Egon's Ghost

What is the release history of Wild at Heart? Someone is selling a possible R0 DVD that they bought 3 years ago. It doesn't have a Universal logo anywhere, and it plays on R1 DVD players. It has the R0,2,4 cover. The back is in English. This person can't go through the scenes in the menu section, perhaps meaning there is no chapter menu. Does anyone have this R0 release? If there's no logo anywhere, is it a possible bootleg? Any help would be appreciated.

Josh Z

Sounds like a bootleg.

Buy the official R1 edition from MGM. It has a Lynch-supervised transfer and nice selection of extras. And it's reasonably priced. There's no reason to go looking for inferior-quality R0 copies.

Egon's Ghost

Well, I'm interested in the uncut international version, plus I live in Europe. If I can find it cheaply, plus the transfer looks different from the MGM disc. I'll avoid this R0 release and look for R2 (as I live there). The UK edition is now out of print.

Daniel Windsor

All DVDs of Wild at Heart are uncut AFAIK.

Why no multiregion? It's easy especially for someone in Europe Region 2. Shops are full of multiregion product.


If you must have a Region 0 then get the Korean DVD but that's difficult to obtain now.

Multiregion makes very good sense. The cheapest option at the moment is the extras-free Region 4 from Australia

The US disc is very good but I couldn't see much difference in image. Best for extras though.

Daniel Windsor

I see the French have it with dts. Review here

Looks (sounds!) nice. That's Region 2 of course.

Egon's Ghost

I live in Prague. Bontonland has a selection of "original" edition English-language films, which means UK editions. Wild at Heart, the Universal UK edition, is out-of-print. That leaves the German edition, which is falling out of availability as well (from e-tailers). Shipping here is prohibitively expensive from Germany, and France as well; amazon.fr shipping: €13 per shipment plus €2 per item. That is absolutely insane. I said "cheaply". A Czech edition of Wild at Heart has been pushed back several times by Universal. It might come out here, but who the hell knows. I haven't seen any other shops with foreign DVDs, even from Western Europe. EU doesn't really mean shit.

Here's DVDBeaver's comparison of the various versions: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCom...ildatheart.htm

Daniel Windsor

So, why don't you have multiregion?

Which DVD player do you have?

Josh Z

The only difference between the American and international cuts of the film is a 1 second shot from the shotgun death scene. Some smoke has been imposed over the gore in the American version, and frankly it looks a lot better with it. The unobscured version looks very fake.

Daniel Windsor

The US DVD is still cut? I wouldn't go near it and I'm surprised the director had anything to do with the MGM DVD. I'm glad Universal did most of the other releases.


So you've seen a lot of self-inflicted shotgun blasts to the head, then? I've seen a few and it looks pretty good to me.

Egon's Ghost

Come on, now. I've seen the screenshots and it looks a bit fake to me. Apparently Lynch approved the MGM transfer himself. I think he has approved all of the R1 releases of his movies, which is why they have taken so long to be released. He also approved the digital obscuring of that shot when it was released theatrically in the U.S., so the MGM DVD isn't "cut". I'm interested in the R2 version because 1) I live here and 2) I'm curious to see it. I just don't want to have to pay so fu#@ing much for it. I have multiregion capabilities, on my computer; it isn't an issue. I haven't flashed the firmware; I use software. Plus I can play NTSC or PAL with ease, and it looks great, purely digital.

Daniel, thanks for the DVDCrave link and the CZK price, that is really cheap! I might go for it.

Josh Z

The DVD isn't "cut". Lynch himself added the smoke effect to secure an R rating back in 1990. He also likes the smoke aesthetically, as it adds an interesting texture to the shot and subtly enforces the movie's themes about smoking and fire. That isn't censorship; it's making a last-minute revision to the movie before release. The international prints shipped earlier and came from what is essentially a work-in-progress workprint.

I don't want to know what you do for a living that you've seen so many people get shot in the head!

Regardless, without the smoke the gore looks like plastic, rubber, fake blood, and a cheap wig, which is what it actually is.

Daniel Windsor

Whether you say 'cut' or 'censored' it matters not as the film distributor needed it cut/censored for a 'R Rating' by the US censor. So, you own the censored version literally.

I suppose you'll be saying Lynch thought the vagina which he digitally obscured in Mulholland Dr. looked fake too?

Now that was censorship but it was for the director's own reasons and he wasn't forced to do it by the KGB...err I mean MPAA.

JLyon1515

Man, how many weeks go by between these conversatiosn about censorship and such?

Anyway, Daniel Windsor, are you saying that you would rather have a version of the film that is different from what the director intended? If that's your preference, you must own a lot of full screen DVDs.

Josh Z

The MPAA are not censors. If you want to know what censorship really is, move to Singapore.

Lynch made this 1 second change to the movie of his own volition. He also had the opportunity to remove the smoke effect for the DVD release and chose not to. The US theatrical version is his Director's Cut.

Egon's Ghost

It's interesting what this thread has become. So it is true that Lynch personally supervised the MGM transfer? I'm still going try to get the Aussie disc as it so cheap; a colleague is visiting home, so what the hell. Anyway, I remember watching Wild at Heart on VHS in the US, and all I remember from the scene in question is the gunshot then a pile of goo hitting the ground, and that was enough. If I do get the Aussie disc, then I'll eventually get the MGM disc and be happy that I have both, just for the hell of it. Like Manhunter (Josh, you know what I mean).

Daniel Windsor

Yes, in many cases including George Lucas who has destroyed Star Wars. Full screen as in Citizen Kane? I'm guessing you don't know what you're talking about so I'll leave it there.

As for the censorship of Wild At heart Lynch cut that film because he was forced to by the American distributor due to the censor (MPAA).

The fact he still wants a censored USA cut is irrelevant as it's 15 years since he was forced to cut it. The film was finished and released to several festivals uncut and that's the only true version.

I'm happy for the USA to have its own cut version but to claim Lynch being forced to have a 'R rating' is not censorship is dumb.

I'm only interested in what the director thought when he made the film. As we've seen with the pathetic 'director cuts' of Manhunter and Apocalypse Now, directors are best not allowed near the film once it's 'finished'.


Wild at Heart was 'finished' and released to great acclaim but Lynch had to provide a 'R' cut for the USA distributor.

That's a cut due to censorship.


That's a stupid statement as the MPAA was set up to censor and that's what they do. If I wanted to know what censorship was really like I'd watch US news channels. No need to travel to Singapore.

Daniel Windsor

IMDb

"To avoid an "X" rating in the USA, David Lynch added a smoky haze to the scene where one character shoots himself with a shotgun and blows his head off. The effect made the removal of his head from his body less clear and muted the blood and gore and got the movie an "R" rating. The uncut version was released outside the USA."

pro-bassoonist

Huh? Are you following the discussion or just making a statement for the sake of it?

Pro-B

Josh Z

Yes, there's an interview with Lynch in the disc supplements where he talks about doing a full transfer, being unhappy with it, and asking MGM to start over from scratch with new elements. That's the reason the movie took so long to be released in Region 1.

The foreign releases use an entirely different transfer that Lynch feels has a wrong color balance.

Josh Z

"Censorship" is an easy word to throw around when you don't know what it means. The MPAA are not censors. They don't forcibly cut movies. They merely rate the movies. It is the filmmaker and studio's discretion to make changes or not based on the rating. If they had wanted to, they could have released the film with an NC-17 or unrated. Instead, the director himself decided to make a 1 second change to the movie.

The BBFC in the UK, on the other hand, are a censorship body. They forcibly make cuts to movies without the consent of the filmmakers, and are the final authority on what makes it to theater screens or not. The filmmakers have no choice in the matter. That is censorship.

The version circulated to festivals was an unfinished workprint. The US theatrical release is the final Director's Cut.

That's due to the realities of the market, and a decision the filmmaker made.

Daniel Windsor

I agree, so why do you keep using it? The MPAA cut films by proxy. As with the BBFC the MPAA is an entirely private company and both were set up by the film studios.

In the UK the BBFC powers are linked to acts of parliament. The BBFC do not literally cut films but ask the distributor to follow guidelines, cut and recut themselves. All BBFC decisons can be challenged by an independent committee and if necessary by the courts.

What the US censor (MPAA) does is much worse because it's all quite secret plus films that are unrated are treated badly by the press and TV. Unrated DVDs seem to be 'cool' now so the studios are now making money out of some Americans who are too dumb to know they are being fucked over twice.

Every Western country I can think of has censorship. The US has the worst type -dumbness. People don't even know they are being censored. What is the censorship? Lack of information. It's a killer.


Like I say, I'm happy you like the censored cut but this is the International DVD Talk section of this forum which means the discussion is about the best version. Sadly that's not available to Americans but they can import discs if their laws continue to allow that.

Josh Z

Daniel, you're talking out of your ass and you know it. Give it up.

The R1 DVD of Wild at Heart is the way the movie was originally released to theaters, and is the director's preferred cut of the movie. End of story. You may personally like the version with the rubbery gore shot, but that hardly makes it "the best version".

Grubert

Released to American theaters.

Daniel Windsor

Exactly.

The film (the uncut version) won the Cannes film festival Palme D'Or in 1990 and that's where it had it's first release.

It wasn't allowed a 'R' in the US so that's why it was cut. Yes, with the director's hand, but he still had to revisit the film once it had been 'finished' or it could not be advertised in most US media as it would have been a 'X' rated film.

Equals= Censorship that caused it to be cut for the USA.

JLyon1515

Yes, I was following the discussion. My point is that Daniel prefers a version of the film that is different than is Lynch's preference. When it comes to Lynch films, I tend to want them however Lynch wants them...and I think it's silly to want them any other way. Just about as silly as it is to prefer a film in a non-original aspect ratio (another preference of directors). Get the leap? It was just to prove how silly one preference was by making a reference to an even more odd preference (non-OAR).

Of course, I was referring to new movies when I asked if Daniel had "a lot of fullscreen dvds", again referring to something ridiculous. I thought, "Maybe I should clarify that fullscreen dvds statement so he doesn't come back with 'such in such movie is meant to be fullscreen.' Nah, he won't do that. It's trite...he knows what I mean."

But I see that I was wrong.

In my opinion, the US release has better image, sound, extras, and menus. Only a second's worth of film is different between the "director's cut" and the "uncut" versions, and Lynch approved and prefers the US release, so I'll stick with the US release.