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I had replied to Msycamore's PM with this, but the more I think about it, the more I think I am right. There was talk about whether this was actually the 1971 theatrical cut; I had initially thought perhaps this was a preview cut or workprint, with Warner's "freaks up front" (as they say in the DVD doc), that somehow was shipped to Italy. But, in the end, I am just going to say that this is just a foreign cut of the film. It's impossible to say if this version was specific to Italy or if it represents a more general "International Cut".
This was what I wrote:
"Well, after re-watching the clip again for a re-fresher (I had seen it long ago) here are my thoughts:
-Robert Duvall narration"--this is misleading. I hadn't realized it was all dubbed. So, Duvall never was in the studio to record voice-over: only his Italian doppleganger for the dub.
-This brings us to why they would add their own voice-over for the Italian version. Well, this is related to the whole re-editing in the first place. Sometimes, foreign versions are simply edited differently. They have to add voice-over, make the plot clearer, or just have the option to make things stylistically different. Sometimes its because it is felt that certain cultures require different emphases for the film to make sense or be effective. Sometimes it purely due to contractual traditions that allows producers, execs and foreign distributors the right to make their own stylistic changes. A good example is 1978's Dawn of the Dead; George Romero edited the American version himself, but producer Dario Argento reserved the right to re-edit the film for the Italian and international version, making it faster paced and less humorous, because 1) he preferred this method of storytelling, and 2) he thought this would be more appealing to an international audience. There are other examples I can give, perhaps more contemporary being Miramax who often buy up foreign films and re-edit them to play to domestic tastes. Anyway, it's not so unusual for foreign versions to get some tweaking, it doesn't happen all the time but it's not unheard of. [This is prevalent in low-budget and obscure cult films too, where the cost and distribution (even with Warners at the helm) is dispersed across multiple companies and partners for different world regions because the films are not very commercial, but as part of that deal said partners reserve the right to modify the film for specific regions]
So, perhaps in the case of THX, there was an issue with the right to tweak the film for foreign versions. So, Warners, who was keen to have "the freaks up front" thought they could use this as a good opportunity to do so, with additional dubbing for narration from the Robert Duval-equivalent to make this introduction more sensical. Maybe this was part of Lucasfilm's negotiation: they got to keep the original structure for the domestic version, but in the foreign prints Warner could put their "freaks up front" structure into place.
Also, as it relates to the rough splicing, foreign prints are often made from dupe material and look rough, and if they are edited its not from the original negative, which is why there is crude splicing in the newly-cut scenes.
Just a thought. So, right now I am going to say this is a rare and previously-unseen foreign cut of the film."
"However, as a follow-up, since I am suggesting this is a 1971 foreign print, probably many of the differences compared to the 1978 cut are a reflection of the 1971 American theatrical version. If I am right, it would still be a bit difficult to know which was ported from the 1971 American and which was an original foreign change, but the Skywalking blurb may help guide in distinguishing this."
