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Magical Mystery Tour: The 40th Anniversary Edit

Philfrog

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original film name: Magical Mystery Tour
film studio name: Apple
Date Original Film Was Released: December 26, 1967 (Boxing Day)
Date Edit Was Released: December 2007
Original Runtime: 50 min
New Runtime: 54 min
Amount of time Cut/Added: 4 min
Cuts removed/added/altered:
-"Hello Goodbye" video added before title sequence. This provides the film with a few more minutes of Beatle music, and gives reason to the song's partial appearance in the end credits. Has little to do with the rest of the film, but the same could be said for the rest of the musical sequences.
-"Flying" sequence placed after the "magic is beginning to work" sequence
-"I am the courier"/"I Am the Walrus" placed after wizards' first scene
-Aunt Jessie's dream placed after Miss Winters announces luncheon time
-"Sergeant Victor" scene placed between Jessie's dream & "Blue Jay Way". Looks like the group is walking directly from the sergeant to the tent.
-Buster confesses love to Jessie *after* Bonzo Dog strip club scene.
-Marathon scene placed after Buster passes out during above scene. This scene was placed way too early in the original version, and works better as a grand conclusion to the bus trip.
-Buster & Jesse's beach romance placed after marathon scene. This is now no longer a dream sequence. Moving this and the previous Buster/Jessie scene later into the film now gives some proper progression to what little plot this film has.
-above scene ends with Jesse and Ringo joking around. This provides some closure to the arguing that they were doing at the start of the film.
-"Your Mother Should Know" and end credits follow the above scene

DVD - Features:

1. 54 minutes, NTSC
2. static chapter menu

Conceptual improvements/advancements of edit over original:

The original MMT was the Beatles' first big critiical flop. Shot during a bus trip with circus performers, and without an actual script, the end result was a series of seemingly random scenes wedged between music videos for the (far more successful) album/double-EP of the same name. Inspired years ago by the alternate sequence order in the US LP's booklet, I set to make a better flowing version of this old TV special. Without taking *anything* out (save for some transitional effects), I rearranged the segments into a more reasonable order, to justify the film's thin attempt at a plot (Ringo taking his cranky aunt on a trip). Oddly enough, the songs are all in the same order (save for the incidentals)! I once read in a bio that the film was re-edited numerous times in 1967 before its final release, mainly because of its improvised nature. Hopefully, this 2007 version finally provides some structure to the randomness, becoming the preferred version by Beatles fans new and old.

Technical notes:

The source for the film itself was the restored MPI version that only appeared on VHS and laserdisc in the late '80's. I only had the VHS to work with, but it still looks and sounds better than the current DVD release. (EMI says they're working on a new restoration of MMT for next year, so maybe I'll use that for a "Version 2" edit.) "Hello Goodbye" is sourced from the underground "Chronology" 2-DVD set (I could have sourced most of it from "Anthology", but the quality would have been too good in comparison with MMT). All songs are the stereo versions featured in the above sources. I stuck with straight cuts for the video, but with crossfades to the audio, to better allow the rearrangement of certain scenes. There were a few frames of MMT that I reluctantly had to take out of one (minor) shot, to cover a jitter in the capture, but it's nothing to get hung about.

Time needed for the edition: years of mulling it over, 1 day of editing
persons involved: me (currently looking for an alternate name)

This release has no artwork (yet), and was finished before "Babes in Toyland". I finally watched it yesterday and deemed it fit for viewing by other parties. PM me if interested in viewing, approving and/or distribution.
 

Philfrog

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On a different forum, a fellow Fab Four fan, "One-Eared Jack", just received a copy of this, and left this, my first review!:


"I just finished watching it. Allow me to be the first to say "Excellent work, dasjr!" Nice ! Good ! Well done !
The picture quality of the video transfer is as good as having your own VHS copy.
The re-edit itself? I really like it. A lot of thought must have gone into this, dasjr, because it really does have a better flow to it than the original film, which I watched again last night in anticipation of getting this (well, half-watched--I've seen it plenty of times in the 24 years since I first bought a copy). I'm not sure if the original intent of MMT was to be anything more than an exercise in psychedelic stream of consciousness film making, but this re-edit shows how just a little different placement of the exisiting parts gives the film a semblance of continuity. It probably still would have been savaged 40 years ago, but perhaps not as badly. It's definitely a keeper. Thank you!

My bandwidth isn't lightning, and my family has an annoying habit of forgetting to unpause my utorrent when they're done on the computer, but if no one who got a copy ups this soon, I'll get it on TPB."
 

boon23

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this is up now on Rapidshare
 
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