Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze – Detarnished!

Originally written August 21, 2011

Bravo! You’ve outdone yourself this time. You took an extremely flawed movie, that many would have given up on, and made it into a good, fun adventure movie! “Doc Salvaged: The Fanedit of Bronze” was all right, but it only did what the title implied: it salvaged the movie. This version truly detarnishes it. Bionicbob has already mentioned the details, so there’s not much for me to say, except that George Pal must be smiling from his grave.

August 20, 2011

A review of

DOC SAVAGE, THE MAN OF BRONZE: DETARNISHED

WARNING: This review will most likely contain SPOILERS!

In the Wonder Years of my 1970′s Childhood, I had many heroes that inspired my imagination with epic and fantastic adventures…. Superman, Tarzan, The Six Million Dollar Man, Flash Gordon, The Man from Atlantis, Fantastic Four, Johnny Quest and many more…
but at the top of the heap, was the father of all superheroes to follow…. DOC SAVAGE!!!

I think I was eight or nine when I saw the original movie for the first time, and being a wide eyed kid who had never heard of Doc and his Fabulous Five before, I remember greatly enjoying the movie but even then noting it was pretty cheesy and odd. But it did make me curious, and it prompted me to pick up the Bantam Book “The Man of Bronze” with the extraordinary cover art by James Bama, and within a couple of chapters I was hooked! In the next year or so, I read every Doc Savage adventure I could get my hands on, and I have been a life long fan ever since.

Since those early years, I have watched the original movie on several occasions. Often fast forwarding through the many cringe worthy and cheesier moments, all the while enjoying the small nuggets of “true Doc moments”. At the heart of the is bizzare and off beat movie, I always believed there was “good”, not great, but good Doc Savage adventure.

And now, here it is!!!

SLARK has done a masterful job with this edit. While I enjoyed his version one edit (Doc Savage: SALVAGED) a few years back, this newest edition is superior on every level. This is such an obvious work of love and passion, and it shows in every frame. Slark and his fellow editors show be congratulated on this fantastic and brilliant edit!

While this newest version still has many light and cheesy moments, it is far closer now to the source material than ever before. Not once did I cringe or fast forward. When Doc utters his Oath in the hanger, I actually found myself smiling, not wincing. The opening News Reel was an inspired idea for introducing the audience to Doc and his men! Kudos to the voice over person, he did an great job capturing the tone of the old news announcers. The visual work/editting is awesome! Many times I did not realize something had been removed or altered until I watched your Bonus Features. The reworking of the final fight between Doc and Seas was smartly cut and restructured.

More than anything, this edit really improves Ron Ely portrayal of Doc Savage, and what perfect casting he was for this role.

There are tons of tiny edits and improvements throughout this edit, with the vast majority of them being completely unnoticeable. The use of Fade to Black Transistions, in many ways, made the edit now kind of feel like a Movie of Week from 1970s network television, and I mean that comparison in the best way possible. The low budget, obvious Californian landscapes and Universal Backlot scenes, completely transported me back to my childhood and my favorite tv adventure shows.

This was a highly enjoyable, fun and entertaining edit, and a great way to start my Saturday morning off. The bonus features are great. Slark’s subtitle comments had me smiling and laughing. The entire dvd package is simple, smart and effective.

I highly recommend this edit! Slark has truly found the Gem in the Rubble!

Well Done!

And Thank You for returning one of my childhood heroes to me!

August 31, 2011

As of the time I’m writing this, the edit currently has 8 ratings…all 10/10. That is no fluke and certainly not done on a whim. ;) Sure, the movie this edit is based on may not exactly be Oscar-worthy, but it was still fun. And under all the camp, Ron Ely did a great job playing Doc, giving the character the seriousness he deserved. Slark did a great job at removing a lot of the camp and thus making Ely’s performance fit in more! He even managed to toughen up Seas a bit. Heh.

When it comes to changes made, this goes FAR beyond the average ‘cut a few things out, add in a bit, and/or reorganize scenes’ edits. For example, slark did foley work. FOLEY WORK! I was hugely impressed by that. It really can be the best way of accomplishing an objective with this type of fanediting. There was also some de-Caucasianizing, visual effects added/replaced, color correction, audio swapping and tweaking, some excellent masking, and even a cameo by the editor himself! The reordering that was done was also very logically done.

In addition to all that, he also added a classy newsreel to introduce the characters, a very entertaining and insightful text commentary track, interesting text intros and outros, an often hilarious deleted scenes section, trailers, and a classic ‘making of’ featurette. The cover art is classy and the menus, though simple, work well.

I very seldom give any movie/CD/whatever a 10/10, but I gave one to this edit. The movie is fun, the edits/changes were incredibly numerous compared to many, it was a blast following and contributing to its progress and the excellent extras were like the icing on the cake. I’m sad that I can’t follow the progress of this one anymore. :p Overall, one of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had in faneditingland!

Slark hit two grand slams in the same inning with this one. HIGHEST possible recommendation!

September 2, 2011
*This rating was given before reviews were required*

September 3, 2011

I’ve been a Doc fan since the movie came out in theaters. I can still watch it and love it just as much now as I did back when I could count my age on two hands and still have fingers left over.

But as I read all the original supersagas and Will Murray’s continuation of the legend and the various comic-book series, I’ve always wished for…something more like the ‘real’ Doc.

I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect with this, but you did better than I would’ve thought possible with it and I thank you.