Dick Tracy - The Noir Edit

This was so good and super refreshing to watch. This removed so many of the parts of the original movie that distracted me and really enhanced others. The music is great, the cartoon / pulp fiction style is complimented in this format instead of it being a weird garish distraction and the music changes are fantastic.

Of course, the whole premise is ludicrous, but what this edit does crucially is keep to within the rules of what the ludicrous world is, instead of snapping in and out. The dialogue is great now, Madonna is watchable - and really good! as is the kid , the villains are amplified up , the new Miles Davis music choices are stunningly selected and the contrast between Tracy's confidence with women and gangsters is great.

The end scene where the mysterious face-less person is unmasked, and the end scene where Tracy is trying to tell Tess that they should get married is great, and have so much more emotional impact. I felt new emotions which I hadn't when I first watched it.

Such is the fast episodic lurch between scenes, I think this would have made a great 4 part 20ish minute serial: there are enough cliff-hangers and quite frankly the new pace leaves the viewer with so much to take in.

I best compliment I can give is that I reckon that if this version of Dick Tracy had been the theatrical release there would have been sequels - - and I really liked Warren Beatty in this : I didn't in the original!

SPOILERS************************
The only scenes which slightly snapped me out were
1) When the kid cuts Tracy free - it almost looks like the kid just happens to find a knife on the floor when it would probably make sense as a delinquent that he'd have a knife on him already - or perhaps he can just un-tie Tracy.
2) Probably because I had just watched "The Killing Joke" I was struck with how Batman tries to separate himself from the Joker and in the end tries to bring him in "By the book". Having Tracy knock Big Boy off into the Abyss at the end felt a little anti-climatical. I wish there was a way that part could end with him being arrested instead.

Well done Wakeupkeo

Thank you for this great edit. You took a bad movie and made it much, much better, even if it's still imperfect (not your fault...the theatrical version was flawed). The editor did everything he could do - less comedy, more noir, better music - and the result is a fun flick. Check it out.