90 min VS 131 min


I rented this movie and on the box it said that the run time was 131 minutes. The film ended after just about 90 min. What's up with that? Is there a longer version?

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[deleted]

Maybe the box said 1hr 31 mins?

"You're a very brave audience" William Castle, 'Homicidal'

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[deleted]

That's a pretty... searching for right word... cool coincidence. I love 'The Driver'

"You're a very brave audience" William Castle, 'Homicidal'

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I seriously doubt that they cut exactly 30 minutes. A missing : is much more likely. 1:31 = 91 minutes.

Unless you can find documentation regarding what cuts were made, then I'd say it was simply sloppy typesetting on the box... which isn't surprising, the people who make the box are usually so far removed from the actual product that errors are common and rarely resolved.

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That is my conclusion also, the VHS box is not printed correctly. It should have read 1 hr. 31 min.

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What I'm concerned with is if any such cuts were made, AFTER showing in theatres, since I saw this film, during it's original theatrican run. I'd like to see the SAME film again.

I don't mind them restoring footage, which was originally edited out.

Carpe Noctem

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The only mistake the box made was in confusing which version the VHS was. The original cut of 'The Driver' was indeed 131 minutes long, it apparently screened Los Angeles's American Cinemateque (Egyptian Theater) in it's full 131 minute version (when I was out of the Country *drat!*).
So it's nearly 40 mins less in the one out on video, not "cut exactly 30 minutes".

The leading review on Amazon says they're waiting for the 2 hr. 11 min. version to come out before they buy. I can't wait any longer myself, I'm getting the 91 min. DVD (hey, better than the 87 min. one on Amazon UK!).

Good luck to any fans of 'The Driver' who are waiting for the 131 minute cut. I wouldn't hold my breath on seeing that, but I'm not you....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQP9QjNjeR4

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Just an incidental point, but I believe the reason the UK DVD appears to be shortened (87 mins) is a result of NTSC to PAL conversion, not more cutting of the film.

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lol i dont got any idea about that thing...
could include the tralier :P maybe :|

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Got this little tidbit from the Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith bio page here on IMDb:

"Trivia
Had a sizable co-starring role in the original longer version of "The Driver" (1978), but alas the subplot involving her character was excised and subsequently all of Smith's scenes were cut out as well. Director Walter Hill regretted cutting these scenes and spoke favorably about Smith's acting skills."


These deleted missing Rainbeaux Smith scenes are part of the missing footage that originally comprised the 131 minute version. Too bad it was cut, because Rainbeaux Smith was a very attractive actress, who tragically died young from drug-related health problems. Anyway, I would love to see that missing footage of her in "The Driver" some day...



"I've always tried to teach you two things. First: never let them see you bleed. Second: Always have an escape plan." - Q



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That makes a lot of sense. The editing in this movie seems really choppy. There are a number of places where the transition from one scene to another doesn't flow well at all. You kind of go "Hey! How did we end up here..."

It's a good enough story with enough flexibility that it could stand a remake. It's too bad the original essentially got butchered by money or Hollywood politics, it had a lot of the right pieces and Bruce Dern was awesome as the creepy and driven detective.

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Yes, thank you for that observation. Watched it for first time last night. And the jump to the first interrogation of the Driver by Dern in the bar just happened without showing if the Driver was caught, brought in or summoned to be there. It just seemed to be a bump in the storytelling.

"Victor, what are we going to do to stop this fiendish tit?"

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From the wiki page:

"The film was originally intended to be over two hours long. For years even the VHS tapes had said the length was over two hours, although it was always 90 minutes on the tapes, on television, and now on DVD. Only once was the longer version shown, in a theater in Hollywood by director Walter Hill. This director's cut involved more chase scenes and character development."

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THERE IS NO LONG VERSION. As an archivist trying to sort out rumored alternate versions of this film, I just received an email from Walter Hill saying there has never been a 131-minute version -- he doesn't even think the rough first assembly could have been that long. There is much internet talk about a deleted subplot involving the actress Rainbeaux Smith, and Hill told me he's never heard of her. Some minor trims may have occurred for a PG version, and some scenes reinstated for television (without Hill's involvement), but as far as the director is concerned, the "correct" version is the one preserved by 20th Century Fox, which screened at MoMA in New York, November 2011 -- at 91 minutes. No 2-hour+ cut was shown at The Egyptian. It seems clear that no copy in the world is going to vary by more than a couple minutes.

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Absolutely correct. This information has been verified yet again by Hill prior to the recent blu ray release by Twilight Time. The only significant footage excised from the film is the alternate opening seen on the DVD/Blu ray which provides an intro to Adjani's character and shows Dern & Clark's first meeting.

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[deleted]

[deleted]

When they were laying up the artwork for the box, someone asked "hey, what's the run time of this?" and someone else answered "one thirty one" (meaning an hour and thirty one minutes).

But the dope who heard it thought the answerer was saying 131 minutes. And so the box was printed with the wrong time on it.

Of such silliness do myths arise.

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