Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi: Dan Edit

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Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi: Dan Edit
Faneditor Name:
Franchise:
Fanedit Type:
Original Release Date:
1983
Original Running Time:
129
Fanedit Release Date:
Fanedit Running Time:
102
Time Cut:
27
Brief Synopsis:
This fan edit trims the final installment of the Star Wars saga into a more economical, focused chapter by removing as much as possible from story elements that don’t support the primary narrative of Luke’s journey to redeem his father.
Intention:
Whenever I watch The Empire Strikes Back I get a hankering to put Jedi on, and whenever I do I’m massively disappointed. The first hour feels largely unnecessary, with the bloated Jabba’s palace sequence feeling like filler, and then of course, there’s the infamous Ewoks. Rather than building an interesting film about Luke coming to terms with his roots, and Leia starting on a path to become a Jedi, Lucas gave Leia nothing to do in the whole film, and until the last half hour disregarded Luke’s emotional struggles.

Unfortunately these problems are much too fundamental for a newbie editor like myself to fix (hopefully Adywan will eventually get round to dealing with them), but by cutting back the Jabba’s palace stuff, and reducing the infantile Ewok behaviour, the film becomes much more enjoyable.
Release Information:
DVD
Cuts and Additions:
- Reduced chat between C-3P0 and Bib Fortuna
- Boba Fett taken out of the whole film!
- Less laughter from Salacious Crumb
- Gave Jabba new dialogue throughout
- Took out entire droid torture scene
- Took out the Jedi Rocks musical number
- Took out beat where Boushh threatens Jabba with thermal detonator
- Reworked whole scene where Chewie is led in, set to ‘Bounty For A Wookiee’ from the soundtrack, rather than the Max Rebo Song
- Took out horrible beat where Lando very slowly and deliberately reveals his face from under the mask
- That frog outside the palace doesn’t burp
- Substantionally reworked Leia and Han being caught by Jabba, taken out bad humour, added tense music from soundtrack
- Took out entire scene between Chewie and Han in the dungeon
- Added new exterior shot of palace for pacing reasons, since the aforementioned scene is gone
- Reworked scene where Luke confronts Jabba, many small cuts and changes to heighten drama
- Tightened up Rancor sequence to take out bad special effects, shots of Fett, and muppetry
- Reworked the ‘sentencing’ scene with tense music, and Han/Luke cheesy dialogue excised
- Many changes to Sarlacc sequence, to take out Fett, Salacious Crumb, and generally to ramp up the drama
- Took out Ben’s lines about "from a certain point of view"
- Took out Lando’s cheesy grin after Han describes him as the respectable one
- Took out Han’s "good luck, you’re gonna need it"
- Took out 3P0′s line "exciting is hardly the word I would choose"
- Took out entire scene between Lando and Han in the ship’s hangar.
- Took out Han worrying about the Falcon.
- Reworked shuttle scene: the intent being to remind the audience of the scene near the end of TESB, where Luke and Vader are communicating while on separate ships; this adds foreboding and tension that Han’s jokes took away from
- Removed Han’s line ‘Hey, it’s me!’
- No longer does Han walk on the twig and the stormtrooper turns round. It always bothered me that Chewie growls a moment earlier. So I made his growl loud enough that the stormtrooper hears, turns, and sees Han.
- Made several small pacing cuts to the speeder bike chase
- After Luke lightsabers the speeder bike and it crashes into the tree it no longer makes that annoying, comic, out-of-control sound
- Whole scene between Leia and Wicket has gone
- Han’s line "I hope she’s all right" has gone – it’s too on the nose
- Small cuts to the gang’s first scene with the Ewoks, fewer Ewok shots and Han’s 'proper?' also taken out
- Several cuts during the scene where they’re going to be cooked for dinner. As much cutesey Ewok stuff as posible edited out
- Threepio’s story telling scene has been tweaked, to reduce Ewok cute stuff and Han’s bad jokes
- The beat outside between Han and Leia now plays out in near silence: He asks her what’s up, she looks sad then says hold me
- When that Ewok (Paploo, or whoever) takes the speeder bike, he zooms away and that’s the end of the scene
- When the Rebel fleet appears and "it’s a trap" the ships fly towards the Empire’s fleet... it cuts to Luke watching the battle
- During the big battle sequence there are many cuts, mostly from the Ewok section, to reduce silliness and build drama between these three fights
- The awful call-back to Empire, where Han says I love you, Leia says I know, has been replaced by tense music
- When Luke is hiding from Vader I made the image slightly darker to make his hiding more plausible – it’s always bothered me
- Took out the humongous exploding shield generator. It seems to wipe out half the forest
- Took out Lando "Yeehaaa" or whatever cheesy line it is, when they escape the Death Star

Then the ending:
- I used a section of the end credits music, it’s an uplifting piece, but with a hint of melancholy, which seems appropriate; most importantly it feels Star Wars, unlike both Yub Nub and the SE music
- The Ewok party is cut right back, I used the Han/Leia/Luke hugging from the GOUT, which is longer, then cut to:
- Sebastian Shaw’s ghost
Cover art by Rogue-theX (DOWNLOAD HERE)
image

User reviews

7 reviews
9-10 stars
 
0%
 
100%
5-7 stars
 
0%
3-5 stars
 
0%
1-3 stars
 
0%
Overall rating
 
8.5
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.8(4)
Audio Editing
 
8.5(4)
Visual Editing
 
8.2(5)
Narrative
 
8.6(5)
Enjoyment
 
8.3(7)
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(Updated: March 11, 2021)
Overall rating
 
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
8.0
An interesting different take for ROTJ. Having watched both the radical re-edit and the more simpler fan edit, Dan shows great skill and love for the film in his two attempts at perfecting it. Not always perfect, and I'm not a fan of the PAL 25.0 FPS, but I can't blame the editor for that obviously and it's not a fault per se. The edit does present various really good solutions to some of the superficial problems plaguing the movie - or, in other words, a lot of the fat is trimmed and the experience is a more enjoyable for it.

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Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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Overall rating
 
8.4
Audio/Video Quality
 
8.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
8.0
Narrative
 
9.0
Enjoyment
 
9.0
After seeing the Force Awakens teaser trailer I had a renewed interest in the OT (I've come to the conclusion that the PT is beyond saving for me). I decided to watch RotJ, which like many folks, has always felt like a let down and a missed opportunity. I was going to watch Q2's hybrid edit, but discovered this edit was on my hard drive. I honestly don't remember downloading it and don't think I ever watched it. This edit narratively has many things I always wanted in a Jedi edit: no Boba Fett, a Han Solo more in-line with the first two movies, dispensing with the more childish humor, trying to make the Ewoks seem a bit more realistic in battle. Most of this is accomplished and done well. There are definitely areas where this edit could use polishing. I won't go into them in detail as I'm not an editor and they've been well documented by the other reviewers.

The ending is where this edit really intrigued me. The Ewok celebration always bothered me (well okay maybe I like d Yub Nub as a kid) and wanted to see it done with classic Williams score. This works, sort of. Again this is an area where I think it could be polished. I disagree with other reviewers that all dancing needs to be excised. I looked at that as music we, the audience, is not hearing and the score is just that: the score. The dancing takes place in the background so this worked for me. With another pass, I think this could be the best version of Jedi. Nice work.

One final thought. Yads did tighten up the Han/Leia interaction right after the Death Star is destroyed which I was very glad to see. But I think it can be taken further. What if it went like this:

- Leia says "he wasn't. I can feel it."
- Cut to Han looking a little confused buy this statement
- Cut to Leia who simply says "He's my brother."
- Cut to Han as he realizes this and the rest of the scene plays out normally

I never want to hear Han even suggest that a) he might be jealous and not completely trust Leia; and b) volunteer to "not get in the way." I mean this just threw away the great love story of the trilogy. Yads has it close, but a slightly more aggressive cut I think would work.

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Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
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(Updated: August 18, 2014)
Overall rating
 
8.0
Audio/Video Quality
 
7.0
Audio Editing
 
8.0
Visual Editing
 
7.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
10.0
I absolutey love this edit, But unfortunately their were a few weird moments such as when the frog burped and he cut out the audio but not the video and the edit finished before the credits had finished.

The edit itself though is absolutely super, I loved what you did to Han Solo as he is no longer
a moron instead a wise, kind, loving boyfriend. I also loved the change of music in the ending celebration even though it had some technical audio issues. You have cut out most the bad stuff which made the good stuff better. I could go on all day saying just how great this edit is, but the basic message is that its fantastic.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
Yes
Format Watched?
Digital
Report this review Comments (0) | Was this review helpful? 0 0
Overall rating
 
8.8
Audio/Video Quality
 
10.0
Audio Editing
 
10.0
Visual Editing
 
9.0
Narrative
 
8.0
Enjoyment
 
7.0
I must explain my ranking - it's actually a good quality version of the movie. However, the cuts seemed almost undetectable to me and I thought I may as well play my store copy of ROTJ. It just did not seem like there was much done, and without help this is one of my least favorite of the Star Wars series. Just too darn cute.

User Review

Do you recommend this edit?
No
Format Watched?
DVD
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(Updated: September 09, 2012)
Enjoyment
 
8.0
Review by Christian Scott Back — April 9, 2011 @ 6:45 am

*This rating was given before reviews were required*
C
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