Coligion said:
The first scene I noticed was from the beginning where Binder is shown to be a more competent adversary by tossing the gasoline can at the hunters. Binder jumping into the house before it explodes was new, too. Some of the musical cues caught me off guard a bit as well, but I was not at all turned off by them. Some of the different musical touches added a more dark atmosphere, in my opinion.
Adding a more dark atmosphere was what I intended, the Binder scene's are from the Euro cut apart from the Jump into the house that I inserted from the trailer. It is certainly more John Woo in my opinion.
For me, the most notable differences took place in the Mardi Gras warehouse battle. A lot of the fights were fleshed out more and allowed to breathe. Is all of this visible in the European edit of the film?
All but a few minor tweeks, I added a killing of a henchman (Discussed ealier in the thread) using repeat footage and some after effects.
One scene that surprised me was when Fouchon is hitting Chance with the wood plank. In the U.S. edit, Chance grabs hold of the fiery plank and the camera slowly pans up to his face as flashbacks occur. Fouchon and Chance have somewhat of a stare-down before the fight continues. In this cut, Chance just quickly breaks the board and fights on. I realize this was so because you rearranged the scene, but it was a moment I remembered well from the DVD. Not sure which way I like better, but that scene stood out the most to me.
Quite a few share your view on this, I do as well. I tried it both ways but kept this.
I have yet to purchase the U.K. Blu-ray, so I can't compare to that one. I had been hoping a U.S. release would see the light of day soon, but it still remains in limbo.
The German release is the one to grab as It contains both cuts in english. But it maybe region locked.
Have said that, I really enjoyed your edit, CSchmidlapp. You did a terrific job. Your edit easily bests the region 1 DVD I own. I look forward to another viewing in the near future. Thanks again for making this available.
Cheers, and thanks for taking the time to comment. Hope you enjoy multiple viewings.