Confusing cuts?


I read the book and saw the movie some years ago, and liked both of them a lot.

Now I am getting ready to teach the book to a community college class, and plan to also show them the movie.

I know that the flashbacks and sometimes sudden time shifts are going to be a challenge for my students as they read the book, and I'm prepared to guide them through that, at least in the early chapters. I also remembered that this issue is even more challenging in the movie than in the book.

However, the DVD that I recently purchased from amazon.com seems to be cut in ways that make it even more confusing than it was the first time I saw it. (Last night I sat and watched it with someone who had neither read the book nor seen the movie, and I had her reactions and questions to go by.)

There were several things missing in the version we watched that I feel sure were there when I saw it in the past; for one thing, I think that the scene which Kazuo and Hatsue go to bed after their wedding was longer and more erotic, and I remember Kazuo asking her if this was the first time for her, and Hatsue saying that it was (as she does in the book). I also remember the autopsy scene being longer and more graphic.

A few things that especially create confusion, though;

a) The German soldier whom Kazuo kills looks something like Ishamel, and the forest in which this scene takes place looks a lot like the forests on San Piedro. I feel sure that in the version of the movie I saw before, this scene was longer, and the soldier spoke in German so that you understood that he was a German soldier and not Ishmael. My companion last night actually thought that the scene showed Kazuo killing Ishmael, and was really baffled.

b) The sequence of land transfers was confusing. It is a bit hard to follow in the book--Etta Heine sold the Heine farm to Ole Juregenson and then Ole Jurgenson sold in back to Carl Heine, junior. I am pretty sure that the movie I saw years ago included a scene or scenes that provided this information, but it was missing in the movie we watched last night. It looked as though Etta sold the land to her own son.

Am I right that there are different cuts of the movie, or am I imagining things?


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Why on earth would you use this very mediocre film as a part of a college class??? What in God's name are you teaching?

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This is an advanced ESL (English as a Second Language) class.

The course requires students to read a full-length novel, and for most of them it is the first time they have done this in English.

I always try to include a film, which I find helps them with comprehension and sustains the stamina required to get them through the book.

(Of course, various stratagems are required to ensure that they do read the book and don't just rely on the movie.)

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Kudos! I have done ESL tutoring ... and I want to do more!

I have never read the book but I am sure it is very good ... and I like the fact that you are injecting some history into your lesson ... and it is a great idea to combine novel with film ... but this film is very hard to follow with all the flashbacks.

How did your students do with it? Did they find it confusing like this EFL who knows history did? This to me is a watch twice type film.

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