#ReleaseTheCharlesCut
We live in an age where filmmakers are negotiating with fanboy terrorists, giving into their demands. A new age in fan culture but one man versed in terrorists, Larry Charles has a cut of the Nicolas Cage starring Army Of One up his sleeve. His words are “I’m on it”, but before we get to into talking about #ReleaseTheCharlesCut let’s take a step back for a second.
Let’s talk cuts. I’m not talking about budget cuts, haircuts (we all know there’s some of those flying about at the moment), I’m talking about film cuts. Something that can make or break a film, the best example being Blade Runner, that movie had 5 different cuts. Compiled from all the footage shot five different varying films were released. Run times different, subtexts changed whether we talk about the original 1982 theatrical cut, clunky voiceover and fairytale ending included or Ridley Scott’s Final Cut. A version in which the director no longer had the constraints of the safety scissors and was allowed to cut the film however he wanted, hooray. This took 25 years to come into play, it took 25 years for Ridley Scott to show us the film he had filmed, he had dreamed. However I’m not here to celebrate the triumph of Blade Runner and how it finally emerged from its cocoon to Neo-noir butterfly is it.
Here’s the Channel 4 documentary, On The Edge Of Blade Runner:
Release the *insert your chosen campaign* Cut has quickly become a war cry for film nerds and trolls across the internet. Whether their championing Zack Snyder’s Justice League edit dubbed “The Snyder Cut” or crying out for the purred about “CAT’s Butthole Cut”. As many of you know Snyder’s “unrealised masterpiece” will be getting a release 4 years after Justice League hit the big screen. I found the film then baggy, clumsy, riddled tonal issues and the less said about Henry Cavill’s top lip the better. My concern is Snyder isn’t Ridley Scott, Justice League isn’t Blade Runner and does it need to be four hours long? There’s something wholly troubling on one hand about this new spate of pandering to fans, likened to giving a child sweets once it’s thrown its toys out the pram. The counter to this is the Ridley Scott problem, a clear sign of camel building from a committee of horse builders, as it was the studio had someone rattling off pages of voiceover for Harrison Ford to read moments before recording sessions started. It was the studio that lacked faith in the director and audiences alike, crowbarring in a literal ride off into the sunset. From watching the original cut you could see there was something else in there, something fighting to get out. This is seen in so many films and with a quick google search you can find out normally that some money hungry studio executive has taken to film with shears at reckless abandon. This exact time of writing this David Ayer has taken to Twitter to express with what ease it would be piece together his “Suicide Squad”.
Whilst researching for my podcast, Caged In: A Nicolas Cage podcast where I dissect his filmography, talk to creatives involved and use my own brand of maverick film theory to decipher the phenomenon that is the name himself. It was during a fact finding mission to discuss Army Of One, a true life tale of Gary Faulkner, a man sent on a mission from God to avenge the U.S and capture Osama Bin Laden that I discovered it had been sliced and diced by Bob Weinstein. The Weinstein’s are famous for stripping directors of creative freedom, obviously a lesser crime to the world than the heinous acts of Bob’s brother Harvey. Who rightfully now spends his days behind bars, this is a subject I feel should be mentioned but I’m certainly not informed nor qualified to talk about. But let’s have it clear that Harvey Weinstein is a piece of shit. The mentions of Bob Weinstein’s cut to Larry Charles’ film sat in the forefront of mind whilst rewatching the film. It felt clunk, a film of two halves that didn’t quite fit. Something didn’t feel right. Charles being a staff writer on Seinfeld certainly knew the power of storytelling in comedy, with those perfectly crafted scripts bringing the loose threads together with satisfying pay offs and punchlines. Like Blade Runner I knew there was something missing, a story was in there fighting to get out.
Taking lead from the nerds I took to twitter, having derailed the podcast coming back to this point of what could we have seen if Larry Charles had final cut. Known for his boundary pushing comedy, with his scriptwriting, directing and even in front of the camera (See Netflix’s Larry Charles’ Dangerous World Of Comedy), Army Of One lacked the snark of his work with Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Bruno, The Dictator), the woven tapestry like narrative of Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm. Whilst promoting the podcast I fired off a tweet with the playful #ReleaseTheCharlesCut and went on with my day, thinking nothing of the matter. As far as I was concerned this wouldn’t have the mounting pressure of comic book fanboys or the chin stroking that would be levelled at Blade Runner. For it seems comedy doesn’t have the gravity, the backing, there would be no cry for Larry Charles’ vision of this story, we would just be left with a commercial and critical failure. Having spoken with a number screenwriters recently a clear through line is that Hollywood is littered with homogenised, watered down visions. Scripts that had the potential to light up the imaginations of those involved and cinema fans dashed by the wanton need for cash. A real shame if there ever was one.
It was later the same day, buzz buzz, like when someone receives a message in film. It didn’t happen like this because I tend to have my notifications off and phone silent but for dramatic purposes it did. I swiped open my phone to twitter, a place often swimming with bile and put downs but some days it’s a bastion of light and you get word from the horse’s mouth. This was one of those days and the horse, Larry Charles. A tweet which simply read “I’m on it!”, I thought to myself; It’s taken the DC fanboys years to get the wheels in motion, it took me one tweet. Larry then proceeded to elaborate on how he “worked long and hard on a cut. Although much of what you see is that cut, the producers came in and did their own cut which mangled much of my work, changed all the music, certain sequences and crucially the ending and theme of the movie”. He further added how both him and Nicolas cage were crushed and that he was working on a director’s cut of the movie. I reeled with excitement whilst the sour taste of cynicism for the film industry still lingered in my mouth. We are getting a Larry Charles cut of Army Of One and I couldn’t be happier.
From a quick internet search this may be the first comedy to get a director’s cut. I’m obviously discounting the barrage of “Uncut Editions” that came out ever since the dawn of American Pie. This is a true first, as Larry Charles said himself the tone of this was changed. We’re yet to see if it says a broad comedy or were the snarky, dark edges smoothed off? I can only fear that may well be the case. Until the Charles Cut is realised we can only speculate but I’m looking forward to what got himself and Nicolas Cage so excited.
Larry Charles will be on the Caged In podcast closer to the release of The Charles Cut, you can listen to Caged In here:
