I distinctly remember how pleased I was when I saw Almost Famous in a theatre and there was a line in it that mentioned Pete Townshend. When the Cameron Crowe character was interviewing the singer of Stillwater for the first time, the singer was expressing his feelings about rock music and what it meant to him and made that statement that (paraphrasing) "no one can explain rock and roll. Except maybe Pete Townshend." I loved that line.

But after repeated viewings of both the director's cut and the standard edit of the Almost Famous DVD I can't hear that line anymore. Was it removed? Anybody know? And if so, why? I have my own theory but would like to know what anyone else has heard or knows.

i don't know the answer, but i can guess that townshend wanted money for using his name.

the same reason the "come in my kitchen" line was deleted for the CSN "couch" album when the robert johnson estate wanted cash.

I hate to think that's the reason because Pete is so great, but I'm afraid I also think that's what it is. Pity. It's such a great, complimentary line written from a purely and well founded admiring point of view.

I can't answer your question but in a similar vein, when I saw Stop Making Sense in the theater I could have sworn that Chris Frantz shouted "Too much of that goddamn snow white" after the line about cocaine in "Genius of Love" but on the DVD he says something else.

There was a line edited out of one of the "Scary Movie" series (I think that was the one - too many parodies to track now) - where they were watching "Shakespeare In Love", in which Gwyneth Paltrow dresses as a man to perform in a play. One of the characters said something like "Ben Affleck's girlfriend is a freak!"

Alan

A quick google search turns up plenty of references to the "Almost Famous" quote with Townshend's name intact:

I've honestly never seen "Almost Famous", but I'm not finding any indication that the line was ever excised.

You are right! I came home tonight and checked again and, uh, well, sorry, it was there! I was convinced that the line took place later in the scene and that's why I missed it. It's the line in the dressing room scene (right after the band meets and greets with Red Dog). On the so called "bootleg" edition of the DVD the section where the comment is made is a little ragged but on the theatrical version it is clear as day. Still a great line. Sorry I doubted you Pete.

You should check it out some time. It's not This Is Spinal Tap but it covers some of the same ground from a more serious perspective, while still managing a few laughs. I was never sure I wanted to see it when it first came out but my future wife gave me the DVD after she got it by accident from Columbia House. I enjoyed it so much that I ended up buying the special edition. The only thing that bugs me a little about the movie are the songs by the fictitious band Stillwater which I don't think hold a candle to the "real" songs that are heard throughout the movie.

Per Wikipedia:

The time-travel Hugh Jackman movie Kate & Leopold (the first movie the wife and I ever saw in the theater) had some throwaway lines with disturbing time-travel incest implications; these lines were later modified for the DVD release.

Part of my decade-long hesitation is that, having never seen the theatrical cut, I didn't know whether or not I was better off viewing that version, or the director's cut that seemed to arrive right on the heels of the original version. This was in the early days of DVD, when extended, special edition, unrated cuts tended to be reserved only for classic films; releasing a director's cut only months after the movie tanked at the box office was a move that seemed to be motivated by sheer studio desperation.

Still, I recognize that this is one of those movies that some people absolutely love.

I highly recommend the 2 disc extended cut if you can find it. While the theatrical cut is a good movie, the extended cut (now out of print) is a great movie.

Great movie. I went back and re-watched the "bootleg cut" (extended directors cut) and enjoyed it again. Kate Hudson showed some talent in that movie -- too bad she's squandered it on cookie cutter romantic comedies.

And I'd forgotten that the directors cut was called "Untitled."