The unrated, four-hour version is the excessive trash epic Martin Scorsese meant it to be.
The Guardian reports that the DVD release of The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese's degenerate spiritual sequel to Goodfellas, will contain a four-hour director's cut in addition to the theatrical version.
The Wolf of Wall Street is already notorious as one of the most explicit Hollywood movies ever made. The theatrical release holds the record for most f-words in a feature film, and Scorsese had to cut out nudity and sex scenes to avoid an NC-17 rating.
According to producers Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland, the director's cut will not be much different than the theatrical version, and will mostly just contain longer versions of already existing scenes, including sex scenes.
This is excellent news. A longer, more fleshed-out (pun semi-intended) version of the film will either be or be close to the version that Scorsese cut to avoid the NC-17 rating, which means that it's closer to his original vision of how the film. It will hopefully go deeper into some of the elements the theatrical cut that were a little underdeveloped, like FBI agent Patrick Denham's (Kyle Chandler) investigation, and the relationship between main character Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his wife Naomi (Margot Robbie). There's even more opportunity to show off Terence Winter's Oscar-nominated writing. Hopefully Jonah Hill's prosthetic schmeckle doesn't feature any more, um, prominently.
Most importantly, more is the guiding theme of the movie. More movie is the apt conclusion for a movie about more sex, more drugs, and more money. The theatrical version of The Wolf of Wall Street pushed the boundaries of what can be shown in an R-rated movie. The DVD version can push the boundaries of what can be shown in a big budget American studio movie, regardless of rating. Plus, it does it artfully, without provocation for provocation's sake.
The four-hour Wolf of Wall Street has the theoretical potential to be the film equivalent of the unreleased three-hour version of Yeezus that Kanye West made before Rick Rubin got involved. Both are conflicted takes on hedonism, simultaneously enticing and repellent. Both are evisceratingly dark and funny. And both are way, way too fucking much. Plus, "Black Skinhead" was used in the first trailer for The Wolf of Wall Street about five minutes after the song came out. It was perfect, remember?
Image via Paramount Pictures