Apparently Pink Floyd: The Wall is caught in the crossfire of the battle between Gilmore and Waters.
What’s going on? I think The Wall should get a Criterion release, it would deserve it. But it’s annoying that I can’t even get a simple blu-ray release.
Return of the Jedi is not the worst film of the original trilogy.
What is in your opinion?
The otherwise obvious choice, A New Hope. But only barely. I love 'em all, but I think A New Hope is the weak link. I do understand most people’s criticisms of Return of the Jedi, but the perceived flaws of the film are things that do not bother me at all, or at least not anymore. Ewoks, for example, are one aspect I’ve come around on.
A New Hope introduces many of defining characteristics of the franchise, i.e. a rebellion fighting a war against a tyrannical empire, space-wizard samurai, cocky smugglers with questionable morals yet hidden hearts of gold, ruthless bounty hunters and a seedy criminal underworld, space battles against impossibly constructed space stations of mass destruction, crawling around on or in areas of space stations not meant for crawling around in order to evade hostile forces, etc. Most of these aspects are expanded upon and fleshed out in the next two films to dramatic and/or universe-build effect. Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi is where Star Wars fully captured it’s tone and identity and they will always be the 1st 2 things that pop into my mind wherever Star Wars is mentioned. Granted, The tone of RotJ is less consistent than the others, but it still has many classic scenes (many of my favorite scenes series-wide) that have defined Star Wars and influenced many stories going forward, both inside and outside the franchise, to good and bad effect.
Again, it doesn’t really matter that 4 is my least favorite, as I love 'em all. Between 4 and 5, my least and most favorites of the trilogy, there’s really only a 1 point difference on the 10 out 10 scale. I just think 5 and 6 is when Star Wars truly became Star Wars whereas 4 was the blueprint provider.
I recently completed work on a new personal edit of Army of Darkness that I have come to call the “Jack and Shit Edition”. Since I have no intentions at this moment to share the edit online, I thought I’d just mention it here rather than make a whole thread about it.
The idea isn’t too dissimilar to previous edits, to make a long cut that combines the ‘best’ elements of multiple cuts into one. Additionally, my intention was to create an edit that is almost 100% faithful to the film (so I have removed very little footage, overall) and to have a longer cut that is Ash Vs Evil Dead friendly in terms of the film’s multiple endings. I used the Director’s cut from the Scream Factory release as a base and edited in segments of the Theatrical cut from the same set where desired. Changelist is as follows:
The colour of the Director’s cut has been slightly dulled across the board for the DC footage to better match the TC. The change has helped to blend the 2 versions more seemlessly, but I am not an expert on colour alteration. While it has helped considerably, I have also had to tweak the colours more extensively on a scene-by-scene basis to match up the footage to the best of my limited abilities.
The Dino De Laurentiis Communications production card has been reinserted whereas it has been removing, seemingly, from most versions of the film starting with the DVD era going forward. This was added for my own nostalgia of watching the film on VHS as a kid.
An extended version of the soundtrack was used for the opening of the film, using the Prologue track from the OST. The score now plays over the Universal and Dino De Laurentiis Communications production cards and have also been sped up to sync with the score mixed into the film’s audio track. This, I feel, lends to an even more epic feeling right from when the film starts up.
The TC version of the She-Bitch fight is retained, purely for the reason that the DC lacks the score present in the TC.
The TC version of “Gimme some sugar, baby” has been retained, so no hanky-panky sex scene or Sheila wrapping a blanket around Ash’s shoulders. This is done partially for pacing, but also because I don’t like showing Ash having a ‘good time’ more than is absolutely necessary. Plus, it’s been inferred through dialogue that they bone, we get it. We don’t really need to see it.
As other edits have done, the DC version of the Little Ashes scene has been restored with the score with the OST. I had to trim a bit here and there to make the footage and score sync up just right, but no more than 2 seconds of the scene is missing.
“Good, bad, I’m the guy with the gun” is retained over “I ain’t that good”.
The TC of the Graveyard skeletal “3 Stooges” shenanigans is retained over the DC version. Partially for pacing, but also because why would Ash bother taking time to tear off that skeleton’s arm? Just get the hell out of there!
“Yeah, and I’m a Chinese jet pilot…” is retained over “I need more men”.
The scene of Arthur’s men preparing to fire explosive arrows at the army of darkness has been trimmed for pacing. Only about 7 seconds of the bowmen holding their arrows have been removed, but the pacing is slightly improved for it.
The TC’s ending is retained for continuity with Ash Vs Evil Dead. I have always preferred the original post-apocalyptic ending over the S-Mart ending. I believe that the original is a more suitable ending for the trilogy, but now that AVED has a similar sort ending, I don’t mind putting AoD’s “I slept too long!” ending aside.
The Amboy Dukes track “Journey to the Center of the Mind” is used for the ending credits.
A modern “Renaissance Pictures” production card is attached post-credits.
This is not a complete overhaul of the film, mostly just scene or music swapping with tinkering to the colouring and the pace of some scenes, so it wasn’t a grueling project by any means. I’m still happy with it, the best editing project I have ever completed. It’s certainly good enough to be the first fanedit project of mine to talk about online, anyway. Just showed my dad the edit and he couldn’t detect any obvious editing seams, so I’m definitely happy about that.
You’ll have to let me know what he says, in particular about Stalker.
Here’s the preview of his talk from their YouTube channel.
His family were big movie buffs and his grandfather would tale them to foreign films often. Rian grew up loving Star Wars (of course), Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Scorsese films and such. He started out shooting parody films on Super-8 format in junior high and his interest in filmmaking progressed until he got to the point of considering directing film a serious career applied to various film school once he was old enough, but he was rejected repeatedly. Though, he managed to get in to USC during the midterm with his last application which was written as an “obnoxious screw you” diss but ended up getting accept because of it, lol.
About Stalker, he says that he had only seen the film within the past year (of the interview) and he’d seen The Sacrifice, Ivan’s Childhood and Solaris beforehand which prepared him for Stalker. He calls the film mesmerizing, says that people should go into the film thinking of it as a mountain to be climbed and that although the film uses “boredom” as a tool in it’s storytelling that it is ultimately rewarding. He also said that he would not want to go into the Room lest he actually discovers his true heart’s desires. Which yeah, can’t blame him.
And yes, I finally got around to watching Stalker myself. I feel less inclined to speak on how I feel about Stalker than even Solaris, but if I could say anything, wowwie! I indeed love the film. It’s obvious from this film and Solaris the Tarkovsky will let his films take as much time as he needs to build their atmosphere and tone and it works incredibly well. If Stalker were a Hollywood production it’d be cut an hour shorter at minimum and the film would utterly suffer for it, the effect he was going for totally demolished. This will be another blu-ray I’ll be picking up whenever the next Criterion sale occurs, for sure.
Here you go:
https://www.criterionchannel.com/rian-johnson-s-adventures-in-moviegoing
Ahh, very nice that the page contains links to the films he’s talking about, that’s convenient.
Adding The Tree of Life by Terrence Malick and The Red Shoes by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger!
I am glad to see you watched and had such an experience with Solaris, LeparMessiah117. I’ll be curious to see how it goes on your second viewing.
I don’t have a subscription to the Criterion Channel but I know there’s some great films on offer. Recently they added Bertrand Tavernier who I’d really like to get into as their trailer looked very intriguing and lovely. I’m not sure I recall your opinion on The Last Jedi but there’s also an interview on there where Rian Johnson talks about his favourite films in the Collection with Alicia Malone.
Yes, Solaris is one of those films I refuse to give my full thoughts on until the 2nd viewing. Now some time later, even though so much of the film sticks out vividly in my mind, it deserves secondary analysis in order to form a fully realized assessment of my feelings on the film. But I’m saving that for blu-ray so I have bonus materials. I’m very much looking forward to Stalker now that I have the channel.
And yes, I rather like The Last Jedi and the films of Rian Johnson. Is that interview a part of the same series where filmmakers talk about Criterion films and going through a closet of Criterion blu-rays? I saw one of those with Terry Gilliam a while back. I know Criterion puts out alot of filmmaker interview footage on Youtube and such, so maybe/maybe not.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
Yes, Temple of Doom.
To be honest, comparing the 3 different versions I’d say the Arkenstone edit probably works the best. I’d guess it’s probably the shot of Bilbo grabbing the ledge that makes it seem a little less obvious of an edit than the other two.
Still, I also have no problem with the way the scene plays out in the current version either, although I guess Bilbo coming closer to plummeting off the ledge provides more excitement and we do get more interaction between Bilbo and Thorin, which isn’t a bad thing.
I finally got a subscription to the Criterion Channel (an annual membership) and needless to say, the library of films featured with the service is staggering. I hardly know where to begin! The films I’ve viewed so far in the few days that I’ve had it are:
Lolita - directed by Stanley Kubrick
Once Upon a Time In the West - directed by Sergio Leone
The Quiet Family - directed by Kim Jee-woon
Vernon, Florida - directed by Errol Morris
The Picture of Dorian Gray - directed by Albert Lewin
May be a longshot (and I intend to search the internet for other possible sources) but if anybody here also happens to have the service, I’d appreciate recommendations for more films.
My current plan is to first view films that I already had heard of and had previous interest in seeing and also to go though the featured films that are also a part of the Criterion Collection’s current catalogue of blu-ray releases so I may decide if I like any films enough that I’d want the full experience that comes with owning the film’s Criterion blu-ray release.
And I’d definitely recommend checking the channel out to any film buff for sure (not a shill, lol), it seems as though there’s plenty of variety to accommodate anybody’s taste in movies.
Hey, if you find that there are still edits to be made and have the will to make them, I say go for it. HAL9000 is STILL making minor changes to his prequel trilogy edits and they’ve been out for years and years now. I’ve downloaded several versions myself, because I only want the best possible versions of films that deep down I want to enjoy. The fans of any edit will likely always come back for the next version if the new edits improve the experience. Improvements are always welcome.
And your paraphrased Gandalf quote is a good disclaimer and you should probably just leave it at that.
Ahh, very cool! The edit is sounding better all the time, guess I’ll be getting a third version whenever the update comes.
Send the Mysterious Stranger all our thanks & appreciation and tell 'em good luck in the dueling ring on Taris.
Have Ben live, Leia’s vision of his death changes, they get married, Reylos unite! Everyone wins.
Have Ben live, but slip away into exile to go be a wandering Robin Hood-type who tries to redeem himself by helping the downtrodden across the galaxy because there’s no way he would be accepted with Rey’s Resistance buddies after what he’s done
That would be… aggh! Can we have a redo on episode IX, PLEASE!?
Watched this. It’s much better than the released trilogy, which bloated full of junk IMO. Love the fact that it’s much tighter to the book, and the pace is much better now. This is the only Hobbit I need now, will probably give the trilogy away to someone. Superb, well done.
You can’t give it away as the site says you have to own the official release of any fan edit or preservation.
Edit: not trying to mod just giving helpful advice.
Yeah, it would be best to hold on to those, at least symbolically. I purchased and still possess a blu-ray of Dune that I still haven’t watched just because I wanted to watch a fanedit of the film.
Ah, yep. I did indeed keep this scene in to add a tiny hair of character development to Dick and Andy to show they’re at least trying to do something in relation to their potentially imminent fatherhood. Sure it’s a bit strange to have a kid appear then not appear for the rest of the show, but I think it at least demonstrates how Dick is attempting to be more father-like in the most shallow way possible. It’s a rare moment of silly comic relief in the edit as it presently stands, too.
Hmmm, that makes sense. Yeah, I gotcha, it does work in context with the rest of their subplot going forward to the end of the series.
Well, the manner of the stabbing is mentioned in the scene with Albert, Cooper and Truman, and it’s identicality to Caroline’s murder is also mentioned elsewhere (but whether it’s in that particular scene or not, I can’t remember.) Also, I feel that the following scene where they’re taking the body away also retreads some info (“If it was Earle, he didn’t miss a beat…” “No fibers…” “I found that car on the logging road, just like he said…”) but in a less direct “Cooper explaining things” way and more of a possible implied, unseen conversation way. But now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure if it’s mentioned outside of this scene if Windom orchestrates the power outage. It may not be feasible to cut it the scene, but that’s up to you to decide if it could and/or should be cut.
And that now sounds like a very redundant scene, and it’s now gone. Now sitting at 155 minutes, nice spot!
Cool, can’t wait to see how it works in the final edit! Hope others give your edit a go, I think you’re doing good work.
From what I can remember, that plotline is pretty much entirely cut? The only remnants currently are Nicky’s case worker mentioning his parents passed in mysterious circumstances to Lucy, Dick and Andy before Andy gets called away to the Great Northern, and the Doc briefly calling Nick, Andy and Lucy into a room (we don’t see the scene wrapping up the whole subplot). Both of those scenes I only kept in because there would be rough audio transitions otherwise. Other than that, the entire subplot is gone. Unless there’s something else I missed?
The scene with Andy taking Dick and Nicky out for Malteds is intact. It is the end part of the scene with Roger (the FBI agent) Ernie Niles, Hank and Norma at the Double RR 20-25 minutes in. The scene with them making the plans to get Malteds is also present.
Would cutting out the scene with the case worker be that difficult? I mean, you’d have to take some liberties with the soundtrack to make it work audiowise, but then I wouldn’t know if it’d actually work unless I personally sat down and tried it editing it myself.
I’m all for trimming down the runtime as much as possible, so could you clarify where exactly the information appears elsewhere?
Well, the manner of the stabbing is mentioned in the scene with Albert, Cooper and Truman, and it’s identicality to Caroline’s murder is also mentioned elsewhere (but whether it’s in that particular scene or not, I can’t remember.) Also, I feel that the following scene where they’re taking the body away also retreads some info (“If it was Earle, he didn’t miss a beat…” “No fibers…” “I found that car on the logging road, just like he said…”) but in a less direct “Cooper explaining things” way and more of a possible implied, unseen conversation way. But now that I’m thinking about it, I’m not sure if it’s mentioned outside of this scene if Windom orchestrates the power outage. It may not be feasible to cut it the scene, but that’s up to you to decide if it could and/or should be cut.
Alright, just finished my viewing and here are my thoughts:
Overall, it’s a promising edit. Most of what was cut out was not missed and what was left in kept the storylines held together rather well. But I have a few suggestions. First being that maybe the orphan Nicky subplot could be cut out entirely? Since it doesn’t amount to anything in the end, even in the original version, it might be best to leave it out. I realize this means cutting Andy, Lucy and Dick down practically to cameo appearances only, but if their plot doesn’t really contribute to anything at all and doesn’t feature the most of the comic-relief shenanigans that Andy and Dick get into, then it might be best to axe it entirely.
In terms of Ben’s subplot, I would suggest reintroducing the scene featuring Dr. Jacobi’s explanation of Ben’s condition of “trying to change his own circumstances by changing the outcome of the Civil War” so we have a better understanding of why he’s acting the way he is in his scenes.
For James, it may be best to reinsert one or two scenes in between James fleeing the police and returning to confront Evelyn. I think it may be necessary to bring back the scene Eveline talking to the police (if just for consistencies’ sake, given the closeups of Evelyn wearing the mourning veil in the confrontation scenes) and maybe the scene where Donna confronts Evelyn and Malcolm at the bar. As it stands now, it just feels like there’s a bit too much missing for the truncation of this plot to come off as completely seamless.
Some other things I’d like to address/suggest would be the credits that wound up included at various points in the edit. During Briggs’ questioning at the Sheriff’s station, the credits, I would imagine, could be removed with a simple cropping of the shots in which they are featured. The framing may come off as oddly close, but in my opinion, it would be less distracting than credits randomly appearing here. As for the scene of the examination of Windom’s victim, unfortunately cropping is not an option here as the credits are center-focused in the shots. However, and you may disagree, but I feel as though this particular scene could be cut entirely, as most if not all of the important information relayed here is found in other scenes featured later in this edit.
Also, some minor editing suggestions would be to extend the thunderclouds shot after Major Briggs’ reappearance by perhaps slowing down the footage. You won’t be able to get much more out of it, but it would be something. And I would also suggest that the commercial-break cut during the hostage situation at Dead Dog Farm could be edited to a more traditional kind of transition? As in, edit it to pretend there was no commercial break there at all and make it a time-passing transition, going from Sheriff Truman aiming his shotgun to the shot of the moon, maybe using a little audio layering and crossfades. I suggest this only because there was a fade-to-black/fade-in transition in the previous scene just before going from Nadine and Ed to Dead Dog Farm.
And finally, some lingering frames! For ease of editing, here are the frames you missed that I found during my viewing of the workprint:
53m & 57s - frame left in transition from Dead Dog Farm to sheriff’s station
1h, 6m & 59s - frame left in transition between Audrey, Cooper & Denise hotel scene and Denise confronting Ernie Niles
1h, 9m & 36s - frame left in transition between Ernie Niles interrogation and Brigg’s reappearance
1h, 28m & 52s - frame left in transition between wiring Ernie Niles scene and Donna asking Ed about James
1h, 43m & 12s - frame left in transition between the examination of Windom’s crime at the sheriff’s station and Leo terrorizing Shelly
1h, 49m & 26s - frame left in transition between Truman giving Cooper the Windom Earle case and James’ conversation with Mr. Marsh
1h, 51m & 13s - frame left in transition between Mr. Marsh driving off and Cooper contemplating the chess game
Again, very promising workprint here. Just needs some shaping up and it’s good to go V1 as far as I’m concerned. Looking forward to the final edit!
EDIT: One last thing! I’d really like to look at a cutlist if you have one to see if there was anything that you cut that maybe I’d wanna suggest adding back in. And thanks for the work you put in here!
Please pm me the workprint! I’ve watched Twin Peaks quite a few times over the last 5-6 years, so I might be able to provide some well-informed notes (if needed).
Well… This is strange. I’m currently in the middle of a Star Wars re-watch and just joined this forum to explore the fan edits a bit more, but I have been quietly working on a fanedit for Season 2 of Twin Peaks that cuts out the suck. The working title is presently Twin Peaks: Between Two Ferns. I was planning to make an announcement on Fanedit.org once I have a finished workprint done to show people.
IMO Season 2 of Twin Peaks starts and ends strong, the main problem is episodes 11-15 being almost entirely subplots. My edit combines those episodes into a single film, slimming down on the filler material. The idea is to watch the fanedit as a replacement for those episodes when watching season 2, otherwise you watch the remainder of the season as is. Currently its sitting at around 2 hours 38 mins long, removing 76 minutes of footage. I guess I’ll be making a proper announcement thread here when it’s ready. 😃
I’m gonna keep an eye out for this one!
I figured this thread would be a good place to post this.
At some point in the near future I plan on doing an extensive read-through of most pre-Prequel Trilogy content. I’ve had the strong desire to read the books informed solely by the Original Trilogy, to experience the franchise as from a time that was a bit before my own time. The Phantom Menace came out when I was only 8 years old and I hadn’t even become modestly well-read until I was probably 23. Also, being that I consider the Original trilogy the only true Star Wars story of the films, it makes sense to me not include any post-EP 1 released content, even if set around A New Hope or onwards. I don’t want anything where the author heavily considered any of the prequels during the writing process their book. The list of novels I tentatively will be reading is as follows:
Han Solo Trilogy:
The Paridise Snare
The Hutt Gambit
Rebel DawnDark Forces: Soldier for the Empire
Splinter of the Mind’s Eye
Shadows of the Empire
The Truce at Bakura
X-Wing:
Rogue Squadron
Wedge’s Gamble
The Krytos Trap
The Bacta WarThe Courtship of Princess Leia
Thrawn Trilogy:
Heir to the Empire
Dark Force Rising
The Last CommandI, Jedi
Children of the Jedi
Darksaber
Planet of Twilight
Black Fleet Crisis Trilogy:
Before the Storm
Shield of Lies
Tyrant’s TestThe New Rebellion
The Corellian Trilogy:
Ambush at Corellia
Assault at Selonia
Showdown at CenterpointThe Hand of Thrawn Duology:
Specter of the Past
Vision of the Future
The reason I’m posting this is that I know there some books here less warmly received than others and I’d really appreciate any Star Wars veterans to give me a bit of advice on what I should maybe skip (and what they’d consider essential). These are all pre-Phantom Menace, but it’s still quite a sizable amount of books to buy and read through and I’d like to maybe not waste as much time and money as I might. I should maybe note that there is “skippable bad” and “it’s bad, but some really important stuff happens in this book” and I’d prefer to not miss anything that’s maybe too important for the setup of other stories, even if the quality of the book is on the poor side.
I just finished watching Solaris. Quite a tremendous film, slow but never boring. The camerawork is indeed very excellent, deliberate and purposeful and it’s themes contemplative. This is a film I’d avoid giving a concrete rating until a 2nd viewing but I’d call it absolutely a great film to be sure. This will go on my list of “Criterion blu-rays to obtain.”
If a Fortress Vader shot is to be implemented, I make a request to whomever works on the shot to attempt to make the castle appear to be more of a desolate ruin than the previous concepts. Maybe make it seem as though one of the two spires has broken off? After all, it is supposed to be in ruins and why wouldn’t it be? It should be noted that the Mustafarians were not happy about Vader building his castle on their planet, to say the last.
Apologies for being a stickler for the extended universe canon.
If you aren’t aware, there’s a huge amount of Criterion titles on HBO Max.
I did notice some, such as Seven Samurai. Problem is that HBO Max doesn’t seem to feature a Criterion hub in the same way they have for other channels, like Adult Swim for example, so I have no way of knowing the full extent of their Criterion selection from within HBO Max, unless there’s something I’m overlooking, that is.
Classic films are under the Turner Classic Movies hub, which is where all the Criterion titles are.
Ah, that’s good to know. We just got Max so I’m not totally familiar with it yet.
If you aren’t aware, there’s a huge amount of Criterion titles on HBO Max.
I did notice some, such as Seven Samurai. Problem is that HBO Max doesn’t seem to feature a Criterion hub in the same way they have for other channels, like Adult Swim for example, so I have no way of knowing the full extent of their Criterion selection from within HBO Max, unless there’s something I’m overlooking, that is.
I was wondering recently after watch Mr. Plinkett’s review if a Crystal Skull fanedit could potentially salvage the film and I’d really like to see if you’ve accomplished this. Link plz?