I have some slightly good news: Blackhat: The director's cut is now streaming on FXNOW apps. So, if you have a streaming device with the FXNOW app, you can check it out!
I've got to say, the director's cut is the better version of the two. Strangely enough, it appears the DC is slightly shorter (2 hrs 9 min as opposed to the TC at 2 hrs 13 min).
As said before the opening is now the stock market hit. It starts like Collateral and the TC version of Miami Vice: no opening credits, it simply opens with a shot of the empty floors of the stock exchange. There are some new shots of the exchange during the price run up.
There is also a new scene involving a ship trying to enter a port, but denied entry due to the price of insurance on it being messed up from the price hikes.
We see the Chinese officials with corrected dialogue. We get much more information about how bad the prices of everything is affecting the economy and is creating worldwide food shortages. Dawai already has information ready for his superiors and requests working with the Americans in a joint effort.
The shots of Hathaway doing push ups is gone as is the shot of him returning to his room after his negotiation with the agent.
There is a new sequence when they arrive in China, where the US Marshall spots a tail while driving on a suspension bridge. They go to a hotel, sneak through the service elevators and jump in a van and lose the tail.
There was a scene where Hathaway is talking to Lien in bed where the audio fades in and out and its not so important as to what he is saying but its just the fact he is opening up to her. This is now gone.
The scene in the helicopter, Dawai talks to Hathaway about being with his sister. The last line, "I've never seen her happier." is now deleted. We can see his lips start to move, but the music starts and the scene cuts slightly earlier than the TC.
I think there is a new shot after the container yard shootout. I don't remember seeing Dawai standing among all the police cars at night with all the flashing lights. I can't remember if this was in the TC.
Obviously, the nuclear attack now happens after the container yard shoot out.
We lose all but one of the the satellite jump cuts that come closer in earth that made up the opening sequence in the TC. We only see the last shot that is closest to the nuclear plant before getting the regular establishing shot.
The aftermath scene of the nuclear plant is now immediately after the attack, and this clears up a major continuity error in the TC.
There is a scene in the TC where Hathaway leads the bad guys to a high rise building that is under construction. This sequence is now gone. After he contacts them, its to meet at the parade.
During the final scene at the ATM, some viewers pointed out the balance of the account didn't match what we originally saw earlier in the film. The shot of the account balance is now gone.
Also, the audio drop out that occurs when Hathaway and Lien walk towards the camera didn't happen in this version.
The flow of this version is much better. Instead of starting with a bang (literally) like an action movie, the DC is more of a crescendo of events. The stock hit and the investigation don't let on to the violence that is still to come and even makes Hathaway's line,"the real hit is still to come" more foreboding.
Anyone who didn't like this film for various reasons, probably still won't like it. Its probably 85% the same movie. This is just a tighter and more polished edit.
Letterboxd:
New Cut excises the precise instant in which Hathaway falls in love with Lien. As in o.g. BLACKHAT, after they discover Lazzano/Reyes's corpse & respond to his e-mail, they are deciding to go to the Korean restaurant (00:33:00ish mark) and she does that tongue in cheek look, but in New Cut we don't see Hathaway do his subtly endearing smizing double take where he's trying to look at her but not let her see him silently approve. And the gorgeous subsequent backseat ride scene is gone, the part where he admires her neck and we feel the co-infatuation become a potentially tragic yet beautiful irrevocability. [Consider the contrasting yet equally caring way in which she later looks at his (damaged) neck.]
This bit of New Cut chopping baffled me. Like what if LAST OF THE MOHICANS didn't have the "I'm looking at you, miss" scene, or what if Nathaniel's wordless fort-wide pursuit of Cora had been truncated so as to cut to the kissing scene without their music-enhanced widescreen eye-to-eye? Madness.
I know I am probably in the minority bunch here, but is it such a crime to prefer the theatrical take? The DC gives coherence and cohesion to the overall film, but a huge part of my love for Blackhat is exactly the lack of hooks and side notes. Feeling lost in the digital age, among ghosts of identities and relationships is something the theatrical cut conveys so well.
The DC builds up the tension in a different way, and surely plot-wise switching the attacks paves the road for the last one in a much more discernible way. It also feels kind of like spoon-feeding, though, which is something Mann has been moving away from since Ali, and that's what has driven me to a re-appreciation of his filmography in the last year.
I'm sounding like I hate the film now, but of course I don't. I am always happy to see a director tinker with his babies.
de fans, le film fait son entrée au Max Linder cette semaine
:
j'espère qu'un quidam pensera à l'enregistrer cette fois