Product Details

• Actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Christine Lahti, Rosanna Arquette, Eli Wallach, Steven Keats
• Directors: Lawrence Schiller
• Writers: Norman Mailer
• Producers: Lawrence Schiller, John Thomas Lenox, Michael Economou, Mimi Rothman
• Format: Color, EP, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Starmaker Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: August 10, 1992
• Run Time: 157 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303300480
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #191,957 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Although Gary Gilmore had a pitiful life, it was enough of an American story gone bad to give Normal Mailer a platform for a grand, strange, utterly compelling book: The Executioner's Song, published in 1979. Mailer's literary collaborator, Lawrence Schiller, made the book into a TV-movie (with Mailer scripting), a landmark for its frankness and the general excellence of its acting. Gilmore is brought to vivid life by Tommy Lee Jones, who electrified audiences with his insightful work (this, coming shortly after Coal Miner's Daughter, was one of the roles that really put Jones on the map). Even more revelatory was Rosanna Arquette, virtually unknown at the time, whose role as Gilmore's girlfriend and "guardian angel" instantly put her on the A-list. The heat the two actors generate goes a long way toward establishing their unholy bond, credibility the film absolutely needs in order to work; watch them in an early scene where Gilmore describes the mystical nature of their connection, and you see two actors working at an uncanny level. The approach overall is plain, but that might be why the movie is so effective. This version, advertised as the "Director's Cut," is a curious amalgam of the movie's other versions; the original U.S. TV cut, which stretched out over two nights, and a European cut that included nudity and unexpurgated language. This one is 135 minutes long, has the language, but not the nudity--a swifter-moving entity than either of the previous films. It can't really be called a definitive issue, although the power of the material still comes through. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This "Director's Cut" Is An Outrage, August 15, 2008

By 

J. Bryant - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Executioner's Song (Director's Cut) (DVD)

For many years, I'd been hoping to see "The Executioner's Song" released on DVD. But now that it's finally available, the result is extremely disappointing.

A "director's cut" usually indicates that a movie has had footage ADDED to it. But Lawrence Schiller has done the unimaginable and ripped 50 minutes from his three-hour film! I mean, WHY? Did Schiller actually believe that anyone would be happy to see nearly one-third of "Executioner's Song" hacked away?!

For anyone who is familiar with this movie (either from the VHS version or broadcast viewings), watching Schiller's "director's cut" is a very frustrating experience since none of the many deleted scenes were superfluous to the film!

In addition, the total lack of any extras on this DVD is another big disappointment. I'd have gladly paid more to see a "making of" documentary or interviews with the principal actors (who are all still living 26 years after the production of this movie).

"The Executioner's Song" was one of the very best made-for-TV films of the 1980s and deserved far better than the cheap, hack-job of a DVD release it's gotten. I would advise a search for the VHS version--and then enjoy "The Executioner's Song" as it was meant to be seen.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars THIS MOVIE WAS REALLY CUT!, August 15, 2008

By 

Terry L. King (TEXAS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Executioner's Song (Director's Cut) (DVD)

I HAVE WAITED A LONG TIME FOR THIS MOVIE ON DVD,I WAS REALLY DISAPPOINTED.THEY DIDN'T JUST CUT THIS MOVIE THEY RAPED IT!A LOT OF THE GOOD SCENES HAVE BEEN CUT OUT,AFTER SEEING THE MINI-SERIES ON TV THIS CUT JUST DOESN'T DO IT FOR ME.I HOPE THEY COME OUT WITH AN UNCUT FULL VERSION OF THIS GREAT MOVIE.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I Want My Two Hours Back, October 3, 2008

By 

David S. Jenkins (On the Road) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Executioner's Song (Director's Cut) (DVD)

I want my two hours back, the two hours of my life I wasted watching this abomination of a recut classic. How a director could savage and homogenize his greatest accomplishment is totally beyond me.

Put simply, the original was white hot in it's display of the sexual magnetism between the two exceedingly pitiful main characters - hot enough to be the work Tommy Lee Jones and Roseanne Arquette's future performances would forever be judged against.

But it isn't just the fleeting but heavenly sights of Ms. Arquette skirting in and out of the sheets that we're missing here. It's giant chunks of storytelling and character development.

Dumbed down and made safe as milk, a daring film made dull as dishwater.

Avoid at all costs. I mean it... if you see it at a yard sale for 49 cents, leave it on the pile with the broken 8 track player and the baby sneakers. Total rubbish.