David Leland’s The Big Mansubstantially recut, as is their wont, by Miramax, who always know what’s best for us. Not having seen the original, I can’t vouch for what this violent British thrillerabout an unemployed Scottish miner who is recruited by a gangster and exploited as an illegal bare-knuckle boxerwas originally like. In its present form, it comes across as a rather unpleasant and only fitfully absorbing film of social protest. Don McPherson wrote the script; with Liam Neeson, Joanne Whalley-Kilmer, Ian Bannen, and Billy Connolly (1990). (JR)