Postman: Spark of Hope, The

This is a great edit. I SO wanted to like the original, but the film just keeps tripping over itself.

This, in my opinion is much tighter, bringing the message of hope to the forefront without beating the viewer over the head with it.
The edits are super smooth and the added music is perfect.
This is the one I'm going to watch for my Postman fix next time.

Very well done--highly recommended.

Wow! Im one of the few who loved the original, but this edit was amazing! I enjoyed your version so much but i wish you either kept the original future ending or didnt keep the letter kid in; it feels weird but that could just be bc i know why its there. I love the reveal and flashback for the ending; chefs kiss! I think you should lose Abby finding out in the cabin as it never comes up as a point of tension that she knows he's lying about the restoration. I like that the Holnist kid stays a postman. The music is louder than the music in the movie so it feels obvious its been added. I love the Cash songs, i bet every studio wish they could just use music royalty free lol. I know killing Bethelham violates rule one but still....

All in all this is a fantastic piece of work!

An all-around solid improvement to the original, and the two hour runtime is perfect.

I loved the literal "spark of hope" from the lighter in the Postman's first scene. Perfect foreshadowing, and a perfect microcosm of the entire story in this one moment.

I noticed a few small issues during my viewing:

There's some oddness with the audio at 35:00. Some music bleed (I think), and the sound of the horses feels misplaced, like it's panned too far to the rear. It was enough to bring me out of the movie, so I've graded audio an 8. Additionally, there are some missing sound effects at 1:22:53 (gunshots).

There's a tiny continuity error at 1:35:45. We see Clark remove his hat twice (once in the background, and again in the foreground). It's possible most folks won't notice this, so I feel bad pointing it out, but maybe it's an easy fix.

I've graded the video quality 9 instead of 10 because the background during the opening text was quite blocky, and didn't feel right for such a large file. The rest of the movie was perfect.

Overall, I enjoyed it! It really didn't feel like anything was missing, which is impressive considering the huge reduction in runtime.

I have never seen the original film, up to this point it has been of little interest to me due to it's unflattering reputation, so it's great to see no evidence of anything dreadful in theomega's edit. Even though more than 50 minutes have been removed it still feels suitably epic, and I could not identify any gaps in the narrative.

The end result is still a bit cheesy (a violent cult decides to abandon its ways on what is basically the outcome of a wrestling match) but that fits with the type of story it is trying to tell, and I much prefer sincerity and tactile visuals over the more modern trends of sarcasm and CGI. Helps too that it is less of a Mad Max ripoff than Waterworld, Costner's other post-apocalypse vehicle where he plays a mononymous wanderer.

The Johnny Cash songs work really well, you could imagine them being played in-universe. Only a few things stuck out a little, these were: colour banding in the new title cards (mentioned in an earlier review); what appeared to be flash frames at a couple of points (but on frame-by-frame playback were actually film edge damage), and a location card flickering for one frame before fading in.

Barring those nitpicks, I can't see anything to prevent it from being mistaken for a professional product, and can quite imagine myself watching it again. The key question is now to decide whether to give the original a go!

This edit elevates the heart of the movie and accentuates that narrative with Johnny Cash's timeless music.

This is now my go to way to enjoy this epic story. Thank you!