Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi – The Spence Final Cut

As a kid Return Of The Jedi was my favourite film in the trilogy however as an an adult It became clear to me that it had some structural and characterisation problems at least once I was able to remove those super glued rose tinted nostalgia goggles of mine, however I can definitely say that this is a huge improvement over the theoretical edition starting with the altered opening crawl which fits well with your established vision and execution of those narrative alterations in this edit followed by Luke and Yoda’s final conversation within the original trilogy.

Said alteration of the final conversation makes both master and apprentice much more wiser and empathetic ultimately giving credit to the force itself and displaying there ability to understand the force and what each of them is feeling through said force, as such the whole last request and passing of the torch scene now has a lot more emotional weight to it. The manner in which the music passes on into Tatooine via the circle wipe maintains the emotional tone of the previous scene with the fact that it transitions to Tatooine perfectly symbolising how the death’s of those important to Luke ultimately ended up moving his life forward.

It also serves as a great way to foreshadow the young Jedi’s return to the place where his journey began along with how the sons of Tatooine will fall with one sooner than the other as represented by the twin suns along with the whole thing making for a neat little transition to the whole Jabba The Hut subplot, the pacing for that is vastly improved due to some clever use of J&R cuts and the utilisation of the non linear narrative which also helped in increasing the brain cells of the protagonists making the whole rescue mission much more logical in the process.

Naturally the pacing of the sail barge battle was a huge improvement as nothing felt dragged out or played for forceful unnecessary comedy and the removal of Boba Fett thankfully spares one of science fictions coolest bounty hunters from his rather undignified loss, his removal from Jabba’s Palace was a welcome change as it never made sense within the Star Wars Film Universe why he was there and while it was nice to see the old Sarlacc Pit again without that accursed immersion breaking beak the differences between the old footage and the special edition footage were quite noticeable.

While enjoyed the speeder chase on Endor involving the protagonists and the Stormtroopers I did feel that there was a void left unfilled however this edit naturally fills that void with some sharp authentic cuts and exciting music that increases in tempo as the chase progresses as such the sequence is now a lot more exciting and intense than it was in the theoretical version, while I am mostly indifferent to the Ewoks I still would have preferred Lucas original idea of incorporating the Wookies into the story as it would have made for some great character development for Chewbacca though the various trims and removals of the Ewok related scenes do however greatly improve the pacing of the overall edit and make the downfall of the empire a little more believable.

One thing I found a bit odd is how Luke knows that Vader was once called Anakin Skywalker since the conversation he has with Obi Wan’s Force Ghost regarding Vader’s past and former name never occurs in this edit though I am guessing the intended implication here is that Luke learned of Vader’s former name through the force, though it still feels weird to me otherwise the removal of Vader’s dialogue pertaining to it being to late for him to return to the light was a wise choice as his body language within the whole scene is a far better and more subtle indication that he is fighting his own battle deep within.

Speaking of internal and external conflicts the decision to have Luke & Vader’s final duel take place on a Star Destroyer rather than the second Death Star is genius as it not only makes the Emperor a little more cautious and theoretically would give him an easier way to escape the conflict and rebuild the empire anew had the conflict played out a little differently, but there’s no longer that artificial sense of tension looming over the duel which allows said duel to actually have more of a point to it with the pacing of said duel being vastly improved due to an effective reverse shot and some clever cutting especially the use of that one J&R cut.

Considering how the three way battle is a war for the fate of the galaxy and the duel between father and son ultimately leads to a huge paradigm shift the use of Duel Of Fates is quite thematically appropriate for such a battle as for the war itself it’s progress, tone and pacing for the three respective fights now perfectly aligns with the success to failure and failure to success ratio of the overarching conflict and the various shots of the rotoscoped Death Star outside the Emperors window make for some very ominous and cinematic shots ultimately strengthening the non linear continuity you created.

At 53:18 the two Crimson Guards are standing dutifully by the elevator but at 53:58 they’ve completely disappeared leading to the plothole of why they would vanish from there masters throne room unannounced and without his consent as such I believe the part where he orders the Crimson Guards to leave should have been kept in not only for the sake of avoiding said plothole but it would also align better with Luke’s ‘’Your overconfidence is your weakness’’ though considering he has a juggernaut like Vader as his apprentice and can shoot lightning from his fingertips I’ve often wondered why he even needs the Crimson Guards at least as far as the Star Wars Film Universe is concerned though that point is a problem with the theoretical versions of the film and not the edit itself.

Really happy you managed to remove Vader’s big ‘’NOOOOOOOO’’ as I felt that really cheapened his Heel Face Turn when the Special Edition was released and took me right out of the film but in this edit said Heel Face Turn now has that same impact and power that it did back when the VHS of this film was easier to track down and obtain, using Anakin’s theme from The Phantom Menace over his final moments was a great way to symbolically show that he had returned and passed on as a Jedi strengthening the emotional resonance and the films title.

Speaking of music the piece that you used throughout the celebration montage is much more fitting and appropriate, additionally I am so glad that ‘’Weesa Freeeee’’ is gone and the burning of Vader being the final scene makes the conclusion to the Skywalker’s respective character arcs much more impactful, some aspects of this edit are definitely rough around the edges which other reviewers have already pointed out though one thing I haven’t seen addressed in the reviews that came before this one is that the disclaimer has a line spacing problem where some of the words are overlapping each other just ever so slightly.

It’s to bad that Spence (as far as I know) has no desire to return to and fine tune the edit because this has the potential to ascend from an excellent edit to a phenomenal edit though I am unsure as to what the context behind Absolutely No thanks to lordsidi is about, I am guessing it’s either an inside joke or the editor or non editor did something to dishonour or hinder the production of said edit in some way or another though I will say that little bit after the credits ended had me bursting out laughing so hard my stomach hurt truly Spence has a great sense of humour.

I share much of Spence's disappointment with RotJ. So I was really looking forward to this. I like a lot of the narrative revisions here. Starting with having Luke on Dagobah at the beginning. It always felt wrong that Yoda tells him his training has been completed when he just returned for the first time since Obi Wan and Yoda pleading with him not to go to Cloud City until he completed his training. That said, I'm not crazy about the flashes to Luke on Dagobah when Han and Leia are in trouble at Jabba's Palace. I get the intent but I think viewers would be okay without these flashes.

The whole Jabba's section is much tighter, which was needed in my opinion. Getting rid of Boba Fett and his awful death scene go without saying as positive changes.

A minor quibble, but Luke now separates from the rest of the group as they leave Tatooine for no apparent reason and just shows up to the briefing late.

One random thing that's not really a complaint with this edit is the terrible matte painting of the Falcon when Han and Lando are talking. I'm hoping Adywan is able to redo that when we (eventually) get his Jedi Revisited.

Once we get going on the mission a lot of cheese has been removed and we get to the point a lot faster. In particular, Han is no longer the chump he was originally portrayed as. With a lot of that cheese trimmed the focus is now more strongly on the Luke/Vader/Emperor storyline, which is how it should be at this point of the story.

Speaking of which, Spence obviously thought strongly that these scenes should happen off the Death Star (and I understand his reasoning). I can't say I ever had similar feelings. Though what he's done, he's done well. I still really don't feel it's necessary. But it doesn't detract either. I very much like the Luke/Vader duel happening uninterrupted but it comes at a cost. I feel Vader's defeat comes too soon. I would've liked to have seen the shield destroyed and the attack on the Death Star begin before Vader's defeat. The cut back to the Throne Room when the Emperor attacks Luke is jarring as well.

Again I get the intent but the Anakin's Theme music over Vader's death just doesn't work for me. I didn't mind the earlier use of Duel of the Fates.

I love cutting out Han being a chump about Leia loving Luke but the cuts feel a little rough. I also like ending with the funeral pyre but right after it irises to the credits the music got twice as loud. Not sure if that happens for everyone. Seemed weird.

Overall I enjoyed it. It would be very close to replacing the original for me were it in HD. As it is, I'll probably show both to my kids and see which they prefer.

7/10

Decent edit. Some great ideas. Some which I didn’t feel worked as well.

Liked new cut down opening – although I did wonder why Chewbacca was instantly captured in the crawl!

The separation after the rescue was weird – why did Luke go off somewhere else – and the reunion then after the briefing was…weird. Why are they so overjoyed to see him - they saw him, like 5 minutes ago. And why does Luke choose that moment to get all mystical about her being his sister. That should have been cut.

I liked the new arrangement of the final battle. Keeps the tension up, really well handled. Although the shield should have gone down earlier – there’s enough tension in the original version of the attack run to be intercut with the Emperor.

However – why did you move them off the death star? I had no idea where they were. You seemed to indicate they were on the SSD, but you could SEE it in the battle, AND the Death Star. So they were just lurking about on another random SSD? Also it deflated the attack run of any tension. They’re not on the Death Star, so who cares if they blow it up? In the original the Death Star = Emperor, so blowing it up was a big deal and a crippling blow to the Empire. In your cut they just blew up a big gun….

Also, the death of the Emperor came too early – it should have come after the death star blowing up – it’s the death of the Emperor that the galaxy is celebrating! Everyone was cheering when the death star goes up and all I’m thinking is “but what about the gigantic fleet with the SSD and everything still parking off ready to kick everyone’s ass”. They seemed much more of a threat in your cut than the Death Star.

The duel of the fates was really out of jarring - but I LOVED the Anakin theme music at the end. Inpsired!

And the last shot of the movie being Vader. YES!

In all I enjoyed the movie. It was a fresh cut, with some amazingly good ideas. Would you ever do a v2 with the Emperor back on the Death Star and his death during the attack run (remember, it’s not a given that they succeed…)?

Review by QuickCut — January 15, 2012 @ 7:36 am

This isn’t my go-to version of ROTJ, but it’s pretty well done.

Technical quality – 8/10 – in general, the video was pretty good quality, but there was some flickering or something during the opening crawl. The audio was great except for the end credits when the volume abruptly went really high.

Presentation – 8/10 – special features and scene selection were a nice thing to include, but the random clip after I clicked play was rather abrupt and unnecessary.

Editing – 8/10 – all the transitions were nice, but there were some choices I didn’t particularly like that I’ll address in the entertainment section.

Entertainment – 8/10 – if a few things were cleaned up it would have been a 10. First of all, the cutting between Luke and Han/Leia. I got why you were doing it, but it wasn’t real clear. The transitions to Luke were too abrupt. When Luke and the rest leave Tatooine, it makes no sense why Luke leaves since you relocated the Yoda scene. The Ewoks could have been trimmed a little more and the scene where Wicket pokes Leia with his spear was way too short. There are various bits that could have been trimmed but I won’t recount them all. I half-wish you had left in the ghosts at the end. Other than that, I liked most of your cuts, especially the trimming of the Tatooine sequences, the edits to Han’s character, the changes to the battle, and the added prequel music (only good thing about the prequels).

Overall – 8/10

*Major Spoilers*

Big strides in taken in this edit towards achieving a worthy end to this saga, but honestly I still prefer the actual film.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that Luke spent time in between flicks training with Yoda.

I love the removal of Lopti Nek or Jedi Rocks.

I LOVE the removal of Boba Fett completely, there was no reason for him to be there in the first place.

Outside of that I'm kind of luke warm.

This is just me, but too much is removed. The movie only actually runs 1:21, and it just feels way too short.

No Obi Wan at all for one, and granted I hate that because he is my favorite character in Star Wars, but the scene on Dagobah also brings nice closure as to why he lied to Luke about his father, and while I totally understand editing the scene to remove Obi Wan's reveal of Leia, the scene could be kept in with that detail removed. Also, why edit out Yoda confirming Vader as Luke's father? Luke would definitely want confirmation of that and if you're running with the idea that they had already talked about it, IMO its very powerful to have Luke only have the medal to finally really bring up what's been eating away at him the past 2, 3 years because he knows its his last chance. And its something as an audience that we would like to see. What if Vader had lied ya know?

I liked the idea of removing the frog thing outside Jabba's, but instead it was a pretty obvious still picture, just felt off to me.

I really didn't like removing Luke force choking the guards, IMO the point of this movie is the fear that Luke is leaning towards the dark side, if he does this that confirms that in a way. Besides his continuous death threats to Jabba aren't very Jedi like either.

Idk why the Lando/han convo before the briefing was cut, sure their winks at eachother is a little odd, but han's last line is a funny quip relating to a convo in Empire before Lando betrayed him, its pretty good if the audience notices and more importantly it shows that han isn't pissed anymore at the guy that you know, TURNED THEM OVER TO DARTH VADER. Kind of major IMO.

Really liked han's silent moment looking at the Falcon.

I do not understand at all removing Vader's "it is too late for me, son." I love that line. It shows that Vader isn't just a shell of his former self, he doesn't just do things because of the great "power of the dark side" he's taking his rage out on the galaxy over his sins and the choices he's made for so long he doesn't know what else to do. IMO his admitting it is too late for him almost shows a light at the end of the tunnel.

I love Ian McDiarmid's performance (who doesn't) but a lot of him is cut. I understand removing the two scenes with him and Vader pre arrival of heroes so that his master plan is revealed more suddenly, but I still think they are executed well, and I think the second one is important but I understand the choice.

Frankly I thought moving the Emperor to the Executor was pointless. Cool idea to see the Death Star outside the window. (Except for sometimes you could see it and sometimes it clearly wasn't where it was in the scene moments before. But it looked BOSS when it was there.) But I thought the whole point of moving Luke, Vader, and the Emperor to a Star Destroyer was so that Vader's death could play out after the battle was over, and the emotional beat could happen after everything was resolved. It took place in the exact same place it does in ROTJ, just on the Executor...but right before Vader dies it shows the Rebels attacking the Executor so...I don't see the point.

So I have to admit something quickly, I was so excited for this edit. As I was downloading it I stumbled upon Spence's youtube channel and checked out some of his test videos for this. And honestly...the test videos of Vader's death and the ending montage are better. The music just climaxes at a better time in the Vader death test and the finale test is WAY more satisfying. I loved the low key force theme playing over everyone dancing with the Ewoks, I like it better than the actual ending in this cut and the real film.

So I know I just wrote a novel about this and griped the whole time, but I do recommend this edit for those who want to see a glimpse at what Jedi could have been, and I applaud Spence for making some really drastic choices here, some that worked very nicely. I'm also aware that I'm such a hardcore fan of the Wars that I have opinions that are ridiculously impossible to please.