- Messages
- 231
- Reaction score
- 238
- Trophy Points
- 53
Cover art thanks to ArtisDead
Just to be clear, this is for the 2019 film, not the upcoming 2024 TV series of the same name.
For me, this is Guy Ritchie's best film - it still has the swagger of his other works while being more polished, with an excellent cast and while it does take you on a ride it feels a bit more grown up than some of the antics in his other films. That said I only liked it when I first watched it, but once the edit was done I loved it - and it's all down to a relatively basic change - get rid of the narrator that keeps interrupting the story. I think Fletcher's (the narrator) presence in the story works just as well if he's only really heard from at the start and the end - most of the interjections throughout the film are things we see on screen anyway so we don't need to stop and wait for him to tell us what we're going to see next!
Cliptrailer:
(Edit: Vimeo video replaced - for archival purposes the trailer still can be found here: http://bestedit.net/cliptrailers/ )
Below is the detailed edit list:
The primary change is removing a dozen narrator interruptions scattered throughout the film that tell us stuff we end up seeing anyway, I'm only going to mention any in the changelist that alter something else significant
-trim Fletcher's kitchen dialogue slightly to tighten up setting the scene a bit and remove any film-making or third wall type references
-remove long narrator interruption during the introduction of Matthew, this also bins the introduction of the tabloid editor, his status is downgraded to being one of the favors owed, although a perceptive viewer might still infer who he is from Fletcher's early "competing offer" blackmail request
-remove the evening steaks and Russian in the freezer, although the freezer is still seen several other times quickly
-remove the Lord George intro along with the narration, we infer who he is from their discussion of Dry Eye being "Lord George's guy"
-trim down the number of times Dry Eye taps his phone during the negotiation to make it a more reasonable number in line with Michael's reaction
-remove Fletcher embellishing Dry Eye's story and having to retell it
+moved the phone chase scene forward slightly to fit better into the other character interactions
-remove Fletcher seeing the frozen body carried out, we just assume he knows about it from his surveillance later when he mentions it's in the freezer
-remove Fletcher interrupting the Dry Eye/Lord George conflict, and move forward the conclusion of that scene from later in the film so it's one cohesive incident
-trim the wrap-up conversation to remove a bunch of callbacks to the numerous interruption scenes
This leaves a couple places where we get necessary voiceover narration from Fletcher introducing characters or whatever, but the only time the camera actually cuts away to his blackmail discussion are at the start and end of the film, leaving us with an uninterrupted in-the-moment story flow that never feels like it's being halted by a side discussion.
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