My understanding is that Michael Mann produced a film which was about 3 hours long and spanned most of the book - keeping largely to the plot as written.
However that was deemed unreleasable- remember it isn't until recently that the powers that be have decided that cinema going audiences can cope with films of more than 90 minutes length.
So... the film was brutally cut down into the deeply bizarre and unintelligible mess which was subsequently released.
The question is: when are we going to get a fully and faithfully restored full length DVD reissue? Surely there would be a market for it? It could even get a cinematic release!
However that was deemed unreleasable- remember it isn't until recently that the powers that be have decided that cinema going audiences can cope with films of more than 90 minutes length.
So... the film was brutally cut down into the deeply bizarre and unintelligible mess which was subsequently released.
The question is: when are we going to get a fully and faithfully restored full length DVD reissue? Surely there would be a market for it? It could even get a cinematic release!