Decades of DVD, Blu-ray and home video releases have taught us to expect certain things out of a director’s cut. Typically we get additional scenes, more runtime put into side characters and secondary plots and perhaps some material that was too raunchy or gory for the theatrical version. It varies a bit, of course, but the one consistent throughline is they’re almost always longer (sometimes way longer), the result of a director not having to worry about pleasing casual moviegoers or reducing runtime to get in an extra screening each day at the theater.
Not Airplane! Airplane! is one of the few director’s cuts that is actually shorter than the movie that went to theaters. That’s because instead of adding stuff in, directors David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams have slowly trimmed the movie and made it snappier over the years. We spoke to David Zucker about why, and here’s what he told us…
Jerry, Jim and I recut Airplane, but it’s three minutes shorter. It’s the only director’s cut where it’s actually shorter than the original. But we cut it. We trimmed it because of pace. In the 45 years since it’s been released, we’ve shown it all over the world. We got it in our heads, well, this joke goes on too long. We gotta trim this, and we did.
Airplane!’s three directors have moved on to other projects and made additional spoof movies, but they’ve never totally gotten away from Airplane! They very famously weren’t involved in the sequel, but in the nearly fifty years since the movie came out, they’ve continued screening it around the world. That means they’ve been present as thousands and thousands of fans have watched it.
That’s made them uniquely aware of what jokes are working and what jokes are not working. It’s made them very fixated on the pace of the movie, which is why they’ve slowly cut out bits they felt like went on for too long or jokes that just weren’t working. The end result has been a version that’s now a full three minutes shorter that they screen at events.
In case you were wondering, these events are still happening. There’s actually a screening tonight (October 3rd) in Seattle of the aforementioned director’s cut, and David Zucker and star Robert Hays will be there in person to take questions from the audience. Some tickets are still available. There’s also one next month in Denver.
Airplane! is one of the most beloved comedies in the history of Hollywood and is widely credited for popularizing the spoof form of comedy to the point where Zucker even teaches online classes on spoof writing. Many fans and critics consider it a masterwork, but apparently, it’s even better with three minutes shaved off. I’ll have to attend one of these events and see for myself.