Sub-Zero

What movies are the Director's Cut or Extended Edition of the movie essentially now the standard edition?

*Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Director's Cut)
*The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (Extended Editions)

Any others?

whotony

The Abyss, at least to me.

Aliens, all the Cameron longer cuts probably.

Lt Ripley

Only thing that added to the film was finding out I had a dead daughter. Everything else was redundant.

Mike86

Not necessarily standard by the choice of fans but George Lucas has essentially forced the special editions of the original Star Wars Trilogy as standard.

taffer

Star Wars OT

Considering the theatrical versions have about a 0.01% chance of ever being released again.

Drexl

I'm not quite sure what you mean, but I believe JFK has only been available in the director's cut on DVD and BD.

Or do you mean cases in which another version is considered definitive and nobody bothers with the theatrical cut? Brazil would be an example of that.

inri222

Once Upon a Time in America

dom56

Watchmen

My Other Self

Are we talking about "the only way to buy it"? If so, Dumb & Dumber now fits that bill. So does Amadeus and Stripes.

When they are on TV, though, I've seen the theatrical cuts of all the above except for Amadeus. I've only seen that air on cable once in the past decade, on Ovation (some arts channel on digital cable). It was the director's cut.

Sub-Zero

I apologize about the confusion. Mostly I meant what movies are the Director's Cut or Extended Edition the definitive edition of the movie and tend to be the only version of the movie that people are usually able available to buy on DVD and Blu-ray (the theatrical cut had a limited run on DVD and Blu-ray, if at all, and now is only offered as the Director's Cut or Extended Cut).

hanshotfirst1138

The chances are much lower than that .

The so called "director's cuts" of Alien and Gladiator were curios that Scott doesn't prefer to the originals. On a tangential note, does the digibook of Blade Runner omit any extras, and does it have a UV code? It seems like the most cost-effective option.

The extended cut of Aliens is one of the few which I think genuinely is better and richer. The DC of Alien is an interesting curio, but the original is so perfectly paced as to render the changes pointless. Didn't need to fix what wasn't broken, and at least Scott was smart enough to know it. I suppose you could say The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, since Leone was never technically around to supervise the extended cut. Fuck MGM every which way for A) forcing the theatrical cut when branching would be easy, B), the color timing issues, and C) NOT INCLUDING THE FUCKING MONO!

devilshalo

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Hazel Motes

"Touch of Evil" Restored version
The Complete "Metropolis"

Sean O'Hara

I don't understand the love for the Aliens extended cut. Yes, the scenes with Newt's family and Ripley learning about her daughter's death were nice and should've been in the theatrical cut, but Hudson's "ultimate bad-asses" speech, the gun turret scene, etc. just drag the movie on.

As for other examples, is the theatrical cut of Pat Garret and Billy the Kid even available on home video? My recollection is the DVD only contains Peckinpah's rough cut and the later reconstruction (although I don't think either of them are definitive either).

There's also Touch of Evil, where the theatrical cut is still available but everyone considers the reconstruction based upon Welles' notes to be the version to watch.

My Other Self

Kingdom of Heaven

Mondo Kane

In recent years, all the Enter The Dragon TV-showings I've seen have all included the monk scene. So it looks like that one can go on the list.

I'm guessing that the extended cut always existed in it's Italian form because certain scenes were already deleted from the U.S. version before they were dubbed in english.

mwbmis

Overall I prefer the Cameron cut of Aliens as I think it adds depth, even the 15 second scene where Ripley and Hicks exchange first names.

However, when I watch the movie now I always skip the early LV426 scenes b/c I think the movie plays better if we're not introduced to Newt until the marines find her.

Mike86

Unless Disney negotiates a deal with Fox to release the original trilogy unaltered. It does seem like Disney is more willing to give the fans what they want instead of looking out for their own selfish wants like Lucas. I think it has a higher chance of happening now than before but still who knows. I really hope at some point we get them unaltered though. Like I've said before I'd buy some ultimate box set with all the crappy prequels and the special editions of the originals if it meant getting the original trilogy in high quality finally.

hasslein

Off the top of my head-

Heat
Battlefield Earth
THX 1138
Revolution

Ash Ketchum

THE WILD BUNCH had scenes that were cut during the first week of release restored over the years. The cut print was the only way I experienced this film for the first ten times or so I saw it. ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST had scenes cut right at the start of its release also, including Lionel Stander's entire scene, but that might have been cut early enough to change the credits so Stander's name wouldn't be in them. Either way, that scene and several others got restored at some point and that's pretty much the only version we see now. One of the scenes got put back in the wrong place, though, so that we have Henry Fonda in two different places at the same time.

Also, possibly BLADE RUNNER... I prefer the original theatrical cut of that. Is it possible to see it anymore?

Solid Snake

Fonda? you mean West. Not America.

inri222

Ash Ketchum

Yes, I meant ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. Thanks for catching that. I went back and changed my post.

I remember when they showed it on TV for the first time in late '72 or early '73, the cut scenes had been put back in. Years later, they were supposed to show a "restored" print at the New York Film Festival and Martin Scorsese, the Quentin Tarantino of that era, had lobbied hard to get it for the Festival and then when they showed it, it was the same cut theatrical print we'd seen back in 1969 and there was a lot of apologizing going around. I forget what happened.

islandclaws

Just about anything directed by Michael Mann.

TheMovieman

Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The one we get doesn't have the scene with Sloane undressing by the pool.