Musings of A Sci-Fi Fanatic

[ethsnafu]

Hi folk,

I know how many of you have seen Lance Henriksen in Hard Target but it's one of his greater roles in my opinion and I happened to come across a blog today that has reviewed the film and it's a great read. This bit specifically is nice.

Another high point is Lance Henriksen who easily delivers one of the most sinister bad guy rolls within the cliched genre. Henriksen is perenially underrated, but he is so damn good in the part and in most parts he accepts. He's frightening. There's a reason he inevitably landed the role of Frank Black for the Chris Carter series Millennium. His career is a fascinating one. This is yet another footnote on his amazing resume of films.

Head on over here to read the entire entry and be sure to pop back and let us know what you thought of the film and our man's role in it.

Eth

[ty7du]

It's been such a long time since I saw it, I might buy it if I see it somewhere...just because of Lance. Shame about the way the bad guy had to go :(

That was a good read and also very funny. I wonder what is in the director's cut that isn't in the theatrical cut?

[Guest WaveCrest]

When I started reading the review I thought it was the first time I'd heard of an extended cut of Hard Target. But then after reading the rest of the review I remembered seeing something ages ago about a longer version of the film with more action scenes.

Of the JCVD films I've seen Sudden Death is my favourite. Powers Boothe was a memorable villain, but it would have been interesting to see Lance in the role he played.

[ethsnafu]

The Directors Cut is, if I remember rightly, around twenty minutes longer than other versions and it was billed has having much more gore and mayhem than the original release. That said the largest chunk of those twenty minutes is given over to a love scene so that isn't the case at all. There's an extended version of the 'earlobe cutting scene' and some additional action at the start of the film but that doesn't work in my opinion. Still, it's how John Woo would prefer it to be seen so who am I to say different.

Eth

[Earthnut]

It's been a long time for me too since I've seen it, but for me I will stick with the theatrical version. I agree, Lance is so very good in the parts he plays that it is almost frightening.

Go Lance ! ! !

[Guest Sidewinder]

The Directors Cut is, if I remember rightly, around twenty minutes longer than other versions and it was billed has having much more gore and mayhem than the original release. That said the largest chunk of those twenty minutes is given over to a love scene so that isn't the case at all. There's an extended version of the 'earlobe cutting scene' and some additional action at the start of the film [...]

If you allow me to interfere here: the mentioned longer version is a work print-version which also contains a soundtrack that uses bits from other movies like "Rambo" and "Aliens". That version was cut down by the studio which leads to the theatrical version everyone knows. Obviously "the powers that be" didn't trusted Woo to much and thought they would know much better what the anticipation of the american audience would be.

Anyway; that work print isn't the director's cut. Every now and then appears a new online-petition asking for a real director's cut. But John Woo himself said within a biographical book some years ago that will never happen because most of his additional material sadly was destroyed.

[ethsnafu]

What fascinating information. I genuinely never knew that. Is Woo stating that his material was destroyed after the work-print version was released as a bootleg?

Now that mention it I do recall some scenes that appear to use stock footage. One is the scene of Lance on the piano during which it cuts to tribesmen killing elephants and so on. It's a pretty surreal scene but it does appear to work in terms if portraying Fouchon's thought processes.

Thank you so much for sharing your insight into this, very interesting indeed.

Eth