Lost Cut of 1990 ‘Captain America’ by Albert Pyun Uncovered – And It’s Reportedly Much Better!
Captain America was released in British theaters on December 14, 1990. At the time, the movie was criticized by both fans and critics and earned less than its low $3 million budget. While it has since gained a cult following, there are still many controversies surrounding it.
It’s been known for a while that the original 90-minute theatrical cut of the film was heavily altered during post-production. The director, Albert Pyun, had made a 130-minute version with more character development, which many believed was much better than what was released.
Now, reports on social media suggest that the director’s cut has been found, restored, and shown to a few people. They claim it’s a much better film and that the original version deserves a second chance with fans.
This news hasn’t been officially confirmed, but multiple social media sources report that Pyun’s original version has been found, restored, and released, as shown below:
Was lucky enough to see a screening of a previously unseen cut of Albert Pyun's CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990) that is *wildly* different from the theatrical release and the DC. This version is less a superhero film, more of a downbeat 70's political paranoia thriller. Like THE PARALLAX VIEW but with Cap
— Tom Cody (@realtomcody.bsky.social) December 13, 2024 at 4:48 AM
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As you can see, some lucky people have seen the restored version of the 1990 film and say it’s a big improvement over the original release. Albert Pyun passed away in 2022, so he likely never saw the restored version, but his wife has confirmed that she’s working on getting the director’s cut released, which would be great.
The existence of the director’s cut was confirmed over 10 years ago when Pyun mentioned that he had found the original movie in his house.
It was eventually released in quite a truncated version: tell us about your Director’s Cut.
A couple of years ago I found my original 35mm cut of Captain America, and it’s much longer: it’s almost 130 minutes long, with a lot more scenes, which nobody had ever really seen it. It’s much, much different than the 90-minute version that was eventually released, which skips a lot of the character stuff.
The version I did was much more of a character study, of the person that became Captain America, and his feelings about living up to that name. That was all we could really do, and I think that holds up really well. It’s quite tragic and sad and he wonders what price he’s paid for undertaking his role.
By the end he really has empathy for Red Skull. Steve Rogers sees how he could easily have become that. Both he and the Red Skull have essentially had their lives taken away from them. Red Skull was a much more tragic, embittered figure who wanted to return to a time when he was himself.
It was a much more emotional movie, and the action is better because it’s more in context. We really focused on the characters and Matt did a really good job with that. The idea was that it wasn’t a rah-rah patriotic thing: it was about what any soldier gives up in their life, and the price they pay for upholding their duty.
Source: flexiblehead.blog.com
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