Is There Such A Thing As A Final Cut? 475
heidi writes "There's an insightful article over at CNN's entertainment section about the tinkering of recent cultural history. Apparently, there is no such thing as a final draft any more, and author Todd Leopold does a great job of showing how this is revisionist history at its, well, oddest. Aside from the many examples he cites, such as the 'new' Capote novel and the changing of Star Wars to show that Greedo shot first, i can think of the 'new' Camus novel that i read a few years ago and the way that The Wizard of Oz had the 'ding dong the witch is dead' song edited out. In an era where our entertainment has come to define us and to fill, however (un)completely, the spiritual void that we inherited from the Boomers, messing with our stories isn't necessarily a positive thing, creative genius aside."
This post needs a revision (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Shakespeare... (Score:2, Informative)
Not to mention that some works are collaborations and "borrowings" from other authors, which may have been reworked later, etc.
Re:Some works are permanent and forever (Score:4, Informative)
In the begining (well maybe not that long ago) there were some pretty big arguments over what things went into the bible. For example one of these things were the Apocrypha, which were out then in then out again. (Do I see a directors cut/special edition cut that includes the sections that were dropped?)
Let alone the translation from whatever to Greek to Latin to English
I just found this interesting link The Pre-Reformation History of the Bible From 1,400 BC to 1,400 AD [greatsite.com]
So to say that the Bible is permanent and forever is misleading and ignorrant of the history of that document.
Re:I must have missed something (Score:4, Informative)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0032138/alternateversions [imdb.com]
Not to mention, "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead" is #82 on the AFI's list of Top 100 Songs.
What they do say is:
"Original preview versions of "The Wizard of Oz" ran several minutes longer than the current version; These are the scenes that were cut or shortened to reduce the running time. These scenes were never included in any officially released version of the film:
A scene where the four main characters return to the Emerald City with the witch of the west's broomstick (including a reprise of "Ding Dong, The Witch is dead!") was cut. Only the song survived; the footage no longer exists (except a shot or two that can be found in the theatrical trailer)."
And according to wikipedia:
"Originally, the crew returned to the Emerald City to a "hero's welcome", with everyone singing "The Wicked Witch is Dead". This too was cut after early previews. Footage of this scene no longer exists, except for a few frames seen in a later re-issue trailer."
Re:At the risk of a rantfest: IP's the problem (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the line was "Where the cut off your hand if they don't like your face" changed to "where the land is immense and the heat is intense".
Re:I must have missed something (Score:5, Informative)
This [dvdtalk.com] is the best that I could find. I can't vouch for its veracity but I've never heard of bits being cut out of the Wizard of Oz.
The bits that are left in the Wizard of Oz are bad enough! Am I the only one who thinks it is one of the most cynical films ever made? Examples include the 'good' witch saying "Only bad witches are ugly." When presenting the heart to the tin man, the Wizard says something like "The measure of our hearts isn't how much we love others, but how much others love us." I can't remember exactly what the formula is that the scarecrow recites when he gets his diploma, but I think it was the square of the hypoteneuse is equal to the sum of the other two sides. And that just isn't right.
And that's just the obvious stuff. If you start looking at what really happens in the film... this poor woman finds someone drops a HOUSE on her sister crushing her, and then this same person goes on to steal her sisters most prized possession and rightful inheritance. That film is seriously nasty but put enough sugar on it and people think that it's all nicey nicey.
Re:There's an old saying... (Score:3, Informative)
Are you sure that's what they're referring to? I think the summary is actually referring to the changes made after the first screenings of the Wizard of Oz in the theaters. Based on those screenings, the director chopped a LOT of footage, including a SECOND reprisal of "Ding-Dong the Witch is Dead" after the second witch melts.
Looking at Amazon and the like, I can find no evidence that the first reprisal has been removed on the DVD.
Re:I must have missed something (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I must have missed something (Score:3, Informative)
Great stuff!
Re:Colorizing testimony (Score:2, Informative)
James Earl Jones was the voice of Darth Vader.
David Prowse was the actor in the suit
Sebastian Shaw was the face of Darth Vader before the re-edit.
Re:I must have missed something (Score:5, Informative)
L Frank Baum's universe is quite ethically and morally complicated; a fact that is made full use of in the recent novel Wicked [amazon.com]. (Not one of my favorites, but that's neither here nor there.) In taking a story from Baum's long-running series out of context and transforming it into a screenplay, a great deal gets lost. It seems to me that Baum wanted us, at least as adults, to think about the kinds of things that concern you.
That said, the Wicked Witch of the West is clearly not a nice person, nor a mentally stable one. She spends a lot of time trying to kill a child for the high crime of happening to be inside the house that fell on her sister. The rightful ownership of the ruby slippers is an interesting question, but I think we can safely guess that the Witch would not have used the magic power of the slippers to send Dorothy home and restore all Oz to peace, joy, and prosperity. The Witch died, after all, as an inadvertent result of setting Dorothy's highly flammable friend on fire. I'm OK with that.
Re:At the risk of a rantfest: IP's the problem (Score:2, Informative)
Actually, the original line was "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face. / It's barbaric, but hey, it's home." Google it. [google.com]
Re:There's an old saying... (Score:2, Informative)
As I said, that's what I found by searching. I don't know if that's the only story.
Re:Colorizing testimony (Score:3, Informative)
They edited him out as his ghost, but the removal of the mask wasn't changed.
URBAN LEGEND ALERT! (Score:3, Informative)
There are deleted scenes from OZ, but all the released versions of the movie, including on television, since its release are said to be identical.
Re:Which is fine, but.... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I must have missed something (Score:2, Informative)
The famous scene that was deleted is known as the "Jitterbug" scene where the characters do another song and dance number before heading to the witch's castle. I was taught that it was removed merely for brevity. The scene does still exist because I was forced to watch it in a class.
Re:Which is fine, but.... (Score:3, Informative)
He released the original version of E.T. on DVD in a package with the update.