- cross-posted to:
- movies@lemm.ee
- cross-posted to:
- movies@lemm.ee
Crocodile Dundee | New ‘Encore Cut’ removes footage from original film
by Simon Brew | January 27, 2025
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A 4K remastered ‘Encore Cut’ of Crocodile Dundee is being released this year – but one or two moments have been edited out. More here.
In 2020, the most complained about movie to the British Board of Film Classification here in the UK was the re-issue of 1980’s Flash Gordon. 91 people wrote to the board, protesting a simple note that was added to the start of the picture, letting people know the film contained “discriminatory stereotypes”. Not a frame of footage of the film was touched, it’s just 91 people felt advising people of something in the film was worthy of complaint.
I always thought the re-release of Flash Gordon was handled well. I’m not quite sure a planned re-release of Crocodile Dundee is going to go quite the same way.
The original movie was release in America in 1986, where it became a genuine sleeper hit, and the biggest film of the year. It made an international star of Paul Hogan, and spawned a couple of sequels too.
What’s often overlooked though is that the cut of the film released outside of Australia was different to the one that originally debuted. Australian moviegoers got a slightly different, longer Crocodile Dundee. And now, they’re getting a 4K remaster of the film in cinemas in 2025.
It’s also a recut version of the movie, now known as the ‘Encore Cut’ of the film. However, rather than just opening up the movie with a warning about material that doesn’t look too good through a modern lens, it’s being reported that two and a half minutes has been snipped out of the film.
As per QNews, there is opening text, but also, material where Mick ‘Crocodile’ Dundee and meets a crossdresser has been edited out. It was never the best of jokes, and always a bit jarring, but I do wonder where it leads to start retroactively editing films to fit a modern lens. I’m not in the slightest defending the joke, and never liked it. But this is a very difficult road.
Production company Rimfire Films issued a statement ahead of the Encore Cut’s debut noting that “some years ago, Paramount Pictures and other distributors requested the reference to the crossdresser be edited from the original film, as they found it offensive. We agreed to that request”.
There’s another joke on a similar theme later on in the movie that’s said to have been excised, that’s basically Mick Dundee groping someone.
Hogan has signed off on the changes to the film. Inevitably, someone has wheeled out the – sigh – word ‘woke’ and asked him about it (just wait until the Mail and Telegraph get hold of this story. I shudder).
Hogan’s response is that people pointed out to him that “this guy is a folk hero around the world. He shouldn’t be groping people. And I thought yeah that’s right, he shouldn’t be, so take it out. I mean, he did it in all innocence, in naivety, but it’s better without it”.
The plan is for Crocodile Dundee: The Encore Cut to debut in Australian cinemas on 8th May, complete with 4K remaster. There’s also a documentary about the making of the film, with newly rediscovered materials telling the behind the scenes story of the movie. You can read a little bit more about that here.
No word yet on a British release for the Crocodile Dundee. Also, it should be noted that the original cut is still out there too, and isn’t being deleted. It’d be interesting if we could see the actual original Australian cut too, before it was chopped for a US audience.
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I disapprove of this “Encore Cut”.
Reading headline: How dare they chop up this masterpiece!
After reading details: Oh. Yeah. Probably for the best. Lol.
Hogan’ response nails it:
Hogan’s response is that people pointed out to him that “this guy is a folk hero around the world. He shouldn’t be groping people. And I thought yeah that’s right, he shouldn’t be, so take it out. I mean, he did it in all innocence, in naivety, but it’s better without it”.
It is better without it.
Yeah, I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Probably would’ve been better to have branching and a disclaimer, though.
Around Christmas I watched Holiday Inn for the first time, thinking it would be a nice movie starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. It began with an offensive content disclaimer, and I thought, oh, there’s probably some unflattering stereotypes. Then the full-on blackface musical number that included an offensive slur basically sucker punched me in the face. Really took me out of the movie.
I think it would be pretty hard to excise that one without losing a story beat, but these two Crocodile Dundee scenes are just dumb gags that contribute nothing.
but these two Crocodile Dundee scenes are just dumb gags that contribute nothing.
Yeah. I don’t disagree with folks who say “give us both and let us pick”, but as a consumer, I would probably just feel like my time was wasted with this one, after given the choice.
It’s just not a big loss to rip it out. To me, it’s not even worth the minutes I would spend deciding which version to watch. Lol.
The hivemind overruling the director is pretty dystopian.
Legendary response too. Avoided the bait and spun it around to "yeah we don’t sexually assault people "
Couldn’t they just put both on the disk?
I’m not a huge fan of tinkering with things like this, but if they’re going to edit it for release, at least use streaming branching on the disc so the viewer can choose whether to watch it as originally presented or with the edits.
Just leave things be, if they have outdated elements put the disclaimer. Dont change things 30 years later, not to be dramatic but that is dystopian.
This is the way.
Erasing any proof of the bad things we used to do is not good for the future. You need to leave them there and add a warning so the context of the time is considered, but it should ultimately be left alone.
I like the other peoples ideas of offering both the original cut and the recur edition that way people can choose how they want to see it.
How is it dystopian?
Someone else gets to decide what you may see and what you must not see based on their very own morale values. Also a (kind of a) historic document is being altered.
I mean, that did that before the movie was released the first time.
When the movie is written, there’s someone deciding what they think you should see based on their morals and values. When it’s being filmed, that’s a part of it. When it’s being edited, those decisions are being made, and the entire movie ratings system is based around who can see what based on an arbitrarily picked set of morals.
I get that changing a movie after initial release is rarely going to be met with enthusiasm, but pretending that movies aren’t already very influenced by an arbitrary set of morals is just silly.
In this case, at least it’s the people that made and distributed the movie making the decision rather than some essentially anonymous board pushing shitty judeo-christian morals onto the rest of the world. This decision is a good one, to reduce bigotry in a character that is supposed to be a common man’s hero.
That’s an artistic choice, a narrative choice. And it’s being made with decades of improved thinking about how we should treat people.
Societal pressure if changing a movie after the fact. The creative process is different to post release. It cant be compared.
Going back and changing the record on how things were is the main character’s job in 1984. It might not be as malicious but it is not the right course of action.
If I was re-releasing art that didn’t age well, especially if the part that aged like milk was otherwise insignificant, I would probably alter it as well. It’s not changing anything that’s already out there, it’s just a newer version.
Is it under a different name? Is the previous version equally available. Can a consumer make an informed choice about getting the same quality of either version. Are they made aware at purchase it is not the original version?
Art is reflective of its time, be fair shit if they went back and put the snapchat dog filter on Night Fishing at Antibes, more contemporary…cubism is so out.
