Gilliam's Brazil is known among cineastes as a drastic example of things that can go wrong when a director doesn't have [final cut]? and the studio steps in to "take control" of a situation it sees as spiralling out of control
It's not a drastic example because Gilliam got what he wanted while most directors don't. It's nonetheless very telling, because the Battle of Brazil is aptly documented. Is there a better expression? --Yooden
Gilliam did not get what he wanted at first; for awhile the only version available was the studio version. The same is true with Blade Runner (Ridley Scott), btw, which has just recently been rereleased in a Director's Cut which has a darker ending and an interesting dream sequence (& Mr. Scott is no cheery fellow--he wanted to end Alien with Ripley's death, and have the alien calling earth somehow). But to answer your question, yes, there is probably a better way to phrase that. --KQ
IIRC the film was not released at all because of the Battle; Gilliam made clandestine previews and got some price or other (Golden Globe?) for the Final Final Cut which was subsequentially released. I can check that on the exceptional Criterion DVD tonight.
Blade Runner: "just recently"? That was ten years ago. It's also a different issue because the changes were minor and in part (voice over) a Good Thing. (The Deckard=Replicant thing was not new either.) I disgress...
Anyway, The discussion which version of a film is 'valid' is worth a page on its own, but I don't have the time and can't think of a name. --Yooden
KQ- I'm a big fan of Brazil, but I've never heard about the Gilliam's studio battles. Could you provide a few links, or ever a write-up? --
Eventi
I'm a big fan of Brazil
You should most definitively get the Criterion Collection DVD. It has the European cut (a few minutes longer than the US Final Final Cut), lots of bonus material, including a documentary about the Battle of Brazil and the crippled version proposed by the studio (which was later shown on TV).
Checking [Google] even showed a [book] about it!
There are at least two books about it, actually; one is by Gilliam and another is not. It's been too long ago for me to do a proper writeup about it without a lot of research; I think my memories on it are slipping. What I remembered most was that the studio wanted to force a different ending on it which Gilliam considered inappropriate, but I'd rather have specific details before adding it to the main article (this studio ending
was released on VHS at some point, btw; my library had a copy and I saw it in '95). Even directors with supposed "final cut" frequently are badgered into making changes--this from no less than Martin Scorsese, one of the few directors claiming final cut who does indeed have it--he reports that various studio executives would call his mother trying to persuade her to persuade him to cut the part at the end of
Goodfellas where Ray Liotta gets up and walks towards the camera, talking to it, while people around him pretend not to notice. Anyway. Yes, we should definitely have an article about the phenomenon, though I don't know where to put it--maybe it would be most at home in an article on [final cut]
?? --KQ
I never even saw the studio version, but if they would have prevailed, we'd lost one of the perfect ends in the history of cinema. "He's got away from us, Jack." I'm getting excited just thinking about it.
As it is, they wanted a lot more than just the end. About 30 minutes IIRC.
Yes, [final cut]? is fine. I never get these Wikipedia caps right: Is it supposed to be [Final Cut]?? --Yooden
I think it's usually lowercase, unless it's part of a title or other proper noun. The point is accidental linking, though I expect the point will be moot once the new version is uploaded; it will treat all letters at the beginning of a word as a cap. --KQ
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