Director's Cut of Last of the Mohicans on AMC

DeSica

DeSica

Well-known member
I'm pretty sure what I am watching (or have on in the background...) is the director's cut of The Last of the Mohicans...but they're showing it in pan and scan.

What is with AMC? The opening credits were in widescreen, and it looked great. Dante Spinotti does some nice work on this film, and the scenery is great. Why show a dirctor's cut and then make it 4:3?

Wasn't it Scorsese who said that pan and scan was akin to re-directing the film, since you change the directors vision and shot composition, thereby changing the film?

The reason I think it might be the director's cut is that I looked up some information about the film, and noticed that the shot of Magua cutting out Col. Munro's heart has a soldier's body at the bottom of the screen (digitally added by Mann, according to what I read). Also, I don't think I heard the line "Someday you and I are going to have a serious disagreement" during that scene at the fort, and that is supposed to be another element of the film that was changed.

Either way, the film loses much of it's beauty when shown in 4:3...and you'd think AMC would want to maintain as much of the film's true look as possible.

It's not like we're watching ABC's movie of the week or something...
 
PAN and SCAN is evil

I was watching this last night as well.

I recall "Someday you and I are going to have a serious disagreement" being in the orginal cut DeSica

Nevertheless, amazing film. One of my favs.
 
J.R. Hudson said:
PAN and SCAN is evil

I was watching this last night as well.

I recall "Someday you and I are going to have a serious disagreement" being in the orginal cut DeSica

Nevertheless, amazing film. One of my favs.
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Yes, it is supposed to be...I don't know if I heard it last night. That, along with the heart cutting scene, makes me think that it was the director's cut they were showing. Also, in the orginal, there is a song by Clannad played during the chase near the end (I think), and it has been replaced with that Scottish sounding piece. Apparently, Mann changed the music, but left the credits the way they were, so Clannad's song is still listed.

Wikipedia has a huge list of the changes that were made by Mann. He made a whole bunch of cuts, edits, sound effect changes, etc...and in the end, it was only 3 minutes longer than the original.
 
Well, luckily TCM shows films in their proper aspec ratio. They even occasionally show a short segment between movies where Martin Scorsese explains why films should be seen in their intended aspec ratios. I was watching The Front in widescreen on TCM last night, and it looked wonderful. They also didn't edit out Woody Allen saying "You guys can go eff yourselves" at the end.
 
DeSica said:
Also, in the orginal, there is a song by Clannad played during the chase near the end (I think), and it has been replaced with that Scottish sounding piece. Apparently, Mann changed the music, but left the credits the way they were, so Clannad's song is still listed.
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The AMC broadcast included a song that sounded, to me, INCREDIBLY like Clannad. I had never seen the movie before, and when the song came on, I thought "That sounds a lot like Clannad--or maybe it's Enya with her sibs on backing vocals, since I can't tell Enya's voice from her sister's..." The credits confirmed my hunch. So, was this the theatrical cut, the director's cut, or a hybrid of the two?
 
i despise it as well

if theres ever a movie on tv that i love and its in 4:3... i cant even watch it...it just hurts
 
KMR said:
The AMC broadcast included a song that sounded, to me, INCREDIBLY like Clannad. I had never seen the movie before, and when the song came on, I thought "That sounds a lot like Clannad--or maybe it's Enya with her sibs on backing vocals, since I can't tell Enya's voice from her sister's..." The credits confirmed my hunch. So, was this the theatrical cut, the director's cut, or a hybrid of the two?
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Like I said, even when he cut the Clannad song, he didn't change the credits, so they are still listed. I thought I heard some of that airy Irish stuff, too...but the chase scene near the end is where the change is supposed to have been made...with "I WIll Find You" replaced by The Royal Scottish National Orchestra playing something called "Ascent/Pursuit."

The scene did match the Wikipedia description, with shots of Hawkeye and Uncas trailing the Hurons, and the music there did sound Scottish, so I still think it was the director's cut.

Check out the list of changes on Wikipedia...there must be something like thirty or more.
 
DeSica said:
Like I said, even when he cut the Clannad song, he didn't change the credits, so they are still listed. I thought I heard some of that airy Irish stuff, too...but the chase scene near the end is where the change is supposed to have been made...with "I WIll Find You" replaced by The Royal Scottish National Orchestra playing something called "Ascent/Pursuit."

The scene did match the Wikipedia description, with shots of Hawkeye and Uncas trailing the Hurons, and the music there did sound Scottish, so I still think it was the director's cut.

Check out the list of changes on Wikipedia...there must be something like thirty or more.
Click to expand...

Well, I can't remember exactly in which scene the Clannad song was, but the song most certainly was included in the version of the film broadcast by AMC last weekend. (Unless I happened to imagine hearing a song that I had never heard before, noticing that it sounded like Clannad, while watching a movie I had never seen before and knew pretty much nothing about, much less the idea that a Clannad song had ever been associated with the film.)
 
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