Jul 2, 2013 3 min read

In the age of DVDs, “director’s cuts” of movies have proliferated, and they usually involve the addition of footage that was snipped out before the original version of the film arrived in theaters.

Sometimes the additional footage is illuminating, but, just as often, you discover it was sliced for good reason. Want a prime example? Compare “Apocalypse Now,” the 1979 classic about the psychosis and fog of the Vietnam War, with “Apocalypse Now Redux,” a 2001 revamping that adds almost an hour’s worth of additional scenes. The original is pungent and without an ounce of fat on it, even as it runs over two hours. The extended version? Lumbering and distended, with the additional scenes offering little more than narrative wheel-spinning. With the original “Apocalypse Now,” you’re on the edge of your seat. With “Apocalypse Now Redux,” you’re squirming in it.

As the saying goes, more isn’t always better.

Visitors to this year’s Canonsburg Fourth of July parade Thursday would be wise to keep that in mind. Organizers of the parade, which is one of the premier Independence Day attractions in the Pittsburgh region, have announced that they are cutting the running time of the event, hoping to whittle it down from over three hours to somewhere in the neighborhood of two. That means some fire departments have been jettisoned, and politicians who are not from Canonsburg or sponsors have been told that they must find other hands to shake on that day. A couple of car clubs have also been informed that they should keep their vehicles in their garages on Thursday.

While there has been some grumbling, we believe the decision by Canonsburg’s parade committee was an astute one. As co-chairman Sean Terling pointed out in the Observer-Reporter last Saturday, watching an endless stream of cars and walkers and floats can wear viewers down rather than lift their spirits. Some veterans of the parade have observed people bailing out along the sidewalks at the halfway point, their appetite for parade-watching fully sated. Of course, the typically hot and humid weather July 4 can make even the heartiest paradegoer want to retreat to air conditioning.

This year also marked the first time the borough placed imitations on when residents could place chairs along Pike Street to watch the parade. They were allowed to put them out Tuesday morning, 48 hours before the parade’s start and, from all indications, the scramble occurred without incident.

Rather than leaving them wanting more, recent Canonsburg Fourth of July parades have left them exhausted. Making it shorter will almost certainly make it sweeter.