Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Hannibal dvd edited: were those shots in the US theatrical cuts?

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Topic: Hannibal dvd edited: were those shots in the US theatrical cuts?

David Baum
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 08-24-2001 12:15 AM

on www.hometheaterforum.com , software section, there's an open thread on this.

We, in Europe, saw those shots in theaters.

Can you guys comment on this, especially the Europeans ones as it seems very few US theaters managed to get an uncut print, if any.

very controversial. the "studio" guys deny it.

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Christopher Duvall
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 500
From: Denver, CO
Registered: Dec 1999

posted 08-24-2001 05:14 AM

From everything I have read on this, the studio is claiming that both the European and the US release are identical. The "edit" you are refering to is the scene where Hannibal slices a chunk of the brain to saute. Everybody thinks that they had seen this which never happened. There was a cutaway edit at that point and we see the hunk of brain after the fact. We never see Hannibal actually slice the brain. The only cutting we see is the peeling away of the thin film covering the brain. That is of course what I saw here in Vegas. Now as far as Europe is concerned, I would like to see what somebody has to say there. Again, MGM is sticking to their guns and claiming that what I described is the same for both sides of the pond...

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 08-24-2001 05:37 PM

That's kinda' funny. I was just reading a short article in the latest issue of Scientific American about a woman, Elizabeth Loftus, at the University of Washington who does research into how/why people remember some things and not others. She's an expert in the field of eyewitness testimony.

She just completed some research where she took a group of people who had gone to Disney World and had a discussion about the things they had seen and done while at the Magic Kingdom. During the discussion, she "casually" talked about Bugs Bunny. Even though she never said that Bugs could be seen there, some of the test subjects reported that they had seen Bugs Bunny at Disney World. Of course, you and I know that this is 1000% IMPOSSIBLE! Bugs Bunny doesn't "live" at Disney World because he is a Warner Brother's character, not a Disney character! Never the less, some subjects SWORE that they had seen him there and some even reported that they actually shook hands with the Bugs Bunny costume character.

What I am getting at is, considering Loftus' research, it's quite possible for people to "remember" actually seeing Hannibal cut off a slice of brain when they hadn't. I, personally, couldn't tell you whether it was shown or not. My memory isn't clear enough but I'll beleive Christopher. Thus, I'm willing to say that people who claim to have actually seen Hannibal cut off a piece of brain are victims of faulty memory.
I will reserve my final opinion when all the facts are in, but I'm going to stick with this story until there is more information to the contrary.

Personally, I think NOT showing the actual slicing is better. It's a lot like Hitchcock used to do... leaving certain things up to the viewer's imagination. Movies can be a LOT scarier/suspensful when you don't spell everything out.
As much as I absolutely HATE HATE HATE The Blair Witch Project I must admit that it had one thing going for it, and that was the feeling of suspense you get when you don't know what/who is attacking the kids.

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David Baum
Film Handler

Posts: 90
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 08-24-2001 06:23 PM

nice try but the truth goes like this: Scott shot the scene (the scooping) but somehow (I don't have the details), certain copies in the US and in Europe ( more in Europe ) included the shot indeed.
Now, reactions from the public were often a mixture of disgut and laughing. This element of laughing combined with a potential problem with the MPAA decided him to edit the movie ( he says in the extras that this dvd version is the director's cut.. ah ah ah ) to solve this issue and perhaps reduce the "risk" of laughing (as it matters for home viewing ). I talked to several people here in Europe about this issue.
Our brains are fine

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Michael Brown
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1522
From: Bradford, England
Registered: May 2001

posted 08-25-2001 06:06 AM

There is a scene in the opening sequence of "The Mummy" (the first brendan fraser one), where imhoteps tongue is sliced, but just before you see the blade make contact the guy moves infront of the camera. On the UK DVD in the directors commentry Steven Sommers says something about that after seeing the movie some people think that they actually saw the slicing.

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