Now, the '60s and '70s Don Siegel-esque vibe is much more pronounced, gone is the hackneyed voiceover, also gone is Kris Kristofferson and the whole last third of the movie (including the prerequisite Mel Gibson torture scene) that Gibson wrote and directed himself. Helgeland's new ending is much more fitting and consistent with the rest of the movie and I like how he leaves it on a semi-ambiguous note.
The extras are also very well done. On Helgeland's commentary, he explains that he could never change the ending of his movie because it was always intended to be an homage to the ending of Cool Hand Luke. He also talks about and defends the decisions he made in the film and points out what is new in this cut of the film.
There is also a good featurette examining how they put the Director's Cut together. A little dirt is dished about why the studio didn't like Helgeland's version (they were expecting another Lethal Weapon type film
). Gibson went along with the studio but Helgeland refused and was fired by the studio who then let Gibson write and direct his own ending! Surprisingly, there is no hint of bitterness with Helgeland (I guess he doesn't want to burn any bridges) and he is probably just grateful that Gibson persuaded the studio to allow him to restore his original cut.There is also a conversation with Donald Westlake. The highlight for me is when he started talking about the film version of his Parker books and he didn't really seem to care for Lee Marvin's portrayal while citing The Outfit and Robert Duvall as the actor who came the closest to portraying Parker from the novels.
