There’s a pretty simple reason that Martin Scorsese doesn’t go in for the Director’s Cut when promoting his movies, and Kevin Burwick of MovieWeb lays it out quite simply. He doesn’t this do this because the movie he releases IS the Director’s Cut. Did you get that? The real reason why studios do a Director’s Cut is because typically it makes more money as people will go out to buy the DVD or Blu Ray once again so that they have something with bonus footage or deleted scenes that might give them more of the story and therefore make them privy to something that other people don’t have or haven’t seen yet. That’s right, it’s about showing a little more of something to get more of peoples’ money and maintain the interest in the movie that people had to begin with. That’s the easy explanation anyway and it’s the one seems to make the most sense.
Scorsese seems to be a very vocal person these days since not only is willing to say why he won’t add an additional cut to his movies but he’s been on and on about how he feels that Marvel movies are no good for cinema and in fact are NOT cinema. While he’s tried to impress people by dialing it back on the Marvel comment and explaining himself in a better manner he’s still not the kind of director that most studios would even dare to try when he makes a movie. As James Hibbard of Entertainment Weekly alludes to, he has the run of it for the most part and what you get on the big screen is the director’s cut as he considers it. Scorsese doesn’t really go in for a lot the gimmicks that people tend to use in film to get people’s attention over and over again, and in truth this seems to be something he’s not too interested in when it comes to doing the job he loves so much. It’s likely enough to state that he’s secure in his belief and his practice as he is one of the greatest that’s ever made a movie, and to be honest the director’s cut doesn’t always seem to give enough to satisfy the cost that comes with buying the movie all over again. Personally if I hear director’s cut I think of extra footage but not necessarily anything that’s going to make me go ‘aha!’ as I think that it all makes so much more sense now. If anything, the director’s cut is a way to show that the director didn’t have full control of the movie in the first place and because they see an opportunity to make more money, the studio will release this supposedly special edition in the hopes that people will go nuts over it and spend more.
For Scorsese what you get is what there is since he doesn’t go in for this kind of noise. When he releases a movie, that IS the director’s cut and it’s what he has to say about it since he has pretty much firm control over the movies he makes and there aren’t a lot of people out there that can possibly tell him what’s what unless they happen to have that big of a stake in the movie as well. Even then he might listen and he might take into account what they’re saying, but a lot of the time he’ll have complete freedom with what he’s doing and you likely won’t need to see a director’s cut since what you see is what you get. There are likely scenes that get cut or get reworked in his movies, that goes without saying, but as far as getting an extended cut of one of his movies it’s not going to happen. Some people might call Scorsese a little too old school, especially now with the comments about Marvel movies hanging out in the open, but the one thing great about him, among many others, is that he’s as genuine as they come when it has to do with his movies. As Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire has said he’s comfortable in his stance and doesn’t feel the need to back down. There aren’t any strings attached when it comes to his movies and you won’t be seeing any director’s cut come out years later when the studio wants to sell them again. The only thing that might happen will be a special edition that’s been reworked or remastered, but it won’t be a director’s cut.
Scorsese is without any doubt one of the last great filmmakers from an era when Hollywood was still more about story-driven films than they were about big pictures that went on for two or more movies and were known to include well-known characters that people had seen many times before. It’s easy to argue over how he views the cinematic landscape as it is today but one thing is clear, he’s one of the few that can stand on his own and doesn’t always have to answer to a studio.
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