Six different versions of Kill Bill to be released on DVD.

[Villano]

Exactly. I've never understood the criticisms against studios releasing multiple copies of a film, particularly when they're all announced beforehand.

Well, not all of them are announced beforehand, not to mention that most people are going to be unaware of such announcements (Was X-Men 1.5 announce before the first version was released?).

What I don't like is having to wait some time for the complete version of a film while the studio releases a bare bones version first. The color version will come out eventually, after they've sold special edition this and director's cut that. That's why I ordered the Japanese disc (with 1 hr of extras not on the US version).

BTW, just so there's no confusion, my comment about Tarantino and his "director's cuts" comments wasn't meant to be a "he sold out" statement, but that he was so quick to decry other's who've made films that were cut by other people. At the time, it stuck me as being incredibly naive, and it's now ironic since he's got a film which was split and altered and that he'll eventually have multiple versions of it on dvd.

 

[Arnwyn]

. Since when is having lots of choices a bad thing?

[Hijack]
Since always (though to be fair, it's better said as: "not necessarily a good thing"). Try The Paradox of Choice (Barry Schwartz) just for starters. You can understand more by taking certain marketing classes as well as consumer psychology classes (Consumer Behavior is a good one).

That argument (lots of choices = "teh awesom") is bandied about a little too often on ENWorld. Unfortunate.

 

[barsoomcore]

Let's assume I'm not going to buy a book or take marketing classes. Explain how me having a plethora of choices is a bad thing for me. Without putting 1337 words into my mouth, please.

Arguments that people can't make decisions because they are presented with too many options and thus suffer from stress point more towards basic self-esteem issues than some horrible consequence of the environment. It's not too many choices that confuse and stress people, it's their own self-doubt and inability to assert their own needs. Now, I'll agree, if your self-image is dependent on externals, if you only feel good about yourself when you compare favourably against those you see as your peers, then sure, being unable to determine which of an array of choices is the best is probably pretty stressful.

But in that case, I submit, you have bigger problems than deciding which Kill Bill disc to buy. And not of a nature that they will be solved by having LESS options in your life.

 

[Duncan Haldane]

BTW, just so there's no confusion, my comment about Tarantino and his "director's cuts" comments wasn't meant to be a "he sold out" statement, but that he was so quick to decry other's who've made films that were cut by other people. At the time, it stuck me as being incredibly naive, and it's now ironic since he's got a film which was split and altered and that he'll eventually have multiple versions of it on dvd.

I have these comments on my DVD copy of Pulp Fiction, in the Deleted Scenes section. He mentions that he deleted them for a reason, and that he would only release the film he wanted and never a director's cut.

I found the comment not so much naive and condescending and rude. It definately lowered my opinion of him.

As for the B&W scenes, they were changed after filming to B&W. I recall an interview I saw with QT where he commented that in colour the scenes received bad results from test screenings, but in B&W people enjoyed it more.

I liked KB1. I dislike anime, but the cartoon scenes worked for me. The B&W scenes made those parts surreal, and that also made them work for me. They were less real, it wasn't violence and gore so much as dance and althletics.

That may seem odd, but it's what I liked about it.

Duncan

 

[Villano]

I have these comments on my DVD copy of Pulp Fiction, in the Deleted Scenes section. He mentions that he deleted them for a reason, and that he would only release the film he wanted and never a director's cut.

I found the comment not so much naive and condescending and rude. It definately lowered my opinion of him.

I've never seen the DVD. I read his comments in an interview (I believe it was around the time Jackie Brown was out). In the one I read, he went on about other directors complaining about how their vision of the film wasn't realized so they released a director's cut. He was saying things like, "What you see on the screen is the director's cut!" It struck me as strange that he seemed unable to comprehend that not all directors are actually able to cut the films themselves.

He should check out some films by "Alan Smithee". I think Supernova carries that credit. It went through 2 directors (it was started by Walter Hill and finished by Jack Sholder), with rumors that additional footage and at least some of the final edit was done Francis Ford Coppola. It was also rewritten as it was filming to add more sexuality to the story.

There's also Judge Dredd which was hijacked and in a constant state of rewriting by star Stallone (it was such a bad experience for the director that he swore never to work with a big name star again).

 

[Villano]

I'm on the mailing list from HKFlix.com and I just recieved an update. One of their new titles is the Japanese version of Kill Bill Vol. 1. In their overview of it, they mention the color version of the black & white fight as well as the following "extended scenes":

Spoiler

- One of Boss Matsumoto's men has his faced smashed into a wall twice instead of once.

- The first Crazy 88 killed (Julie Manase) is showed gargling blood after
she's pinned to a pillar by a sword.

- A shot of a Crazy 88 attacking, but instead getting slashed in the
throat and spraying blood everywhere.

- After the "House of Blue Leaves" fight, Uma Thurman cuts off Sofie
Fatale's other arm (leaving her completely armless).

So, there are a few more bits of gore not present in the US and European versions.

BTW, something just occurred to me. There were complaints about how Tarantino had to change the fight to black & white for America. Why didn't any European countries go with color? Japan did. I guess that the European distributors thought it was too extreme for them, too.

Edit: Added spoiler tags, just in case...

 

[aurance]

Let's assume I'm not going to buy a book or take marketing classes. Explain how me having a plethora of choices is a bad thing for me. Without putting 1337 words into my mouth, please.

Arguments that people can't make decisions because they are presented with too many options and thus suffer from stress point more towards basic self-esteem issues than some horrible consequence of the environment. It's not too many choices that confuse and stress people, it's their own self-doubt and inability to assert their own needs. Now, I'll agree, if your self-image is dependent on externals, if you only feel good about yourself when you compare favourably against those you see as your peers, then sure, being unable to determine which of an array of choices is the best is probably pretty stressful.

But in that case, I submit, you have bigger problems than deciding which Kill Bill disc to buy. And not of a nature that they will be solved by having LESS options in your life.

Because even most "normal" people don't make completely rational market decisions. Most people, while not completely helpless with self-doubt and stress, are still affected by some psychological factors which prevent them from making perfectly self-profitable choices in many many cases. Social psychology studies show this, including the work of Dan Kahneman who won the Nobel Prize for one such study.

This is why the utility theory is on the way out, and alternative theories for economics and decision making in general are on the way in, to account for these ever-present perception biases. I'm not saying choices are good/bad in terms of 6 copies of Kill Bill, but more choices don't always = good thing, because often the creation of those additional choices are designed by marketing people to play on those biases present in everyone.