I already brought this one up in the "movies which surprised you" thread earlier, minus the details...
Terry Gilliam's Brazil was held up by Universal for a loong time, because they wanted to change the dark ending over the strenuous objections of Gilliam.
The "Sheinberg Edit" (after Universal's boss Sid Sheinberg) did get shown on US television a number of times, although Gilliam did eventaully manage to blackmail the studio into releasing the movie with its intended ending. (By holding so many private viewings of his own version, that critics were starting to ask whether a movie can win an Oscar even when its studio refuses to release it...
)
In the Sheinberg Edit,
In the Director's Cut, the exact same thing happens, but then
Terry Gilliam's Brazil was held up by Universal for a loong time, because they wanted to change the dark ending over the strenuous objections of Gilliam.
The "Sheinberg Edit" (after Universal's boss Sid Sheinberg) did get shown on US television a number of times, although Gilliam did eventaully manage to blackmail the studio into releasing the movie with its intended ending. (By holding so many private viewings of his own version, that critics were starting to ask whether a movie can win an Oscar even when its studio refuses to release it...
)In the Sheinberg Edit,
the hero is rescued from the torture chamber, a bunch of somewhat rather nonsensical things happen, and he finally drives off into the sunset with the woman he's been persuing during the whole movie.
In the Director's Cut, the exact same thing happens, but then
in the last scene we cut back to the torture chamber, where the hero is still strapped in, with a stupid grin on his face. The poor guy has cracked under the torture, and the whole last 10 minutes of the movie is all in his mind! Which of course also explains the rather nonsensical stuff that happens during this semi-dreamsequence. How's *that* for changing the ending of a movie! From "the system got him, but at least he is free in his own mind" to hollywood happy ending...
