laffie123 Review of One from the Heart

One from the Heart (1981)

What was once a masterpiece is now a massacre

[10/10 · 1 November 2005]

This film has always been a favorite. My wife and I have worn out two video versions over the years, as well as a copy of the soundtrack LP (being big Tom Waits fans also). Needless to say, we were thrilled to see it finally come out on DVD. What a joke. Somewhere along the line Coppola must have decided that it could be improved upon, and managed to destroy it in the process. From the opening scenes it's a mess. The music has even been relocated. In the original version there's very little dialog needed in the beginning because the song lyrics perfectly describe what's going on. Not any more. Not only do the lyrics no longer match what's happening on the screen, but there's even dialog on top of the lyrics in spots. Scenes were added that actually take away from the film while a few favorite spots have been cut out. One truly bad judgment call is where there was a love scene with Teri Garr and Raul Julia followed by one with Fredric Forrest and Nastassja Kinski. In the new "improved" version it cuts back and forth between the two scenes like the viewers attention span must not be long enough to remember what happened last. There are also some harsh scene cuts now in the film that weren't there in the original (including one extra bad one where the music is abruptly cut off). One of the most impressive things about the original release was the way the film flowed from beginning to end much like a stage play. That's gone. One thing I can't figure out is the other reviewers of this film that are watching the DVD copy after seeing it on video, yet none of them seem to notice the difference. How is that possible? If the DVD version had been the original release back in 1982, I wouldn't be writing this now. I would have only seen the film once, and would have forgotten it immediately. In spite of the unfair rap this film got in the beginning, I've always defended it as one of Coppola's best works. He gambled and lost everything on this film including his studio complex in the process. It took many years and films to pay back the debts, but the end result was a cinematic beauty that stood on it's own merits. Sadly, what's left of it can't even do that now. I give the original release a rating of 10, but the new version isn't worth rating at all.