Review Detail
9.3 4 10
Overall rating
9.2
Audio/Video Quality
10.0
Audio Editing
7.0
Visual Editing
9.0
Narrative
10.0
Enjoyment
10.0
I am a fan of Edgar Wright's films, so when I read JasonFlippy's thread about wanting to make some changes to Baby Driver I was quite interested to see what would come of it. Wright's film-making style and use of music, particularly in this film, means that making any significant changes unobtrusively is quite a challenge.
I don't have much of a problem with Spacey's character arc in the original film, but I do appreciate that it does seem a bit of a sudden change of heart. I was curious to see if the desired change could be pulled off, and am quite impressed with how Jason has made this work. The reduction in Doc's screentime required to implement it does background him a little as a character, and reduces the sense of his relationship with Baby as being unusual compared to most of the people he uses in his heists, but not in a way that creates problems for the narrative. The character's throughline and behaviour is definitely more internally consistent in this edit.
I think the related change that removes Baby working off a debt to Doc and working is generally effective - where the original film had Baby trying to pay off his debt to Doc without getting anyone hurt, in this edit it feels like Baby is lying to himself about the reality of being a getaway driver for an armed robbery crew and over the course of the film is forced to acknowledge the reality of what he does.
As others have mentioned the main issue with the implementation of this is a short snippet of music at around 00:40:28 where Baby's calls to Debora at the diner have been stitched together, which also drowns out part of Baby's dialogue. I think that this part needs some more finessing, as there's also a fairly random ~3 second shot of money being tossed into Baby's safe-keeping spot.
One thing that I do think works against this edit are some of the cuts to reduce the bloodiness of the gunshots - partly on a purely practical basis (the chase/shootout after the Post Office Job is so tightly cut to the music that IMO any changes would be noticeable, as they are here) and partly on a narrative basis, because this escalating violence is precisely what Baby has been trying to ignore but is now forced to confront. It feels like an editing choice that's running counter to the story being told in the film, particularly because it comes after we have already seen a fairly bloody shootout with the corrupt cops who were dealing weapons.
I like the way the new ending is cut - as garstazi has mentioned in their review, the original epilogue is weaker than the rest of the film; tightening the focus to just Baby and Debora is a good choice and allows the film to close on a shot of what both have expressed a desire for - hitting the road with no plan but to keep going.
Overall, I think this edit is a small bit of polish away from being an excellent alternate presentation of the film.
I don't have much of a problem with Spacey's character arc in the original film, but I do appreciate that it does seem a bit of a sudden change of heart. I was curious to see if the desired change could be pulled off, and am quite impressed with how Jason has made this work. The reduction in Doc's screentime required to implement it does background him a little as a character, and reduces the sense of his relationship with Baby as being unusual compared to most of the people he uses in his heists, but not in a way that creates problems for the narrative. The character's throughline and behaviour is definitely more internally consistent in this edit.
I think the related change that removes Baby working off a debt to Doc and working is generally effective - where the original film had Baby trying to pay off his debt to Doc without getting anyone hurt, in this edit it feels like Baby is lying to himself about the reality of being a getaway driver for an armed robbery crew and over the course of the film is forced to acknowledge the reality of what he does.
As others have mentioned the main issue with the implementation of this is a short snippet of music at around 00:40:28 where Baby's calls to Debora at the diner have been stitched together, which also drowns out part of Baby's dialogue. I think that this part needs some more finessing, as there's also a fairly random ~3 second shot of money being tossed into Baby's safe-keeping spot.
One thing that I do think works against this edit are some of the cuts to reduce the bloodiness of the gunshots - partly on a purely practical basis (the chase/shootout after the Post Office Job is so tightly cut to the music that IMO any changes would be noticeable, as they are here) and partly on a narrative basis, because this escalating violence is precisely what Baby has been trying to ignore but is now forced to confront. It feels like an editing choice that's running counter to the story being told in the film, particularly because it comes after we have already seen a fairly bloody shootout with the corrupt cops who were dealing weapons.
I like the way the new ending is cut - as garstazi has mentioned in their review, the original epilogue is weaker than the rest of the film; tightening the focus to just Baby and Debora is a good choice and allows the film to close on a shot of what both have expressed a desire for - hitting the road with no plan but to keep going.
Overall, I think this edit is a small bit of polish away from being an excellent alternate presentation of the film.
T