Charles Burnett made the rare director’s cut that’s actually shorter than the original
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Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases, premieres, current events, or occasionally just our own inscrutable whims. This week: With the fabled Snyder Cut improbably making its way to HBO Max this week, we’re looking back on other significant directors’ cuts.
My Brother’s Wedding, director’s cut (2007)
Though he’s revered as one of the great, independent African American filmmakers, Charles Burnett has had trouble getting his early films seen by a wider audience. His landmark 1978 Killer Of Sheep, eventually deemed “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry, featured music whose rights Burnett had not secured, which prevented it from being theatrically released for years. A sad fate also befell his 1983 follow-up, My Brother’s Wedding, which got shelved after the producers sent a rough cut to the New Directors/New Films Festival in New York; less-than-favorable reviews there scared off distributors.
When the films got picked up in 2007 by Milestone Film And Video, which arranged belated theatrical releases for both, Burnett went back to the editing booth to re-cut Wedding. In a move that’s considered very unusual in the director’s cut game, he made a new version of Wedding that’s actually shorter than the 115-minute original. Indeed, Burnett trimmed a lot of fat for the 81-minute director’s cut, shortening many scenes and excising several that were just plain old unnecessary. The movie is now leaner and tighter. (If you feel like comparing the original and the director’s cut, you’re gonna have to track down the Killer Of Sheep DVD set from 2007 that included both versions. The director’s cut is the only version available online.)
The story is still the same, though. Taking place in Burnett’s South Central Los Angeles stomping grounds (where he also set Sheep), My Brother’s Wedding follows Pierce Mundy (Everett Silas), a 30-year-old brotha who mostly spends his days working at his parents’ dry-cleaning store and running errands for the rest of his family. Pierce has been in a salty mood lately—all the talk in the fam has been about the upcoming nuptials of his lawyer big brother (Monte Easter) and his upper-class bride (Gaye Shannon-Burnett). A self-proclaimed working man, Pierce feels his brother has turned into a snooty sellout, about to marry into a family that he believes doesn’t know the first thing about hard work.
Pierce has more brotherly affection for longtime buddy Soldier (Ronnie Bell), who’s just been released from prison. Even though everyone in the neighborhood thinks Soldier is bad news, Pierce remains true to his reckless pal—a loyalty tested in the finale, when he has to choose between being there for his boy or serving as the best man at… well, you know.
Even after the streamlining, Wedding is still far from polished. Just as he did with Sheep, Burnett cast actors who are clearly amateurs, many delivering stiff line readings and awkwardly over-emoting. When it comes to authenticity, the director cares more about the surroundings than the performances. His is a more complicated, less monolithic view of inner-city Black America—something practically nonexistent in the grim and bleak ’hood movies that would hit theaters a decade later. Although Burnett’s South Central is a place where the old folks can be seen getting their pistols just in case things get crazy, it’s still filled with interesting, colorful characters and is even funny on some occasions. At the center of it all is Pierce, a frustrated man-child torn between slacking off and succumbing to the responsibilities of adulthood.
In the past couple years, indie-film distributors have been unearthing lost, low-budget films—like Kathleen Collins’ Losing Ground and Horace B. Jenkins’ Cane River—made by African American directors who sadly never got to see their work reach audiences all over. So it’s heartening that the still-with-us Burnett (who received an honorary Oscar in 2017) wasn’t just around to witness the theatrical release of My Brother’s Wedding but also to assure that it was the version of the film he wanted audiences to see.
Availability: The director’s cut of My Brother’s Wedding is currently streaming on The Criterion Channel. It’s also available to rent on Vimeo.
17 Comments
I know there were restraints, but I really wish he had been able to get a “less-TV” look for some of these films…Killer of Sheep was so beautiful
I’ve only seen the director’s cut of Blood Simple, and my understanding is that the Coens shortened it just slightly from the theatrical version.
I thought of that too. Yeah I think they trimmed only a minute and a half or something.
As I recall, the Coens trimmed a few minutes out of Blood Simple, and were surprised that the studio or audience assumed they would have anything to add to make it better….Oh, and – I’ve never seen My Brother’s Wedding -looks like I should!
I thought about “Blood Simple,” too, but isn’t Ridley Scott’s DC of “Alien” also shorter than the original theatrical?
Ridley considers the original theatrical Alien his “director’s cut”, iirc – everything he wanted in the film made it the first time around. What’s referred to as the DC on the recent re-releases is technically just an extended cut with some deleted scenes added back in (largely not considered canon)if that wasn’t confusing enough, what is called the “extended cut” of Aliens is literally James Cameron’s director’s cut, is canon, and is the one that’s usually shown on TV in favour of the theatrical!
As if Ridley wasn’t already a big fan of confusing the term “director’s cut,” what with the “Blade Runner: Director’s Cut” that actually wasn’t, and an actual director’s cut that was called something else.I do love the director’s/extended cut of “Aliens.” The bit with Ripley’s daughter adds so much to her and Newt’s relationship, and the entire “discovery of the horseshoe ship” sequence with Newt’s family.
I think those scenes are pretty essential honestly. The backstory about Ripley’s daughter adds the necessary weight to make you stop questioning why Ripley would put herself through the wringer to save this, frankly, kinda annoying kid – not to mention it’s easily some of Sigourney’s best acting in the franchise, if not the best
Zwigoff’s cut of Bad Santa is also shorter, he cuts some gags he didn’t like that the studio wanted in and I believe he cuts some or all of the voiceover. The studio also released a longer unrated cut that he had nothing to do with, so I imagine giving him his cut (which only appears on some versions of the home release) was a compromise since the studio wanted to cash in on the then still current boom in “Unrated!” DVD releases.
I just looked up Zwigoff’s credits. He’s got basically nothing for a decade & a half. An Amazon pilot (I don’t know if it was ever available to watch) does at least put him ahead of Todd Field.
Its a real bummer, Art School Confidential seemed to kill his career. I didn’t even think it was a bad movie. I enjoyed watching it (although I haven’t felt the need to return to it), but judging it against an acclaimed classic documentary (Crumb), one of my favorite movies of all time that was also critically beloved (Ghost World), and a crossover hit with perennial cable/DVD legs (Bad Santa), I can see why critics dismissed it and the money dried up. I don’t think Zwigoff is the kind of guy who wants to make paycheck movies to fund passion projects, so I guess he’s just done?
I enjoyed this movie. I guess it was the director’s cut I saw – it moved pretty quickly, and no scene wore out its welcome. The acting can be stilted, but that didn’t bother me. Met Charles Burnett a couple of years ago, and he was a cool guy.
Antoine Saint-Exupéry would approve
I’ve only ever seen the original cut, which I liked a lot. But I have a high tolerance for slow or meandering films. Cutting it from 115 minutes to 81 minutes is a pretty big move.
I bought the Milestone DVD that has both versions & Killer of Sheep. First saw this back when Richard Pena was in charge of the Film Center (early 80’s) & screened both films . Burnett was there for the screening of My Brother’s Wedding & participated in a Q&A afterwards. Thanks for the article & the previous one on To Sleep With Anger. Burnett has always been a favorite of mine.
The director’s cut of Bad Santa is also shorter than the original, 88 minutes instead of 92 minutes. It removes the boxing practice scene (a relic from 1980s single father sitcom movies, which I’m guessing was a producer’s brilliant idea) as well as some scenes that probably shouldn’t have been cut.
Damn, should have known someone else mentioned it. Yeah, removing the scene which obviously existed to put the “nut punch” in the trailer was fine, but the other stuff didn’t need to be cut. And I think he removed some of the voice over, like from the opening scene. That helps make it more of a dark Zwigoff movie by just dropping you into the character’s shit life, but I also think as a comedy film the VO helps warm up the audience for the rest of the movie.