ThatGuamGuy

I'm always interested in alternate cuts, especially the reasoning behind them. I was wondering when Bogdanovich did the Special Edition cut, and if anybody knew why (did the studio force him to cut it down initially?)? I couldn't even find out exactly what had been added...

If there's a booklet that's supposed to be included with the DVD that explains this at all, then apparently I have a beef with the used DVD store I bought it from...

NatrlBornThrllr

I got a chance to see this film theatrically a year or so ago. It was a special screening, and Peter Bogdanovich was on hand to do a Q&A after the film was shown. Amidst a slew of questions regarding the time he spent with the likes of Orson Welles and Sinatra, this was one of the questions posed to him. Here's his answer as best I can recall:

The original cut of the film was nearly two and a half hours long. Naturally, that was too long for a theatrical release, and Bogdanovich wasn't happy with it anyway. He knew from the start that cuts needed to be made. He did all of the editing on the film himself, and only brought the credited editor (..pause for a quick trip to IMDB to find the name) Donn Cambern on board so that they could have an editor listed in the credits.

Well the film was cut down to size and Bogdanovich was content with the finished product. It screened theatrically and faded away (like most films before the home video formats). Well, around 1990 they were set to make Texasville, and Bogdanovich got the folks at Columbia to agree to let him do something: recut The Last Picture Show and release it to theaters prior to the initial wide release of Texasville. The idea was to let people see the initial film so that the sequel would be shown in the proper context, and since it had never been available to the public outside of it's initial theatrical run about two decades earlier, he decided to make a few artistic changes. So, he went through all of the surviving footage nearly 20 years after the fact and decided that the film would be better with 7 or 8 minutes edited back in.

In the midst of all of this, the head of Columbia left and a guy from Universal(?) who Peter had clashed with during the filming of Mask came on board. The two weren't exactly buddy-buddy. So, Bogdanovich was told that he couldn't release The Last Picture Show again theatrically, despite the fact that he'd already made a 35mm print of this extended cut. As such, they had to go back in and edit Texasville to cut out the things that people wouldn't understand without having seen The Last Picture Show (a film that hadn't been available to the public for nearly two decades).

Eventually the director's cuts of both films were made available on DVD (and laserdisc as well, I believe). So the film was initially too long, and both Peter and the studio thought it would be best if several cuts were made. 20 years later, Bogdanovich went back in to re-cut the film for a theatrical re-release prior to the sequel Texasville's national release. Artistically, he thought the movie would be better with those 7 minutes or so spliced back in. Things went haywire after that, but that's the initial reason for the re-cut film.

Oh, and since I'm not one to ever pass on the opportunity to brag about one of my collection in a collection gems, lookit:



Last of all, yes your DVD should have an insert. It doesn't mention anything about the separate cuts. It's just a one-fold booklet. On the front is the same art that's on the DVD. On the back is a chapter list. On the inside are a few paragraphs about the film, and about Archer City, Texas (where the film was set and shot) as well as the author and his book, which the film was based on. A bit interesting, but just filler material, really. If you want a transcript of what's written, let me know and I'll type it out for you. It'll only take a few minutes or so.

Anyway, hope that's helpful.

-JP

ThatGuamGuy

Very much so, thanks; I don't mind not having the booklet (especially if that's all it is) because I'm sure that I read it when I used to have it. [Long story short, my collection was stolen several years ago, so I've been gradually re-acquiring what I had for as cheap a price as possible, hence a lot of used discs ... but I don't care much for inserts and such anyway, since they're very rarely a source of new information.]

Great story about how it came to pass also, though I'm now curious what the original cut was like ...

And, though I have no gem to go with it, I met Bogdanovich a few years back too. [Sidebar: I love the way he brings up stories that don't answer questions just so he can do his impressions.] It was a screening of 'Cat's Meow', my senior year of film school, and despite it being that, I hadn't yet seen 'Last Picture Show' [when I did see it, about a year or so later in a theater, I was shocked that they hadn't forced it down our throats at school, as it was much better than most movies they did], or 'Noises Off...' [which half the audience was, apparently, in love with] ... it's possible I hadn't seen anything by Bogdanovich. But knowing his reputation, knowing that he was good friends with my teacher, and knowing I was going to be shooting a black and white half-hour short within a month, I figured I should chat with him. Got some nice advice about shooting B&W too (secondhand advice from Orson Welles, actually).

I do wish I'd had something for him to sign, though.