Director's cut
In public use, a director's cut is the director's preferred version of a film. It is generally considered a marketing term to represent the version of a film the director prefers, and is usually used in contrast to a theatrical release of that film where the director did not have final cut privilege and did not agree with what was released. The word "cut" is used in this context as a synecdoche to refer to the entire film editing process and the resulting product. Traditionally, films were edited by literally cutting strips of film and splicing them together.
Most of the time, film directors do not have the "final cut". Those with money invested in the film, such as the production companies, distributors, or studios, may make changes intended to make the film more profitable at the box office. In extreme cases that can sometimes mean a different ending, less ambiguity, or excluding scenes that would earn a more audience-restricting rating, but more often means that the film is simply shortened to provide more screenings per day.
With the rise of home video, the phrase became more generically used as a marketing term to communicate to consumers that this is the director's preferred edit of a film, and it implies the director was not happy with the version that was originally released. Sometimes there are big disagreements between the director's vision and the producer's vision, and the director's preferred edit is sought after by fans.
Not all films have separate "director's cuts", and sometimes separate versions of films are released as "director's cuts" even if the director doesn't prefer them. One example is Ridley Scott's Alien, which had a "director's cut" released in 2003, even though the director said it was purely for "marketing purposes" and didn't represent his preferred vision for the film.
Sometimes alternate edits are released, which are not necessarily director's preferred cuts, but which showcase different visions for the project for fans to enjoy. Examples include James Cameron's Avatar, which was released as both a "Special Edition" and "Extended" cuts, and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, which were released on home video as "Extended Editions". These versions do not represent the director's preferred visions.
The term since expanded to include media such as video games, comic books and music albums.
Original use of the phrase
Within the industry itself, a "director's cut" refers to a stage in the editing process, and is not usually what a director wants to release to the public, due to the fact it is unfinished. The editing process of a film is broken into stages: First is the assembly/rough cut, where all selected takes are put together in the order in which they should appear in the film. Next, the editor's cut is reduced from the rough cut; the editor may be guided by their own choices or following notes from the director or producers. Eventually is the final cut, which actually gets released or broadcast. In between the editor's cut and the final cut can come any number of fine cuts, including the director's cut. The director's cut may include unsatisfactory takes, a preliminary soundtrack, a lack of desired pick-up shots etc., which the director would not like to be shown but uses as a placeholder until satisfactory replacements can be inserted. This is still how the term is used within the film industry, as well as commercials, television, and music videos.Inception
The trend of releasing alternate cuts of films for artistic reasons became prominent in the 1970s; in 1974, the "director's cut" of The Wild Bunch was shown theatrically in Los Angeles to sold-out audiences. The theatrical release of the film had cut 10 minutes to get an R rating, but this cut was hailed as superior and has now become the definitive one. Other early examples include George Lucas's first two films being re-released following the success of Star Wars, in cuts which more closely resembled his vision, or Peter Bogdanovich re-cutting The Last Picture Show several times. Charlie Chaplin also re-released all of his films in the 1970s, several of which were re-cut. A theatrical re-release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind used the phrase "Special Edition" to describe a cut which was closer to Spielberg's intent but had a compromised ending demanded by the studio.As the home video industry rose in the early 1980s, video releases of director's cuts were sometimes created for the small but dedicated cult fan market. Los Angeles cable station Z Channel is also cited as significant in the popularization of alternate cuts. Early examples of films released in this manner include Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate, where a longer cut was recalled from theatres but subsequently shown on cable and eventually released to home video; James Cameron's Aliens, where a video release restored 20 minutes the studio had insisted on cutting; Cameron also voluntarily made cuts to the theatrical version of The Abyss for pacing but restored them for a video release, and most famously, Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, where an alternate workprint version was released to fan acclaim, ultimately resulting in the 1992 recut. Scott later recut the film once more, releasing a version dubbed "The Final Cut" in 2007. This was the final re-cut and the first in which Scott maintained creative control over the final product, leading to The Final Cut being considered the definitive version of the film.
Criticism
Once distributors discovered that consumers would buy alternate versions of films, it became more common for films to have alternative versions released. And the original public meaning of a director's preferred vision has become ignored, leading to so-called "director's cuts" of films where the director prefers the theatrically released version. Such versions are often marketing ploys, assembled by simply restoring deleted scenes, sometimes adding as much as a half-hour to the length of the film without regard to pacing and storytelling.As a result, the "director's cut" is often considered a misnomer. Some directors deliberately try to avoid labelling alternate versions as such.
Sometimes the term is used a marketing ploy. For example, Ridley Scott states on the director's commentary track of Alien that the original theatrical release was his "director's cut", and that the new version was released as a marketing ploy. Director Peter Bogdanovich, no stranger to director's cuts himself, cites Red River as an example where
Another way that released director's cuts can be compromised is when directors were never allowed to even shoot their vision, and thus when the film is re-cut, they must make do with the footage that exists. Examples of this include Terry Zwigoff's Bad Santa, Brian Helgeland's Payback, and most notably the Richard Donner re-cut of Superman II. Donner completed about 75 per cent of the shooting of the sequel during the shooting of the first one but was fired from the project. His director's cut of the film includes, among other things, screen test footage of stars Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder, footage used in the first film, and entire scenes that were shot by replacement director Richard Lester which Donner dislikes but were required for story purposes.
On the other side, some critics have approved of the use of the label in unsuccessful films that had been tampered with by studio executives, such as Sergio Leone's original cut of Once Upon a Time in America, and the moderately successful theatrical version of Daredevil, which were altered by studio interference for their theatrical release. Other well-received director's cuts include Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, or Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, where the restored 115-minute cut is closer to the director's intent than the theatrical 105-minute cut.
In some instances, such as Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock, Robert Wise's Star Trek: The Motion Picture, John Cassavetes's The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Blake Edwards's Darling Lili and Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Coda, changes made to a director's cut resulted in a very similar runtime or a shorter, more compact cut. This generally happens when a distributor insists that a film be completed to meet a release date, but sometimes it is the result of removing scenes that the distributor insisted on inserting, as opposed to restoring scenes they insisted on cutting.
Extended cuts and special editions
Separate to director's cuts are alternate cuts released as "special editions" or "extended cuts". These versions are often put together for home video for fans, and should not be confused with 'director's cuts'. For example, despite releasing extended versions of his The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Peter Jackson told IGN in 2019 that “the theatrical versions are the definitive versions, I regard the extended cuts as being a novelty for the fans that really want to see the extra material.”James Cameron has shared similar sentiments regarding the special editions of his films, "What I put into theaters is the Director's Cut. Nothing was cut that I didn't want cut. All the extra scenes we've added back in are just a bonus for the fans." Similar statements were made by Ridley Scott for the 2003 'director's cut' of Alien.
Such alternate versions sometimes include changes to the special effects in addition to different editing, such as George Lucas's Star Wars films, and Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
Extended or special editions can also apply to films that have been extended for television or cut out to fill time slots and long advertisement breaks, against the explicit wishes of the director, such as the TV versions of Dune, The Warriors, Superman and the Harry Potter films.