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Its often not directors defining pacing and length of the result, but producer/studio. A lot of bitter conflicts came up from this.

This is the the most famous, if not the only instance of Lynch giving up control of the final edit. He seemed angry about the way it turned out.

That's why the director is listed as "Alan Smithee"

"Alan Smithee (also Allen Smithee) is an official pseudonym used by film directors who wish to disown a project."

Yeah. He seemed pretty torn up about it. I believe he said he “died a death” over it.

Here’s more into for anyone interested.