Batman: The Man Who Laughs

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Batman: The Man Who Laughs
Faneditor Name:
Original Movie Title:
Genre:
Franchise:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
2008
Original Running Time:
152
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
140
Time Cut:
12
Available in HD?
Brief Synopsis:
Batman: The Man Who Laughs tries to amplify the strengths of The Dark Knight while omitting some of its weaknesses. Pacing is tightened up, some scenes are restructured, rescored, reordered, or omitted altogether. Lines of dialogue and humor that seemed out of place omitted as well. I usually fanedit awful movies. Here I wanted to take a very good movie and make it the best it could be (IMO).
Intention:
Why edit The Dark Knight which many think is a modern classic? Believe me, there are numerous things I absolutely love about the movie but a few things that never sat well with me. Many of the lines delivered by bit players were so poorly done that it always took me out of the movie. I've also always felt that there were some pacing issues that took place whenever The Joker wasn't on screen. My goal was to tighten up the run time while eliminating the more cringeworthy moments or humor.
Other Sources:
- Supersonic by Brand X Music
- V for Vendetta soundtrack by Dario Marianelli
Special Thanks:
Special thanks definitely goes out to jswert123456 for offering to create what ended up being an outstanding looking bluray cover!
Release Information:
Digital
Cuts and Additions:
1) Letterboxed all IMAX scenes so the aspect ratio does not change back and forth.
2) Cut scenes with Wertz talking about Batman and Ramirez and Gordon on the rooftop.
3) Reordered first few scenes. After the bank robbery Gordon is now immediately investigating it. This is then followed by Batman on the parking deck.
4) Gordon and Batman talking in vault scored with "I'm Not a Hero" by Hans Zimmer from The Dark Knight soundtrack.
5) Cut "Pity there's only one of you."
6) Cut the tumbler's loiter and intimidate mode.
7) Scarecrow now gets away, prompting Bruce to say he needs to be faster in the next scene. This leads to his new costume.
8) Alternate audio take used for The Joker's "kill the batman" line.
9) Cut Bruce talking to Lucius about wanting to send him to Hong Kong.
10) Cut Bruce and Alfred talking about Sky Hook.
11) Cut Harvey and Rachel seeing that the ballet is canceled.
12) Cut boat scenes with Bruce, Alfred, and the ballerinas.
13) Cut all daytime Hong Kong scenes. Lucius no longer travels there. Because of this, Lucius no longer creates the mapping Sonar. Later in the cut we see that Bruce did.
14) The phone that Lucius left no longer exists and no longer causes the lights in Lau's building to go out. Lights now go off as Batman targets the building.
15) Cut cops "Have a nice trip. See you next fall" line.
16) Cut puzzled look on court stenographer's face.
17) Cut Bruce and Alfred talking about fundraiser.
18) Cut Dent talking to Lau in the jail cell.
19) Cut Alfred and Bruce talking about the bandit.
20) Cut Alfred telling Bruce I told you so.
21) Cut "He should turn himself in" and "give us the Batman" lines from Dent's press conference.
22) Rescored beginning of the armored car chase with "Why So Serious" from The Dark Knight soundtrack.
23) Cut cop yelling "obstruction ahead, obstruction ahead."
24) Cut armored car passenger saying "get us out of here, lets go."
25) Cut cop saying "He's going to need something a lot bigger to get through this."
26) Rescored tumbler and batpod chasing the armored car with Supersonic by Brand X music.
27) Cut editing error that made it look like the tumbler should've landed on its head after being shot with missile launcher.
28) Cut armored car passenger saying "We gotta get topside. We need air support."
29) Cut tumbler self-destruct.
30) Cut batpod driving between cars and destroying rear view mirrors.
31) Cut all helicopter scenes during armored car chase.
32) Armored car chase shortened overall to give more of a race against time feel.
33) Cut Batman blowing up empty cars.
34) Fixed editing error. When Batman shoots the glass doors, he now immediately drives through them instead of having a random parking garage clip inserted between the two shots.
35) Trimmed batpod driving towards Joker's semi.
36) Batpod now drives up the wall before the semi flips instead of after.
37) Trimmed batpod driving towards Joker.
38) Alternate audio take used for The Joker yelling "HIT ME!"
39) Cut Dent's "You do like to play things close to the chest."
40) Cut cop saying "Is that a... phone" line before explosion.
41) Cut Alfred telling Bruce how he caught the bandit.
42) Cut Lucius's "You took my sonar concept" line.
43) Cut "We should be on that boat" and "You want to ride with them? Be my guest" lines.
44) Cut "Why would they give us the detonator to our own bomb?"
45) Cut "let's put it to a vote" line.
46) Cut Gordon's son yelling for Batman to come back.
47) Reordered final scenes.
48) Cut Batman and Gordon narrations during closing scenes.
49) Rescored closing scenes with "Evey Reborn" from the V for Vendetta soundtrack.
50) Added custom closing title card.
51) Rescored closing credits with "See You... in Hell" from The Dark Knight Returns soundtrack.
Cover art by jswert123456 (DOWNLOAD HERE)
image

User reviews

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Overall rating
 
9.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
9.7(18)
Audio Editing
 
9.8(18)
Visual Editing
 
9.9(18)
Narrative
 
9.7(18)
Enjoyment
 
9.7(18)
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Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
WOW! This was basically a perfect edit. I only noticed one cut and that was because I knew what was in the OG version of the movie, if I have never seen any other version, I may not have noticed the cut.

This is a tighter version for sure and I feel this is my go to version.

I'm still not a fan of the Joker doing the 2 boat explosion experiment but I don't see how you can cut that out of the movie.

User Review

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I really enjoyed this! Thank you for putting in the hard work. I have been struggling over the recent years to re-watch TDK but I couldn't get more than 30 minutes in before firstly being turned off then turning it off. What you did here drastically brought this film back to life, and gave it pace and energy, and stuck to the intensity and focus of the storyline that this film desperately needed. Nolan isn't always praised for his edits, as we've seen in the latter years, but there's a good core here and without some of the comic lines and unnecessary rest periods this is quite a fun film to watch. Well done!

I do agree with some of the other comments on here and I am going to attempt those edits myself. I think by removing the copy-cat Batman's in the first Batman intro scene (what is even the point of that scene?) it will make for a nice surprise and actually a well-thought out plan by the Joker when its hung body slams against the window. I'd also like to add back some of the nuances that were cut away, such as the slow-mo of Dent's burning, or the "But I did tell you so," line that I thought was forcefully cut. Some things can breathe, and I'd say 95% of what you cut is spot on. Lastly, I'm not quite in full agreement about the ending. I found myself getting nervous as I watched it, which to me is a sign that I'm about to not be fully satisfied. I'd like to play around with this and even keep the score the same as the original. I didn't mind the score changes in the other scenes and I thought they worked quite nicely, but this one felt a little off. I'll play with it and see what works - but I do agree that Gordon's speech and voiceover is a cheap way of finding a quick open-ended ending.

Overall very well done and this has been one of my favorite edits. I keep waking in the middle of the night thinking about it. Thank you!

User Review

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
D
2 reviews
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(Updated: May 04, 2021)
Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I saw this a few years back. This was a very strong edit of The Dark Knight that streamlines an already amazing film. The cuts were really unnoticeable, and the new ending sequence was brilliant, it made me excited to watch TDKR.
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Overall rating
 
10.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
10.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I will openly admit I did not like the original movie when I first viewed it in 2012, due to many annoyances I experienced while immersing myself in the film. This edit turned a movie I felt was highly overrated into an enjoyable experience I will now see as the true, definitive Dark Knight film. The editor did a fantastic job on this project and his work here is nothing short of stellar.

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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(Updated: September 04, 2020)
Overall rating
 
9.6
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
10.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
Excellent fanedit that cuts out the extraneous/unneeded elements and pares the story down to its essentials, thus focusing the narrative and highlighting the key motivations, themes, and characters (esp harvey's arc) much more effectively. Highly recommended.

A couple of things however, that IMHO prevent this from being 'perfect' (in my eyes):

-Not entirely sure the batman copycat concept works here, esp since the beginning sequence is now purely focused on setting up the narrative elements re the mob, the joker, DA harvey, and batman's mission-- the copycat concept just detracts from 'setting the stage' especially as the dialogue from the copycat has been cut from the beginning sequence -- these copycats could certainly be cut from the scarecrow scene, which would then simply have batman + the tumbler intrude on scarecrow's meeting w the russians before scarecrow gets away. This obviously would necessitate cutting the copycat's dialogue about batman being a symbol in the joker's torture video, and narratively have the joker just dress up a poor random guy in a batman suit before torturing, killing him, and putting a noose over the corpse before tossing it over the side of the mayor's office (which would be a surprise for the audience while still fitting into the 'chaos' aspect of the Joker's MO and how he's causing all this chaos due to batman's presence and how batman should unmask himself to stop this senseless violence and death)

-Would've left the scene w Gordon + Ramirez + batsignal in to 1) provide context re how batman has changed gotham's criminal activity, 2) foreshadow Ramirez's betrayal (mother in the hospital etc), 3) use the batsignal instead to underscore the 'batman as a symbol' theme (which is essentially the purpose of the copycat story component anyway) which then 4) makes the 'gordon taking an axe to the batsignal' shot in the end more poignant and meaningful.

Aside from the above two elements, all the other judicious cuts were extremely well done, as Ryantology jettisoned scenes and elements that weren't really essential to the story and which took screentime away from the main players and the conflicts playing out in the narrative. Everything's much clearer and focused now, and the film's all the better for it. Great work!

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Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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