Posted by Robert on November 29, 1999 at 14:59:01:
In Reply to: dvd is perfect!!!! posted by ben pierce on November 28, 1999 at 14:53:03:
: I watched the dvd yesterday afternoon with my brother... both of us being huge lotm fans.
: I had read some of the reviews here... and felt dissapointed before I even saw the dvd. I had been looking forward to new scenes... and was shocked when people were saying parts were actually cut from the movie.
: so i was skeptical when i went over to watch it....
: but there was no need to worry...
: my brother and I were both blown away!!
: This version of the film is far superior to the original.
: Partly due to the quality of dvds... both the sound and the picture are amazing...
: but due more so to the cuts and aditions to the movie....
: I LOVED IT!!!!!!
: lotm was always one of my favorite movies because Hawkeye is cool beyond words... and the beautiful scenery... and "painting" type shots throughout the movie.... the music...well, you guys all know why it's so good.
: But the film as a whole always had some flaws.
: there were some slow parts... and the end always seemed like a let down.... from duncan's death to magwa's has awlays been, in my opinion, the best ten minutes ever put on film...
: but then the funeral was a big emotional let down... the movie sort of just fadded away....
: but with the addition of chingachgook's closing speach.... the end of the movie is as powerful as anything I've ever seen. The last line of the movie is so beautiful, and strong... My brother and I both were fighting off tears... we couldn't imagine why it was cut in the first place.
: as far as the lines cut from hawkeye... they were cool lines...
: but this "new" hawkeye is a stronger character... he doesn't have time, or feel the need, to think of witty one liners...
: I could go on and on....
: but the bottom line is this.
: the director's cut is a better film from start to finish...
: with an emphasis on the finish...
: i think everyone was expecting new scenes... which they didn't get...
: that's why there are all the negative reactions...
: but if everybody watches the dvd again.. not looking for new things... or wondering what was changed...
: but just watches with an open mind...you'll see a masterpiece.
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I haven't seen the director's cut DVD yet (I am waiting on my import copy to arrive here in Scotland) but I am delighted to hear that Chingachgook's closing speach seems to be restored in full. I thought it was very moving when I saw it in the published script ("people will come to work and struggle and some will make their light" etc), so I asked Michael Mann why it had been cut when he appeared at his retrospective at the National Film Theatre in London in 1996. Strangely, he replied that it had been his choice to cut it because, although Russell Means had done a fine job with it, he was not happy with the writing and he felt the film had already dramatised the points the speech made anyway, so he cut it. Yet now he has restored it to the "definitive" edition. I assume then that he was not really telling the truth in 1996 and he was covering for having been forced to cut the films running time, or he has changed his mind in the years since then. What do you think?
Robert