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Is There Such A Thing As A Final Cut?
heidi writes "There's an insightful article over at CNN's entertainment section about the tinkering of recent cultural history. Apparently, there is no such thing as a final draft any more, and author Todd Leopold does a great job of showing how this is revisionist history at its, well, oddest. Aside from the many examples he cites, such as the 'new' Capote novel and the changing of Star Wars to show that Greedo shot first, i can think of the 'new' Camus novel that i read a few years ago and the way that The Wizard of Oz had the 'ding dong the witch is dead' song edited out. In an era where our entertainment has come to define us and to fill, however (un)completely, the spiritual void that we inherited from the Boomers, messing with our stories isn't necessarily a positive thing, creative genius aside."
CAPITALIZE I!
This legend is completely unfounded. There are many versions of most of Shakespeare's plays, and quite a few of them are considered to be revisions by himself.
Not to mention that some works are collaborations and "borrowings" from other authors, which may have been reworked later, etc.
Hmm .. I think you only say that because you may be blind to the changes that have gone on in the past, and the changes that are currently going on.
.. to modern day English to ebonics (and I am sure there is one out there). Each translation will change the sense of the text depending on who it was who translated it. As a comparison ... run something twice through babel fish and see what comes out.
In the begining (well maybe not that long ago) there were some pretty big arguments over what things went into the bible. For example one of these things were the Apocrypha, which were out then in then out again. (Do I see a directors cut/special edition cut that includes the sections that were dropped?)
Let alone the translation from whatever to Greek to Latin to English
I just found this interesting link The Pre-Reformation History of the Bible From 1,400 BC to 1,400 AD
So to say that the Bible is permanent and forever is misleading and ignorrant of the history of that document.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
I call BS, there's no mention of it being cut in:
...
http://imdb.com/title/tt0032138/alternateversions
Not to mention, "Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead" is #82 on the AFI's list of Top 100 Songs.
What they do say is:
"Original preview versions of "The Wizard of Oz" ran several minutes longer than the current version; These are the scenes that were cut or shortened to reduce the running time. These scenes were never included in any officially released version of the film:
A scene where the four main characters return to the Emerald City with the witch of the west's broomstick (including a reprise of "Ding Dong, The Witch is dead!") was cut. Only the song survived; the footage no longer exists (except a shot or two that can be found in the theatrical trailer)."
And according to wikipedia:
"Originally, the crew returned to the Emerald City to a "hero's welcome", with everyone singing "The Wicked Witch is Dead". This too was cut after early previews. Footage of this scene no longer exists, except for a few frames seen in a later re-issue trailer."
I can't be the only person who remembers the opening song's lyric containing a line about cutting off your hand for stealing a loaf of bread.
Actually, the line was "Where the cut off your hand if they don't like your face" changed to "where the land is immense and the heat is intense".
-mkb
This is the best that I could find. I can't vouch for its veracity but I've never heard of bits being cut out of the Wizard of Oz.
The bits that are left in the Wizard of Oz are bad enough! Am I the only one who thinks it is one of the most cynical films ever made? Examples include the 'good' witch saying "Only bad witches are ugly." When presenting the heart to the tin man, the Wizard says something like "The measure of our hearts isn't how much we love others, but how much others love us." I can't remember exactly what the formula is that the scarecrow recites when he gets his diploma, but I think it was the square of the hypoteneuse is equal to the sum of the other two sides. And that just isn't right.
And that's just the obvious stuff. If you start looking at what really happens in the film... this poor woman finds someone drops a HOUSE on her sister crushing her, and then this same person goes on to steal her sisters most prized possession and rightful inheritance. That film is seriously nasty but put enough sugar on it and people think that it's all nicey nicey.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Did the director choose to remove the "Witch is dead" song in the DVD version of OZ?
Are you sure that's what they're referring to? I think the summary is actually referring to the changes made after the first screenings of the Wizard of Oz in the theaters. Based on those screenings, the director chopped a LOT of footage, including a SECOND reprisal of "Ding-Dong the Witch is Dead" after the second witch melts.
Looking at Amazon and the like, I can find no evidence that the first reprisal has been removed on the DVD.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
If you think that's cynical- you should see the interpretation of the original story in the light of certain political happenings of the times. You do know the story existed before it was a movie, right? And that the ruby slippers were originally silver?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Great stuff!
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
James Earl Jones was the voice of Darth Vader.
David Prowse was the actor in the suit
Sebastian Shaw was the face of Darth Vader before the re-edit.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
L Frank Baum's universe is quite ethically and morally complicated; a fact that is made full use of in the recent novel Wicked. (Not one of my favorites, but that's neither here nor there.) In taking a story from Baum's long-running series out of context and transforming it into a screenplay, a great deal gets lost. It seems to me that Baum wanted us, at least as adults, to think about the kinds of things that concern you.
That said, the Wicked Witch of the West is clearly not a nice person, nor a mentally stable one. She spends a lot of time trying to kill a child for the high crime of happening to be inside the house that fell on her sister. The rightful ownership of the ruby slippers is an interesting question, but I think we can safely guess that the Witch would not have used the magic power of the slippers to send Dorothy home and restore all Oz to peace, joy, and prosperity. The Witch died, after all, as an inadvertent result of setting Dorothy's highly flammable friend on fire. I'm OK with that.
> Actually, the line was "Where the cut off your hand if they don't like your face" changed to "where the land is immense and the heat is intense".
Actually, the original line was "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face. / It's barbaric, but hey, it's home." Google it.
However,
That was new to me too, and the best information I could find with Google is that there was a reprise of the song done near the end of a preview version of the movie, but not in the released version. The song was shown/heard in previews and ancillary products, so some people remember it and though it should be on the DVD, without realizing it was never part of the theatrical release.
As I said, that's what I found by searching. I don't know if that's the only story.
a,e,i,o,u and sometimes w and y (at be if of up cwm by)
Sebastian Shaw was the face of Darth Vader before the re-edit.
They edited him out as his ghost, but the removal of the mask wasn't changed.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
This is an urban legend, and I'm surprised it was included in the CNN story. You can find more information on this on DVDTalk.
There are deleted scenes from OZ, but all the released versions of the movie, including on television, since its release are said to be identical.
"May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"
You also can find those Laserdisc versions on torrents as DVD ISOs at certain popular sites. They are pretty great.
Obviously none of you went to film school:
The famous scene that was deleted is known as the "Jitterbug" scene where the characters do another song and dance number before heading to the witch's castle. I was taught that it was removed merely for brevity. The scene does still exist because I was forced to watch it in a class.
Unlike Lucas Spielberg gives a sh*t about his fans, and the history of film:
He released the original version of E.T. on DVD in a package with the update.
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