The Ninth Configuration: Out-Take #6

http://www.theninthconfiguration.com - A website dedicated to William Peter Blatty, The Ninth Configuration & Legion

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"Kane's Great Sacrifice"

From its earliest incarnation as a short sixties novel entitled Twinkle, Twinkle, "Killer" Kane, the story of The Ninth Configuration has climaxed with the character of Kane taking his own life in order to give Cutshaw one of example of a genuinely selfless act. During the filming of Kane's final moments, in which a bloody knife is seen to drop from his hand, actor Stacy Keach apparently entreated Blatty to shoot a 'safety take' without the knife. Although all early release versions of the film use the 'knife-drop' shot, the later 'Director's Cut', which was struck for New World in the mid-eighties, utilized the 'non-knife' take for which Keach argued. Blatty's reasons for this crucial change were complex, but centered ultimately on a theological problem raised by the possibility that Kane's actions could be interpreted as suicide, a sin in Catholic doctrine. Removing the shot of the knife allowed the viewer to imagine that, rather than killing himself, Kane was simply allowing himself to die from a wound inflicted in the deadly bar-room brawl. Although this version stood for some years as the definitive 'Director's Cut', Blatty ultimately considered his decision to change the ending to have been a mistake. Thus, the original 'knife-drop' has been restored especially for this Blue Dolphin DVD release. Here is the alternate 'non-knife' version.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• blatty
• the
• ninth
• configuration
• out-take
• kane's
• great
• sacrifice

[h0zana]

I just would have been confused if I had seen a knife-less version of the movie, because Kane doesn't appear to recieve any wound in the bar-fight, and certainly none he could die from.