Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - Teresa Banks and the Last Seven Days of Laura Palmer

(Ratings for V2.1 --- May contain Minor Spoilers)

This is the DEFINITIVE Twin Peaks FWWM FanEdit. For many, the Twin Peaks FWWM Deleted Scenes have been considered the Holy Grail. Did they still exist? Would we ever get to see them? For many, this was as big of an enigma as the very show itself. When it was finally announced the Twin Peaks Deleted Scenes would finally be available, it was one of those great days in fanboy history. Not only did they exist, but there was a good 90+ minutes of deleted and extended scenes which features many characters who were cut or trimmed from the movie. While FWWM is a prequel to the series, the scenes also provided some insight to what happened after the series ended.

While David Lynch has masterfully given us these deleted and extended scenes, they were not incorporated into the movie. If ever there was a need for a FanEdit Extended Edition of a movie, this is the one.

Q2 has done a masterful job of reincorporating the deleted scenes into the main narrative of the movie. Some changes were made between V1 & V2.1 to better follow the shooting script and address some minor quibbles. Q2 has managed to use pretty much all of the extra scenes effectively. While one could possibly make minor changes to the narrative here or there based on personal preferences, I do not see the need for there ever to make another FanEdit of this movie unless one were to make a drastically shorter version which does not use most of the deleted scenes. For what Q2 was trying to accomplish though, he has done is masterfully.

As for the Audio and Visual editing, you could make minor quibbles here and there. But nothing really major or worth editing or worth doing a new version for. These are so minor, I feel bad for taking any points off. Is everything perfect? No. But it is damn close. Especially when you consider how incredibly fast Q2 did this FanEdit, it was a great job.

Overall: This is one of the best extended FanEdits of all-time. Some will argue it is due to the footage and material David Lynch has given Q2 to work with. While this is true, Q2 still had to put it all together (something Lynch deliberately decided not to do). The final results are astounding. It is better then any fan of Twin Peaks could ever have hoped for. It may have taken 25 years, but it was certainly worth the wait.

So, this is it, yesterday me and my friends finally enjoyed V2.1 of this fan-edit.
Expectations were high, the mood was on top when the lights were dimmed and it all started...

To begin with, let me make clear that the version we enjoyed was the Mp4 one, I'm sure that the real BR version would have been even better in the very well built home cinema that we enjoyed this in, but still we felt that the sound was well mastered and picture quality was as good as one can expect from this kind of compressed file, so don't cry if this is the only version you can find, it will do Q2's work justice.

It's very hard to ignore that fact that the extra and extended scenes are a product of Lynch, not Q2, if he hadn't had this great material to work with this wouldn't have been possible, so sometimes I felt that it was hard to put credit where it was due.
To be more to the point I sometimes feel that this is the way that Lynch would have wanted it cut if he had had the freedom to do what he wanted back in the day when this was released. That may make it sound like Q2 didn't do a good job or at least not much of a job, wasn't it all just cut and paste? But in truth you should instead ask yourself, didn't he do an amazing job?
To cut, edit, master and do all the work and tweaking needed to make this a whole and still convince me and also my friends sitting next to me that this is just what Lynch intended and would have wanted, it has to be good, it has to have been hard work and it absolutely has to deserve praise!

Let's leave Lynch behind for a while and talk about me, my friends, the audience, is this what we wanted?
Is this true to what we feel Twin peaks is? Oh Yes, it really is.
It was more than I expected when it comes to added story elements, a deeper explanation of the whole plot around Laura Palmer and this fan-edit or cut really has great value in the lore of Twin Peaks.
One of the ways I put value on a cut is by asking myself, would I pay for it, in other words, would I buy it on Bluray/DVD?
In this case the answer it's YES, not because of added playtime, that's to cheap, it doesn't always add to the story but in this case it truly does and I'd really like to point out that Q2s love for this material really shines trough.
Now some may say that this is a far to long movie cut this way..and they are right, no question about it, at least for one whole sitting, me and my friends were clever enough to take a break midway, it gave time for reflection and well need lift of spirit because let's face it, this is a dark story if there ever was one.
The original cut is a ride straight to hell and this one isn't any brighter believe me.
But heavy as it is and even heavier in this cut it should never be ignored,
this was an essential movie and Q2 has made it even more of "must see".

The final verdict from me would be that this is exactly that, a "must see" for all Twin Peaks fans.
This is what we all dreamed that the new boxset would contain but instead we got bits and pieces...
however these bits and pieces were merged together into a true holy grail, the one we have been searching for and dreaming of for all these years and it seems it will remain a fading legend since it scared the shit out of CBS..
who probably thought "My God this is good, why didn't we do this?" and pushed Q2 to hide this one up his sleeve forevermore.

My final words are aimed at Q2 himself: "Take credit for this one, be proud, this was so well made that they had to force you to hide it, that says it all."

I watched through all of the original Twin Peaks and Fire Walk With Me recently. I was going to watch The Missing Pieces before moving onto The Return, but I decided instead to experience the bulk of it in the form of being reintegrated into the film - cue Q2. Thanks so much for putting this together! I have no regrets about watching the material in this form.

Visual editing is seamless. I did notice one audio transition, but it was niticky. My main gripe here (which it seems only one other reviewer mentioned) is that some of the dialogue is very quiet. It's quiet in the original film, but portions here are exceptionally so, and this (as far as I could tell) was only during some deleted portions. I had to crank up my volume and still couldn't really hear at times, and then had to turn it way down again for the following scene. Either way though, I think this is a film/edit in which subtitles would be valued.

Many have said this - the result of an exhaustive extended edition is that the pacing is affected by unneeded time away from Laura's narrative. But Q2's intent was to make a full extended cut and it is nicely done. Plenty of the scenes add a lot and, while they don't necessarily answer questions, they bring a bit more clarity to parts of the narrative and help things feel a little less random and rushed. Bowey's scene, for example, and also the initial dinner scene with Laura's father teaching them a foreign language - that scene is pretty pivotal IMO, since it so starkly contrasts his character for the rest of the film. Seeing him as the "good" dad makes the rest all the more impactful.

Overall, great to see everything integrated and I'm glad that I had the option to view the deleted scenes in a rewatch of the film rather than in isolation. I do think that a lot of these scenes improve the film and that a balanced cut is the way to go; one that leaves out stuff that is more or less irrelevant to the main plotline with Laura.

The only way to watch FWWM, especially if you plan to continue on with "The Return" after this!

A fantastic edit by Q2. Do all of the additional scenes NEED to be in there? No. Are they all gloriously Twin Peaks and the film is better for having them? Yes. From a technical standpoint, the audio and visual editing is seamless. Of course, the film meanders more with all the added scenes but to be honest, that feels more like Twin Peaks to me. I think the film is narratively improved by some of the additions and the experience is improved by pretty much all of them.