List of films cut over the director's opposition

At times, movie studios will cut a film, usually to give it a more upbeat ending or to shorten it. Following is a partial list of films cut over the director's opposition.

Year	Film	Director	Notes
1924	Greed	Erich von Stroheim	Von Stroheim made an extremely long 42-reel rough cut. Under pressure, he shortened it to 24, with the intention of showing it over two nights. Goldwyn producers were still dissatisfied, so von Stroheim sent the film to his friend and fellow director, Rex Ingram, who turned it over to his editor, Grant Whytock. After many more cuts, Whytock quit and new editor Joseph Farnham got the job and cut it even further to 10 reels. Von Stroheim said that the movie "was cut by a hack with nothing on his mind but his hat", and disowned the film as edited by the studio.
1925	The Phantom of the Opera	Rupert Julian	After its initial preview was poorly received, Universal was advised by Lon Chaney and others to order a reshoot of most of the movie. Julian refused to comply, and left. Edward Sedgewick would direct the reshoot, and the film would be reedited twice before being released.
1930	All Quiet on the Western Front	Lewis Milestone	Universal made alterations to the film for rereleases, against Milestone's wishes, such as adding music to the ending.
1932	Freaks	Tod Browning	MGM cut the film from 90 minutes to just over an hour, against Browning's wishes, because it was too gruesome for test audiences to handle. One woman claimed that it caused her to suffer a miscarriage. The movie's notoriety destroyed Browning's career.
1937	Lost Horizon	Frank Capra	Due to low box office returns from the initial roadshow release, Columbia cut 14 minutes from the film for its general release, without Capra's permission. Capra filed a lawsuit against the studio, which was settled out of court.
1937	The Road Back	James Whale	Universal, threatened with a boycott of their movies by the German government, reshot and reedited the film extensively to tone down its anti-Nazi sentiment, and added more comedy. Whale was disgusted at how the studio had caved in to political pressure, and left after completing Wives Under Suspicion. He would return to Universal for one last film for the studio, 1940's Green Hell.
1942	The Magnificent Ambersons	Orson Welles	Because of a mixed audience response at the film's previews, RKO Pictures cut 40 minutes from the film and shot a happier ending while Welles was making a documentary in Brazil.
1947	The Paradine Case	Alfred Hitchcock	David O. Selznick edited Hitchcock's nearly three-hour rough cut down to 132 minutes for its initial release, and then cut it further, to 114 minutes, for general release.
1951	The Red Badge of Courage	John Huston	MGM cut 51 minutes from the film and added narration against Huston's protests following poor audience test screenings.
1954	A Star Is Born	George Cukor	Warner Bros. cut nearly half an hour from the film to allow more theater showings per day. Cukor called the abridged movie "very painful" to watch.
1965	Major Dundee	Sam Peckinpah	Peckinpah's original cut, which may have been more than four and a half hours long, was edited down to 136 minutes before its premiere. A score that Peckinpah greatly disliked was also added. Following the movie's extremely negative reception, it was cut further, despite the protests of Peckinpah and producer Jerry Bresler, to 123 minutes.
1970	The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes	Billy Wilder	United Artists and editor Ernest Walter cut his original three hour version down to two hours. This eliminated the modern day opening, Holmes' university days, Watson trying to solve his own case and his descendant receiving the tin dispatch box from his solicitors in which Wilder would always be hurt by.
1984	Once Upon a Time in America	Sergio Leone	Leone had already cut his original 269-minute version down to 229 minutes to appease distributors, but for its American release, it was heavily edited down to 139 minutes against Leone's wishes by the Ladd Company after "disastrous test screenings". It was Leone's last film.
1985	Brazil	Terry Gilliam	Universal Pictures chairman Sid Sheinberg insisted on dramatically re-editing the film to give it a happy ending and make it shorter, a decision that Gilliam resisted vigorously. Though Gilliam's 142-minute version was shown everywhere else by 20th Century Fox, there was no sign of it being released in the United States, prompting him to take out a full-page advertisement in Variety which said simply: Dear Sid Sheinberg When are you going to release my film, "BRAZIL"? Terry Gilliam Eventually, Universal released a modified 132-minute version supervised by Gilliam. Sheinberg's 94-minute version was televised. Both U.S. versions and a full-length version are available on home media.

|| 2000 || Mission: Impossible 2 || John Woo || John Woo's final cut of the film clocked in at 3 1/2 hours. The studio objected to this length and told him the film could not be more than 2 hours in length. The final running time was 123 minutes .