From: davideml@bellsouth.net
"Stephen" wrote in message news:geu0n4dnvp
jglpu11u5vikjd1hr8imfrv@4ax.com...
> Hello,
>
> Please can anyone tell me how does the Xena series finale director's
> cut dvd differ from the last two episodes on the series 6 boxset? What
> other extras are there on the director's cut that are not on the
> boxset? I presume the boxset has the versions transmitted as two
> episodes? (I haven't watched them yet). I did try to look for the
> answers myself, but the reviews on Amazon go into great detail about
> the plot, so I had to stop reading!
>
> Thanks.
I watched the directors cut and posted this review on Nov 18.
Spoilers for sure. In case you don't want to know, then stop reading NOW!
A Friend in Need - The Director's Cut
The director being Rob Tapert.
This was shown as one complete episode, and not broken up into two
parts. When I started
watching it I wasn't sure if I'd recognize any of the added scenes, and since
I was watching more
closely, some things I saw I wasn't sure about. But then I did start noticing
new things. And some
scenes were pretty long. So, here they are, and I'm pretty sure they're in
chronological order.
The first thing I was sure about was the fight evil Xena had with
the guards of the
Akemi's kidnapper. There were at least a half dozen more than in the Aired
Version (AV - from now
on).
There was more walking in the snow to Akemi's grandfather.
Right after X&G dived into the water to swim to Higuchi, there was a
long scene between
Yodoshi and Akemi. He swirled in and wanted to know where the kutana was. He
told her he knew Xena
was coming and he thanked her - one more soul for him to eat. Then he swirled
out.
X&G got out of the water and there were more scenes of the soldiers
and the burning
village. After
the water tower put the fire out, the samurai general told Xena they would
meet again.
Right after Xena showed Gabrielle how to put on the Pinch, the ghost
killer came in and
asked Xena if she was ready.
After burying her armor, there was a short scene of Xena running
through the foggy forest
before she stopped to listen for the soldiers and wagon.
Before the volleys of arrows started, Xena was fighting soldiers
with iron pikes. She
kicked one pike toward the samurai general but he caught it.
More fighting before Xena was beheaded.
Gabrielle tells the monk for them to split up then goes after Xena.
More of her walking
on the battlefield before she found the Chakram.
When Gabrielle went after Xena's body, there was more of her and the
general staring and
circling each other in the rain.
Yodoshi swirled away as fire when his arm was cut off. He landed
then took over the body
of a hawk to fly to Mt Fuji. Xena and Akemi saw the hawk and were going to
take the bodies of an
owl for Xena and some other bird for Akemi. But before they did, Akemi took
Xena aside to tell her
something about saving their souls. A brief cutaway to see Gabrielle riding
towards Mt Fuji. Then
back to Xena and Akemi, and Xena is agreeing to whatever Akemi told her.
(Obviously this is the
crucial scene we should have seen to know why Xena told Gabrielle she could
not came back to life.)
They take the bodies of the birds and fly to Mt Fuji. (I wondered how Akemi
got there.)
The hawk lands and becomes Yodoshi and he runs to the fountain to open the
valve. The owl lands,
turns into Xena and she goes after him. When he is thrown away from the
fountain by Xena, the bird
turns into Akemi
and she grabs the sword to go after him.
After Yodoshi freezes the falling water and Xena is knocked away, she gets up
and runs back to the
fountain and is knocked back again, this time with a fireball.
The final scene of the camera pulling away from Gabrielle was completely gone,
not even the distant
view of her that was barely seen in the AV.
A few final thoughts --
After seeing Xena in that bright red robe and the lipstick, once she was back
in her warrior
leathers, she looked so DRAB!! It was like going from color to black and
white (or sepia).
Unfortunately, there was no extended scene of Gabrielle kissing Xena.
Why did Akemi wait so long before sending for Xena?
I doubt if knowing ahead of time that Xena might not be able to come
back would have made
the ending any less distressing, or left (some of) us any less angry (probably
not), but the
missing scene should have been left in and three or four minutes taken out
somewhere else.
There is more on this disk (#8) and more stuff on #9. I'll get
around to watching those
sometime in the near future and report on them. Disk 10 is a CD-ROM with the
usual - bios, trivia,
etc.
I'm sure going to miss doing these. I'm not sure how I'll pass the
time now. Maybe in a
year or so, I'll start over again with Season 1.
Thanks for everyone who's stuck with it, and for the comments.
Battle On!
--
David
http://geocities.com/daviderl31/LucyLawless.htm
http://geocities.com/daviderl31/xena.htm
http://geocities.com/daviderl31/GabPics.htm
http://geocities.com/daviderl31/ROC.htm
http://www.geocities.com/daviderl31/XenaEpisodeCritiques.htm
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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