Everybody seems to have an opinion on The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese’s audacious three-hour binge of sex, cocaine and illegal boiler room activity. Some of the film’s detractors claim that it did not just revel in excess, but that the 179-minute running time was also far too excessive. Meanwhile, fans of Scorsese’s financial comedy probably would not have wanted a frame taken out. Now, the director has revealed that there is about an hour worth of footage cut from an original four-hour version of The Wolf of Wall Street – and that footage might be made available in the near future.
“I think there are some scenes we could make available, so to speak,” Scorsese said in an interview with awards buzz website Gold Derby. “Quite honestly, the four-hour version was just the first cut. We did do some wonderful improvisations and some very funny moments we had to whittle down so to speak, and I do miss a few of those.”
The Wolf of Wall Street was Scorsese’s longest film to date, clocking in at a couple of minutes more than Casino. There is the possibility that some of the clips were clipped to secure an R-rating, but Scorsese also said that there were no major moments from Jordan Belfort’s life that were cut from the four-hour to the three-hour version.
“Invariably, what happened… is that finally I got the pace I wanted to. I finally pushed and pushed and pushed and put the energy straight through the picture, and so it made it tighter,” Scorsese said.
Scorsese’s longtime editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, did talk to Hitfix last month about the possibility of releasing a four-hour cut, saying that audiences loved it when they tested it. I can imagine the DVD and/or Blu-Ray will be filled with these extended and deleted scenes, although I also know of many moviegoers who would trek out to the cinema if a longer cut gets a late theatrical release.
Tell us, would you like to see a longer cut of The Wolf of Wall Street? Or did three hours of crime and coke indulge your moviegoing appetite more than it needed to?