And this:
I just watched KS again (on my personal player while on a long flight). And it is even more obvious to me now that the ridiculously extended fight sequences were added not only to add action but also to make up the time lost from the removal of the main plot of the movie. I think that the main plot of the movie wasn't originally Jacob's hunting down of the Grifter or the Hillbilly, but was much more focused on the female FBI's investigation of Jacob, and whether he was using the serial killer cases he investigated to cover up his own copycat murders.
Now, this "FBI investigating King" plot point is brought up, but only briefly and very near the end of the movie. But if you watch the whole movie closely, you can see where lots of dialog has been edited out of the earlier parts of the film--you can just tell because people often seem to be responding with expressions or emotions that seem out of place and/or saying things that have nothing to do with the conversation at hand. I don't think just bad filmmking or bad writing is the reason most of the dialog scenes make no sense or have no point. I think it's because they were editing out any dialog that had to do with the FBI investigation and also shuffling the order of the scenes. Take for instance the scene where King's partner, Storm, makes a late night visit to King's apartment, obviously to tell him something important. Well, he pretty much tells him nothing, has a big drink of bourbon or something, says something incongruous about being paranoid, and then leaves. I mean, what was that all about? Well, I think it was originally Storm telling him about the FBI investigation of him. And I think that the lone scene near the end of the movie where the FBI agent actually states that she thinks King is a serial killer was originally placed much earlier in the film, and then moved to the end later on. AND I think that all the dialog in the next to the last scene, where we hear what Storm is reading in King's goodbye note, was replaced as well. Instead of the meaningless nonsense we hear in the released version, I believe we originally heard King telling Storm that the FBI agent’s suspicions were partially correct. I think in that note, King confessed to Storm that he is indeed a serial killer, but that he is a serial killer of serial killers. And then he tells him that Jacob is not his real name and that he’ going back to his real life, or something. Not sure about that part. But I am sure that he tells storm that he’s a serial killer of serial killers.
AND I’m sure that this was a much more interesting, intelligent and more entertaining film before the studio butchered it. Maybe not a masterpiece, but much better than what we got. I’d love to see the original cut or read the original screenplay.