DO they still have the files?
Star trek the motion pic DE on Blu-ray Petition
- Thread starter jeddah
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DO they still have the files?
And if they do, how usable are they at 1920x1080 resolution?
The 90s re-edit of Touch of Evil is the only one of these re-works that I've ever approved of, and that's because Walter Murch recut the film based on a 52 page memo written by the director himself near the end of the film's original production, which is about as close to original intent as you can get. Otherwise, I tend to agree with Terry Gilliam, who said he'd not recut Brazil because he's no longer the same person he was when he made that film and it would be like cutting someone else's movie.
I won't get into specifics, but I do know that the files still exist.
Although I've never seen it, I've also heard good things about the "Reconstruction" of Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One that was done about ten years ago. In general, though, unless they're based on detailed notes, these things hardly represent the "original vision" that publicity materials usually sell them as.
I still prefer the DE over the theatrical version of TMP, but both have their flaws and neither is a particularly good movie.
Once upon a time as an editing exercise I decided to play with tightening up TMP, and found it was actually pretty easy to pick up the pace simply by numerous tiny trims of the kind I like to refer to as "letting the air out". No major cuts. Few dialog deletions, but mostly making the cuts tighter (trim frames off the heads and tails of shots, etc.) I suspect it was an edit of that type Wise meant when in 1980 he said the film could be cut by 6 minutes at least.
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I wonder if he wanted even deeper cuts than that. "The Films of Robert Wise" (Richard Keenan, 2007) sources an interview from August 13, 1981 in which the director said he wanted to cut both the Spock Walk and the Enterprise docking sequences by as much as a minute and a half -- each.
It is now. But we had to wait a long time before it was released on DVD and BD. I hope one day the SLV will be available as well.
The special longer version always cracked me up. A movie that was so slow to begin with adds more stuff. That being said I rented the DE back in 03 or so and I really thought the improved pacing made the film much better, how ever I was waiting for the create god in our own image line, as I thought this line nailed the entire movie, and i think it was gone. So anyway that and the other things a few people were grubleing about i miss. I think the Sulu Bald Girl think where his board fizzes is cute and all, but not necessary, the art improvements are good. I loved every shot of Enterprise going thru v;ger I know some of them were new but I couldnt tell which.
I know I have this on tape some where. I am going to dig around and see if i cant find this film it was great science fiction film probably my 3rd Favorite Star Trek the Original Series film I like 2 best but then I'd say this one 6 and 4 are all kind of tied depending on my mood. 6 isn't as good after u kno the end to the who dunnit, and 4 isn't as funny after a while, I never thought it was that funny to begin with, but star trek 1 keeps getting better every time i watched it. Music and visuals are GRAND! The scope of this film is amazing.
And on a side not Star Trek 5 has the same feeling of sailing into the unknown when they are in that wheel room and going thru the Great BArrier, but the crudes joke are what make this film really tough to watch. But I really thought that this one 5, while not a great film had, Some excellent parts, better than anything in 4 for sure!
Final note, thats why some times I wish they wouldnt screw around with movies because everyone wants their own version. Once a movies printed, and screened on opening night its done! Like when you hand in your projects on the due date thats it. Your done.
I know I have this on tape some where. I am going to dig around and see if i cant find this film it was great science fiction film probably my 3rd Favorite Star Trek the Original Series film I like 2 best but then I'd say this one 6 and 4 are all kind of tied depending on my mood. 6 isn't as good after u kno the end to the who dunnit, and 4 isn't as funny after a while, I never thought it was that funny to begin with, but star trek 1 keeps getting better every time i watched it. Music and visuals are GRAND! The scope of this film is amazing.
And on a side not Star Trek 5 has the same feeling of sailing into the unknown when they are in that wheel room and going thru the Great BArrier, but the crudes joke are what make this film really tough to watch. But I really thought that this one 5, while not a great film had, Some excellent parts, better than anything in 4 for sure!
Final note, thats why some times I wish they wouldnt screw around with movies because everyone wants their own version. Once a movies printed, and screened on opening night its done! Like when you hand in your projects on the due date thats it. Your done.
I suspect that's not accurate re the Spock Walk, which is one of the fastest sequences in the film. The scenes I bet what he meant to cut were the drydock flyaround and the cloud/V'ger flyover.
But that shot doesn't actually appear in any of the original cuts. The only part of SF that we actually get to see (in any non-DE version) is the Golden Gate Bridge.
IIRC, in the original version of the "air tram shuttle" scene, there are two static shots: first we see the Federation logo, then a wide shot of the bridge, then it cuts to the inside of the tram building. When we see the outside of the bridge, the land where the city is supposed to be is empty - there is no city there at all. This fits with Gene's "vision" that everyone would be living underground, which I find shocking (that anyone would put up with living in such conditions).
I mean, it's fine that Gene wanted to protect the planet and all that, but not at the expense of human life. If Earth is a paradise in Trek's time, it should feel that way for the people, not just for the planet itself.
Also, if you'll check the theatrical cut, when we DO see the inside of the tram building, it's level with the water's edge. (This creates a discontinuity in the DE, since in that version we actually do see Kirk's shuttle, and it's heading for a building that's high up from the water like that one is.)
But that shot doesn't actually appear in any of the theatrical cuts. The only part of SF that we actually get to see (in any non-DE version) is the Golden Gate Bridge.
IIRC, in the original version of the "air tram shuttle" scene, there is a static shot of the bridge (in which we can see some kind of mass transit tracks have been added), then a static shot of the Federation logo, then it cuts to the inside of the tram building. When we see the outside of the bridge, the land where the city is supposed to be is empty - there is no city there at all. This fits with Gene's "vision" that everyone would be living underground, which I find shocking (that anyone would put up with living in such conditions).
I mean, it's fine that Gene wanted to protect the planet and all that, but not at the expense of human life. If Earth is a paradise in Trek's time, it should feel that way for the people, not just for the planet itself.
Also, if you'll check the theatrical cut, when we DO see the inside of the tram building, it's level with the water's edge. (This creates a discontinuity in the DE, since in that version we actually do see Kirk's shuttle, and it's heading for a building that's high up from the water like that one is.)
No, there is a city visible with the Golden Gate Bridge. It's just one of humble proportions. The TrekCore screencaps are on this page: http://movies.trekcore.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=577.
You can see that the shuttle is headed towards a building which looks like the building in the painting Maurice has shown. I'm not sure what your basis is for the conclusion that the tram building is level with the water's edge, because I don't see that following from what we see looking out from inside the station.
ETA: If you look out from inside the tram station at the perspective of the Golden Gate Bridge, it looks more or less level with it, which agrees with the painting of the shuttle's approach.
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The SLV I believe was the TV versions that made the film clunkier, and used unfinished effects shots, simply to make it longer for broadcast TV.
I have no issue with never seeing that version again.
The original film cuts from Vulcan to the shot of the airtram paralleling the Golden Gate Bridge and then to the logo on the floor and and finally to the tram station interior.
The tram station design and the city in the unused shot I posted match the shot that did end up in the film. I'm assuming the shot was done, wasn't considered to work for whatever reason, and never cut into the film. Or, if it was, it was in a workprint version we never saw.
The tram station design and the city in the unused shot I posted match the shot that did end up in the film. I'm assuming the shot was done, wasn't considered to work for whatever reason, and never cut into the film. Or, if it was, it was in a workprint version we never saw.
You might be right. The section in the book doesn't directly quote Wise, so it's possible that the author paraphrased him incorrectly or that Wise's memory was inaccurate.
One thing is for sure -- the V'Ger flyover is interminable and would likely have been edited down significantly if the post-production schedule had been longer.
A means of explaining the largest of those planets was that it was a sister planet named T'Khut or T'Kuht.
The painting looks like a painting to me, and would not have been convincing enough on the big screen.
If it was a planned shot, it might have been between the first shot we saw and the floor shot.
So it would be:
- Spock picking up the pendant from the ground.
- The establishing shot with the tram.
- This (unused) shot
- The Starfleet logo on the floor.
The cue in the theatrical cut musically would make sense as well, thinking about it.
The Main Title fanfare in the DE has 2 statements of the theme, while only one statement is present in the theatrical cut.
It might have been dropped also because 1 establishing shot is cheaper than 2, and the one used in the film more clearly established the location. Assuming the shot wasn't completed, doing this would have eliminated the need to spend time and money on completing the shot.
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