MovieChat Forums > Lion of the Desert (1981) Discussion > director´s cut dvd info please

director´s cut dvd info please


Anybody seen the Director´s Cut dvd? It´s around 46 mins. longer I understand. Any important scenes in there worth checking out?

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Someone can correct me on this but I have seen what I believe to be the theatrical version and a longer version (which I presume is the directors cut) whith only 2 noticable differences.

After Mukhtar and his men raid the Italian supply dump and steal the machine-guns and explosives, Graziani briefs his officers on an offensive in the mountains. The Italians use poison gas to corner the rebels. While the rebels retreat, they are ambushed by a machine-gun which Al Fadeel takes out but is killed in the process. Then follows a short cave scene as Mukhtar and his men watch the Italian artilelry fire in the distance. Then it is back to normal with the bridge scene.

Later, after Mukhtar's trial, he is photographed with his jailers and some Italian officers and officials, this replicates an actual photograph that was taken of Mukhtar whilst in captivity.

There may be a few extra lines of dialogue or a few extra shots here and there but nothing that is blatently different from the shorter version.

Since it doesnt seem Anchor Bay themselves dont know how long their own DVD's run for, I assume there is no 209 minute version although I hope I am mistaken.

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I have both versions on DVD, and I really didn't notice any difference in the films. Then again I haven't seen them in a while. I did note that the DC is not as wide in presentation as the original release, though it is letterboxed and the colors are richer.

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I remember watching a shorter version on VHS as a kid, and one thing is for sure, the sequence with the mustard gas was not in it.

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