8 Movies Where The US Version Deleted The Best Scenes

WhatCulture

For numerous reasons, these movies were changed for the worse over in the US.

Transcript

00:00Thankfully we do now live in an age where it's never been easier to get hold of an

00:04alternate cut of a feature, should the version we witness in our home country differ to another?

00:09Yet that still doesn't change the fact that either due to negative test audience responses,

00:14or studios meddling with a finished creation, these films lost some of their best scenes by

00:19the time they were shown in the United States of America. I'm Gareth from WhatCulture.com

00:24and here are 8 movies where the US version deleted the best scenes.

00:288. Highlander Connor and Rachel's origin story

00:33No one's going to sit here and argue that Highlander is a film that boasts some of the

00:36finest acting performances ever committed to the big screen, but the feature generally comes with

00:42a boatload of charm, a trait that ultimately ensured its cult hit status. What you may not be aware of,

00:48however, is the fact that this Sean Connery epic actually had two very different cuts

00:54dished out upon its 1986 release. The US version of the film had a whole 8 minutes trimmed from the

01:00runtime, with a lot of what was seen as European comedy cut. Yet one cut director Russell McCaughey

01:06simply could not understand was the decision to delete one of the film's most engaging moments.

01:11Those watching the US version were deprived of the scene depicting the first meet between

01:16Connor McCloud and Rachel Ellenstein, a scene which saw the immortal man save his eventual adopted

01:22daughter from a Nazi soldier in World War II. Sure, the line, it's a kind of magic, is something else,

01:28but the scene definitely helps inform the pair's relationship. And who doesn't like watching

01:32Nazis get gunned down by immortal scouts?

01:357. Das Boot

01:37Character development and more drawn-out tension

01:40When Wolfgang Petersen's jaw-dropping World War II feature about the crew of a German submarine

01:45during the height of the war hit cinemas in 1981, the resulting 149-minute cut that graced those

01:52theatres was met with a sea of acclaim. However, that initial release in the US and Germany was

01:59far from the whole masterpiece. By the time the BBC decided to bring the rest of the footage shot for

02:04this titanic epic to the small screen in 1984, the end result ran at a whopping 300 minutes overall.

02:122004 would then see this version trimmed down to 293 minutes, with episode recaps left on the cutting

02:18room floor. Both of these massive alternate versions to the earlier theatrical release saw an increased

02:24focus on character development for those spending their time patrolling the treacherous Atlantic Ocean,

02:29and also drew out the action and tension to increase the all-round claustrophobia

02:34and anxiety felt throughout this period in time. For those who wished for a happy medium between

02:39the more action-orientated 149-minute cut and monstrous-slash-detailed 300-minute series,

02:461997 saw Petersen release a director's cut, which boasted that same action but with more of the

02:51aforementioned TV show character development laced into the flick.

02:566. Brazil

02:57Love Conquers All Replaces Original Ending

03:00This next entry is something of an anomaly, in the fact that the feature was heavily edited for US

03:05audiences, only for the project's director to fight against the studio responsible for butchering

03:10their work, and ultimately succeed in bringing, for the most part, their original version to American

03:15screens. We're talking, of course, about that time Universal decided that Terry Gilliam's daring

03:20dystopian sci-fi movie by the name of Brazil was perhaps a little too bleak for audiences across the pond.

03:27So, instead of releasing the 142-minute original cut that had spread its way across the rest of the

03:32world, the studio decided to do away with the film's gripping ending, which saw Jonathan Pryce's

03:38Sam Lowry pulling off a dramatic escape from Central Services only to cut back to him actually

03:43being lobotomized. This was apparently due to said ending testing badly with audiences in the state,

03:48leading to a Love Conquers All alternative being substituted into this new 94-minute version.

03:54Gilliam was understandably pissed about this call, and proceeded to secretly screen his version in

03:59film schools and to critics in the area. The overwhelmingly positive result to his Brazil

04:04then eventually gave Universal no choice but to release a new 132-minute cut, supervised by the

04:10director himself. Turns out, directors conquer all!

04:145. Want to put a time in America

04:17When Sergio Leone's sprawling gangster juggernaut landed in Cannes back in 1984, in all of its 269-minute

04:27glory, the feature came away with a staggering 20-minute standing ovation as the crowd marveled

04:32at the masterpiece they'd just witnessed before their very eyes. The film was subsequently trimmed

04:37a little before making its way onto European screens, coming down to 229 minutes, but the end

04:43result was still worthy of praise. However, the same could not be said for the version of the

04:47picture that was rolled out in the US. Alongside completely rejigging the way the story was told,

04:53swapping a non-chronological structure for the complete opposite, and bringing the film down to

04:57139 minutes without supervision from Leone, some of the film's most daring scenes, such as a few

05:03rather difficult-to-watch moments depicting sexual and graphic violence, were binned off.

05:08Many of the brilliant childhood scenes and even Robert De Niro's noodles meeting up with his

05:12long-lost flame Deborah were also cold. The film's original garbage truck conclusion was also nowhere

05:18to be seen. All in all, the abomination that was the US cut ultimately flopped at the box office,

05:23and it's probably best to forget said version even exists.

05:274. The Descent

05:29The Last 30 Seconds

05:30As it goes, the original ending of The Descent, that was unleashed onto UK audiences,

05:35actually found a great deal of inspiration in one of the previous entries on this list.

05:40I know, what are the chances?

05:41Director Neil Marshall revealed as much in the wake of its arrival, explaining that

05:45the original ending for Brazil was a massive inspiration for the original ending of The Descent.

05:50The idea that someone can go insane on the outside, but inside they've found happiness.

05:55However, if you were taking in this feature from across the pond, the chilling conclusion which saw

06:00Sarah wake up in the cavern shortly after completely hallucinating her hopeful escape

06:05was nowhere to be seen. Instead, largely due to complaints over it again being too bleak,

06:10the last 30 seconds of the feature were cleanly chopped from the US release.

06:14This meant that the film alternatively ended on the visual of the ghost of Juno joining Sarah in her car,

06:20depriving US audiences of one of the movie's most moving moments. That of Sarah's daughter

06:25Jessica gifting her a birthday cake before the hallucination reveals it's simply a torch before her.

06:313. Army of Darkness

06:33Ash is Screwed

06:34For those of you who have only ever enjoyed the dark fantasy comedy delight that is Sam Raimi's

06:39Army of Darkness on UK television, the chances are you've probably never actually stumbled upon

06:44the ending or the version of the feature as a whole that was pumped into US theatres back in 1993.

06:50When it came to said 81 minute theatrical cut of the project, Ash wasn't actually screwed when

06:55the dust had settled. Instead of having Ash accidentally swallow too much potion and rock

07:00up in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the decision was made to have him live happily ever after,

07:05as he blasted a deadite in the present en route to sharing a smooch with his lady.

07:10With most British TV channels and even UK Netflix opting to wear Raimi's preferred 96 minute cut,

07:16instead of the unashamedly cheesy S-Mart shootout, a whole generation have likely been brought up on

07:21this bleak but arguably more hilarious finale. As Raimi put it himself, I kind of like the fact

07:27that there are two endings, that in one alternate universe Bruce is screwed and in another he's some

07:32cheesy hero. 2. The Trip

07:34More hilarious jokes and humanising back and forths

07:38Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon are without doubt two of the finest improvisers audiences have ever

07:44had the honour of witnessing on both the big and small screen. Yet with that ability to riff and

07:49take a joke to ridiculous lengths, comes the realisation that not every single piece of comedic

07:55gold is going to make its way into a finished project. That was unfortunately the case when the

08:00pair's laugh-a-minute series, The Trip, was converted into a feature film format for the series' multiple

08:06releases in the US. From not being given the time to properly set up the always hilarious

08:11scenarios we see the two heightened versions of themselves involved in during their journeys,

08:16to altogether leaving out some of the funniest jokes from the show, the US film version also

08:22drops some of the more human exchanges between the travelling duo. You won't go wrong if you decide

08:26to just stick on the US film cut, but the series undoubtedly gives you a richer experience when all

08:32is said and done. 1. Austin Powers International Man of Mystery

08:36Christian Slater's Cameo The first entry in the routinely

08:40side-splitting Austin Powers saga came equipped with some of the most quotable lines in comedy movie

08:45history. It's not hard to see why fans have gorged on Mike Myers' first outing in particular

08:50over and over again in the years since its 1997 debut. However, perhaps one of the most notable sequences

08:57in the flick didn't even appear in its American outing. As Powers attempts to get past a familiar

09:02looking guard, the international man of mystery is forced to delve into his box of tricks.

09:07Hypnotising the poor sod played by none other than Christian Bloody Slater, Austin convinces him

09:13via some mesmerising eyebrows that everything seems to be in order. This, along with a couple of

09:18hysterical scenes which depicted families and friends being informed about the deaths of henchmen,

09:23were given the heave-ho by the US in the end. That being said, Slater's appearance in particular

09:28has long since been immortalised around the world, with just about every man and his dog attempting to

09:33hypnotise a pal into buying them some orange sherbet at one point or another. Don't lie to me, I know you've done it.

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