Pulp Empire

BOLD.

That was the first word that came to mind after watching this Tarantino-style fan edit of The Empire Strikes Back.

Bold to edit the one Star Wars movie in the entire series most fans agree is close to perfect.

Even more BOLD to then restructure it Pulp Fiction style, replacing the entire soundtrack with music from/or inspired by Quintin Tarantino movies.

Does it work?

More Yes than No.

The non-linear structure works surprisingly well. It is impressive.

NJVC attempts to manipulate the film Tarantino style works for the most part, though for me, I think there was a bit too many slo-mo shots and cross fades.

I loved the Hero montages. Darth Vader's intro was FANTASTIC. The new Death Proof engine sound for the Falcon made me smile endlessly. The Battle of Hoth was Brilliant. The Carbonite scene was very powerful. And the final chapter, Battle Royal is a MASTERPIECE!!! I was riveted throughout Chapter Six. A wonderful piece of editing! BRAVO!

I found the voice replacement of Yoda both good and bad. It was a cool idea, though it was distracting that the editor decided to keep some of Frank Oz's voice like the "hhmphs". Also, there is a very noticeable background buzz whenever the voice replacement is used.

Which brings us the main contention of the edit, the new soundtrack. I enjoyed the majority of the selections and they complimented and enhanced many of the scenes. You could definitely feel the Tarantino vibe! There were times where I thought the new music could have been louder; for example the astroid scene and the scoundrel kiss scene.

But the main issue I had was in many of the scenes you can still faintly hear bits and pieces of the original John Williams soundtrack, particularly underneath many dialogue heavy scenes. NJVC has done an incredible job cutting/removing most of the original soundtrack, I hate to even imagine the number of hours and headaches he went through to get the edit to this point -- I do not envy him. But the fact remains the ghost of John Williams haunts the audio of this edit, and on occasion when it appears it would break my suspension of disbelief.

The video quality is excellent. The skills of the editor are masterful. If Tarantino's had directed The Empire Strikes Back, I can easily imagine it looking something very much what NJVC has accomplished. It is only the frustration of the some the original music overspill which prevents me from giving perfect 10s across the board. But I still highly recommend this edit. If you are jonesing for some exciting Star Wars, forget all those Prequel edits, and check this baby out!

Thumbs Up!

Fantastic effort. My only criticisms are that you can still faintly hear the Williams music in a few moments, but it's forgivable and I really did not like how the Vader/Luke bespin fight was handled. It felt almost too music video-ish. But it's immediately followed up by the Prequel flashbacks set to Neil Young which might be my favorite moment in the whole thing. It's a very fun watch overall. Captures that exploitation style while still retaining all the substance and gravitas of the core Star Wars story. As someone who's favorite director is Tarantino and who's favorite film is The Empire Strikes Back, my fanboy funny bone was satisfied. Wouldn't mind seeing a Return of the Jedi one? Do the Kill Bill Vol. 2 to this movie's Kill Bill Vol. 1? Not losing sleep over that, but it'd be cool to see.

I absolutely loved this edit. The split screen in the battle of Hoth was a masterpiece. After viewing I noticed from the stats that more than 30 minutes were removed from the film. I have not seen the original in more than 10 years, and I honestly cannot say that I recalled anything important missing. The intro scenes for Darth Vader and Boba Fett are brilliant. What would I have changed? I needed to be softened up a little before getting hit with Neil Young in the last chapter, but it grew on me as the montage progressed. This is an inconsequential nitpick though. Thank you for a wonderful time, NJVC!

I have to admit, I've seen the poster for Pulp Empire on this site a few times and I immediately dismissed it thinking "Huh? That'll never work." But I ended up stumbling across a few clips on Vimeo tonight including the entire last chapter of the edit and being a fan of both Tarantino and Star Wars, and being intrigued by njvc's choices in the clip I saw, I decided to watch the whole thing.

One of the things I always find most entertaining about Tarantino's films is his oddball choice of music, the bizarre yet genius mix of Motown, surf music, and the occasional Ennio Morricone track that has come to be known as "the Tarantino sound".

Njvc has taken this signature sound and applied it to a cut of The Empire Strikes Back that we've never seen before. It's an arrangement of the narrative that is so unique, even if you were to take away the Tarantino-fied soundtrack, it could be watched on its own merit alone.

What njvc has created here is not quite a Tarantino film and not quite The Empire Strikes Back, but something entirely strange and new, and beautiful. It's very akin to the feeling I get when I watch The Wizard of Oz with Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon" playing over it. It feels at once both familiar and alien.

I love radical edits. This kind of fearless fanediting is what I admire the most and it's the type of thing I always endeavored to create when I was editing. It's the concept of "Let's do something completely different with the material..." And njvc has done that successfully.

There's so much I loved about this edit: The non-linear narrative, the character introductions, the split screens, the animation in the cave vision. All inspired work.

But the part that I found to be most improved by this edit (ironically) is widely considered the best and most important in the entire saga. The "I am your father" scene, which is now juxtaposed with Neil Young's "Old Man". The way njvc handled it with the scrolling flashbacks...the father/son parallels. It was just so well done. It even evoked some emotion in me, reminding me of my own relationship with my father and I think that's when art is it's best, when it acts as a mirror for the viewer. So in that way, you've taken THE scene...the most important scene in the entire saga, injected it with an emotional power that elevated what was already there and created a version that surpasses the original (for me), even as iconic a scene as it is.

It's worth the download for that scene alone.

All of that being said, if I had to name a weakness in this edit, it's John Williams. Though he's been relegated to the back burner reasonably well by njvc, it seems the white-bearded maestro keeps trying to creep back in at every opportunity. At times, it sounds like there are two or even three pieces of music playing at once. Not for long, mind you. But it's enough to keep this from getting a perfect audio editing rating.

To be fair, I was wearing head phones while watching, so it may sound better on a TV. It's a tough subject because I know how very, very hard it is to deal with that center channel music in one of Lucas' or Spielberg's films. There's nothing you can really do about it.

Having done 100% audio rebuilds of protracted action scenes, I can tell you, it isn't any fun. It's the same thing that killed my Star Wars: Reborn edits, the frustrating plague of John Williams encroaching into the center channel, ruining something that you know could be so great if only he wasn't there. I always said the greatest gift someone could give to the fanediting community is a clean, music-free audio track with only dialogue and effects for all six Star Wars films...and maybe Indy 4.

But, I know a LOT of work must have been put in by njvc to making Pulp Empire's audio as good as it is at this point.

All in all, you did an amazing job, njvc! I really enjoyed the unique experience you delivered with this edit and I'm hoping you'll do "Inglorious Clones" with Samuel L. Jackson, the ultimate Tarantino/Star Wars connector. There's always the play on "Jango/Django Unchained" you can pilfer too. ;)

--InfoDroid

Let me get a few things out of the way first.

I've watched this fanedit six times. Before it was released I was a previewer and gave njvc private detailed feedback 19 pages long. I've put a lot of thought into reviewing this fanedit. I watched the workprint 5 times and the final cut once.

I am very biased when I watch this edit because I'm a Tarantino fanatic. I can't help but compare it to his films and think "how would Quentin have done that scene?" Is it fair to do that? No.

This is not a positive review but I'm going to try my best to be constructive and compliment the goods as much if not more than the bads.

Lastly, I love njvc to death. He is a great friend, a talented musician and editor and has a beautiful beard.

On with the review!


Audio/Visual Quality: DVD5 was great quality, haven't watched it in HD yet but I'm sure it's all good. 10/10


Visual Editing: First the bad, then the good.

There is an overkill of slow motion. The editor relied on that Twixter plugin way too much. Some of the dissolves/transitions felt out of place. Too much style over substance.

But damn njvc does some cool stuff. A lot of marvelous skill on display here. Some of the hero moments and montages have nicely composed visuals. Great split screen effects. Many wonderful stylistic nods to Tarantino. 8/10


Audio Editing: First the bad, then the good.

I felt that the editor was lazy in his choice of music. There was too much reliance on Tarantino music in my opinion. The genres and styles of music change so often and it lacked an overall theme or throughline to the soundtrack. At times it felt like watching Empire Strikes Back with a Tarantino soundtrack playlist on shuffle playing over it.

There were like 40 different songs in a 90 minute movie. Some of it clashed together, Chapter 5 in particular felt cacophonous. Chapter 2 had the best selection, the different styles worked well there.

But there were many wonderful musical moments all throughout. Chapters 1 & 2 were absolutely perfect musically. Chapter 3 was almost perfect. Chapter 5 had some great moments. Slaughter and L'Arena were my favorite choices.

And despite the fact I previously told njvc that he raped Morricone's Ecstasy of Gold, the audio editing in that Vader fight is fucking awesome.

7/10


Narrative: Great first half, falls apart in second half.

Prologue through Chapter 3 was dope. Pre-credits sequence is best moment. Yoda chapter first was brilliant. The non-linear aspect worked well in the first half.

Chapter 4 was too rushed. The Space Oddity montage ruined pacing for me and felt completely out of place. Chapter 5 felt too long by itself. Chapter 6 starts off nicely but then it gets to the big moment.

Ending was terrible. You fucked up the greatest movie ending ever. Sorry for the bluntness.

5/10


Enjoyment:

Despite all my criticisms there was a lot I enjoyed about it. It's obvious the editor had a blast making this and put a lot of blood sweat and tears into it. It's meant to be a fun remix. I really enjoyed some of it. And others have said how much they love it, I'm in the minority here.

For me this is not a case of the good outweighing the bad. I wanted to see "The Empire Strikes Back directed by Quentin Tarantino". This was not it. I was disappointed, maybe too much hype had built up for it.

My enjoyment is purely based on my own tastes and personal viewpoints about movies.

6/10


Recommend?

For Star Wars fans who don't care for Tarantino or people who think Kill Bill is Tarantino's best.