Alternate Versions
The film was previewed at approximately two and a half hours, but Columbia Pictures and Universal Studios, who both had a major financial investment in the film, felt the film was too long to be a blockbuster. The initial theatrical release was edited down to just under two hours, against Spielberg's wishes. After the success of his 1980 "Special Edition" of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Spielberg was given permission to create his own "extended cut" of 1941 to represent his original director's cut. This was done for network television (it was only shown on ABC one time, but it was seen years later on The Disney Channel). A similar extended version (with additional footage and a few subtle changes) was released on LaserDisc, VHS, and later on DVD.
Read more about this topic: 1941 (film)
Famous quotes containing the words alternate and/or versions:
“It might become a wheel spoked red and white
In alternate stripes converging at a point
Of flame on the line, with a second wheel below,
Just rising, accompanying, arranged to cross,
Through weltering illuminations, humps
Of billows, downward, toward the drift-fire shore.”
—Wallace Stevens (18791955)
“The assumption must be that those who can see value only in tradition, or versions of it, deny mans ability to adapt to changing circumstances.”
—Stephen Bayley (b. 1951)