Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze – Detarnished!

First, I have to say that I owe Tony a sincere apology. When he finished his edit, he sent me a copy in the gold case with a beautiful cover and I never thanked him for it. I feel pretty bad about that. As we used to say in the Army, there is no excuse, but there is an explanation. A lot of the delay was due to my natural procrastination. But the other factor was that my wife is the serious Doc Savage fan in our house. Sure, I am a Doc fan but not at her level. She has all the books, the radio shows, the comics, even a fair selection of the original pulps, and a vast assortment of reference material. She takes Doc Savage very seriously. So, of course, I wanted her to see this fanedit. As any real fan would, she detested the original movie so much that I could never convince her to watch it. So, I finally just showed it to her without telling her what we were watching. That was a long time after I got the DVD. I asked her to write something about this version and she did. Here it is:

"Thank you for getting the Doc Savage fan edit I know that I refused to watch it for a very long time, and I know that you know how deeply scarred I (and other Doc fans) were by that horrible movie. You were wise to start watching it, finally, without telling me what we were watching.

"The text introduction was really good – made me want more. I loved the way they changed the beginning of the movie into an old-time newsreel, too. The rest of the movie was almost painless – I don’t think I’ll ever be able to listen to Sousa again without cringing. And finally, the extras helped me to relive that old pain in all its glory…and in doing so, to really appreciate what a fine job was done in paring the movie down to its very best parts.

"Please thank whoever the editor was – I didn’t think it could be done!"

I liked it, too. I didn't hate the original as much as she did but it was hard to like it. Tony's edit improved it at least an order of magnitude, arguably several. It is actually watchable now without moaning at the bad parts. There aren't any bad parts, now. It is quite an achievement. I appreciate any fan edit but it is something different to start with a good movie and make improvements than to start with a very bad movie and make it decent.

Technically, I think it is nearly flawless. The video and audio quality are equal to the source and the edits are smooth and hardly noticable. The amount of fixing of small things that add up to a major change in the tone of the movie is hard to grasp. He went so far as to insert new video and sound effects, something I would not even contemplate trying.

BTW, it was my wife who made the request that the kiss at the end be removed as she considered it very out of character for Doc. I appreciate Tony giving her credit for that.

And, very belatedly, thanks for your super job.

This edit is absolutely perfect! I had never heard of this movie before I heard of this edit. So I wanted to see the original, and man was it bad. It was so bad in fact that it's taken me almost a year to watch the fanedit.

And I am so glad I did. Slark has turned a bomb into a smashing success.

This was one of the first fan edits I watched. After the Massive disappointment that was the original film, this movie was a welcome relief.

This edited version is a good movie, in and of itself. It is a fun, rather lighthearted, adventure film. It ends up feeling a lot like the movie “The Princess Bride” or perhaps like a slightly more lighthearted Indiana Jones.

The original film was ridiculous. It was plagued by poor directing choices, a bizarre musical score, ridiculous special effects, and unfunny jokes. The secondary villain for some reason, sleeps in an overgrown crib and sucks his thumb. Wut? It was a bad movie, but it was made by some very talented actors, and (after having watched this edit) it appears that there was a lot of potential in it.

When compared to the original, this edit goes from being merely good and fun to being Great, Extraordinary, completely amazing, or whatever other superlative you’d care to throw at it. Yes, there is still some ‘Adam West-y’ dialogue, and there are a few moments of ridiculousness, but that is part of the charm. And, at this point, it is so secondary to the real story that it actually functions as a bit of comic relief. The pacing is good, and the movie is so much FUN to watch. Detarnished is funny, suspenseful, and enjoyable. This movie, by and large, is the epitome of the perfect geek movie.

If you balked at the original, watch this movie and be astounded. If you enjoyed the original, or see the whole concept of fan edits as blasphemy watch this movie anyway. I think you’ll be surprised. If you've never seen the original, go out and buy it so that you can watch this version and enjoy it with a clean conscience.

Had this been commercially released, it would be regarded as a classic. It would be one of those films that gets re-released every two years, and that everyone (EVERYONE) has seen a dozen times over. Sadly, it was not to be. My hat goes off to Slark for creating something so beautiful out of such dubious materials.

July 4, 2012

I’ve been a fan of Doc since I was a kid in the 70′s, and still have an entire bookshelf collection of Doc paperbacks. Like everyone else here, I had previously taken the original film with gritted teeth and cursed the studio for missing the chance to make a truly genre-topping serial adventure film years before “Raiders”. I’ve now watched this version and it’s a jaw dropping experience by comparison with the original. Is “de-stupidified” a word? The transformation is amazing. Like the editor himself says, there are ultimately inescapable limitations built into the source material (until the day some crazy fan editor really goes nuts and replaces Monk completely with a CGI character), but he’s done astounding work with the material at hand. It’s hard to even believe the final big fight scene is made from the same footage. This was awesome. Thank you kindly, from another Doc fan!

Oh, and as others have said above, what it really feels like now is a good TV movie-of-the-week. Is it time to team up with Tranzor for one of his “TV Movie-ifications”? :D Personally, I would LOVE to see this edit start with a 1977 “ABC Friday Night Movie” intro and have some period commercial breaks. That would be some serious popcorn theater, there…

September 25, 2011
*This rating was given before reviews were required*