finally the UNcut version is on DVD

Close, but only in a sense. The new Sony DVD clocks in at 142 minutes, compared to 154' at the SF Festival, 138' in its theatrical release, and 131' in its TV cut. So at least we're getting more than what 1970 theater audiences saw.

This may be a situation similar to The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, which Cassavetes recut from 135' to 108' for its 1978 rerelease. (Both versions of Chinese Bookie are available from Criterion, for comparison).


In any case, for whatever it might be worth, I never trust the corporate suits at Sony. When they bought Columbia's huge catalog of music and films they had no concept of the artistic value of what they were sitting on, and an enormous number of incomparably important musical performances are still stashed away rotting in their vaults. And they pretty much destroyed David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia by gratuitously cutting out the Bey's rape of Lawrence up in his back office, after the beating on the bench and before Lawrence is thrown out into the street - this crucial scene took less than a minute of run time in the film's original theatrical release. So now there is considerable confusion among viewers as to whether a rape ever occurred. The problem is that you need this information to better understand Lawrence's subsequent frame of mind.