MovieChat Forums > La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (1998) Discussion > Anyone seen the 160 minute version?

Anyone seen the 160 minute version?

posted 14 years ago by prohias
7 replies | jump to latest

This is the 3rd film by Tornatore I have seen. I really liked Cinema Paradiso, and I thought Malena was pretty good as well. What I am beginning to love about Tornatore's films is how they have an almost fairy tale quality to them without being in any way supernatural or otherworldly. The Legend of 1900 seems to take this magical realism attitude the furthest, and while I liked the film film overall, I can't say I found it particularly successful. I found the premise to be intriguing, but overall the film feels meandering and underdeveloped (particularly the parts regarding 1900 and the girl) - which is disappointing, because it's a beautiful production.

Anyway, is it worth tracking down the 160 minute version? Does it improve on much of the weaknesses found in the 120 minute version? Common sense predicts "yes," but after seeing the division between the Director's Cut and 1989 Cut of Cinema Paradiso, I'm curious to hear what others have to say.

Holy *beep*! Where's the tylenol?

[–] hakeem-8 14 years ago

Yes! Oh yes! The difference is huge. I found the director's cut of Cinema Paradiso a little laggy myself to be honest, but in the case of this movie anything less than 160min is just plain wrong. In this case the 160min thing is the original. The American producers just forced him to cut it shorter if he wanted it to be shown in America at all. So yeah, it's definitely worth all the stuff that takes place there in those extra 40 minutes.

[–] prohias 14 years ago

Hmm...sounds great. Now, is there anyway to see the 160 min version with the original english dialogue?

If so, where might that be?

So far I can only find it dubbed in Italian.

Holy *beep*! Where's the tylenol?

[–] hakeem-8 14 years ago

Sorry about replying this late... forgot to recheck the thread after posting my initial reply.

Anyway, you can buy it from Amazon, I bought this myself earlier this year:

http://www.amazon.com/Leggenda-pianista-sulloceano-Pianist-NON-USA/dp/B0013KUL8M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1289668430&sr=1-1

[–] ceepak 9 years ago

First time scrolling through these comments.
A big thank you for the heads up about the longer version. Ordered it and watching it now.
What a difference! It sure fills out some of the question left by the shorter version.
Again, thank you.

[–] notsocrazyroy 8 years ago

And many thanks from me too. I've only seen the 120 minute standard release on DVD. I didn't know there was a longer version, I've just ordered the original cut on Blu-Ray from Amazon which states a running time of 170 minutes. I hope it clears up a few loose ends, can't wait.

This means something, this is important.

[–] notsocrazyroy 8 years ago

Huge improvement in both image and sound quality on the Blu-Ray version. The extra scenes are mainly to do with 1900's early life aboard the Virginian plus a few later scenes are fleshed out a little. The extra 45 minutes didn't make the film overlong, well worth the money in my opinion

This means something, this is important.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

I got the longer Blu-Ray finally. mmmmeeeeehhhhh... seen the old version so many times, I kinda like that cut better. Many places in the longer one drag on too long... you SEE more eye candy maybe... .or too much it gets old, but the extra dialog that was cut, wasn't needed at all, didn't enhance the story TO ME, and just slowed things down.

But it LOOKS great in HD