Three Scenes I Love: Deleted Scenes

High Fidelity

My life is [______this______] much better now.

I just found out that this scene even existed. Somehow, I skipped the deleted scenes but watched all the Making Of special features. It's my second favorite movie but apparently I've been less than interested in seeing the cutting room floor scraps. That is, until I absorbed Nick Hornby's book.

A betrayed wife attempts to screw over her cheating hubby by selling his lutra-rare record collection for fifty bucks. This was one of the best scenes in the book! How could this not make it into the movie? Well, it looks like it almost made it into movie. Not only did the scene get shot, it featured Beverly D'Angelo! I don't think the scene deserved to be cut -- you be the judge.

The Boondock Saints

This one's for my friend Laura (the one who made my amazing banner). She showed me this scene one night and we both larfed and larfed. The interesting thing about Laura is that her favorite movies include Pride & Prejudice, Little Women, Gosford Park, and Ever After. Then, from straight out of left-field, she also loved The Boondock Saints. One of the most violent, sin-packed 110 minutes ever films. I love it, but I was surprised that she did too.

I can understand why this scene was cut. It doesn't really move the story along and sorta takes the film in an unneeded direction as far as subplots go, but it's so damn funny. Really funny. I know it's long, but stick with it to the end, it's worth watching. I don't know who this woman is, but she cracks me up. Wonder if she'll be in the sequel...

The Warriors

I can't understand why the High Fidelity scene was cut. I understand why the Boondock Saints scene was cut but wish it wasn't. I love this scene because it's NOT in the movie. One of The Warriors' best qualities is how tight the film remains. As mentioned in my second-ever blog post, way back in April, the use of a limited time-frame (in this case, around twelve or so hours) greatly strengthens the suspense of heroes journey. They've got to make it home now. Every gang in the city is looking for them and they've got to move.

I was really disappointed when I read Sol Yurick's book for a number of reasons. It still used the limited time-frame, which made the suspense effective, but the way the movie just starts amist the action, creates a pace which doesn't slow down until the end of the film. Thie book starts off with talking. It's a "Here, let me explain everything to you and then we'll start the movie" sort of thing. This scene would have done the same thing to the movie. I'm always happy to find out more about my favorite movie but when I saw this scene, I knew right away that Walter Hill made the right choice. Actually, there are quite a few deleted scenes from The Warriors floating around the internet, and not one of them, in my opinion, belong in the movie. And that feels good.

And those are three scenes I love.