Originally posted by OREOSpeedwagon
Damn, when I finally decided to break down and buy it (hadn't seen it before). I looked all over Bloomington, Indiana and couldn't find a single place that had the regular international cut version (one with the extras) but I found the superbit at BestBuy so I went ahead and bought it.

Oh well, I loved the movie and definitely will not be paying for a new version of it + special features.

Originally posted by statix666999
The USA version had 26 minutes of the film cut due to the test audience in LA hating many scenes. The cut scenes include: Mathilda playing russian rulette, her threatening to kill herself, her sleeping in the same bed as leon, much of her training, her killing people, going out to a restaurant after her first hit. There is a scene in which Gary Oldman threatens to kill the children at the birthday party. France is rumored to be the only country to include this scene. American release is 110 minutes (109 on TV). International uncut is 136 minutes. The australian version also cut out where she practices sniping in the park. If anyone can include a link to a site proving that a 10 year DVD is going to be released (No magazine articles please). Chances are, if it doesn't exist on a site, the project may have been canned, despite any magazine article's claims.

Originally posted by eau
You know the superbit version has a defective DTS track, don't you? Apparently, Sony used the same uncorrected audio source and produced this superbit version.

Originally posted by PopcornTreeCt
Interesting. And I have to agree no website=speculation.

Originally posted by woemcats
Why do people keep posting the same "US iz kut!" stuff when the director has said the "uncut" version was only released later because so many loved the original (which was shown in the US and everywhere else in the world)?

Originally posted by John Spartan
Can anyone name the issue & name of the magazine where Besson stated the US cut is his preferred and original cut? Or the online link, book title, etc. I'd like to see a source to at least partially justify the ridiculously obnoxious condescension that's been going in this thread.

The story I'd always read was that while the US cut was the first released, it's not his preferred cut since he had to get rid of things to appease the studio or as a result of test screening reaction. So it's the "original" since it's what he finally agreed to releasing first, but is it his preferred? There are little bits in the film that don't make a helluva lot of sense in the US cut, such as Stansfield's meeting with Aiello's character and threatening the kids.

RJ: I remember interviewing you at the time of the film and you got really pissed off with me because I kept on at you about subject of the relationship between the Jean Reno character and Natalie's character and you said to me: "Well it's your interpretation that there's something sexual there, it's not in the film." Do you still stand by that?

LB: Yes.

RJ: And is that why you felt you needed to change the film with the director's cut?

LB: No, I'm not responsible for what people think. The story is about two kids, a girl and a boy. They're both 12 years old, in their minds, and they're both lost and they love each other. And the rest is just your problem.The most important line for me in Léon is the one we've just seen [obviously from the conscience scene in Messenger] where her conscience says to her "you didn't see what it was, you saw what you wanted to see".

That's always the dilemma. Either you believe her or you don't. Maybe she has seen something but nobody else has seen it? You can ask yourself questions all night like: "If God wants to stop the war why doesn't he just show up in the middle of the battlefield? " That would be perfect. He's just shown up, he's saying: "I'm here, don't fight." I think that no one would fight, everyone would be down on their knees saying "oh my God".

RJ: And the idea that small people can change things. Small people can become big people?

LB: It's always the small people who change things. It's never the politicians or the big guys. I mean, who pulled down the Berlin wall? It was all the people in the streets. The specialists didn't have a clue the day before. If you read the newspaper a few days before...nothing...no one was talking about it. And even the French revolution, we just said "That's enough", and took the king.
The famous line about the French king was that he didn't even know what was going on. He said: "Is it a revolt?" And the other guy said: "No, it's a revolution." The king was thinking it was nothing.

RJ: Something we've never had here.

Q: What do you think of directors repeating themselves, and why did you feel the need to do a director's cut?

LB: Let me remember why...I was happy with the first one, it was mine, my director's cut, no one asked me to cut it. But at the same time you still have 25 minutes that nobody has seen. I think it was the beginning of the summer; in the summer France is like a desert, the people are on the beach, but there are some poor guys who stay in the cities to work, so we decided to make a long version, an extended version, to play in a just a few theatres for the people who stayed. Why are you laughing? It's true!


RJ: It's totally ridiculous.

LB: No, it's true. So we had like five screens and people loved it and sent their friends and then the Japanese called and said: "We want the long version, please."

Originally posted by OREOSpeedwagon
Yeah, I know. The DD 5.1 track is great though

Originally posted by Concorde
eh?...I must have missed something... what's wrong with the Superbit DTS track????

Originally posted by statix666999
The USA version had 26 minutes of the film cut due to the test audience in LA hating many scenes. [...] American release is 110 minutes (109 on TV). International uncut is 136 minutes.