LOL to the headline. But like I said a trillion times I wanna see this "original more rough" cut of GONY so badly!!! However it's still a mystery to me how Marty and Leo could work with Weinstein yet AGAIN after this mess even though AVIATOR turned out to be amazing. Also trying to picture THE DEPARTED as a franchise š
Thelma Schoonmaker: āMarty [Scorsese] Would Rather Burn A Film Than Let A Studio Ruin Itā ā How About āGangs of New Yorkā?
An interesting choice of words from film editor extraordinaire Thelma Schoonmaker, who has worked with Martin Scorsese ever since her landmark work in 1980ās āRaging Bull.ā
Schoonmaker says that Scorsese and herself have fought the studios on every single one of their films to avoid them being changed. She claims that theyāve had Final Cut on all of them (which isnāt true):
Marty would burn the film rather than give it up. We would win, but it would be a long, hard battle.
I know Scorsese has fought tooth and nail on many of his films, some of the stories are the stuff of legend, but I can think of one particular instance where they actually lost the battle. It was in 2002 on āGangs of New York,ā with the assaultive nature of Harvey Weinstein sadly prevailing. Why didnāt Scorsese burn the film then?
Itās no secret that the biggest battle Scorsese had with a studio was against Weinsteinās Miramax on that film. Last September, when asked about Weinsteinās interference, Scorsese admitted to a creative struggle that clearly still haunts him to this day.
āI realized that I couldnāt work if I had to make films that way ever again,ā Scorsese told GQ. āIf that was the only way that I was able to be allowed to make films, then Iād have to stop. Because the results werenāt satisfying. It was at times extremely difficult, and I wouldnāt survive it. Iād be dead. And so I decided it was over, really.ā
āI just said, āIām no longer making films,'ā Scorsese said of the experience. Yet it was āThe Departedā in 2006 that led Scorsese to realize āI canāt work here anymoreā after Warner Bros. tried to make it into a āfranchise.ā
Iāve always admired āGangs of New York,ā but I will admit that as I watched it, in the fall of 2002, there was a sense that something much grander, and greater was missing from the film. Daniel Day-Lewisā towering performance as Bill the Butcher hid the flaws very well ā maybe his greatest performance ever, up there with his Daniel Plainview in āThere Will Be Blood.ā
The original cut of āGangs of New York,ā which was shown to a few journalists in late 2001, including Hollywood-Elswhereās Jeffrey Wells, must still be hidden in a vault somewhere. It was said to be over 3 1/2 hours in length. The theatrically released version was 10 minutes short of 3 hours.
Wells reported that the behind-the-scenes battle between Scorsese and Weinstein ended with āa polished, cleaned-up version of the āGangsā being released in December of 2002ā and not the one he had exclusively seen in 2001.
āThe work-print version [I saw] is longer by roughly 30 minutes, and more filled out and expressive as a result, but thatās not the thing. The main distinction for me is that itās plainer and therefore more cinematic, as it doesnāt use the narration track that, in my view, pollutes the official version. It also lacks a musical score, with only some drums and temp music,ā Wells wrote.
He added, āI donāt believe Scorsese for a second when he says the theatrical version coming out this Friday is the one that bears his personal stamp of preference. My guess is that Harveyās mitts are all over this puppy. Scorsese may have his weaknesses or indulgences as a filmmaker, but heās always let his films play at their own pace and allow them to be true to themselves ā their own tempo, themes, moods. Heās used narration before, but never in such a way that the narration wound up feeling like an encumbrance. And heās never been one to speed his films up when they werenāt working.ā
Harvey Weinstein, the authoritarian that he was, even bragged at a TIFF dinner that he meddled with Scorseseās vision:
āSo Marty presents the final cut of the movie to me as a final-cut director and itās three hours and thirty-six minutes,ā Weinstein revealed to Vulture. āIf you thought there was action in āGangs of New Yorkā the movie, you should have seen that editing room! But we got the movie down to two hours and 36.ā
So, almost a whole hour snipped off. Supposedly, Scorseseās 216-minute cut had no narration either. Will it ever be released? I sure hope so, but Scorsese has never been one who liked extended cuts; the version released was the final version, but making an exception for āGangsā would be a much welcomed addition to his filmography.