Skip to footer

Movies' second drafts: Titanic, Star Wars, and more

( - ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

Changing the sky in 'Titanic' for its 3-D re-release isn't the first time movies have been tinkered with.

|
Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox
  • By Chris Gaylord Staff writer

When "Titanic" set sail for its 3-D encore this month, moviegoers saw a new ending.

After the movie's original run in 1997, astrophysicist and science celebrity Neil deGrasse Tyson objected that the night sky didn't match reality. Director James Cameron had spent millions crafting an accurate depiction of the star-crossed ship. But when it came to the constellations overhead, it seems, he faked it.

"Worse than that, it was not only the wrong sky – the left half of the sky was a mirror reflection of the right half of the sky," Mr. Tyson said in 2009. "It was not only wrong; it was lazy."

Computers can tell us exactly how the stars looked that night in 1912. So for the film's 2012 return, Cameron digitally repainted the sky. Small change, sure. But it continues a trend of directors futzing around with movies well after their debuts. "Director's cuts" are an established part of Hollywood history, yet such second drafts typically incorporate footage that already existed when the film was released. Few movies warrant brand-new material years after the fact.

George Lucas holds the title as Hollywood's biggest revisionist. With the Blu-ray release of the original "Star Wars" trilogy last Sep­tember, Lucas redrafted more than a dozen scenes from the original films. His team layered on extra pyrotechnics, gave the teddy bear-like Ewoks blinking eyes, and stitched in a new line for Darth Vader. This marked a second round of edits for "Star Wars." More changes had come with the 1997 special edition.

For the 20th anniversary of "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," director Steven Spielberg changed the famous bicycle chase. Now uncomfortable with federal agents threatening the kids with guns, he swapped in walkie-talkies.

For the "The Lord of the Rings" DVDs, the studio digitally removed a car that had been accidentally left in the background of a scene.

Disney rewrote the opening number of "Aladdin." The original described a land "where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face. It's barbaric, but hey, it's home." After Arab groups protested, the home video now sings out: "Where it's flat and immense and the heat is intense. It's barbaric, but hey, it's home."

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Movies' second drafts: Titanic, Star Wars, and more
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2012/0425/Movies-second-drafts-Titanic-Star-Wars-and-more
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe