Has there ever been a movie where the director’s cut was shorter than the theatrical cut?
Quite a few. The most famous is the Donner Cut of Superman II as he was replaced before they finished making the film, so that is his demonstration of what his version would have been like, which happened to be shorter.
As we're talking about Scott he did a cut of Alien for the DVD boxset that is a minute shorter, but he says the theatrical cut is the definitive one. One of his cuts for Blade Runner is shorter too, I think the Final Cut.
Oh yeah I remember Blade Runner, but there were so many versions I don’t know which one is the definitive cut anymore.
Whichever you like the most. However, I think the Final Cut is the definitive one. Or perhaps the Penultimate Cut.
Yea, 4 hours is obviously quite long. But the theatrical release wasn't "tight" IMO. I personally felt the plot holes and narrative jumps very strongly and it turned me off of the film as I was watching it. Though I've only seen it once, I think it hurt the characterisation of Napoleon too. Whether a longer cut helps that, I'm not sure ... but it seems more than plausible.
My experience with long films like this is to watch them in split sessions, even on adjacent days.
I once watched Barry Lyndon in 3 split sittings on 3 separate days and really enjoyed it. It's basically like watching a short TV series.
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