Director's Cut = ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!
Just came back from going to the exclusive Director's Cut premiere last night as well as the re-enactment this morning!
Ron Maxwell talked the talk about his extended version.... and the product definitely walked the walk!
The Antietam sequence was about 10-12 minutes and was *beep* awesome!!! The extended boot camp sequence for the 20th Maine was great, I almost came up out of my seat during the part where Adelbert Ames tests Tom Chamberlain on the steps of loading a musket, it was so electrifying. There's extended camp life scenes, mostly in Stonewall's brigade, the "no photographs" scene was amusing and drew a great laugh. Some more re-inserted stuff I recognized from the novel, and the Booth subplot was both intriguing and appropriately haunting.
As Greg [Ciannao?] posted on his blog, the scene of Jackson praying prior to First Manassas was removed, and it was a great decision by Maxwell to take it out because, as somebody else posted, "the audience doesn't have to pick itself up from hearing Jackson praying". Though I, too, was disappointed that the "Book of Esther" part was removed because I thought it was very touching scene. The whole scene itself is still in place, they just cut right from Martha giving the dying officer a drink to telling Hancock about the Beales.
Plus, a handful of actors within the film were present for the discussion and handed out autographs onto box sets of the new blu-ray and dvd packs, so talking to them was real pleasure! Great experience!!!
How do you like that piece of satire?