Return of the Jedi: Dan Edit

[yads]

I'm still tinkering with a cover. Im thinking about something like this.

Classic, but a bit new.

Sluggo: thanks so much! That's great - as you say, a real classic Jedi feel to it.

 

[yads]

Hey Yads, have you seen my cutlist for my new ROJ cut? I do a lot of reordering at the beginning. If you'd like to borrow some ideas feel free. I probably have some of your cuts in my version, so it's only fair.

I just read your cutlist - the opening sounds really interesting.

I've actually been experimenting with a more radical version of Jedi, which has Luke on Dagobah at the start (if you're interested there's a link to a real rough cut of the opening minutes in my thread at OT), it's fair to say though that aside from Luke on Dagobah we've gone in completely different directions.

Cutting out Vader arriving at the Death Star makes sense, you're right that it's purely expositional: hey, there's a new Death Star, hey, the Emperor's on his way. You've also cut out a lot more from Jabba's palace than I have - I know you've been debating whether to include the Lapti Nek dance number or not, it's a real dilemma. On the one hand it's a bit of a stupid scene, but it's the only time we see Jabba's palace in day-to-day action that's not anything to do with the Han 'rescue'. It shows Jabba being a mean dude, as well as being a chance to show Han up on the wall.

One thing I really want to do is start the film with the droids already captured - it allows the long, tedious scene of them walking to the palace etc to be cut, but there are two problems with that, one minor, one not: X-Wings use R2 units, and it seems unlikely that Luke would take a different one with him back to Dagobah; and if R2 is carrying Luke's lightsaber it makes no sense that Luke would go back to Dagobah without it.

I always thought your idea for rearranging scenes to build greater tension through the Battle of Endor was a great idea - thanks, I may borrow some of them for v2 (although unless I can figure out a way to fix the Luke on Dagobah opening I'll quit working on the version 2 edit altogether).

 

[spence]

I can tell you that I'm very, very happy with a lot of my changes. Moving Dagobah to the beginning does great things for the pacing. That's now the introduction to Luke. Where it is in the movie now, it almost interrupts the flow of the plot. It's like everythings moving at a great speed, but then everything grinds to a halt to have a really slow scene with Yoda. With it being at the beginning, the rest of the movie just builds from there, really amping the tension.

I'm also finding removing Lapti Nek really helps. It's cool to see the palace with everyone asleep, kind of creepy, and then a nice big reveal of Han on the wall with this scary bounty hunter we haven't met yet walking up to him. Awesome.

I hope you do a version 2. I really like your version 1, and there just aren't enough edits of Return of the Jedi, especially since many people consider it inferior to even some of the prequels.

 

[TM2YC]

Just finished watching the new Radical Workprint of this ROTJ edit...

Short review = Loved it!

Very clever radical changes that I would never have dreamed were possible. Hats off for taking footage from so many sources and combining it so well.

Now for the long review...

I disagreed with so little of the many changes that it hardly seems worth mentioning the few that I did (Especially as radically changing things is the reason for the edit!). So mostly I'll just list the few minor technical issues I had:

- Squashing and stretching of footage is a BIG NO for me. A shot's aspect ratio should not be tampered with, cropping is always preferrable. Given the generaly very-high quality of the rest of the edit these really stand out e.g.

^ Below is an example of a squashed shot from the edit. ^ Top is a partly restored and cropped shot I did. It's still a little squashed but is much less noticable.
- The Boba subs aren't right at all. Controversial, but may I suggest you could construct viable dialogue from Jango, redubed-Boba and clone lines. There is plenty to choose from across the saga.
- The use of the 2011 CGI "Enhanced" Jabba's palace door is an irritation for me. I'm sure others won't really have a problem with it though. Down to taste I guess.

Can I make a couple of suggestions to improve things IMO that wouldn't take much doing...

- A brown/orange tint to the two Dagobah x-wing shots of Luke leaving Tatooine would be easy and really help them blend with the rest of the footage.
- Do we have to loose the cool footage of Boba fighting over the Sarlaac pit? Couldn't he just get knocked out cold, when he crashes head first into the skiff and just remove the rolling into the sarlacc shots. Since you've nicely beefed up Boba's role in the film it seems counter-intuitive to cut this great scene.

Now that's outta the way, onto the good stuff:

- Generally seemless blending of the deleted material back in (It's all here, bar the pilot chatter).
- The re-arrangement of events in the first act (Especially Luke on Dagobah) is a huge improvement to pace.
- The new Star Destroyer shot after the post crawl pan down is such a little thing but makes a huge difference. This whole sequence works perfectly now.
- Nice cleanup of the sandstorm footage. Why wasn't this in the original cut. Having our heroes face to face is soo much warmer and more memorable than chatting over the radio as an after thought.
- The darker music queue over the shot of Luke putting on his black glove is such a subtle change but probably my favourite change in the whole edit!
- Removal of Wicket as a prominant character really helps bring-out the darker side of the Ewoks.
- Removal of Han's hissy fit in the ewok village when he over hears Leia and Luke was great.
- I thought the insetion of the deleted bunker assault footage was particulaly well executed.
- Tie-fighters launching shot kicked ass! (Like frickin' Babylon 5 Starfurys yo!).
- Loved all the new rebels-v-stromtroopers battle footage. It's cut so well into the flow of the scene.
- The integration of the Boba footage is very clever. I couldn't imagine how it was possibly going to pay off in the end... but Dan did it. Great job!
- LOVED the new music at the end. I was getting all emotional.

Guys n gals, you need to see this edit. Not just people who think ROTJ was weak and needed fixing, hardcore Jedi fans too. ROTJ is my favourite Star Wars film and I thought this version was a blast!

p.s. As I've mentioned before, I'm of the opinion that Lando yelling "Yee-ha" while blasting out of the Death Star, is one of the two or three greatest moments in the history of Cinema. But I know Dan feels exactly the oposit, which is why he has made the grevious error of cutting it lol... but nice job on the removal, silky smooth!

 

[yads]

Thanks for the great review (I left a detailed reply at OT).

Just to avoid any possible confusion: this is a review of the Radical Re-Edit not the Dan Edit. The Dan Edit DLC is currently on another site formerly associated with this one, (although a dead link at the moment), the Radical version is a PM me to get it kinda deal.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Recently watching the new Darth rush Jedi edit has made me curious about this one. I've liked both the Darth rush and Spence edits of Jedi but there are changes I don't agree with in both. I downloaded the Dan edit but I'm getting an extraction error in jdownloder and when I try to directly extract it's telling me it's not a RAR file. Any ideas?

I have also PM'd yads, but thought this may be a technical issue on my part that others may have an answer for.

 

[L8wrtr]

In

Recently watching the new Darth rush Jedi edit has made me curious about this one. I've liked both the Darth rush and Spence edits of Jedi but there are changes I don't agree with in both. I downloaded the Dan edit but I'm getting an extraction error in jdownloder and when I try to directly extract it's telling me it's not a RAR file. Any ideas?

I have also PM'd yads, but thought this may be a technical issue on my part that others may have an answer for.

I'm interested in checking this out so I'll download tonight and see if I get a similar issue or not and the. Update thread.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

In

Recently watching the new Darth rush Jedi edit has made me curious about this one. I've liked both the Darth rush and Spence edits of Jedi but there are changes I don't agree with in both. I downloaded the Dan edit but I'm getting an extraction error in jdownloder and when I try to directly extract it's telling me it's not a RAR file. Any ideas?

I have also PM'd yads, but thought this may be a technical issue on my part that others may have an answer for.

I'm interested in checking this out so I'll download tonight and see if I get a similar issue or not and the. Update thread.

Hey L8, did you get a chance to try this?

 

[L8wrtr]

In

Recently watching the new Darth rush Jedi edit has made me curious about this one. I've liked both the Darth rush and Spence edits of Jedi but there are changes I don't agree with in both. I downloaded the Dan edit but I'm getting an extraction error in jdownloder and when I try to directly extract it's telling me it's not a RAR file. Any ideas?

I have also PM'd yads, but thought this may be a technical issue on my part that others may have an answer for.

I'm interested in checking this out so I'll download tonight and see if I get a similar issue or not and the. Update thread.

Hey L8, did you get a chance to try this?

Sorry for the delay @"Moe_Syzlak" , I did and it was successful, but with some caveats, most of all I'm on a Mac.

I downloaded the files with JD but it did not extract anything like it normally does. I then used stuffit expander to extract the files and this resulted in another 7z file, but this time at the much larger size of 4.17 gb. When I tried to use Stuffit Expander on that file, I got an error, however when I used an app called TheUnarchiver, it worked without a problem and the jedi3015.mpg file seems fine. I spot-checked it beginning to end and saw no obvious issues. Not sure that helps, but my guess it's a matter of using the right combination of programs to extract the files.

Good luck!

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

I had the same issue with jdownloader not being able to extract the file. I used 7zip and it seems to have extracted fine. Super long extraction time though for such a small file.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Thanks guys. I'll try a different extraction program. I'm out of town right now but I think I have 7zip. I'm on a Mac as well.

 

[Nic]

Yeah, jdownloader to get the files, 7zip to get the actual edit.

Also, apparently there was a new version of this edit that put Boba Fett back in?

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Yeah, jdownloader to get the files, 7zip to get the actual edit.

Also, apparently there was a new version of this edit that put Boba Fett back in?

The absence of Boba Fett is one the most attractive things about this edit for me.

 

[DigModiFicaTion]

I glanced through it after seeing TM2YC's screen caps of the emperor in the sunset, but didn't see that scene. Didn't really notice many cuts either beyond Boba and Lando and Han. Was it Spence's version that added music to the speeder bikes and moved the emperor to the devestator?

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

I glanced through it after seeing TM2YC's screen caps of the emperor in the sunset, but didn't see that scene. Didn't really notice many cuts either beyond Boba and Lando and Han. Was it Spence's version that added music to the speeder bikes and moved the emperor to the devestator?

I believe there is an extreme Dan edit that those screen shots ore from. But yes, the Spence edit is the one where the Emperor is moved off the DS.

 

[Moe_Syzlak]

Thanks everyone. I was able to get it to extract using Unarchiver. Looking forward to watching it.