I just finished watching the TCM 4-hour version I recorded (via DVR) a while back, and I believe the 2 1/4-hour version is probably superior. Let's face it folks: A bunch of stills added to an otherwise moving picture does not a complete moving picture make (although I did get used to it after an hour or so). Plus the 4-hour version is simply one long slog.
Why is this version -- or ANY version -- so long? Well, I think the director is just in love with himself and can't bear to crop a 10-second shot of McTeague down to 6 seconds. If you do that enough over a period of 9 hours -- if you allow every frame to be retained in the editing process -- you wind up with a movie that is more ego-driven than good-sense driven. How many times do you need to shout at the screen, "Okay, Erich, we GET it!" before you realize that the much-maligned studio executives might just have been right? The exception proves the rule when you do occasionally witness a genuinely well-cut sequence and are understandably riveted by it. Pacing is everything, but in this case even the studio hacks couldn't completely excise the excess baggage.
One positive comment about the TCM 4-hour version: I'm often highly critical of music soundtracks added 75 years later that are pure hokum. This one however, composed by Robert Israel and performed by the Moravian Symphony Orchestra, is mostly excellent, and I'd recommend anyone watch this version just to see how successfully it can be done. It sure made the long hard slog through the picture a whole heck of a lot easier!
Why is this version -- or ANY version -- so long? Well, I think the director is just in love with himself and can't bear to crop a 10-second shot of McTeague down to 6 seconds. If you do that enough over a period of 9 hours -- if you allow every frame to be retained in the editing process -- you wind up with a movie that is more ego-driven than good-sense driven. How many times do you need to shout at the screen, "Okay, Erich, we GET it!" before you realize that the much-maligned studio executives might just have been right? The exception proves the rule when you do occasionally witness a genuinely well-cut sequence and are understandably riveted by it. Pacing is everything, but in this case even the studio hacks couldn't completely excise the excess baggage.
One positive comment about the TCM 4-hour version: I'm often highly critical of music soundtracks added 75 years later that are pure hokum. This one however, composed by Robert Israel and performed by the Moravian Symphony Orchestra, is mostly excellent, and I'd recommend anyone watch this version just to see how successfully it can be done. It sure made the long hard slog through the picture a whole heck of a lot easier!