Just what the world needs! Another Star Wars edit.
I do love these and wanted to attempt one of my own. In this edit I am trying to concentrate on Anakin, his fall, and what caused it.
In order for Anakin’s fall to be a true fall the circumstances in which he makes his decision to submit to Palpatine must be altered. The necessary elements for this are already there for this to occur but are not properly emphasized. In this version, it is the Jedi who drive Anakin into the arms Palpatine with lies, disdain and distrust.
Palpatine is correct. The Republic is long since dead. It no longer functions. He is bringing order to the galaxy. The Jedi are plotting to overthrow him. The only problem with this is that he is also evil.
Anakin lives in world in which the only person who truly trusts others is Obi Wan Kenobi. The only person Anakin trusts is Palpatine. He is even suspicious of Padme. No one in this world truly trusts or confides in others. Gone are the long pointless conversations. Anakin and Padme love each other but do not confide in each other. The Jedi Council openly distrusts Anakin. At the beginning of the movie Anakin discovers his own order is hostile to him, and the wife he is not allowed to have is pregnant with children that should not exist. His nerves are frayed.
In addition to the story line tweaking, I am attempting to streamline the movie’s editing and am following The Phantom Editor’s lead as much as my limited technical skills will allow. Unnecessary exposition has been removed. Scenes not contain only the essential information they were intended to convey.
With ADigitalMan’s kind permission, I am also incorporating the crawl he used for his special edition as well as his restructuring of Yoda’s scenes to include the disembodied voice of Qui Gon Jin.
I’ve made it all the way through and have rendered a .wmv to review the cut for rough spots - and there are a few. But, over all I’m happy with the direction the film is taking.
Current run time: 116 minutes
Original run time: 140 minutes
What I want to do now is go back through and cut some of the smaller bits that I always felt were inappropriate to the movie’s tone such as Anakin saying, “This is where the fun begins” during the opening battle.