Editing Director's cut (section)

== Criticism ==
Once distributors discovered that consumers would buy alternate versions of films, it became more common for films to have alternative versions released. And the original public meaning of a director's preferred vision has become ignored, leading to so-called "director's cuts" of films where the director prefers the theatrically released version (or when the director had actual final cut privilege in the first place). Such versions are often marketing ploys, assembled by simply restoring deleted scenes, sometimes adding as much as a half-hour to the length of the film without regard to pacing and storytelling.

As a result, the "director's cut" is often considered a misnomer. Some directors deliberately try to avoid labelling alternate versions as such (e.g. [[Peter Jackson]] and [[James Cameron]]; each using the phrases "Special Edition" or "Extended Edition" for alternate versions of their films).

Sometimes the term is used a marketing ploy. For example, Ridley Scott states on the director's commentary track of ''[[Alien (film)|Alien]]'' that the original theatrical release was his "director's cut", and that the new version was released as a marketing ploy. Director [[Peter Bogdanovich]], no stranger to director's cuts himself, cites ''[[Red River (1948 film)|Red River]]'' as an example where {{Blockquote|MGM have a version of Howard Hawks's ''Red River'' that they're calling the Director's Cut and it is absolutely not the director's cut. It's a cut the director didn't want, an earlier cut that was junked. They assume because it was longer that it's a director's cut. Capra cut two reels off ''Lost Horizon'' because it didn't work and then someone tried to put it back. There are certainly mistakes and stupidities in reconstructing pictures.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Jones |first1=Ellen |title=Is a 'director's cut' ever a good idea? |website=[[TheGuardian.com]] |date=7 April 2011 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/apr/07/rise-of-the-directors-cut}}</ref>}}

Another way that released director's cuts can be compromised is when directors were never allowed to even shoot their vision, and thus when the film is re-cut, they must make do with the footage that exists. Examples of this include [[Terry Zwigoff]]'s ''[[Bad Santa]]'', [[Brian Helgeland]]'s ''[[Payback (1999 film)|Payback]]'', and most notably the [[Richard Donner]] re-cut of ''[[Superman II]]''. Donner completed about 75 per cent of the shooting of the sequel during the shooting of the first one but was fired from the project. [[Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut|His director's cut]] of the film includes, among other things, screen test footage of stars [[Christopher Reeve]] and [[Margot Kidder]], footage used in the first film, and entire scenes that were shot by replacement director [[Richard Lester]] which Donner dislikes but were required for story purposes.

On the other side, some critics (such as  [[Roger Ebert]]) have approved of the use of the label in unsuccessful films that had been tampered with by studio executives, such as [[Sergio Leone]]'s original cut of ''[[Once Upon a Time in America]]'',<ref name="rebertonceupon">{{cite web |last1=Ebert |first1=Roger |title=Once Upon a Time in America |url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/once-upon-a-time-in-america-1984 |website=RogerEbert.com |publisher=Ebert Digital LLC |access-date=16 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502002533/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/once-upon-a-time-in-america-1984 |archive-date=2 May 2013 |date=1 January 1984}}</ref> and the moderately successful theatrical version of ''[[Daredevil (film)|Daredevil]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cbr.com/daredevil-directors-cut-better-theatrical/ |title=Daredevil's Director's Cut Is Better Than the Theatrical Version - CBR |date=28 December 2020}}</ref> which were altered by studio interference for their theatrical release. Other well-received director's cuts include [[Ridley Scott]]'s ''[[Kingdom of Heaven (film)|Kingdom of Heaven]]'' (with ''Empire'' magazine stating: "The added 45 minutes in the Director’s Cut are like pieces missing from a beautiful but incomplete puzzle"<ref name="Kingdom">{{cite news |title=Directors Cuts, the Good, the Bad, and the Unnecessary |url=http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/special-editions-good-bad-unnecessary/ |publisher=Empire |date=10 January 2015}}</ref>), or [[Sam Peckinpah]]'s ''[[Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid]]'', where the restored 115-minute cut is closer to the director's intent than the theatrical 105-minute cut (the actual director's cut was 122 minutes; it was never completed to Peckinpah's satisfaction, but was used as a guide for the restoration that was done after his death).

In some instances, such as [[Peter Weir]]'s ''[[Picnic at Hanging Rock (film)|Picnic at Hanging Rock]]'', [[Robert Wise]]'s ''[[Star Trek: The Motion Picture]]'', [[John Cassavetes]]'s ''[[The Killing of a Chinese Bookie]]'', [[Blake Edwards]]'s ''[[Darling Lili]]'' and [[Francis Ford Coppola]]'s [[The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone|''The Godfather Coda'']],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://screenrant.com/godfather-part-3-coda-ending-meaning-differences-explained/#:~:text=The%20new%20cut%20of%20The%20Godfather%20Part%20III,to%20atone,%20as%20atonement%20is%20now%20beyond%20him. |title=Godfather Part III New Ending Explained: What The Changes Mean{{!}}Screen Rant |website=[[Screen Rant]] |date=10 December 2020}}</ref> changes made to a director's cut resulted in a very similar runtime or a shorter, more compact cut. This generally happens when a distributor insists that a film be completed to meet a release date, but sometimes it is the result of removing scenes that the distributor insisted on inserting, as opposed to restoring scenes they insisted on cutting.