While I do miss the initial confusion of the opening moments, which forces the viewer to become more attentive in order to get a sense of the surroundings and characters, thus perfectly capturing the nature of undercover work by limiting our knowledge of the scenario we are witnessing, I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong with the boat-race that now opens Mann’s new edit, especially since it brings a certain clarity to the film’s masculine motivations. The rest of Mann’s decisions in constructing an “unrated” cut are a bit uneven. I find the scene between Rico and Trudy in which the couple discuss his level of focus in relation to her level of peril to be pure bliss. Meanwhile, as stated by others, I find the decision to move the horrid cover of “In the Air Tonight” into the film’s finale to be the most piss-poor idea Mann has ever had, and I don’t really care if it has been done in order to mimic the TV show’s original pilot.
by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Universal Unrated Director’s Cut DVD
20 Dec 2006 11:48 AM | Submit Comment
