Australian DVD review

Hooray for that!

Justin,

I think that is superb news for the Australian release on DVD.

I enjoy Richard Gray's analysis of the EDC:

“It sometimes seems that there have been countless versions of The Exorcist released to DVD, and this one is different again. From memory, we've has the original barebones edition released back in the early days of Warner DVDs, followed by the 25th Anniversary Edition in 1998. Then, of course, there was the Version You've Never Seen, a silly title rendered void as soon as you've watched it. That edition reinstated some cut footage, and cleaned up the infamous 'Spider Walk' scene with some CGI work. Finally, we have this Extended Director's Cut, adding a further 10 minutes of footage cut from the original theatrical release. Those changes are ultimately insubstantial, although director Friedkin and writer Blatty maintain that this is the most complete version to date. Whatever version of the film you prefer, this ends up being one of the best looking editions of the film we've seen yet.”

He is by all means correct in his summary. I only say this because I am a true fan of the original and I will never buy into the charade of marketing tools that Friedkin and Blatty agreed to directly from WB to sell TVYNS/EDC.

Have other versions of the DVD been shorter in other countries such as Australia? IOW, does WB have to cut certain scenes to this day to follow their ratings? I don't believe it is still banned anywhere, but I didn't think about each country having a standards committee that audits certain scenes, or basically certainly films.

Father Bowdern

Jagged I see your point after reviewing the entire article. I'm not sure if the reviewer has a copy the actual DVD and Blu-ray because he uses words like “presumably” and the release date is October 27, 2010 (two days from now).

Justin, I see that the picture has a title of “The Exorcist : 2-Disc Extended Director's Cut and is a Region 4 that it is:

Disc-type: Dual-layer/Single-sided/Non-flipper

I think that's part of the confusing thing. Where can I buy one because it may be a DVD worth owning for my Region Free DVD Player?

Father Bowdern

Thanks, Justin!

Father Bowdern

Justin,

Sorry about that. I did do some research and I couldn't find anything about WB producing a two-disc DVD as suggested by the author on DVD bits. In fact, his information was the thing I pointed out that says it's one Dual-layer/Single-sided/Non-flipper DVD which didn't jive with the article he wrote. It seems he was writing about the BR versus a DVD.

I just thought perhaps WB was producing the two-disc version for Australia, but I couldn't imagine why WB wouldn't cash in on that here in the US as well. This movie has been a cow cash for them on every level. But to get the old TVYNS and a poorly produced bonus disc is really lazy and cheap like you said, plus it's a rip off.

Father Bowdern