1998, ”Saturday Night Live“Colleagues Norm MacDonaldFrank Sebastiano, and Fred Wolf cooperated to write ”Dirty work“A Vehicle for MacDonald in Which He Played A Prankster Who His Talents To Professional Use By Opening Up a Revenge-Hire Business. The Comedy, Directed by Comedian Bob Saget, Quickly Came A and Where Vide theater, Where, Wheaters But Founder Bet Theater Cult classic with famous fans like Kevin Hart, who Declared it one of his favorite movies of all time on his “Comedy Gold Minds” podcast.
But for the filmmakers, “dirty work” always felt like a compromise, because commercial considerations dictated that it would be released with a PG-13-grade even though it was written as an R movie. “When we wrote the movie, they told us not to worry about ratings,” Sebastiano told IndieWire. “If we had been a little more experienced, maybe we would have shot some coverage for a TV version or something, but we didn’t do much of it.”
When it became clear that the studio wanted “dirty work” to go out with a PG-13, the filmmakers expressed their worries. “During the filming, we actually took up to one of the managers that it seemed like an R-rated movie, and he said they would find out later,” Sebastiano said. “He said,“ Don’t worry about it, we’ll just lock and loop it. “And that’s what stopped happening.”
MacDonald was never happy with cutting the movie not only lost some of the jokes but also disturbed the comic rhythm. Over the years he gave interviews that referred to a mythically “dirty” cut of “dirty work” that existed before the version was released in theaters. One of the fans who became obsessed with this dirty version was Oscar Becher, an archivist at Physical media notice Vinegar syndrome Who counts “dirty work” among their favorite films along with “The Third Man” and Charles Laughton’s “The Night of the Hunter.”
“There were strange moments in the theatrical average of” dirty work “where you could say a lot was taken out of it,” Becher told IndieWire. “When I found out that there was an earlier cut, it was really a revelation – I realized that even as late as the 1990s there are lost movies.” Becher convinced the forces that were at vinegar syndrome that “dirty work” was worth a reconstruction and restoration, provided that the original elements could be found.
The good news was that rights holders MGM not only had the original camera negative for “dirty work” but also the negative of the diaries, which means that all lost images were still somewhere in vault. The bad news was that there were limited elements when it came to some actual previews or cuts of workprints. Becher explained that ironically, movies from that era are sometimes harder to restore lost images than older movies. While previous films usually had film Elements for everything, in the late 1990s, workprints were created on video, with time code matched to the negative to produce film printing only very late in the process.
MGM had a video print with time code that provided a roadmap to where cut images would exist in the original negative, and when vinegar syndrome reached Sebastiano to see if he had anything they could use for extra features, he made a crucial discovery: a VHS band of a preview of before studio and MPA before studio “This was from a preview in a shopping center or something,” Sebastiano said. “It is pushed by a camera in the corner. It was basically for George Folsey, the editor, to have a reference point for how things played at the show.”
The VHS copy gave an important guide for the restoration team, but it almost didn’t come to them. “I put it in the VCR, and it got stuck immediately,” Sebastiano said. “I got a screwdriver and took apart the video recorder, and fortunately it didn’t suck the band. I threw the video recorder and put it in another machine, a VHS/DVD combination player and the thing played.”
With the help of the preview, the workprint band and a two hour mounting video that they found, Becher and restoration artist Kurtis Spieler began the difficult task of comparing the different versions with the theater and providing time code to MGM, so that they could collect the necessary images from the negative. “Seven or eight minutes of pictures don’t sound like a lot, but it’s hundreds of feet of film,” Becher said. “We had to find the hundreds in what would basically be hundreds thousands of Feet. “
“As the band versions are going on, we could only use them as road maps,” Spieler told IndieWire. “We had to decide what was edited due to content versus what was edited to make a tighter movie. This became difficult when narrative things changed or moved. So in the” dirtier version “, the opening sequence is edited different is a kind of joke.
While reassembling the image was a task, the sound was a completely different challenge. “I only had two sound sources to work with, the entire 5.1 theater mix and the unfinished sound of the” dirtier “rough cut band,” Spieler said. “We did not have access to stalks or divisions, so there was really not a way to separate anything in the theatrical cut. I had to find out how I would mix unfinished sound from a band to a full sound mix without it being too much.”
Spieler achieved this through some creative editing and looping sounds from other parts of the film when needed. “A sequence that I think worked well was below the opera sequence when one of Norm’s audio recordings is played over the speakers in the theater,” Spieler said. “What was said in that theater version differed from what was intended to be said in the” dirtier version “. So I had to find out how I would mix that line in the theatrical sound and give it the right effects to make it sound like it would come through the speakers in the theater.”
The end result of all this work is an extraordinary new physical edition that provides “dirty work” the luxurious treatment that its fans have been waiting for – and then some. The generously designated package includes both theatrical and “dirty” cuts on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray, along with a video for video clips with another half hour of never seen pictures before. There are also hours of newly created extra features, from comment tracks and interviews to a function length that makes documentary. It is one of the most extensive special editions Vinegar Syndrome – or any other label – has ever been released.
For Sebastiano, the publication is a long delayed validation of his and his partner’s efforts. “At the test shows, they tested both an R and a PG-13 version, and R-rated cut did better,” he said. “The studio just decided that it didn’t make it better enough To motivate it from a business point of view. It crushed for us then because it was not the most fun version of the movie. And Chevy Chase became Bummed because he made the movie for a fraction of his requested prize just because he liked the script – he did it for the same amount he got paid for his first film, ‘Foul Play.’ He said, “Don’t let them do it against your movie,” and he was right, but there was nothing we could do. ”
Vinegar syndrome is not only as a righteousness for the creators of “dirty work”, who is still with us, but as a tribute to those like MacDonald, Saget and Costar Chris Farley, who have passed away since the film’s release.
“I know that Norm and Bob both wanted to see the” dirtier version “released for the audience, and it is an honor to be able to bring this to the public for the first time,” Spieler said. “Although this was one of the tougher projects I personally had to work with, I hope my work is going unnoticed. I just want the audience to appreciate this version of the movie for what it is.”
The 4K UHD special edition of “Dirty Work” is now available at Vinegar Syndrome’s Website.
