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L.A. Confidential - Recut

Neglify

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Fanedit Film Name: LA Confidential Recut by Neglify



Brief Synopsis: LA Confidential with less focus on Bud White and Lynn Bracken and an ending more in line with the overall tone of the film.

Original Film Name: LA Confidential
Studio Name: Warner Bros.
Genre: Crime
Fanedit Type: TrueFan Edit

Original Running Time: 138 minutes
Original Release Date: September 1997

Fanedit Running Time: 126 minutes
Fanedit Release Date: November 2011

Amount of time cut: 12 minutes

Intention:
I absolutely love LA Confidential. But, usually when I re-watch it, I find myself skipping past most of the Bud White and Lynn Bracken scenes. I wanted to create an edit that would cut out the parts of their storyline that kind of drag the movie. As well, I felt like the ending was a little too upbeat.

Edit Details:
I trimmed almost every scene Bud and Lynn have together and cut the ending.

Cut-List:
- Added FanEdit.org video logo. Added “Recut by Neglify” to the title.
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Trimmed the beginning and ending of Bud going to Lynn’s house for the first time.
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Cut out Bud and Lynn’s first sex scene.
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Trimmed their scene in bed together. Cut out reference to Bisbee, Arizona and cut it before Bud starts talking about the Night Owl case.
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Re-ordered the scene with Exley taking Inez out of the hospital. It used to come right before the above scene but now it’s right after.
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Cut out scene of Exley and Lynn at the police station. As well, trimmed two lines of dialogue between Exley and Bud right before this scene.
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Cut the epilogue. Now, after Exley shoots Dudley in the back and holds up his badge the film fades to black. The viewer is left to believe that Bud died when Dudley shot him in the head.
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Removed the upbeat music during the end credits and replaced it with Jerry Goldsmith’s main theme. (As well I added an extra music track in the credits.)
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Cut out the “Badge of Honor” bits from the end credits as they didn’t fit with this edit.

Special Notes:
Thanks to Gatos and BlueYoda for previewing my workprint and giving great feedback.

Technical Info: Sony Vegas to edit, DVD Architect to create DVD.

Release Information: Dual Layer DVD & MP4

Special Features:
Isolated Music-Only Audio Track (DVD only)
Drinking Game subtitle track (DVD and MP4)


This edit has been submitted and should be available soon. But if you want, you can PM for links until then.
 

juice4z0

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Congrats on finishing it Neg, Based on the work print I saw this should have no issues getting approved.
 

TMBTM

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This fanedit has been approved by Blueyoda. A review will come soon.
 

g1orkatsos

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That was fast! Congrats for the approval!
 

ssj

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congrats on finishing it, neg! look forward to seeing it.
 

Neglify

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Thank you Juice, g1orkatsos and ssj. Hopefully it'll be up tomorrow.
 

Gatos

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WARNING! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS!
(This review is not meant as a personal attack on the editor, it is simply this reviewer's opinions on the edit).

Well I was lucky enough to see a workprint of L.A. Confidential Recut by Neglify. Unfortunately this didn't allow me to follow my usual "routine" when it comes to watching fanedits: rewatch the original, then watch the fanedit. It'd been quite awhile since I had last seen L.A. Confidential. So as I watched the Recut there were certain parts where I said to myself "wait isn't there another part/scene here" and other times where i didn't notice/remember that anything was taken away.

So, L.A. Confidential Recut, after rewatching the original, i came to appreciate the changes Neglify has made to the movie. Now I was aware of the big change being a drastic reduction of the Bud/Lynn romance. And I can do without the romance bit. It does tend to weigh down the film a bit and slow the pace. And i think Neglify's choices on how to condense it worked perfectly. It's still clear that Bud and Lynn has a romantic relationship and that it was something special. But now there is no "wrapped in a bow" resolution. The relationship ends after Bud hits Lynn. Dare I say this makes it more realistic? And when you match this change with the other big change Neglify makes (which I will discuss shortly) it makes for a darker, grittier story IMO.

So the big change, that in my opinion was the best change in this fanedit, was the ending. I think the changes to the ending that Neglify made have a greater (positive) impact than the reduction of Lynn in the story. No happy ending, no medal ceremony, Bud doesn't survive and live happily ever after with Lynn. I think the ending works so much better. And c'mon, be honest, how much of a buzzkill is Exley's exposition of the who/what/where/when and why of the bad guys. So in case you haven't figured it out, I really like the new ending that Neglify gave this edit.

DVD Presentation: There is a nice motion menu for the DVD. And there is a fun bonus feature which is a drinking game. I laughed quite a bit just reading the rules of the game.

VIDEO EDITING: 10/10 (This is based on the workprint as I have no had a chance to watch the finalized DVD). No extra frames, no jarring cuts.

AUDIO EDITING: 10/10 (Again this is based off the workprint). No audio drop outs, no harsh cuts.

So overall I really enjoyed this edit. The changes that were made were significant and really alter the mood and tone of the movie. I'm not sure I can say definitively that Recut is a replacement to my original DVD of L.A. Confidential but it is damn close.

I rate this edit 9/10. I look forward to seeing Neglify's future fanedits.
 

Neglify

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Thank you for the kind review, Gatos. I am thrilled that you enjoyed it so much. And thank you for all the help you gave me in the process. :)
 

TV's Frink

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Gatos said:
(This review is not meant as a personal attack on the editor, it is simply this reviewer's opinions on the edit).

This always cracks me up, especially when it's a good review. ;)
 

Neglify

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This is a great quote from Roger Ebert in his review for "After Dark, My Sweet."

Film noir, we are reminded, is not about action and victory, but about incompetence and defeat. If it has a happy ending, something went wrong.
(Thanks to Dwight Fry for the quote.)

That being said, I am incredibly happy that LA Confidential Recut won FE of the Month for November. Thanks to all who voted. To me, this win makes up for the original LA Confidential losing Best Picture to Titantic.
 

geminigod

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Nice job Neglify. There was only one cut that felt a little "awkward" to me. An entertaining re-cut of an already great movie. Drinking game also made for a good laugh (though if I actually followed it I would have been very drunk by the end!
 

Neglify

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Thanks GemGod! Glad you liked it. And what he says is true about the drinking game. It's a man's game. Lot of shots to be taken.
 

DriggyDriggs

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It had been a long time since I had watched my copy of this one, but I always liked L.A. Confidential despite a couple of gripes. Anyway, here we go:


Story Editing:


Most of the cuts I didn’t even notice, and the rest I didn’t miss at all (the extra love scenes, mainly). Not much was changed story-wise, though. I love the new ending. I really thought it was lame that Bud survived that shootout and that Lynn went back to him after he hit her. I’m glad that’s no longer here. Your edit ends right when it should and fits with the tone of the rest of the film.


Score: 9 out of 10.


Video Editing/Quality:


No issues in your cuts at all. I did notice a little glitch in the quality once or twice when watching it, but nothing major.


Score: 9 out of 10


Audio Editing/Quality:


Your transitions were nicely done and I never noticed any mistakes. Everything sounded good to me.


Score: 10 out of 10


Great idea, perfect execution of the edits, even though they weren’t very drastic. I enjoyed this more than the original.


Final Score: 9 out of 10
 

Neglify

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Thanks for the review Driggs!

For anybody that hasn't seen it yet and wants to (i.e. EVERYBODY), I uploaded the edit to Demonoid. The link can be found on info. I will reupload to MediaFire soon as well (maybe).
 

higgins

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I thoroughly loved this edit. Very solid. The only cut I found hard was, oddly, the final one, before the credits. Spoilers follow. I'm not sure if something could be done though, except perhaps via some special effect that leaves the impression of camera tilting up, shot sliding towards the sky as Exley stands there with his badge. Just an observation =) Probably more trouble than it's worth.
 

Neglify

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higgins said:
I thoroughly loved this edit. Very solid.

Thanks! :)

higgins said:
The only cut I found hard was, oddly, the final one, before the credits. Spoilers follow. I'm not sure if something could be done though, except perhaps via some special effect that leaves the impression of camera tilting up, shot sliding towards the sky as Exley stands there with his badge. Just an observation =) Probably more trouble than it's worth.

Man, that could look awesome. I'll keep that in mind when I do the 10th Anniversary Deluxe FanEdit.
 

Dwight Fry

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higgins said:
camera tilting up, shot sliding towards the sky as Exley stands there with his badge.
Disagree. That's a Hollywood cliché, somewhat of a light version of the silly happy ending Neg removed. The current ending is not hard IMO, just gritty as film noir should be.
 

higgins

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Dwight Fry said:
Disagree. That's a Hollywood cliché, somewhat of a light version of the silly happy ending Neg removed.
I was gonna say that if it's good enough for Chinatown, its good enough for L.A., but then I checked Chinatown's ending and it's the opposite -- camera going up, tilting down on the street view. However, I think my point still stands though, in the sense that some added camera movement gives a better impression of an intended closure than simply blacking the image out =)
 

Neglify

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DL DVD is now available on Mediafire. DLC submitted to info, should be there soon. PM if you want it nao. Double password protected, see FAQ.
 

Neglify

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MP4 version is now available on Mediafire. DLC submitted to info. Double password protected (fanedited.com and fanedit.org).

MF account gone. Sorry.
 
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