films such asAlmost Famous(2000) and Army of Darkness (1993) would see directors cuts released as well. 
In 2000 William Friedkin returned to The Exorcist (1973) to edit a new cut that would be released theatricallytitled The Version Youve Never Seen Before. Apocalypse Now(1979) was theatrically re-released the next year in a popular re-edit called Apocalypse Now: Redux, and Fellowship of the Ring (2001) would present an Extended Edition of the film in 2002 which was immensely popular as well. E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) was then theatrically re-released in a Special Edition which added new effects in 2002, and that year also saw the release of Ridley Scotts directors cut of Legend (1985), plus director's cuts of Pearl Harbor (2001) and Amadeus (1984). By the next year, directors cuts and extended editions could be found of everything from Windtalkers to JFK to Conan the Barbarianto Daredevil to Any Given Sunday. Some of these had been genuine re-instatements of material originally intended by the director to be released; much of it was simply due to the opportunity being there to revisit a film and make additional tweaks, though as the market for these increased in 2001 and 2002, they were more often than not done at the studios request in an ironic twist, for they became a prime selling point of the new format. It became standard practice to release comedies in unrated editions, made famous by the respective editions of the American Pie series, and eventually other monikers such as outrageous edition and the like came about, often merely adding deleted scenes for the sake of creating a marketable alternate edition. 
By now you probably know how the years since that time went. Although DVD initially represented the mass-exposure opportunity for directors cuts, rare films and important and oft-seen classics, the use of special edition, directors cut and the like became a marketing buzzword that was abused until it had little meaning left. The growth of these alternate cuts went in tandem with the growth in double dipping a release by creating a re-issue that was largely unnecessarythe allure of a new, and presumably better, cut of the film became the ultimate draw to get buyers to purchase the same film twice. Most amusing is Oliver Stone, who released his much-criticised Alexander on DVD in early 2005, revisited the film later that year in response to the criticism in a directors cut, which was then criticised equally, which prompted him to re-construct the film yet again in a second final directors cut not two years after the initial video release (despite having final cut on that release as well). At the same time however, as much as the notion of a directors cut was overused, DVD did indeed bring about rarities and versions of merit that would never have been released otherwise. Foreign films and films with long running time were given a second life of re-discovery and opportunities of restoration. The uncut television series version of Fanny and Alexander (1982) was released. David Finchers fascinating early version of Alien 3 (1993) finally came about. 
Paul Schraders original version of Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) was given a video release when Renny Harlin completely refilmed iteven if both versions were poor (Schraders 2005-released version was titled Dominion). Ridley Scottnow unofficially known as Mr. directors cutwas compelled to save his jaw-droppingly magnificent Kingdom of Heavens Directors Cut (2005) knowing there was a big home video market for it. Orson Welles Touch of Evil(1958) was re-edited to his original, previously-unseen version. Most uniquely, the format offered an opportunity for Richard Donner to return to Superman II and finally release his version of the film. With the popularity of collecting and of multiple versions, it also became popular to collect important works together for historic purposeswhether it be both versions of Brazil and the Lord of the Ringstrilogy, both cuts of Apocalypse now, all three versions of Dawn of the Dead, or the five film collection of rare pre-1939 versions of Wizard of Oz. 
The explosive growth and mass-marketing of home video in response to DVD may have left us with a seemingly-unnecessary overabundance of alternate cuts of films, but the opening of this new market for the few examples deserving of our attention and the historic archiving of rarities has made it more than worth it--like any other medium it's the diamonds in the rough that compel us to keep watching.