Is the R-rated version cut?

I certainly got that impression, particularly in the instance you mention. I also got the impression that the final "Wild Bunch" gunfight was edited very shoddily that it appeared as though the MPAA had taken a chainsaw to the print. Then again, Peckinpah's Wild Bunch (yes, even the Director's Cut) suffered the same butchery in both the first and final scenes.

While i have to agree with the fact how death scene of Powers Boothe looks cut, i have to mention something about that final shootout. When director Walter Hill originaly filmed this scene, he was told (by producers,studio...?) to include more of it so he filmed some more footage for this scene but in the end he cut it down cause "it got too big".

Watching both 48 Hrs and Red Heat, two other Walter Hill movies, there is obvious difference between the way that death scenes look like, meaning that we see almost every bullet hits but in some of the similar scenes in Extreme Prejudice there are moments where in one second someone is shot one time but suddenly we see more bullet hits on him. I'm not sure was that director's intention (if it is then i think that it was wrong) or movie really had to be cut for R rating, but i sure would like to know. I do know that there was possibly some non-violent scenes deleted, like funeral scene of Rip Thorn's character which was deleted after first two previews but original soundtrack still has music that Jerry Goldsmith composed for that scene.

Perhaps one day, although unlikely in my lifetime, the missing footage excised by the MPAA from Cliffhanger, DH2, Total Recall, Cobra and Extreme Prejudice will be restored. The edited footage from The Wild Bunch, sadly, is laying in a landfill in California somewhere.

I hope that uncut versions of those movies will be released too. I did see uncut versions of Cobra, Die Hard 2 and Cliffhanger in really bad quality but maybe one day somebody will get of his butt and release them in better versions.

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