Following is a list of films cut over the director's opposition. At times, a movie studio will cut a film, usually to give it a more upbeat ending or to shorten it.
| Year | Film | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1924 | Greed | Von Stroheim made an extremely long 42-reel (over 9 hours in length at 20 frames per second) rough cut. Under pressure, he shortened it to 24, with the intention of showing it over two nights. Goldwyn producers were still dissatisfied, so von Stroheim sent the film to his friend and fellow director, Rex Ingram, who turned it over to his editor, Grant Whytock. After many more cuts, Whytock quit. New editor Joseph Farnham got the job and cut it even further to 10 reels. Von Stroheim said that the movie "was cut by a hack with nothing on his mind but his hat" and disowned the film as edited by the studio. | |
| 1925 | The Phantom of the Opera | After its initial preview was poorly received, Universal was advised by Lon Chaney and others to order a reshoot of most of the film. Julian refused to comply, and left. Edward Sedgwick directed the reshoot, and the film was re-edited twice before being released. | |
| 1928 | The Passion of Joan of Arc | Several cuts were ordered by the Archbishop of Paris and government censors, angering Dreyer. | |
| 1937 | The Road Back | Universal, threatened with a boycott of their movies by the Nazi German government, reshot and reedited the film extensively to tone down its anti-Nazi sentiment and added more comedy. Whale was disgusted at how the studio had caved in to political pressure and left after completing Wives Under Suspicion. He returned to Universal for one last film, 1940's Green Hell. | |
| 1942 | The Magnificent Ambersons | Welles lost control of the editing while he was in Brazil shooting a documentary for RKO and the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, and he had conceded his original contractual right to the final cut in negotiations with the studio. More than an hour of footage was removed from Welles's rough cut by RKO, which also shot and substituted a happier ending. Welles's extensive notes for how he wished the film to be cut have survived, but the excised footage was destroyed by the studio. A print of the original rough cut sent to Welles in Brazil has yet to be found and is generally considered to be lost, along with the prints from the previews. | |
| 1951 | The Red Badge of Courage | MGM cut 51 minutes from the film and added narration over Huston's protests following poor audience test screenings. Huston said that his original version was "the best film I ever made". The scenes that were cut were grim, intense sequences of war and its effects; some were based on Huston's own war experiences, which he documented in The Battle of San Pietro and Let There Be Light. The studio also feared that the audience would be reminded of the Korean War. It is believed that the cut footage was lost in the 1965 MGM vault fire. | |
| 1952 | The King and the Mockingbird (original version) | Producer André Sarrut took the film from Grimault's possession while he was still working on it, and released a hastily-finished 62-minute version, causing a rift between partners. Grimault eventually regained possession of the film, and released his own intended cut in 1980 as per his and writer Jacques Prévert's wishes. | |
| 1958 | Touch of Evil | Orson Welles | Welles was hired to direct and star, as well as re-write the script. During post-production, Welles was forced off the film. Universal-International revised the film's editing style to be more conventional and ordered re-shoots to be made. In response to the new version, Welles wrote a 58-page memo to the studio in which he elaborately outlined his creative vision for the film and asked that his version be restored. In 1998, producer Rick Schmidlin engaged Walter Murch to edit the restoration of the film based on the memo, and it is now widely regarded as one of Welles's best motion pictures and one of the best classic-era noir films. |
| 1962 | Merrill's Marauders | Fuller's original cut featured the battle at the Shaduzup railyard, done in one sweeping take that included American soldiers being accidentally killed by their own men. Producer Milton Sperling convinced Jack Warner the scene was "too arty". An ending showing Brigadier Merrill regaining consciousness at the Myitkyina operational airfield to be told of his men's casualties. That sequence was deemed too negative and was replaced with a scene of modern 101st Airborne Division soldiers on parade.[1] | |
| 1965 | Major Dundee | Peckinpah's original cut, which may have been more than four and a half hours long, was edited to 136 minutes before its premiere. A score that Peckinpah greatly disliked was also added. Following the movie's extremely negative reception, it was cut further, despite the protests of Peckinpah and producer Jerry Bresler, to 123 minutes. | |
| 1971 | Wild Rovers | Originally intended as a three-hour epic, MGM cut 40 minutes from the film during post-production without Edwards' knowledge or consent. Edwards disowned the finished film and later satirized his battle with the studio in his comedy S.O.B. In 1981, most of the deleted footage was restored for the film's home video release. | |
| 1972 | 1776 | Producer Jack L. Warner bought the film rights to the 1969 stage play and hired most of the original cast and crew, including stage director Peter H. Hunt for the film adaptation. Believing his final cut of approximately 170 minutes to be locked shortly before the film's premiere, Hunt went on vacation. When he returned, he discovered that Warner had re-cut the picture to 141 minutes, including the removal of the song "Cool, Cool Considerate Men", allegedly at the request of Warner's friend President Richard Nixon, due to the song's negative portrayal of conservatives. Warner ordered the cut footage to be destroyed, but the film's editor saved it. The original negative elements were found in the late 1990s, and the footage and song were restored in DVD and Blu-Ray releases. | |
| 1979 | Caligula | Brass started editing the film but was not allowed to continue after he had edited approximately its first hour. His rough cut was discarded and the film was edited by several editors, changing its tone and structure significantly by removing and re-arranging many scenes, using different takes, a slower editing style and music other than Brass intended, including incorporating unsimulated sex scenes shot by producer Bob Guccione, which Brass had refused to film (his original cut only included simulated sex).[2] Brass intended Caligula to be a satirical historical drama about absolute power corrupting Roman emperor Caligula, while Guccione's edits transformed it into an erotic film. | |
| 1979 | 1941 | Steven Spielberg | After test screenings and a two-and-a-half-hour preview, Universal Pictures and Columbia Pictures felt they were too long to be a blockbuster and edited the film to two hours, against the wishes of director Steven Spielberg.[3] |
| 1983 | The Keep | Mann's original cut of The Keep ran 210 minutes (three and a half hours) in length, but was truncated at the demand of Paramount Pictures to approximately 120 minutes (two hours).[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Test screenings of the two-hour cut were not favorable so Paramount further cut the film down to 96 minutes, against Mann's wishes. | |
| 1984 | Once Upon a Time in America | Leone had already cut his original 269-minute version down to 229 minutes to appease distributors but for its American release, it was cut to 139 minutes against Leone's wishes by The Ladd Company after "disastrous test screenings".[9] It was Leone's last film. | |
| 1984 | Dune | David Lynch's rough cut of Dune without post-production effects ran over four hours long, but Lynch's intended cut of the film (as reflected in the seventh and final draft of the script) was almost three hours long. Universal and the film's financiers wanted a two-hour cut of the film. Lynch and Raffaella De Laurentiis had to cut numerous scenes, filmed new scenes that simplified or concentrated plot elements, voice-over narrations and a new introduction by Virginia Madsen. Upon its release Lynch disowned the final film, stating that pressure from both producers and financiers restrained his artistic control and denied him final cut privilege. He replaced his name with pseudonyms on certain cuts of the film. | |
| 1985 | Brazil | Universal Pictures chairman Sid Sheinberg insisted on dramatically re-editing the film to give it a happy ending and make it shorter, a decision that Gilliam resisted vigorously.[10] Though Gilliam's 142-minute version was shown everywhere else by 20th Century Fox, there was no sign of it being released in the United States, prompting him to take out a full-page advertisement in Variety which said simply: Eventually, Universal released a modified 132-minute version supervised by Gilliam.[11] Sheinberg's 94-minute version was televised. Both U.S. versions and a full-length version are available on home media. | |
| 1990 | Nightbreed | Clive Barker | Adapted by Clive Barker from his novel Cabal, Nightbreed underwent significant reshoots and editing after a change in leadership at the production company, Morgan Creek Entertainment, leading to Barker effectively disowning the final product; an estimated 40 minutes was removed from the film and was considered lost. After a VHS tape containing the workprint of the film was found and screened in 2009, the original footage was located and a director's cut featuring the lost footage was assembled and released in 2014.[12] |
| 1992 | Alien 3 | David Fincher | After a troubled production and difficult shooting schedule, 20th Century Fox ordered David Fincher to replace the ending following a negative test screening, forcing the director to make a cut that he did not agree with. Further demands led to Fincher quitting production, and the film was partially reshot without Fincher's involvement. A version of the film closer to Fincher's intended vision but without his involvement was released in 2003.[13] |
| 1994 | I'll Do Anything | James L. Brooks | After test audiences reacted negatively to the music in the initial cut of the film, the musical numbers were cut, forcing the director to let Columbia to turn it into a non-musical movie.[14] |
| 1997 | Event Horizon | Paul W. S. Anderson | When the original 130-minute cut was poorly received by test audiences, including complaints about the extreme amount of gore and members of the test audience allegedly fainting, Paramount demanded a shorter length time with less gore, forcing the director Anderson to make a significantly shortened cut of the film. The approximately 40 minutes of removed footage was improperly stored and accidentally destroyed, and only fragments of the lost footage have been located.[15] |
| 1998 | Disturbing Behavior | David Nutter | David Nutter's original 115-minute cut was poorly received by MGM, he had to let the studio cut the film to 84 minutes. A fan cut (though not the real director's cut) was shown on TV, clocking in at 103 minutes.[16] |
| Year | Film | Director | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Babylon A.D. | Mathieu Kassovitz | After test screenings, which were poorly received by audiences, production studio 20th Century Fox and studio executive Tom Rothman to edit the film, forcing the director Kassovitz to make a cut he did not agree with.[17] | |
| 2016 | Suicide Squad | David Ayer | Many scenes were cut and altered from the film by Warner Bros., despite Ayer's opposition.[18] |