Cannon/21st Century Film Company's 1990, "commercial" edit of Captain America (released for "widespread" viewing in 1992 via VHS and laserdisc) became a polarizing effort, appreciated by some, dismissed by others. Viewers have since learned that director Albert (Cyborg/The Sword and the Sorcerer/Dollman) Pyun and writers Stephen (Legend of the Seeker) Tolkin and Larry Block's desired version wasn't a mere, unsubstantiated bluff. Yippee Ki-ya Mother Video has, in fact, obtained and transferred this coveted, "final cut" to non-regional Blu-ray.
To be honest, I was more than fine with the version I'd seen and long owned (much in the way that I've been fine with Dick Purcell's chapter play, the 1960s, animated shorts and Reb Brown's television specials), but the chance to watch Pyun's preferred product, with Matt (Andersonville/The Ice Road) Salinger as Steve Rogers and Scott (Teen Wolf 1985/Forbidden World) Paulin as the Red Skull, tugged often at my mind. As such, I moved fast when I discovered I could purchase the true (red, white and blue) edition, with a reputed, fifteen minutes of footage restored, no less. I gotta say, I wasn't let down by the results.
For those unaware, the original, Captain America presents Marvel's patriotic, fish-out-of-water fable in linear succession: nothing wrong with that, but the straight-and-narrow flow prevented much of the director and writers' quiet introspection, as staged through pivotal flashbacks. It's because of this pensive approach that the culminating battle between Cap and the Skull delivers a greater payoff, its sense of redemption and comeuppance far better entrenched.
It's not surprising that the Pyun's alteration works. Film editing (as Orson Welles astutely attested) can be either a blessing or a curse when it comes to aesthetic outcomes. One only needs only watch the raw footage of Star Wars: A New Hope to cringe in disbelief. One can also see James Gunn's cut of Justice League and understand how its tone is worlds apart from Joss Whedon's. (On this basis, one can only wonder what might be achieved if Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was revamped. Supposedly, it's happening.) At any rate, Pyum's Captain America shows what can be gained when an impassioned director's instincts have final say. Again, I was always fine with the prior version (never once perceived it as "the worst, comic-book movie ever made"), but Captain America's redesign places the creation on an unexpected level of modest-budget sophistication.
From what I can gather, there's hope for a wider release of Pyun's redesign, as well as further sharpening of its imagery, though the Blu-ray I received is much smoother and vibrant than I anticipated.*
If one is a Marvel-movie fan, Captain America: The Pyun ("Prime") Cut mustn't be ignored. It can (and should) be procured at
https://yippeekiyaymothervideo.com/products/captain-america-standard-edition
* Though parts of the revised CAP hold a fleeting roughness, the overall product is solid. When compared to SUPERMAN II: THE DONNER CUT, CAP is actually more polished. The alternate SUPERMAN II is a work print without question (case in point, digitalization could have fixed the matter of Chris Reeve's hairstyle changing in certain sequences, whereas CAP doesn't suffer from any such conspicuous inconsistency.)
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