just a tragedy it got so badly chopped up by the censors and no director's cut survives.
I don't believe that's the case. I own the Criterion DVD and the version it presents is the two-hour British original, extended digression of children's river battle with apples and wooden guns included. The extras include scenes from the American version, such as the frame with Johnson and his girl back in the States, but I've never felt the need to watch them.
I have to two hour original but it was badly messed about with by the censors which is why there are those odd little gaps in the story- the young US squaddie not going for the meal he's invited to with the old wheelwright and his wife, for example.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-07-10 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-10 05:43 pm (UTC)I don't believe that's the case. I own the Criterion DVD and the version it presents is the two-hour British original, extended digression of children's river battle with apples and wooden guns included. The extras include scenes from the American version, such as the frame with Johnson and his girl back in the States, but I've never felt the need to watch them.
[edited for preposition]
no subject
Date: 2013-07-11 07:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-07-10 08:17 pm (UTC)But I'd never heard it got chopped about by the censors. The version I know (and own on DVD) seems to be unmutilated.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-10 09:42 pm (UTC)The American release deleted a number of scenes (including the children's play-fight) and added new narration and a frame-story with Johnson and his fiancée after the war, to make it more relatable to an American audience; I've never watched any of this material. The BFI supervised the restoration of the original version during the Archers renaissance in, I guess, the '80's, and that's what's currently available on DVD.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-11 08:21 am (UTC)I've read about the American release but I've never come across it. I'd like to think it's no longer current