Location: Neuchâtel, Switzerland (Canadian from Montreal)
Posts: 6,950
Scenes Cut From VHS/DVD films
Besides the missing bookends, overdubbing of certain characters’ voices and various
differences in the musical score, there are indeed scenes cut from the VHSs & DVDs
So far, I've found 4 episodes where scenes were chopped. To start with:
"Princeton – April 1916"
Due to the long bridging sequence in “Spring Break Adventure” this episode
suffered the most. They only total about 3 ½ minutes but they were good
bits and are now gone…
- Indy & Nancy ride their bicycles up a road. She talks about her plans for their
lives together until Indy mentions his idea of leaving Princeton for Chicago.
They arrive at the train station and their bikes are loaded onto the baggage car
(en route to Edison’s factory).
- Nancy wants Indy to meet after class, skip work and go look for the submarine.
Immediately after Indy pounds his head on the classroom door in frustration,
the teacher walks up and gives Indy a very, disapproving look. While in class,
Nancy gets students to pass a note up to him. As he writes another note saying,
“Meet me after class”, the teacher catches Indy and tells him to meet “ME”
after class! Nancy leaves school on her bike. Indy’s detention scene is brief
but perfect. When let go, he tears out and down the hall only to find Clifford
and another student by the bicycle rack. There is some dialogue between Indy
& Clifford about Nancy’s whereabouts and about Cliff taking over Indy’s shift
at the ice cream parlour, while Indy pedals away…
- A chunk of the car chase is missing! Indy & Nancy catch up to Thompson after
the “shortcut” and end up driving on an road-side embankment slightly ahead
of him. They eventually get down onto the road right in front of the race car.
Thompson turns onto an unfinished/dead-end road which forces him to turn around.
(This is how, in “Spring Break Adventure”, they end up driving towards each other.)
- During the final shots of the prom, Indy stops Nancy just before the entrance.
and says, “I love you, Nancy Stratemeyer.” He then kisses her. She smiles.
They carry on…
The bridging segments of SBA are actually some of the few that I can stomach because they were actually (IMO) done well (or at least so that they're passable).
A chunk of the car chase is missing! Indy & Nancy catch up to Thompson after the “shortcut” and end up driving on an road-side embankment slightly ahead of him. They eventually get down onto the road right in front of the race car. Thompson turns onto an unfinished/dead-end road which forces him to turn around.
(This is how, in “Spring Break Adventure”, they end up driving towards each other.)
I always wondered about that, but I'm not surprised to hear the episodes were changed beyond the bookends.
Actually the one minor change between videos and Dvds is in Daredevils of the desert, in my video version, when Daniel Craig is on that machine gun at the end shouting 'DIE YOU SVINE' and that horse sort falls over him, the actual fall of the horse was cut out, so what you got was a horse charging over, then it cut to Indy as you heard a falling sound effect, then cut back to seemingly dead horse with Craig running away. It always confused the heck out of me. Like Craig was some immovable object that killed the course that rammed him
A scene where Indy is reading a letter from Ned "This is a war that has to be fought..." was cut from Curse of the Jackal. It's probably for the best, sounds less like he's just Neds parrot when he's talking to Remy later.
Actually the one minor change between videos and Dvds is in Daredevils of the desert, in my video version, when Daniel Craig is on that machine gun at the end shouting 'DIE YOU SVINE' and that horse sort falls over him, the actual fall of the horse was cut out, so what you got was a horse charging over, then it cut to Indy as you heard a falling sound effect, then cut back to seemingly dead horse with Craig running away. It always confused the heck out of me. Like Craig was some immovable object that killed the course that rammed him
Sounds like a BBFC cut to me. They don't like cruelty to horses. It'll probably have the same cut on the UK DVD release.
Yeah, the bookends are included. There's a thread going on about that somewhere in the Young Indy section.
Since Stoo found a couple of changes in the Princeton episode, I'm curious to find out if there were really no changes made to the following movies: Treasure of the Peacock's Eye, Attack of the Hawkmen, Mystery of the Blues, Phantom Train of Doom and Hollywood Follies. Anyone know about those, cause I always thought they were never changed at all.
A scene where Indy is reading a letter from Ned "This is a war that has to be fought..." was cut from Curse of the Jackal. It's probably for the best, sounds less like he's just Neds parrot when he's talking to Remy later.
I liked that. It's important. That's what it Should sound like, because he IS being influenced by Ned, he IS parroting and not thinking for himself, and it's funny to have this come back when Ned and Indy finally meet up again. (Ned doesn't even remember writing that line.) I don't think it should be downplayed. Indy enlisted in the great war to save civilization on a stupid impulse. He just didn't realize it at the time.
In this thread we recently talked about the removal of the Tea Plantation Scene in the British East Africa Episode and Stoo suggested to continue that discussion here. In my opinion, Lucas wanted to open up each of the 22 re-edted episodes with shots of the landscape that didn't involve the story to much and the opening with all the animals running around was certainly impressive. Some of the scenes just didn't work without George Hall's narration in them, so they were cut out, too. Shame, if you ask me!
I liked that. It's important. That's what it Should sound like, because he IS being influenced by Ned, he IS parroting and not thinking for himself, and it's funny to have this come back when Ned and Indy finally meet up again. (Ned doesn't even remember writing that line.) I don't think it should be downplayed. Indy enlisted in the great war to save civilization on a stupid impulse. He just didn't realize it at the time.
In this thread we recently talked about the removal of the Tea Plantation Scene in the British East Africa Episode and Stoo suggested to continue that discussion here. In my opinion, Lucas wanted to open up each of the 22 re-edted episodes with shots of the landscape that didn't involve the story to much and the opening with all the animals running around was certainly impressive. Some of the scenes just didn't work without George Hall's narration in them, so they were cut out, too. Shame, if you ask me!
The thing is, apart from "Jackal", this is the only Carrier eipisode where the
narration carries on *deep* into the opening scenes. They could have added
another Carrier voice-over (like "Jackal") and saved this part.
The new beginning is very good with the boosted volume of the singing
(sounds like Ladysmith Black Mombazo to me) and the extended intro but
it's too bad the plantation scene was cut since the Oxford greeting is such
a nice tip o' the hat to the films.
Location: Neuchâtel, Switzerland (Canadian from Montreal)
Posts: 6,950
Quote:
Originally Posted by Whipper
I liked that. It's important. That's what it Should sound like, because he IS being influenced by Ned, he IS parroting and not thinking for himself, and it's funny to have this come back when Ned and Indy finally meet up again. (Ned doesn't even remember writing that line.) I don't think it should be downplayed. Indy enlisted in the great war to save civilization on a stupid impulse. He just didn't realize it at the time.
Yes, I agree with this, too. (Indy also repeats the line to Sean Lemass in Ireland.)
I suppose that since the new, linking segment shows him reading/writing a letter
to Ned, it makes the original/cut scene a bit redundant. It's only 15 secs or so...
the scene would have been fine if it had been left untouched.
The thing is, apart from "Jackal", this is the only Carrier eipisode where the
narration carries on *deep* into the opening scenes. They could have added
another Carrier voice-over (like "Jackal") and saved this part.
The new beginning is very good with the boosted volume of the singing
(sounds like Ladysmith Black Mombazo to me) and the extended intro but
it's too bad the plantation scene was cut since the Oxford greeting is such
a nice tip o' the hat to the films.
P.S. It's *coffee* not *tea*.
Thank good they did not include another Corey Carrier voice over, it really didn't sound too well in My First Adventure. He's a great actor, but his puberty voice really makes it ridicolous. But yeah, the coffee plantation scene is a big loss. Yeah, it is a coffee plantation but I ascociated the British people with Tea somehow. Sorry for that.
Location: The Host City of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Australia
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I can't believe they changed the Egypt 1908 ending! The new ending is so weak compared to the original, otherwise I enjoyed it. The joining segment between Egypt and Algiers, was funny coz I could tell Carrier was way older than nine and they put a heap of dark eye makeup on his eyes. I really enjoyed "Perils of Cupid". That Austria segment is so cute!
That's too bad about the cuts to the show when it was edited into the two-hour tele-films (on VHS and now on DVD). There is no reason that they couldn't have included all of these short sequences on the tele-films, since these sequences wouldn't have made the tele-films that much longer.
That being said, it sounds like if you hadn't seen the shows before back in the '90's (like me), you may not know what you're missing. However, that still doesn't excuse these cuts.
Probably the only way that we would be able to see these completely uncut were if the show was released exactly as it appeared on broadcast TV (in the U.S.) back in the early 90's, i.e. with the George Hall bookends. However, it doesn't look like that will happen.
From what I understand, Lucas wanted to put the stories in order. So he had the bright idea of putting two episodes together for each film which were beside each other in chonology. To bridge what were often two completely unrelated episodes, he shot linking footage (which was, in my opinion, poorly done). And because Lucas is stubborn once he makes up his mind, the bookends wouldn't work in this format, especially since the pilot episode (Curse of the Jackal) had Indy at both age 9 and 16.
Location: Neuchâtel, Switzerland (Canadian from Montreal)
Posts: 6,950
“German East Africa – December 1916”
Not only do Barthelemy and Maj. Boucher have their voices re-done throughout the
entire episode but EVERY line of ALL the Belgians officers (except Remy) were given
the same treatment. Even though everyone is speaking English, the original has much
more authenticity and emotion. Thank God they didn’t re-dub Zachariah Sloat!
I can’t watch it. After the opening battle, it's time to pop in the original.
As much as I love the extended battle scene at the beginning of “Oganga”, I was
disappointed about certain shots that have been deleted or shown from another angle.
There are so many differences that it’s hard to know even where to begin.
In the Canadian (and presumably non-U.S. versions) the entire assault lasts 3:07.
The US version from ABC is about 20 secs. shorter. (A section of close fighting and
point-blank shooting was cut.) The new version clocks in at a whopping 8 mins!
The re-arrangement is so glaringly different that the order of events has been altered
to make Indy look even more heroic. He is much deeper into the thick of the fighting
while Remy and the majority of his troop are pinned down. In the original they all
advance together.
The main, deleted or alternate bits that I’ve noticed so far…
When Indy gets knocked down by a bullet, there was a cool, slow-motion shot of him
falling backwards towards the ground. Likewise, there was a great slo-mo side shot
of him getting up and yelling “ATTACK!”. Both have been changed and Indy now
shouts his orders out in Ubangi.
As the Belgians breach the barricade, there is a part where Indy ends up with his
back facing the Germans while he is looking for his gun. Advancing askaris almost
bowl him over as he is fumbling around for it on the ground. This part is in the
new version but has been cut in two, shown from a different angle, extremely
close up and it’s difficult to see what’s really going on. The original has a much
wider shot and is from the enemy’s point of view.
The MAJOR difference is a short scene with Remy that is now gone which must
have been cut to follow the continuity of the new footage (which is a shame).
Immediately after the machine gun becomes un-jammed, he takes cover behind
a stone wall and yells to Indy, “ZE DAM MACHINE GUN WILL HAVE UZ TIED DOWN
ON OUR BELLIES!”. Plus another quick shot of Remy poking his head around the
corner to watch his buddy make the mad dash for the gun. A portion of Indy’s
initial sprint is missing, too.
Indy jumping into the machine gun pit is from a different angle. The original is from
the front of the pit instead of the side and is much more effective. He’s coming
towards the camera and is slightly in silhouette right between the 2 guys...
(Great Young Indy moment, though, regardless of the angle!)
The extended battle in “Oganga” is bigger and better but could have been even
more so had they kept in these fine shots! Apart from them, the bookends and
the dubbed voices, everything else seems to be, fortunately, intact.
