In Defense of Daredevil

To anyone who staked-out a Best Buy or Blockbuster back in the day on “New-Release-Tuesday” you know all about the difference between a regular edition of a movie and a special director’s cut.  For those that don’t know, it was usually that two-disc set that cost about five to six bucks more than the single disc version which only contained the theatrical cut of a movie.  For those extra dollars you got tons of special features, behind-the-scenes footage, director’s commentary, and a longer version of the movie.  I have “Avatar” on Bulray and it has 3 versions of the film, and I couldn’t tell you which is which or the difference between them, it’s all blue cats, giant trees, and Jake Sully to me.

Now rare is the director’s cut that is truly different from the theatrical cut.  Most of the time, adding 10 to 17 minutes doesn’t do much to change the story or the feel of the film.  On the short list are films like “Aliens”, “Lord of the Rings”, “JFK”, and “Watchmen”.  Then there are those that drastically alter what we remember seeing in the theater, those are films like “Blade Runner”, “Almost Famous”, “The Outsiders”, “Superman II” and “The Abyss”.

But there is no other film that was so different that it has virtually wiped the theatrical version from my memory and put in its place one of the best comic book movies.  2003’s “Daredevil”.  Written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson, starring Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock/Daredevil.

When most people saw this film in theaters they took it for what it was, a slightly darker and not-as-well-done version of the 2001 Spider-Man movie.  Matt Murdock is a tortured soul with a tragic Batman-like past.  With some pretty bad post “Matrix” CGI and even worse wire-work, the movie just didn’t play very well, especially having to fit into a PG-13 box.

The director’s cut unfortunately does nothing to the effects and can’t change some of the more silly moments, or the bad hair dye jobs on both young and older Matt Murdock.  What it does do well is tell a very good story that’s straight out of the comic books.  Pulling primarily from the Frank Miller work on the character in the 80’s and some nods to the Smith/Quesada run, we get a longer time with Matt and his father, almost 30 minutes.  There are silent moments, and some really good shots.  And it all sets up a deeper look into the everyday and sometimes heartbreaking life of this regular man with extraordinary abilities.

“Hey, that light.  At the end of the tunnel?  Guess what?  That’s not heaven… That’s the C train!”

When Affleck as Matt comes into the picture, he just feels like a broken man.  You see the scars, but this time you certainly feel his pain as he goes out in the night dispensing justice on criminals.  A big change for the character that you can see a studio’s hand in cutting is when Matt is turning in for the night after giving a beat down on a bar full of thugs.  He is getting into his sensory deprivation tank and hears a woman get shot, and feels her as if she’s in his room as she gasps her last breath.  When he realizes that there’s nothing he can do for her now, he lies back and sleeps.  Hardcore.  You would never see that in a superhero movie.  It was kinda done in “Spider-Man 2” but that was some guy getting mugged, this was death, and he knows he can’t save or even avenge everyone, he’s just one man.  A man raised Catholic by the way.  Something else you don’t really see, our heroes these days are usually good with a moral code, or maybe a little gruff with a strict sense of justice.  This Daredevil will allow people to be killed if he feels they deserve it.  

I’m gonna fill you in on a little secret, Matt.  This place doesn’t look like a law office, okay?  It looks like the set of goddamn “Sanford and Son”.  Every time I walk in here, I’m waiting for Lamont to walk down the stairs.”

A huge change in the flow of the film is a B-storyline that that was completely cut and has Matt and his partner Franklin ‘Foggy’ Nelson (Jon Faverau) investigating a case that involves one of their clients being framed for murder with possible connections to the Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan).  Yeah, their client is Coolio but the movie’s called “Daredevil”, it’s about that character and you do get that feel of that comic, how crimes are connected, there is more involvement with reporter Ben Urich (Joe Pantoliano), and it makes more sense when you see that Matt works in court by day and is jumping rooftops and roughing up crooked cops by night.  His exhaustion is felt as all of these events happen at once and Affleck’s performance is solid when you see all that he endures in this new order of scenes.

“I’m sorry…I have to go.”

Another adjustment that is only minor moments but have big consequences involves the Matt and Elektra’s story.  In the theatrical version it was meet, fight, make love by the fire, misunderstanding, and fight again.  This time, we see Matt as a slave to his dedication to street justice.  On the rooftop, in the rain, Elektra (Jennifer Garner) asks Matt to stay and instead of getting busy as I’m sure the studio wanted, Matt just leaves her there on the roof while he goes to kick the crap out of some random punk.  So it’s even more painful later in the cemetery, again, in the rain, when he asks her to stay with him and she leaves to find his alter-ego to kill him.  They never get to consummate their love, which makes the final outcome all the more tragic.

“Hey, orphan.  Let’s play.”

Lastly there is what really makes this cut deserve its “R” rating.  The violence is more graphic, there is plenty more profanity, there’s a lot more involving the Catholic Church, and a bit more on Matt’s mother.  The villains are more villainous.  You see the Kingpin kill a man with his bare hands.  Bullseye (Colin Farrell) is a lot more creepy and brutal, his fight with Elektra is longer and their final moment is straight out of a horror movie.  I get the sense that the actors read the script and saw the chances it was taking, and how different it was compared to comic book movies of the time, and what they would eventually evolve into.  The stakes are more basic here as well, there’s no saving the world from opening portals to other worlds.  It’s a guy trying to save his city from what will happen without him.

If you love superhero movies, it’s still not a perfect film with all that still had to be left in, but you can clearly see what it would have become with a braver studio behind it and some better effects, in the end it deserves a second chance.  Give it another watch and be a hero to one of the greatest heroes of all time, no I don’t mean Affleck.  I’m talking about the guardian devil, Matt Murdock.

--Robert L. Castillo