After Anthony and his collaborators completed their intentionally eccentric Stranger adventure, the film’s theatrical version was shortened by several minutes against Anthony’s wishes. The cuts altered the form in which audiences first encountered the production, which already had an unconventional history: Anthony had wanted to take the character outside the familiar Western setting, while co-writer and co-star Lloyd Battista persuaded him to include a Richard III-inspired hunchback character, played by Battista himself. The compromised theatrical cut was released in the United States by Cee Note in 1975 and later circulated in Britain under the title Vengeance of the Barbarians. The dispute was eventually reversed only decades later. Blue Underground’s 2015 Blu-ray and DVD restored the excised footage and presented a restored director’s cut, giving Anthony’s original version a belated home-video release after the film had spent years without a physical edition.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
The Distributor Cut Get Mean Against Tony Anthony’s Wishes
Get Mean / Tony Anthony / 1970s
After Anthony and his collaborators completed their intentionally eccentric Stranger adventure, the film’s theatrical version was shortened by several minutes against Anthony’s wishes. The cuts altered the form in which audiences first encountered the production, which already had an unconventional history: Anthony had wanted to take the character outside the familiar Western setting, while co-writer and co-star Lloyd Battista persuaded him to include a Richard III-inspired hunchback character, played by Battista himself. The compromised theatrical cut was released in the United States by Cee Note in 1975 and later circulated in Britain under the title Vengeance of the Barbarians. The dispute was eventually reversed only decades later. Blue Underground’s 2015 Blu-ray and DVD restored the excised footage and presented a restored director’s cut, giving Anthony’s original version a belated home-video release after the film had spent years without a physical edition.
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