Topic: The Blues Brothers (Extended Cut)

[Shaky]

This will be old news to a lot of you I'm sure, but I've somehow only just become aware of - and watched - the extended version of The Blues Brothers. It's a film I saw many, many times as a teen so this was a revelation. Whole new opening sequence! Elwood quitting his job and not wearing sunglasses! Longer musical scenes! Extra lines peppered here and there! It's a fucking brilliant piece of work, isn't it?

[Shit Good Nose]

I've always liked it - apart from anything else it closes a few plotholes - but you'll find most people prefer the original theatrical cut.  I think even Landis himself prefers the theatrical cut, despite the extended one being almost the same as the cut he originally handed in to Universal. 

[Endicott]

Yes. It's not that there's anything wrong with the extended version per se. It's just that I think it buggers the pacing at times. And I don't like having some of the mystery removed around the car, so I didn't really like the whole 'parking it next to a power sub station' (or whatever it was, it's been a while).

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I don't see why the car needed explaining when the brothers themselves survive deadly mayhem without a scratch throughout the film.

[famethrowa]

The film is perfect in the original version, so much so I was wary of seeing extra stuff, but it's good fun.

- I like the Elwood in the cheese wiz factory start, but it breaks the mystique of the character right off.
- The extra ending is a little chilling when the riot squad starts assembling, things start turning dark.
- Worst is the John Lee Hooker part, in the original they are the coolest dudes ever, playing Boom Boom in the street, but in the extra they turn into a Rutles sketch and try a bit of "comedy"
- and a Looney Tunes bit where they blow up the petrol station.

[Avril Lavigne]

I don't see why the car needed explaining when the brothers themselves survive deadly mayhem without a scratch throughout the film.

Dan Aykroyd just loves explaining stuff in unnecessary detail with his scripts, according to John Landis the first draft of Blues Brothers was literally as thick as a phone book (same goes for the first draft of Ghostbusters).

[Shaky]

Ecto 1 was due to have powers as well. He seems to like magic cars.

[Replies From View]

Thankfully Blues Brothers 2000 was able to keep both its feet rooted firmly to the ground.

[QDRPHNC]

I watched the extended once out of curiosity, but yeah, prefer the theatrical. Mainly because it's funnier when the magic car joke isn't explained. I get the appeal of seeing beloved characters in unseen stuff, but the original opening is iconic, new one doesn't compare.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Jake and Elwood are basically live-action Looney Tunes characters. It makes perfect sense that they would ignore the laws of physics when they drive.

I was unlikely to ever fully embrace the extended cut, since I'd already watched the theatrical cut about a million times before seeing it and I tend to prefer whichever version of a film I've seen most. It's mildly annoying, because the extended one is the only version I own now.

[Rizla]

One obvious thing I only just realised on my 250th viewing of the original cut is that during their set at Bob's country bunker, their amps and speaker columns are indeed upholstered in thick, red shag.

[Replies From View]

Jake and Elwood are basically live-action Looney Tunes characters. It makes perfect sense that they would ignore the laws of physics when they drive.

I was unlikely to ever fully embrace the extended cut, since I'd already watched the theatrical cut about a million times before seeing it and I tend to prefer whichever version of a film I've seen most. It's mildly annoying, because the extended one is the only version I own now.

Same story for me with Terminator 2.  Special edition DVD or nothing if you lack a blu ray player.

Bit weird how a lot of special editions became the only editions, even though I assume there wasn’t that same kind of George Lucas rewriting history impetus going on.

[madhair60]

This is my favourite film of all time

[Avril Lavigne]

Bit weird how a lot of special editions became the only editions, even though I assume there wasn’t that same kind of George Lucas rewriting history impetus going on.

This is something that really bugs me about Dumb & Dumber, the only version widely available on DVD & Blu Ray is the 'Unrated' cut, which has extra scenes that make the characters less likeable and gives the movie a slightly more mean-spirited vibe overall compared to the theatrical version, mostly involving extra unnecessary outdated gay-panic material. Great Job!

[icehaven]

I had no idea there even was an extended version with a different intro. I don't want to see it.

[Replies From View]

This is something that really bugs me about Dumb & Dumber, the only version widely available on DVD & Blu Ray is the 'Unrated' cut, which has extra scenes that make the characters less likeable and gives the movie a slightly more mean-spirited vibe overall compared to the theatrical version, mostly involving extra unnecessary outdated gay-panic material. Great Job!

It scrapes my balls that 'longer running time' quite routinely translates into 'better' in the minds of seemingly most people.  I know that sometimes studio meddling results in versions that directors want to disown, but this understanding seems to have fed into a belief that every scrap of extended scene that can be reinserted into a film must be a win against the corporate system and for the director and his/her artistic vision.

Well it's bollocks.  There are many reasons for scenes to be trimmed.  Pacing is a fine art, as is appreciating that some plot details are more interesting when left ambiguous and indeterminate rather than over-explained.  Plus, as you say, what you don't show is as important as what you do show from a character-building perspective.  Too many superfluous scenes, and before you know it the balance of your character has been toppled too far into being passive, or aggressive, or unlikeable, or any number of things that can work against the goals of your film.

There's something upsetting as well about any writer or director being able to say that the version of a film that audiences once knew no longer counts as it didn't match with their original intentions.  The first version of Donnie Darko I saw was the 2005 DVD Director's Cut version that had really quite dunderheaded explanatory text popping up between scenes, leaving no room for viewer interpretation.  Fine, the person who wrote and directed the film wanted their reading to be the only reading, but a) that's a bit controlling innit and b) my view is that once any piece of art is released, how the audience receives it is part of its story.  You don't get to take that away.

To be fair, the original version of Donnie Darko hasn't been overwritten with the director's cut, and for some types of film the studios have definitely appreciated the market for multiple versions being released.  Blade Runner, the first four Alien films (including an incredibly arbitrary alternate version of Alien Resurrection put together seemingly to complete the concept), ET, Apocalypse Now and loads of others exist in multiple versions.

I guess that's a particular type of audience, though.  Not everyone who appreciates Dumb and Dumber for its gross-out comedy will be fussed about how its rhythm changes with the addition of new sequences.



I am going to click 'post' now because I have achieved my life goal of putting ET and Apocalypse Now next to each other in a list.

[Shaky]

I had no idea there even was an extended version with a different intro. I don't want to see it.

I thought I'd downloaded the wrong film at first, even though the "new" intro still takes place in prison and clearly features the back of John Belushi. That's how entrenched the original is in my mind. I'd say it's worth a look -  even if the theatrical cut is better, the extended version has a lot of good stuff.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

It really is so strange watching the extended cut of this film when you're so familiar with the original. The scenes of Elwood at work are particularly startling, it's like they've been beamed in from a parallel dimension. I've never felt like that about deleted scenes from any other film, but I suppose, like Shaky says, it's because the theatrical cut of The Blues Brothers is so entrenched within our minds. It's perfect as it is.

[Replies From View]

Where can this extended cut be found?  Is it on Netflix or somewhere else?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Dan Aykroyd just loves explaining stuff in unnecessary detail with his scripts, according to John Landis the first draft of Blues Brothers was literally as thick as a phone book (same goes for the first draft of Ghostbusters).

I think his penchant for unnecessarily specific detail is what made him such a great comedy actor and writer in his heyday. He put so much thought into the mythologies he created for The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters, admittedly to such an extent that they couldn't have been made without the more level-headed contributions of Ramis, Landis and Reitman. But those films wouldn't be what they are - well, they wouldn't exist at all - without Aykroyd's fertile imagination.

I'm aware that he believes he may have Asperger's Syndrome (he's never been formally diagnosed), which could perhaps explain some of those traits. That's not for me to say, obviously, what do I know? Nothing. But it's interesting.

[Shaky]

Where can this extended cut be found?  Is it on Netflix or somewhere else?

I nabbed it off Pirate Bay - happy to bung it over somehow (it's 2.29 GB).

[Replies From View]

I nabbed it off Pirate Bay - happy to bung it over somehow (it's 2.29 GB).

Thank you good sir!

[greenman]

Its also on the latest UHD release, same as with Alien they manage to have both versions via branching footage I believe.

[Brundle-Fly]

It scrapes my balls that 'longer running time' quite routinely translates into 'better' in the minds of seemingly most people. .

I've always put off seeing The Directors Cut of Cinema Paradiso (1989) because apparently it fills in a lot of gaps and makes THAT ending even more heart-wrenching. I'm not sure my tear ducts could take the pressure.

[Rev+]

It really is so strange watching the extended cut of this film when you're so familiar with the original. The scenes of Elwood at work are particularly startling, it's like they've been beamed in from a parallel dimension. I've never felt like that about deleted scenes from any other film, but I suppose, like Shaky says, it's because the theatrical cut of The Blues Brothers is so entrenched within our minds. It's perfect as it is.

Yeah, I had a mild crisis when watching the extended cut for the first and only time about ten years ago.  It was showing on ITV or something, and wasn't billed as an extended cut, so flicking over with it already in-progress I started to feel like I was suffering some form of gentle dementia.  If I'd seen the beginning it would have given the game away, but things like the John Lee Hooker sequence continuing beyond the bit where it ends, it definitely ends, you know it ends just made it weirdly unsettling.

[Replies From View]

Yeah, I had a mild crisis when watching the extended cut for the first and only time about ten years ago.  It was showing on ITV or something, and wasn't billed as an extended cut, so flicking over with it already in-progress I started to feel like I was suffering some form of gentle dementia.  If I'd seen the beginning it would have given the game away, but things like the John Lee Hooker sequence continuing beyond the bit where it ends, it definitely ends, you know it ends just made it weirdly unsettling.

This sense of gentle dementia reminds me of the time I was certain that Lynch's short film 'The Grandmother' formed part or all of 'Eraserhead'.  There must have been a mislabelling on Channel 4 at one point in the early 90s - with 'The Grandmother' advertised as 'Eraserhead' - because when I finally sat down to watch the latter in the late 90s it wasn't at all what I remembered.

Bit off-topic but there you are.  I recall some others on CaB having the exact same experience, funnily enough.

[Mister Six]

I recall some others on CaB having the exact same experience, funnily enough.

That might just be your dementia though.

[McChesney Duntz]

Quite like the extended Blues Brothers myself. The extended version of Stripes, however - stay far far away. (Though, with age, I'm considerably less charmed by the lead characters overall - last viewing found me almost totally on Sgt. Hulka's side. Weird.)

[sutin]

This sense of gentle dementia reminds me of the time I was certain that Lynch's short film 'The Grandmother' formed part or all of 'Eraserhead'.  There must have been a mislabelling on Channel 4 at one point in the early 90s - with 'The Grandmother' advertised as 'Eraserhead' - because when I finally sat down to watch the latter in the late 90s it wasn't at all what I remembered.

Bit off-topic but there you are.  I recall some others on CaB having the exact same experience, funnily enough.

On a similar theme, I thought I was losing my mind in the mid-00s when I saw some episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm that I knew inside out and the picture was in much sharper focus than before. I thought I was losing my mind, until years later when I realised I had viewed them in HD for the first time.

[Replies From View]

That might just be your dementia though.

Can anyone else here remember a version of Blues Brothers that was exclusively about me having dementia?  I’m sure one aired on Channel 4 in the early 90s, possibly performed by the dance company DV8?