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21 Grams Rebalanced

Gatos

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21GramsRebalanced-CoverArt-FrontCover-Resized.jpg

(Cover Art by g1orkatsos)


Trailer:


Original Film Name: 21 Grams
Fanedit Film Name: 21 Grams Rebalanced
Original Runtime: 124 minutes
Fanedit Runtime: 112 minutes

Intention:
"In this film everything has already happened, and it's as if God, or the director, is shuffling the deck after the game is over. Here is the question we have to answer: Is this approach better than telling the same story from beginning to end?" - Roger Ebert

I have always been a huge fan of Alejandro González Iñárritu's films (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Biutiful etc.) I always liked 21 Grams and never really had a problem with the fractured, non-linear structure of the story.

Some reviewers (i.e. Ebert) feel the non-linear structure was unnecessary and even a cheap trick or "stunt" that didn't add anything to the story. I don't really agree with this sentiment but I understand it. With that being said, my intention for this fanedit was to make a more linear and chronological version of the film.


Edit Details:
This edit is not 100% chronological. I replaced the opening scene and kept the "bookends" intact.

This edit was really like trying to put together a puzzle and figure out which scenes go where (or rather where I thought they should go). Sound editing led to some interesting results, as the beautiful score done by Gustavo Santaolalla often is spread over two scenes that are on different parts of the "time-line" of the story.

*Editor's note: For those who haven't watched their theatrical disk of 21 Grams in a while, it should be remembered that the theatrical edit utilizes lots of quick cuts and the film is very grainy at times (and my edit doesn't "fix" these things).*

Release Info: Single Layer NTSC DVD

Special Thanks:
Thanks to g1orkatsos for making the cover art, disc art, and a custom "Gatos Features" logo in the style of the "Focus Features" logo.
Thanks to LastSurvivor for designing a Main Menu and Scene Selection Menu for the DVD.
Thanks to Rogue-theX for helping me with some sound issues.
Thanks to elbarto1 for reviewing one of my early workprints.
Thanks to Neglify for reviewing a workprint.
Thanks to L8wrtr for reviewing a workprint and sending me an essay-length private message convincing me to change the order of a key scene in the movie!
 

Neglify

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Very well done on finishing! I look forward to checking out the final product.
 

g1orkatsos

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well Neglify, since it says up on top that you reviewed a workprint, what did you think of it?
 

Neglify

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http://www.fanedit.org/forums/showt...-now-available-on-page-5)&p=122316#post122316

Quick version:

Consider the original "21 Grams" a Rubik's Cube with everything mixed up. To most, it looks a jumble of colors, but there's a certain poetry to how it's mixed up. The reds and the greens are placed evenly apart and the yellows never touch the blues.

"21 Grams Rebalanced" is the same cube, fully solved. The colors are all there and technically it's the same cube, but it's not the same beast. It's even, smooth and looks beautiful.
 

L8wrtr

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I keep trying to write a small teaser review that doesn't say too much because I want to save my full review until after I see the final tweaks that Gatos had made since my viewing of the workprint, and each time I keep writing a near full-review.

So here it is. Everyone has different expectations and tastes, and what one person says is brilliant may seem utter rubbish to another, so I hope people will come into this edit with open eyes and fair expectations. So take this for what you will, for me personally, based on what I like in movies, not just fanedits, but movies, this is one of my favorite fanedits that I have ever seen. Ever. This could have (and in my opinion should have) been released in the theaters. The editing is seamless and the story that he reveals is in a word, beautiful. One last unfair piece of praise. When the final credits rolled on this version, the film rang with an emotional resonance on par with American Beauty.

I can't wait to see this Gatos. Congratulations.
 

Gatos

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L8wrtr said:
I keep trying to write a small teaser review that doesn't say too much because I want to save my full review until after I see the final tweaks that Gatos had made since my viewing of the workprint, and each time I keep writing a near full-review.

So here it is. Everyone has different expectations and tastes, and what one person says is brilliant may seem utter rubbish to another, so I hope people will come into this edit with open eyes and fair expectations. So take this for what you will, for me personally, based on what I like in movies, not just fanedits, but movies, this is one of my favorite fanedits that I have ever seen. Ever. This could have (and in my opinion should have) been released in the theaters. The editing is seamless and the story that he reveals is in a word, beautiful. One last unfair piece of praise. When the final credits rolled on this version, the film rang with an emotional resonance on par with American Beauty.

I can't wait to see this Gatos. Congratulations.

Thanks for the kind words L8wrtr. That is some lofty praise there! I'm glad you liked it.
 

LastSurvivor

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based on what I like in movies, not just fanedits, but movies, this is one of my favorite fanedits that I have ever seen. Ever. This could have (and in my opinion should have) been released in the theaters.

WOW... High praise indeed - well done Gatos and I seriously can't wait to view this. I'll probably get around to seeing this way before your OZ edit!! I still haven't finished watching season 1 on DVD.. doh. Anyways, congrats man :)
 

Gatos

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Links are up, so if you don't want to wait for the official release/dlc you can PM me and i'll send you the links!
 

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LastSurvivor said:
WOW... High praise indeed - well done Gatos and I seriously can't wait to view this. I'll probably get around to seeing this way before your OZ edit!! I still haven't finished watching season 1 on DVD.. doh. Anyways, congrats man :)

Not a problem LastSurvivor! And thanks for the congrats, I hope you enjoy the edit.
 

L8wrtr

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LastSurvivor said:
WOW... High praise indeed - well done Gatos and I seriously can't wait to view this. I'll probably get around to seeing this way before your OZ edit!! I still haven't finished watching season 1 on DVD.. doh. Anyways, congrats man :)

Yeah, I was nervous about leaving such high praise so as to not set expectations unreasonably high. Like I said, everyone's sensibilities are different. The thing that I loved about this edit is that the ending is exactly the same as the theatrical, yet for both my wife and I, the impact was far more touching and meaningful than in the shattered timeline version. Neglify's Rubic's Cube metaphor is perfect. ALL of the same pieces are here (minus a few redundant ones) but the journey is completely different, and thus the result is entirely different.

What it comes down to is that when told in linear fashion, you participate in the story emotionally. As events unfold, you react to them, and emotions are a sequential, cumulative thing. By the time we've reached the end of the story, the experience is drastically different than the shattered version, and so the message at the end has a completely different resonance (again, at least for me, your mileage may vary).
 

g1orkatsos

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Just finished watching it... And i Loved it! A Great improvement over the original film! It added so muck more to the story, the characters. Now that everything has a actual flow to it, get much more invested to the movie. i didn't notice any audio or video problems at all. for me now this is the definite version of 21 grams! i will post a proper review a soon as i can, but Gatos, man Good Job!!!
 

geminigod

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I do need to see this... but I recall it was the most depressing movie I have ever seen. Need to get in the right mood first.

Gatos, Go post some really mean stuff about my edits. Then after reading, I can settle down with a tub of ice cream and 21 Grams Rebalanced.
 

Gatos

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g1orkatsos said:
Just finished watching it... And i Loved it! A Great improvement over the original film! It added so muck more to the story, the characters. Now that everything has a actual flow to it, get much more invested to the movie. i didn't notice any audio or video problems at all. for me now this is the definite version of 21 grams! i will post a proper review a soon as i can, but Gatos, man Good Job!!!

I'm glad you liked it g1orkatsos! And while it was never my intention to make this a "replacement" edit, its a huge compliment that this edit is now your definitive version of the movie.
 

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geminigod said:
I do need to see this... but I recall it was the most depressing movie I have ever seen. Need to get in the right mood first.

Gatos, Go post some really mean stuff about my edits. Then after reading, I can settle down with a tub of ice cream and 21 Grams Rebalanced.

Haha, well that audio replacement from Neo saying "the machine city" to "the matrix" stuck out a bit (that's me saying something mean about your edit :p)
 

LastSurvivor

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Been a long time since I've seen the original. The blu ray came through the post yesterday, so will watch it soon and then it's all set for me to view Gatos' already highly acclaimed "Rebalanced" edit :)
 

Gatos

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LastSurvivor said:
Been a long time since I've seen the original. The blu ray came through the post yesterday, so will watch it soon and then it's all set for me to view Gatos' already highly acclaimed "Rebalanced" edit :)

Nice! I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the edit.
 

L8wrtr

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geminigod said:
I do need to see this... but I recall it was the most depressing movie I have ever seen. Need to get in the right mood first.

That's how my wife and I felt about the theatrical Gemini, I likened watching the original to being tied to a chair and then beaten for 2 hours. By the time we got to the end we were so beaten down that we were just grateful that the movie was over and all the questions were resolved. This version still tears at your heart, but the manner in which the story is told isn't oppressive, it allows you time to recover your emotions and builds you to the conclusion which is so much more satisfying once you have context for each characters' experience.
 

LastSurvivor

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Hey Gatos... Posted this review on the edit's main page as well..

Sometimes you just have to sit back and be grateful that the world of the fanedit can bring such diverse delights. For every Superman or Star Wars edit, there's a L.A. Confidential or a Killing of a Chinese Bookie. It should be no surprise therefore that the editor of the last film mentioned, is the person responsible for being brave enough to attempt a linear edit of Alejandro González Iñárritu's fragmented masterpiece, 21 Grams.

To me, Iñárritu is one of the best directors working in cinema today. His much discussed "death trilogy" (Amores Peros, 21 Grams and Babel) arguably represents the finest example of non-linear storytelling and direction in cinematic history, even if by the time Babel comes to a close you could be forgiven for wondering if he's capable of directing in any other fashion. One's curiosity as to how a film such as 21 Grams would play if it were to unfold in a much more conventional linear style was, before the world of fanediting, exactly that - nothing but a curious thought. Now, thanks to Gatos, this has become a reality.

If I'm honest, I was a little worried about how well a rebalanced edit of 21 Grams would play out. After all, on the bonus features on the blu-ray of the film Iñárritu actually points out that life does feel very fragmented and more or less hints that the only way 21 Grams would work in its editing, would be in this very fashion. As I say, Gatos, you're a braver man than me ;) So, I settled down for another round of emotionally exhausting cinema with 21 Grams Rebalanced, praying that the edit would still hold the same powerful effect as Iñárritu's cut, which I had watched and still hadn't really recovered from, just one day earlier.

Had I been watching this with Gatos, my first reaction as the credits rolled would have been to turn to him and shake his hand. Some may say that re-balancing a non-linear film such as this is easy, but it's more than just completely reordering the scenes of the film. Some small sequences still have to be cut completely (in fact, about 12 minutes is trimmed here in total) and more importantly for a film of this quality, cut with some degree of care and skill. I know that Gatos experienced some tough audio challenges with the edit, particularly in scenes where the gentle score from Gustavo Santaolalla would spread from a scene Gatos wanted to keep to another which he wanted to cut or reorder. Not an easy task at all and its to his credit that the cuts, both audio and visual are nearly perfect throughout the edit.

As for comparing this edit to the theatrical cut, well that's a tricky one for this viewer. Having loved Iñárritu's non-linear style, I have to say that this Rebalanced cut does not quite play out with as much emotional force. It's difficult to say why exactly, but ultimately I believe that Iñárritu's claim that life and death work in such fragmented ways, in both how they unfold and effect other people, is one which rings true for the style in which 21 Grams was originally edited together. I know that Gatos is a huge fan of the original film, so it's not as if he's trying to represent a version which will replace Iñárritu's. Indeed, I still believe this is one of the most skillful fanedits you could wish to see and makes for a fascinating alternate take, while managing to maintain the spirit and tone of the original film.

I suppose the way in which the terrible accident which changes the course of three people's lives is explored seems to hold more surprise and fascination in its fragmented form. It's to Gatos' credit therefore that he manages to stick with two bookends which actually belie his "Rebalanced" title a little. It's as if he's brought the weight back down to a much more conventional narrative, but still displays an acknowledgement for the more unsettling side of life and death with the edit's opening and closing moments. A nice balance indeed.

Onto the technical side of things... Picture quality is a 10/10 for me. I watched the original version on blu-ray the day before, but Gatos' DVD version was excellent none-the-less.

Audio wise, it would be a well deserved 10/10 as well. Some tough work involved, and there's only one tiny scene were Santaolalla's score comes in and then fades out very abruptly (not harshly though!), but it's not distracting and as I say, it is a very small hardly noticeable glitch, hence my still perfect score.

Finally the editing itself is, as touched upon above, basically flawless. The scenes are reordered with skill and the pace of the movie still feels spot-on - the scenes which are cut are barely noticeable and therefore not missed. 10/10.

Summing up, I would actually give the edit a 9/10. I wanted to give a perfect 10, as this really is a beautifully crafted fanedit, but ultimately my feeling that the "rebalanced" style of the film did not quite maintain the danger and intriguing nature of Iñárritu's original vision was too much to ignore. Nevertheless, this is a quite excellent fanedit which should be seen by anybody interested in the medium. It's a difficult film to endure at times, but I urge you to enter the world of Alejandro González Iñárritu - it's a fascinating glimpse into the beauty and pain of life and death which will always stay with you. Congratulations Gatos, on a quite excellent piece of fanediting.
 

Gatos

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Wow! Thanks for that detailed review LastSurvivor.

LastSurvivor said:
As for comparing this edit to the theatrical cut, well that's a tricky one for this viewer. Having loved Iñárritu's non-linear style, I have to say that this Rebalanced cut does not quite play out with as much emotional force. It's difficult to say why exactly, but ultimately I believe that Iñárritu's claim that life and death work in such fragmented ways, in both how they unfold and effect other people, is one which rings true for the style in which 21 Grams was originally edited together. I know that Gatos is a huge fan of the original film, so it's not as if he's trying to represent a version which will replace Iñárritu's. Indeed, I still believe this is one of the most skillful fanedits you could wish to see and makes for a fascinating alternate take, while managing to maintain the spirit and tone of the original film.

I totally understand your feelings on the theatrical cut. And as you said, it was never my intention to make this a replacement edit. But I'm glad you enjoyed this edit and thank you again for your menu designs.
 
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