# European Release vs American Release



## hopewrites (Dec 6, 2011)

I looked through the first ten pages and didn't see a thread like this so I figured it was safe enough to make one, if it's a repeat I'm sorry.

I noticed this when I got a hold of my friends copy of Legend (1980 something release with Tom Cruse, Tim Curry) she had the European release DVD and I had only ever seen the American release. The movie was amazingly better!! there was riddles and ballet sequences back in and the score was completely different. and it made me wonder

how often does the movie industry dumb-down or otherwise drastically change a film for release in different places?

I saw on a special feature (yes i'm a special feature junky) that Monsters Inc. was released with all the little signs in the appropriate language, which I thought was cool.


----------



## Foxbat (Dec 6, 2011)

I've never come across really drastic changes but -to try to answer your question (in my experience): It all depends on what is acceptable in particular places. Some are cut just because they are thought to be too long for a particular audience. Some are cobbled together from a mini series in one country and released as a movie in another.

Some are just plain cut.

An example would be slasher flicks. Many end up getting (at least) a few seconds footage cut before they hit these shores. 

Dune (the series) is another example. This time it's in the audio arena. I have two versions (region 1 and region 2) One (can't remember which) is only in stereo whilst the other is 5.1. This is all to do with the  distributor. Stereo is obviously the cheaper option.  Obviously the 5.1 version is much better.

Japanese movies are an example in that it is almost impossible to literally translate Japanese into English and, therefore, the subtitle reader (or overdub listener) gets an approximation of the dialogue rather than what is truly said.

Often, you need to be a fool (like me) and buy copies of the same film from more than one country to see the differencies.

I started rambling a bit but I hope I tried to answer your points


----------



## clovis-man (Dec 6, 2011)

hopewrites said:


> I noticed this when I got a hold of my friends copy of Legend (1980 something release with Tom Cruse, Tim Curry) she had the European release DVD and I had only ever seen the American release. The movie was amazingly better!! there was riddles and ballet sequences back in and the score was completely different. and it made me wonder


 
*Legend* had a stormy production (pretty well burned down the Pinewood studios soundstage) and a stormier post production. Much owed to Ridley Scott's perfectionism and more to the ongoing feud between him and Jerry Goldsmith. From Wikipedia:

Scott's first cut of _Legend_ ran 125 minutes long. He felt that there were minor plot points that could be trimmed and cut the film down to 113 minutes and tested this version for an audience in Orange County. However, it was felt that the audience had to work too much to be entertained and another 20 minutes was cut. The 95 minute version was shown in Great Britain and then the film was cut down even further to 89 minutes for North America. At the time, Scott said, "European audiences are more sophisticated. They accepted preambles and subtleties whereas the U.S. goes for a much broader stroke". He and Universal delayed the North American theatrical release until 1986 so that they could replace Jerry Goldsmith's score with music by Tangerine Dream, Yes lead singer Jon Anderson, and Bryan Ferry. Scott allowed Goldsmith's score to remain on European prints and the composer said, "that this dreamy, bucolic setting is suddenly to be scored by a techno-pop group seems sort of strange to me". Normally, Goldsmith would spend 6–10 weeks on a film score but for _Legend_ he spent six months writing songs and dance sequences ahead of time "so they could shoot them. Of course all that is out now".

In 2000, Universal unearthed an answer print of the 113-minute preview cut with Jerry Goldsmith's score. This print had minor visual anomalies that were eventually digitally replaced with finished shots from the 89-minute U.S. version. This edition, what director Ridley Scott now calls his preferred "director's cut", and whose source is one of only two prints of this extended version known to exist, was used for Universal's 2002 DVD (and eventual Blu-Ray) "Ultimate Edition".


----------



## Metryq (Dec 6, 2011)

And let's not forget _Blade Runner_ with its American cut, International cut, director's cut, ultimate final cut, radio mix, and Earth Child dance mix.

As for anime from Japan, a viewer who knows something of the culture that produced a film may get more out of it, even if they must rely on subtitles or overdubs. For example, the use of honorifics can be significant.

Then there are other changes. I recall one Amazon reviewer getting all bent out of shape over the translation of one line at the beginning of Mamoru Oshii's 1995 _Ghost in the Shell_. The full-body cyborg Maj. Kusanagi is in position to lead her commando team into action. A complete novice to this world is not aware, at this time, that Kusanagi's only remaining human flesh is her brain and that her teammates have varying degrees of prosthetics. The team is communicating from their various ready positions, but the viewer does not see their lips moving. Are they telepathic? The one clue at this point is that there is a telephone/radio "tinny" quality to the sound.

Then Batou has trouble getting Kusanagi's attention, and we hear his voice comment, "There's a lot of static in your brain." (?!) The voice dub translation from Kusanagi is "Must be a loose wire," while the subtitle translation is "Must be that time of the month."

The Amazon reviewer was cursing Americans for their prudishness, but I have no idea if the reviewer could understand Japanese. The voice dub translation is just one more clue to the novice viewer about the nature of the people on screen. The subtitled translation may be closer to the Japanese original and is ironic (Kusanagi does not have menstrual cycles). However—without knowing that Kusanagi is a cyborg—the subtitled line might also be viewed as sexist, crude, and pointless to some. Until I learn more Japanese, I'll merely note the two translations, but I'm not going to get an ulcer over it.


----------



## steve12553 (Dec 10, 2011)

Go back over half a century. I recently purchased a set of DVDs with both the original Japanese *Gojira* and the original American release *Godzilla, King of the Monsters. *The American release adds footage of Raymond Burr discussing what is going on with someone's back who is a stand-in for one of the characters in the film. The discussion changes the tone of the film dramatically and dillutes the anti-American sentiment making the monster more of an act of nature than a result of the atom bomb. Simple formula. Politics + Money = Censorship.


----------



## Foxbat (Dec 10, 2011)

steve12553 said:


> Go back over half a century. I recently purchased a set of DVDs with both the original Japanese *Gojira* and the original American release *Godzilla, King of the Monsters. *The American release adds footage of Raymond Burr discussing what is going on with someone's back who is a stand-in for one of the characters in the film. The discussion changes the tone of the film dramatically and dillutes the anti-American sentiment making the monster more of an act of nature than a result of the atom bomb. Simple formula. Politics + Money = Censorship.


 
On a similar topic to yours steve - IIRC King Kong Versus Godzilla was also edited dramatically. The Japanese version roots more for Godzilla whereas the American version focuses more on Kong.


----------

