John Woo's directing debut in Hollywood, starring Jean-Claude van Damme during the peak of his career, was not received well by the MPAA. Instead of the targeted R-Rating, it was branded NC-17. The movie had to be recut six times before it was finally given the R-Rating. The infamous earlobe-cutting scene was even then discussed heavily in the media although there was not much left of it when the heavily cut R-Rated version was released to cinemas.

The version which is now known as the Unrated of the movie was first released on VHS in countries like the UK. It is a lot longer than the Theatrical Version but does still not included every scene, especially the one with the earlobe. Over the years, several inofficial workprints and leaked Sneak Previews have emerged and handed around among fans or sold at various online shops for sometimes horrendous prices.
The workprint's quality is absolutely terribly, the counter is still in the picture and some of the scenes have not even been edited. However, at least it is complete. The Sneak Preview Version at least is finished and also complete, but has nevertheless never been officially released and all the available versions lack image quality. Both versions might be interesting for a hardcore collector, but certainly not for a nice movie evening.

Considering today's unrated torture porn movies and the fact that there obviously are some uncut versions of Hard Target in existence, the question why it has not been released uncut yet is vertainly more than justified.