Sat thru the whole thing - movie and scenes and documentaries and all - and I must say I had a lot of relief and a lot (LOT!) of crying. First, its nice to have the movie done justice on my home theatre system as opposed to the cinemas crappy blown out one. Now:
DELETED SCENES:
Roger meeting Roger scene was boring, clumsy, and stupid. So worth getting rid of.
Goodbye Love: the opening is a bit weird cuz its like all these young kids in edgy clothes...and a priest in a robe shows up?? Kidna funny. I agree though that the rest of the scene should have been kept.
Halloween: not effective enough. It wouldn't have flown well with the pacing of the movie.
The extended scene before "Without You" was good and hysterical thanks to Jesse and Wilson but it would have ruined the encounter with Roger and Mimi. An unfortunate loss.
Alternate Ending: I liked the how the stage motif came back but it wasn't captured to well. Maybe them leaving the stage or something like that. Not really sure. The Jesse/Wilson moment was cute though.
DOCUMENTARIES:
Have time to sit through. I did, so I didn't complain. Yes, I knew most of the story from my faithful RENT bible but it was really touching and strange to see childhood videos of Jon and Julie in White Plains. Moreso whenever Victoria Leacock talked about Jon growing up. And I was pleasantly surprised to see that Matt O'Grady is still alive. Seeing him alive, alone, brought tears to my eyes. Nice appearances by Daphne and Fredi were made in interviews and it was nice to see the odd rehearsal picture or production photo we haven't seen before.
When Jon's friends started talking about his death (all of them getting emotional) I was a mess. Like, full out sobbing on my couch. I think reading all this in the book made me aware of the loss these people had but seeing them cry and break on camera really emulated it and just made it so much more powerful. I never knew Marin Mazzie worked with Jon so that was an interesting surprise too.
Altogether, I'm glad how this came out on DVD. I think most people who found RENT thru the movie don't know Jon's story. The two hour special is AMAZING for anyone who doesn't. For people like me who've known this show for a number of years, it'll be a bit of review, but some nice new things and tidbits are GOLD, like audio clips of Jon's interview with the New York Times hours before he died and brief glimpses/sounds of the first first preview off broadway.
I adore this show. No, the movie is not amazing, but the story that went creating this show is touching, bitersweet, and powerful.
RENT changed my life. It's been a huge influence on me since I was 13 and I am glad I have this DVD.
ETA: Sorry if this sounds all cheesy. I've just spent the last four hours crying in my living room.
Updated On: 2/21/06 at 03:32 PM
