A few days ago I reported that a few people began emailing me to tell me that the scene in which Aragorn decapitates Lurtz was cut in the UK. Many more of you have written in to tell me this is not so. Well Adam sent this in today, and I think it just may be the possible answer to the mystery of the ‘Missing Cut’:
I am a projectionist and I noticed yesterday that this (decapitation) scene takes place at the end of reel 8.
This means that more than likely that either the projectionist who built up the movie cut off the end of the reel, or-if the theater was using an older reel to reel setup-the projectionist was a little gung-ho and changed reels on the first signal (the little yellow dot is supposed to appear twice before the changeover occurs.)
