Avatar 1.3

I'm reading online there's another version of Avatar coming out on DVD, making it the third version of the film. Is it just me or does anyone else see the irony of a film with a strong environmental message being released three times on discs and packaging made from non-renewable resources?!

I get that audiences in general won't sit still for films over two hours and that theatre owners (rightly) don't like the longer films, because it means fewer screenings per day. So I'm not opposed to an extended cut of a film on DVD, if the film warrants it, but when it becomes the norm, when we can't ever see a "definitive" version of a film on a big screen with an audience, let's call it what it is: a cash-grab. Does a DVD release of Predators, to pick an example, need more footage?! The Expendables?! Would any amount of extra footage make Watchmen a good film?

Sometimes, studios mess with a director's vision. Films like Blade Runner and Brazil were released with happy endings which their respective directors railed against. In these sorts of cases, "Director's Cut" versions on DVD are valid. Sometimes films are restored years after they were made and new footage is unearthed, examples being Vertigo, or Metropolis. In this case, a new DVD release is warranted. These days, however, in most cases, the new editions are nothing more than scraps from the cutting room floor stuck back into the theatrical release, or in the case of comedies, a bit more nudity and swearing. It's now expected that nearly every major film release will have an alternate version available on DVD a few months later. That's not restoration, or artistic vision, that's planned greed.

Not being a buyer of DVDs (the odd used disc here, a Criterion disc there), it doesn't affect me much, but I worry for a society that not only consumes but is willing to re-consume basically the same thing a short while later (and in the case of Avatar, one more time!) I know someone who has a wall of DVDs, a lot of which, by his own admittance he bought "to have complete sets of.." [Indiana Jones, Star Wars, X-Men, etc.]. He hasn't watched some and has no desire to watch others. He's bought DVDs that do nothing but sit upon a shelf! He's bought into some marketer's idea of what constitutes a complete set of something. It borders on mania! When did seeing a film in a theatre become just the first part of an experience? More importantly why the F are we listening to marketers?!

I remember my father being outraged in the summer of 1977, upon finding out I'd been to see Star Wars again after he'd taken me. "What are you, stupid?" he asked. "You can't remember things?!" Harsh as that was for me to hear at 10 years of age, he had a good point.