There has been much debate about the discrepency about the recalled edition of the Warner Brothers release of Devil's Advocate. The theatrical edition involved a famous religious sculpture titled "Ex Nihilo" by artist Frederick Hart. According to the article on benedict.com, this was the result of the legal conflict about the misrepresentation of the sculpture in the film:

On February 14, 1998, the parties agreed to a settlement wherein Warner Bros. agreed to attach stickers to the videocassettes specifically disclaiming any relationship to or endorsement by Hart or Washington National Cathedral. Warner Bros. also agreed to make changes to certain portions of the film to eliminate any perceived confusion in future distributions of the movie. This allowed Warner Bros. to release the initial run of 475,000 copies of the video, but required them to remove or re-edit over 20 minutes of scenes where the sculpture can be seen before releasing any further video or television versions. Warner Bros. changed the cable and subsequent video releases by digitally removing the images of the people from the sculpture in the early scenes and significantly changing the presentation in the climax.

Well, our forum member, SliceOfHorse, went ahead and made an excellent screenshot comparison between the recalled and current versions to determine what the difference is between the two films. Here is the write up:

The first (recalled) edition of the DVD with the UPC 085391509028, Catalog #15090, is not edited. Some (all?) of these contain a printed "warning" on the back of the case in a red rectangle that reads: "The large white sculpture of human forms on the wall of John Milton's penthouse in "Devil's Advocate" is not connected in any way and was not endorsed by the Sculptor Frederick Hart or the Washington National Cathedral, joint copyright owners of the Cathedral sculpture "Ex Nihilo" in Washington, D.C." The re-issue with the UPC 085391617228, Catalog #16172, is, in fact, edited. The "warning" on the first edition DVD case does not appear on this edition.

Exhibit A Chapter 16, 00:49:25, when the scene transitions to the inside of John Milton's office, we get an entire view of the sculpture.

First Edition (Recalled) DVD:

Re-Issued DVD:

It's clear that the figures in the sculpture have been removed (digitally) in the re-issued DVD. They are removed from all shots of the sculpture in this scene.

Exhibit B Chapter 37, 1:56:54, Kevin Lomax goes to John Milton's office after his wife has killed herself. The scene reveals a close-up of Kevin as the elevator door opens, then changes to a shot of the entire sculpture again.

First Edition (Recalled) DVD:

Re-Issued DVD:

Again, there's no doubt the figures in the sculpture have been digitally removed/replaced with other shapes in the re-issued DVD. As the scene continues, Kevin searches around the room, and the camera follows his POV. In the edited DVD, the sculpture can be seen several times briefly at the corners of the screen, but still no sculptures are seen in it.

Exhibit C Chapter 37, 1:56:15 - big difference. This is the exact shot as seen in the unedited DVD, which is how it should be seen (how it was shown theatrically):

Same time spot, the edited DVD shows this:

In this shot on the edited DVD, we see the sculpture start to swirl for a few seconds before the shot changes. At approximately 1:57:23 on the edited DVD, after John Milton says "I don't make things happen," the shot changes to show the sculpture still moving a little, but the figures are appearing. The sculpture is still in view and John Milton walks into the shot as he says "Doesn't work like that." Then Kevin asks "What did you do to--" here's where the shot goes back to Kevin -- "Mary Ann?" This segment appears to use an alternate take or frames from an alternate version of the scene to show as little as possible of the statue in its original form. In this scene in the original version, the camera stays on Kevin Lomax and John Milton until after Kevin asks "What did you do to Mary Ann?" - it does not cut away and then back to Kevin again. From this point on the two DVD versions are identical. Both versions run exactly 2:23:48. The extra features and audio options are the same, and other than the UPC, cat. # and the warning that appears on the case of the unedited DVD, the cases are identical except that the original issue DVD does not have SPECIAL EDITION printed on the spine, but it does still have it printed at the top on the front. Case closed."

Thank you SliceofHorse for that excellent write-up as I am sure our readers will highly appreciate it. You can read more about this and other up to date info about out of print and collectible DVDs in our forum.