For anyone who does not have the Director's Cut edition of this great movie, it will be shown without commercial interruption on TCM (Turner Classic Movies) today.
I'm in Colorado, and it starts at 3:pm - so look to the TCM movie website for your starting time!
Yes, in a fit of annoyance, I used Aura Youtube Downloader to obtain it from there. I intend to process it into the AVI format using Format Factory, making sure that the picture and volume settings are comparable to the TCM film. I'll then remaster the DVRed film, inserting the missing section where it goes, then burning it onto a disc for my own enjoyment.
Well, that's why I listed the names of the software I use, in order to help others do the same. The software is all free. Just be sure that the Aura Youtube Downloader is set to "best available quality," and that you test the Format Factory settings by playing it on your television for comparison with the TCM film. (Most Youtube files are what one could call "internet loud," and almost always need reduction; the Format Factory has a conversion setting that permits one to raise or lower the volume settings as needed. To properly play on a television, it also needs to have its video size set to 720x480 DVD-NTSC.) Once one has produced an acceptable AVI file, transfer it to your Recorder/Burner using a memory stick for testing. Use the Recorder/Burner functions to trim/edit it into place.
It won't be perfect; despite one's best efforts, there will no doubt be some discernible difference in quality between the TCM and Youtube material. But until they release a complete extended version of this film, we do what we can.
Thanks for all the info -- I just never got really good at all the video editing and stuff --- I do look forward to when 1776 comes out on Blue Ray -- I finally got a player when I hit my 20th anniversary at work. I really want my first Blue Ray disc to be a movie I love.
Even with the 1 minute 'Reprise' added back into it, the resulting film is still only 2 hours 48 minutes long. The Laserdisc edition is said to have been a full 180 minutes. What's still missing?
The complete cut of the movie is only about 2 hours, 53 minutes. The laserdisc had an overture and and intermission track specifically made for that laserdisc edition. It never was part of the movie. Altogether it was about 6 or 7 minutes long so that's where the 180 minutes comes from.
Scenes not in the Director's cut are:
2 extra verses of Piddle Twiddle and Resolve
Another verse of Lees of Old Virgina. He comes back after he left the first time.
During congress, when Adams says "We will more than compensate with spirit," then it cuts to Jefferson looking out a window at some children while Adams, offscreen recites a Thomas Paine quote. Then it cuts back to "I tell you there is a spirit out there among the people that is sadly lacking in this congress. In the directors cut Adams two spirit lines are one shot so the Paine line was added in Post production or something.
After Yours Yours, and Adams falls asleep on Jefferson's stairs, there's a montage of the a lamp being lit, then blown out and Franklin's walking through the market and toward a sleeping Adams. The scene proceeds as seen in the movie.
Franklin says one line after Martha says "I'm not an idle flatterer, Dr. Franklin". Franklin says something like, "Then we are doubly flatters..something something." Then Adams says "Did you sleep well, madame?" as in the movie.
And for the director's cut they found a bit of missing footage not on the laserdisc. After the Cool Considerate men ride away on their buggies, McNair says the line, "How'd you like to borrow a dollar from them."
That's all. Altogether a complete cut would probably clock at 172 or 173 minutes.
Most of the ones you mention (apart from Reprise of Lees of Old Virginia, and the Paine quote with Jefferson looking out the window) are in the TCM cut. I can't really speak to the two extra verses of Piddle Twiddle and Resolve; I'd have to research both and contrast them against the TCM cut.
Back in 2002, I was visiting a friend in New York; we were at the house of a friend of my friend, and I was shown the laserdisc version of 1776. It was my first time seeing the film, and every viewing of the film since has left me suffering a sense of deficiency.