Does anyone know why the DVD contains less scenes that the original movie or the video? DVD's are supposed to add more, not take away. For example, one of the scenes where the Robert Duvall character has the captured Mexican woman is deleted.
shareI think that those "deleted" scenes were actually "added" scenes used to fill out a television time slot. As far as I know, they don't appear in any VHS edition of the film, either.
share...which is utter crap. I hate it when movies do this. I bought the Charles Bronson classic 'the mechanic' on vhs about ten years ago and two scenes were missing. I bought it on DVD, HEY! the scenes are intact. I wish they would stop screwing around with the prints.
shareThe words are changed quite often too. I noticed that on TNT they had changed the words in a movie. I called TNT to ask about this. Answer----Ted Turner has certain words he doesn't like and he owns th movie---case closed. I quit watching certain movies on TNT after that----not much interest in the Ted Turner version.
One of my favorites is the movie High Plains Drifter. They are dragging the straw dummy behind the wagon around the town and the towns people are shooting at it for target pratice. Guy comes up behind Eastwood with a knife. Eastwood says "you would look mighty funny with that knife stuck in your ass"---changed version---has ear instead of ass (my recall of the exact words may be a little off).
Of course, My Cousin Vinny is totally unwatchable in the changed version. Half of the dialog was either removed or changed. I call it the "Pablumized version" for children.
I hate the way they butcher High Plains Drifter on TV. They always cut away right as Stacy is about to plunge the stick into Morg Allen's neck and cut straight to a bullet ricocheting near someone's boot. For all any TV viewer knows, Morg is still layin' there alive.
Plus, you miss the pleasure of hearing, "Dawg. He sure had a lot of blood left in him."
Hey, I saw "Joe Kidd" in theaters when it came out. Yes, they have deleted a couple of scenes. One deletion occurs when Harlan and his men camp down for the night with Helen Sanchez. At least, it is a tiny part of the scene and I believe the other scene occurs later on when Kidd tells Helen that he wants her. What is truly aggravating about these cuts is that there is no reason for them. The movie was hacked down to under 88 minutes. I don't think anybody was happy with the final movie. I have read that John Sturges created the train wreck at the end and Elmore Leonard told me that Sturges tried to add bits and pieces that weren't used in the Magnficent Seven.
"Joe Kidd" qualifies as one of those forgotten and misunderstood westerns. Look at the symbolism in the church scene when the priest arms Kidd and gives him some Holy water to drink and then Kidd ascends through the bell tower. Yeah, the filmmakers may not have realized what was going on when they did it, but that stuff is too heavily symbolic to ignore.
As for "High Plains Drifter," those edits that you referred to are TV edits for language because TNT is like AMC. They have to change 'bad' words.
I have no idea why they deleted two scenes from "Joe Kidd," but a savvy executive in the DVD market could actually re-release "Joe Kidd" uncut and it would be legitimate. The first scene occurs at night after Kidd fetches coffee for Harlan and his men and Helen goes into her family's adobe shack to be with Harlan, Kidd, and Lamarr. Harlan explains how he doesn't like to lord it over people and once had to put up with a scholarly partner. Lamarr agrees and adds that you share the work and pleasures. Harlan reminds him about the work. Everybody leaves the shack, with Kidd being the last to go, and we see Helen climb onto a bunk and Harlan make his move, then it cuts to them riding toward the Mexican town.
The second scene occurs before Mingo shoots at the Mexicans from atop a distant mountain with his telescopic lens. What happens is the Mexicans and Kidd pull up for a breathe in a thicket of trees. Kidd and Chama discuss the odds of Kidd surviving and Chama decides to go back with Kidd after Kidd points out that the Mexicans aren't too inclined to help Chama. Kidd and Helen have a discussion away from the main group and Kidd announces his desire to have Helen.
I have a god-awful, rotten, VHS copy of these scenes that I recorded off a commercial interrupted showing of "Joe Kidd" from a local television station. The copy is so old that the tracking is horrible, so horrible that everything appears in black & white, but those are the two missing scenes and they contribute not only to Harlan's character as well as Chama's and Helen's character.
Why were these innocous scenes deleted? There is NOTHING offensive in either one. And they aren't that long. Combined these two scenes last no more than five to eight minutes.
Universal Home Video, please put these scenes back into "Joe Kidd" and sell it as a SPECIAL EDITION!
That line from Don Stroud about sharing the work and the pleasure drove me crazy! I knew I'd heard it in theatrical release, but the TV showings of the film never include it. I thought I'd hallucinated it or something. Thanks for reassuring me of my sanity.
"It ain't dying I'm talking about, it's LIVING!"
Captain Augustus McCrae
"...The second scene occurs before Mingo shoots at the Mexicans from atop a distant mountain with his telescopic lens. What happens is the Mexicans and Kidd pull up for a breathe in a thicket of trees. Kidd and Chama discuss the odds of Kidd surviving and Chama decides to go back with Kidd after Kidd points out that the Mexicans aren't too inclined to help Chama. Kidd and Helen have a discussion away from the main group and Kidd announces his desire to have Helen..."
Interesting, zardoz.. I always thought it seemed kind of dumb that Chama would give up "just like that" and not try anything on the ride back to town. I mean Kidd was outnumbered, how many to one? The whole ending seemed rushed. I really like lots of the earlier stuff, but the train thing has never made sense. Plus, right after calling for Kidd to "come on in" why would Roy Gannon decide that was the time to go have the saloon opened up to hang out in? Right as Kidd is bringing in Chama? I mean, other than to be in the saloon when the train crashes through... wtf?
What else did Elmore say about Sturges' handling of this? (and Mag 7?) Did he say anything about TOO MUCH HORST BUCHHOLZ????? I saw Coburn discussing Magnificent Seven and although he didn't come out and say it, you could read between the lines that he (and others) thought Buchholz was way too prominent, as if they were trying to "make a star" of him with extra cheesy scenes. Or maybe I'm reading my own opinion into too much!