Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Edit
by Phantom Editor
This is it. The most famous, first one, starting it all SW episode 1 fanedit. A masterpiece. A milestone. A must-see!
member ratings: 
(44 votes, average: 8.98 out of 10, rated)
Loading ...
original film name: Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
new film name : The Phantom Edit
film studio name : Lucasarts
edit crew name : Mike Nichols
Date Original Film Was Released : 1999
Date Edit Was Released : 02 jul 2006
Original Runtime : 133 min
New Runtime : 115 min
Amount of time Cut/Added : 18 min cut
Cuts removed/added/extended :
- * removing or re-editing most scenes featuring Jar-Jar Binks
- * limiting redundant exposition throughout film
- * trimming reiteration of the politics
- * re-arranged shots and scenes matching original trilogy presentation style
- * removing “Yippee” and “Oops” from young Anakin’s dialog in order to make him a stronger character
Conceptual improvements/advancements of edit over original:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Star Wars Episode I.I – The Phantom Edit is a fan edit of the movie Star Wars Episode I – The Phantom Menace, removing elements of the original thought by some to be unsuccessful by critics and adult fans. The purpose of the edit, according to creator Mike J. Nichols, was to make a much stronger version of The Phantom Menace based on the previous execution and philosophies of film storytelling and editing made famous by George Lucas himself. The Phantom Edit was the first unauthorized re-edit of The Phantom Menace to receive major publicity and acclaim for making the film appreciably better, and although many other re-editing attempts followed, the original Phantom Edit is still highly regarded as a successful exercise of professional and artistic narrative film editing.
DVD Details:
- Video Attributes:
- Video compression mode: MPEG-2
- TV system: 525/60 (NTSC)
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Display Mode: Both Pan&scan and Letterbox
- Source picture resolution: 720×480 (525/60)
- Frame Rate: 30.00
- Source picture letterboxed: Not letterboxed
- Bitrate: 4.66Mbps
- Audio Attributes:
- Audio Coding mode: Dolby Digital
- Sampling Rate: 48kHz
- Number of Audio channels: 5
- Bitrate: 448 Kbps
- Number of Audio streams: 2
- Number of Subtitles: 1
- 115 minutes
- editor commentary
- animated menus
- Single Layer
Complete script transcribed by TV’s Frink -> DOWNLOAD SCRIPT HERE
Buy the original DVD and support FANEDIT.ORG:
Comments and Reviews:
Critics and filmmakers have commented on the original Phantom Edit, in most cases providing the approval and recognition which furthered the fan edit movement.
- “Smart editing to say the least. Kevin Smith, Film Director (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy)[4]
- “…Materialized from out of nowhere was a good film that had been hidden inside the disappointing original one. Daniel Kraus, Salon.com (Nov. 5, 2001)[5]
- “[Done by] someone with a gift for editing!” Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune Film Critic (June 18, 2001)
- It was originally circulated to studios in Hollywood in 2000 and 2001, and was followed by worldwide media attention in magazines, television, and especially the Internet. It was acclaimed as providing a more focused and better paced version of the film.
- Rumor attributed The Phantom Edit to Kevin Smith, probably because he edits his own films and his films frequently refer to the Star Wars mythos. Smith admitted to having seen the re-edit but denied that he was the editor. The editor was revealed to be Mike J. Nichols of Santa Clarita, California in the September 7, 2001 edition of the Washington Post and the June 1, 2002 edition of the Los Angeles Times.[3]
- Illicitly available on VHS and DVD, the DVD contains two deleted scenes and a commentary track by the editor as well as a few easter eggs. No lawsuits were filed against Nichols, nor did he sell or make any money from the edit, claiming, “I am not a bootlegger!”
IMAGES:
cover art by Rikter (download here):
You must own the original movie before acquiring any FanEdited movie. We here at FanEdit.org respect the company’s copyrights, and don’t want to infringe on any company’s rights. Thank you, FE!
Maybe downloadable from Fanedit.info through Rapidshare and bittorrent (enter and download at your own risk and responsibility)
Some people like the movie the way it was, some others wanted extended version, some other others wanted to cut things they didn’t like in the movie. Cutting a movie such as the Star Wars movie is not an easy task. Some failed (The RETURN OF THE JEDI SPENCE EDIT is a good example of failure). Some succeeded. The Phantom editor did a really good job. The scenes’ transitions are not rough. Not alteration in the music. Really well made with respect to the movie.
My only sad note : The opening crawl. I understand that Phantom Editor wanted to express why he made this edit but now, there’s a missing part in the continuity as there’s no “true” opening scrawl. But the rest of the movie is a really great job. SPECIAL NOTE : Look for a special bonus where Jar Jar dies in the waterfall. Hilarious.
Review by LouVanHille — August 1, 2007 @ 5:42 am
I’ve been wanting to see this ever since I read about it in the newspaper and I couldn’t believe my luck when I stumbled onto this site and found it here. This is the first thing I downloaded and I am amazed by how good it looks. It is completely seamless. If I hadn’t seen the original film before seeing this one I couldn’t have told the difference. It’s just that good. I love the menus, transitions and the fact that you even recorded a commentary track for it. I’m looking forward to seeing your edit of Episode II and any others you choose to make.
Review by Frantic Canadian — February 18, 2008 @ 7:54 am
I have been wanting to see this one for a very long time. On the whole it’s a much tighter movie than the original version. Many of the annoying parts are gone, for the most part. I only wish Jar Jar could have been removed completely which would have made it a really great movie
Sadly, I had trouble with this and one of my DVD players which skipped all over the place (tried burning it a few different times, same results–although watching the files on my computer were fine), and trouble with the sound. At times the music and special effects would be too loud, and voices too quite while other times the were just fine.
I’m glad to have finally seen this one, though. The one that started fan editing.
Review by Sunshine1970 — July 28, 2008 @ 4:42 pm
I had the same problem as Sunshine. On my computer, the DVD plays fine, menus work, movie runs in sequence. When I stick the DVD into my player, it just plays the files in sequence as they are on the disk. Any suggestions?
Anyone?
Bueller?
Anyone?
-Ralphie
Review by ralphie — October 5, 2008 @ 4:32 am
Thank you Phantom editor, thank you for giving us the Episode I movie we always hoped for. It’s amazing to see that George Lucas had all the parts to make an amazing movie but couldn’t recognize it. All because he has lost his ability to listen to other people and forgotten the rules of storytelling that made him succesful to begin with. You understand the characters he created better than he does. Your amazing commentary demonstrates this. I only wished we could get a copy with a little better video quality so that I never have to go back to the official DVD.
Review by jalmodov — November 9, 2008 @ 6:56 am
You really can’t shower enough praise on this one for technical quality. It’s near perfect. If you didn’t already know the cuts were there, you wouldn’t know they were there.
Here’s the rub IMO – IT’S NOT ENOUGH!! I have been relentlessly downloading FEs of Ep 1 and have run into the same problems over and over again. Each editor differs slightly, but every one of them, including the now-revered Phantom Editor has left unnecessary Jake Lloyd and Jar Jar dialogue. This one also suffers from an over-abundance of midichlorians – i.e. leaving any mention, even one, is an over-abundance. I see there are still some Ep 1 edits in the works. I sincerely hope they cut more.
Review by buddythegoon — March 2, 2009 @ 3:01 am
Just watched this again for the 4th time and this is still the definitive edit. I agree with the poster below that often it seems the editors are too shy with the cutting…but you can’t always just chop the bad stuff out cause then you are left with no story…this edit is the best balance of heavy cutting and sensible storytelling….getting ready to watch the NY version soon. (re-edit)
Review by vpwmma — March 26, 2009 @ 9:01 am
I respect the edit’s place in history and all that its done for the fanedit community in general, but when I watched it there were still midichlorians and too much Jar-Jar. =/ Anyone recommend a version without that?
Review by pizzaguylol — June 25, 2009 @ 10:24 pm
sunshine and ralphie your problem maybe that you are burning to dvd+r’s as this is what your problem points to.
Review by effy11 — July 29, 2009 @ 10:12 pm
I love this edit. Episode I was a much too childish movie, here with Jar Jar mouth shut, no more “ooups” from Anakin, and deleted digression scenes, it’s a much better movie. Of course we’d still like to see less Jar Jar (his encounter with Sebulba ; at the table by Ankin’s ; could also have been cut) but it’s death in the waterfall in the bonus tracks is very enjoyable ;o)
Thank you ! I’m going to get the Attack of the Phantom now …
Marc, Belgium
Note : I used ImgBurn and a DVD+R and got no problem.
Review by mvhl — August 22, 2009 @ 11:05 pm
I have just started viewing fan edits of the star wars films as the PT was so damn disappointing I didn’t want to review it, even in ‘improved’ form. After all, how much can you really polish a turd? That being said, this is the first Ep. 1 edit I have seen and it was almost fantastic. The only additional edits I would have liked to have seen are: 1. removal of Jar Jar’s ‘How rude’ comment when R2 bumps in to him. 2. Removal of the Queen’s congratulatory scene commending R2. 3. Removal of the midichlorian scene. 4. Removal of the Immaculate Conception dialogue 5. Removal of the autopilot line by Anakin.
That’s it.
I understand that the Nichols edited this before Ep. 2 came out and so left in certain scenes that he felt might be necessary later.
Additions I wouldn’t mind – based solely on descriptions of other edits I have not yet seen, but will soon. 1. Shading Darth Sideous face – no mystery without it. 2. Using different languages and subtitles for the Nemodians and Gunguns. 3. Introduction of a slavery context, instead of trade routes. 4. Introduction of Jar Jar losing the Gunguns sacred blue orb.
Going to check out other edits to see how well those ideas work in practice.
Review by blairbremer — January 25, 2010 @ 8:17 am