I've only read a little bit of this thread so far, but this post just reached out and grabbed me. I once had to help make a short film as an assignment. The Editor, who doubled as a camera man and never showed up at meetings, cut out *The One Line* that carried the entire film. Without it, the movie made very little sense.
You're absolutely right, of course, Mary. In fact, writers are very low down on the totem pole in movies and television and this kind of decision is usually taken by a whole range of people above them.
When I wrote my post, I used writers because the writers in this case are the same people as the directors/producers etc, who are the ones making these decisions - so it was all the same thing. Aren't they? I had that impression but perhaps they aren't. If not, then, yes, it would be the producers, directors, editors et al more than anyone else who failed to put on screen what was necessary to tell the story rather than the writers, who don't really have much input unless they're also doing the top jobs.
Thus, my previous comment was directed at the person quoted in other posts in this thread as being the one currently online explaining the plot after the fact. I'd assumed he was the writer, as well as...whatever other position he holds on the movie...and so referred to him as such. If he's not one of the writers, then whoever he is, he made a mistake imo.
Regardless, my point is that if the
people 
(call them what you will) involved in making the movie and putting it together have to go online after the fact to explain important plot points that enable it to make sense they've failed to properly do their job. It should all be there on the screen. Movie-goers shouldn't have to go trawling through the web at a later date to find out what actually happened.
Apparently, Pirates lost a lot of plot on the cutting room floor because the movie was so long already. One or two of those scenes were ones that explained the whole deal about the Flying Dutchman curse and how it should affect Will.
I have to say that this argument from producers etc, has never impressed me. I'm willing to bet that any one of us could watch that movie and find several minutes of utterly superfluous footage which could have been excised to account for the overtime and which would never have been missed. Thus allowing them to keep the vital footage they actually cut out. Sometimes, I'm amazed at what they keep in and what they excise.
LabRat
