Titanic – The Jack Edit

December 14, 2009 @ 10:29 pm

I DL’d this version to watch on a long mission (I fly planes for the USAF) where I would be staying in a lot of hotels outside the US. I thought it’d be a perfect time to really watch this edit. I had watched AdigitalMan’s extended edition with my girlfriend about three weeks prior to watching this edit. I feel I have a pretty good perspective on the “original” version and this edit.

First, I understand why/where the cuts, edits etc. were made. Based on what I know of CBB’s intention for this edit, he made the correct choices to realize his intention. I might have included the “iceberg straight ahead” scene and kept more of the iceberg striking the Titanic. I realize that Jack didn’t personally experience these scenes, but a movie still for the audience watching it and the inclusion of these scenes would have made for a better edit overall. A viewer wants to experience these scenes, even if the main character does not.

Secondly, there is some loss or resonance with many of the scenes because we only see things that contain Jack, and then later on, Jack and Rose. Again, I am in complete agreeance with CBB’s edit because of his intentions to make this a Jack-centric edit.

I was surprised that I didn’t enjoy this edit as much as I really expected to. Technically a great edit, great video/audio quality etc. A perfection execution of the editor’s intention. I didn’t realize how much a great deal of the secondary characters/secondary plot is necessary for this movie. Don’t misunderstand, I had a very dififcult time sitting thru AdigitalMan’s extended version too – just too long and slow in many areas (NOT due to AdigitalMan’s edit – his is flawless – it’s just a long movie and has slow spots as released).

November 1, 2009 @ 9:37 pm

Watched this with my girlfriend, both of us fans of the original. I was highly impressed with how well this worked. Without reading back through the comments, I recall someone pointing out that by focusing the story on Jack (and by proximity on Rose as well), this actually becomes much more of a romantic drama than before. Rather then making a movie for dudes, it has become a much tighter romance, with a more sane running time. I enjoyed it greatly (and I never thought I would watch Titanic again, due to the indulgently long running time).

June 21, 2009 @ 9:22 am

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

May 24, 2009 @ 3:03 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

February 17, 2009 @ 1:53 pm

This was a good movie and an excellent edit, if not perfect. Though I really can’t compare it to the original version, because last I saw it was nearly ten years ago – and what I remembered from the movie was almost all in this cut, except Old Rose beginning and ending (and some more deaths when the ship is sinking), so I can’t say how much is changed. Apparently quite much.

There were, however, two things I didn’t like. Firstly, the iceberg comes and goes very swiftly. Without showing the iceberg before hit, or any try for an evading maneuver, one might think this is only some first scrape foreshadowing the real iceberg still in the coming. Not much more would be needed, but something that establishes the threat. Without such, we slide from “no danger” to “we’re sinking” a little too little hassle. The material doesn’t support the way in which the viewer isn’t given clearer hint of the coming doom very well, even if that’s the way it was for the people on the ship. And this, imo, stands still even as there’s probably no single sane person on the planet who wouldn’t know how a story about Titanic would be ending. Otherwise, I thought the “catastrophe aspect” was handled very well. Though they were interesting in the original edition, to tell the central story of Jack & Rose no more was needed to show of the fates of the other passengers and crew.

Finally, the last dining hall chase/shootout between Rose’s fiance’s bodyguard, what ever his name was, and Jack & Rose… It felt already too repetitive and added nothing new to the stew. What’s more: As the diamond doesn’t matter much in this edit, Old Rose and all being cut, it’s just tad strange to make so much of it in that scene, when its meaning in the plot – to frame Jack of the theft – has already gone. And then its final outcome is left completely unknown, but hinted at. One can suspect it was still in Rose’s pocket when she was saved, but in the story of Jack & Rose it shouldn’t matter. If after the end of the movie the viewer is wondering is the diamond in Rose’s pocket or not, he/she has quite missed the mood.