Postman: Spark of Hope, The

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!

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!

In High School this was one of my Favorite movies, this edit caught my attention immediately. I always felt the beginning was always the weakest part of the film, and they did an amazing job cutting out that section of the movie, They still managed to convey all the information about the army but without having to experience more than necessary.

I love that you left his membership in the army as a reveal, The best movies, books, games have something unexpected. The Flash Backs were an amazing touch, I wish I could have seen this edit blind.

Johnny Cash Throughout was great, though I Don't like the final song they chose for the movie, I don't feel it fits the moment, it sounds very somber and sad which doesn't match how I feel the movie ends.

Amazing Edit, better than the original.

I was one of the editors that helped getting this edit finished. That being said, I came into the edit with not so high expectations, but came out loving it. I really like the using of BionicBob's edit as the foundation for this new version. The pace and editing are wonderful. The music additions are great and the overall story and ending I genuinely love. If you weren't a fan of the original you've got to check out this version because it may just be the shelf-replacer you didn't know you needed.

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.