Pirates Ahoy!

[Jan Klimkowski]

I agree, but something I should have pointed out is that when I first watched the original in 1983 I was 7, it was 10 years later that I actually read a book by Philip K Dick. If I'd watched the directors cut first I don't know if I would have been such a huge fan, and I probably wouldn't have understood the complex themes at that age.

A lot of the original, voiceover-driven, Bladerunner is excellent - I entirely agree.

However, as a filmmaker, I'm a tad obsessed with how story and meaning is created. A lot of director's cuts are primarily ways for studios to squeeze extra cash out of their "product". But there are a few movies where the different cuts genuinely represent different films.

Bladerunner is a great example.

Apocalypse Now and the later Redux are another fine instance. In the original, Willard, the Sheen character, is ruthlessly edited so that he doesn't smile or engage with the crew on the boat. In Redux, he horses about (eg the new surfboard scene), he pays for the kids to have a Playboy fantasy in a muddy hellhole, he is no longer entirely driven by his mission. Imo those restored scenes, shots, nuances, are all mistakes - although other viewers may very well disagree.

The French plantation chapter also fundamentally changes the meaning of the film. It shifts it towards a meditation on imperialism. Rather than the dark heart of ruthless action - the Milius vision as espoused by Brando/Kurtz in the timeless malarial temple.

Imo Redux is interesting. The original Apocalypse Now is fascinating.

Redux is about hubris, arrogance. Apocalypse Now is about the journey of the soul from honour to horror.

And a third example is another Ridley Scott film, Kingdom of Heaven. The original was butchered by the studio. After shite like Black Hawk Down, I thought Ridley had lost the plot, and watched the Director's Cut of Kingdom of Heaven solely because it was on the telly. And I was amazed.

I thought Kingdom of Heaven was unsalvageable. But, for me, the Director's Cut is probably Ridley Scott's best movie since Bladerunner.