Titanic – The Jack Edit

April 12, 2010 @ 4:24 pm

*This rating was given before reviews were required*

June 27, 2012 @ 1:26 am

This is the best fan edit I have ever seen. I’m amazed how well this works as a movie.

If I was teaching a film class this would definitely be part of my class. Although your goal was to create a version that men could watch, you ended up with something completely different and I think this Fanedit is very unique in that respect.

The deleted scenes work very well. Fabresio, his girlfriend and the irish guy are a bigger part of the movie to the point that they’re almost co-stars along with Rose.

If I had to give any criticism, the ice berg hit felt a little rushed… Maybe add a bit more footage there, where they’re scrambling, etc.

The message at the end. Sounds a bit defensive. Just let the movie end and roll the credits.
I hope to see a blu-ray version of this.

March 13, 2011 @ 2:37 pm

I thought this was a well-done edit.
I noticed that a couple scenes were absent, and if they are in my memory after a single viewing of this film so very many years ago, I guess they made an impact and so I wonder why they were cut. One is the “I’m the King of the world!” with Jack standing, arms extended, on the forward rails. Another scene is the musicians on the sinking ship, deciding not to split up and flee, but rather to stay and play together as the vessel sinks; the musicians are shown noting that they don’t get much audience at dinner, either, but that they’ll play anyway. When I saw that one, I wondered if the final shot of them would be shown, and when it wasn’t I felt that the previous shots really could have been totally removed, or at least heavily trimmed to minimize their depiction. In keeping with the fanedit’s idea/purpose of presenting strictly “Jack’s story”, I think the absence of the ‘King of World’ celebration and the inclusion of the violinists is betraying that goal.
A minor issue was when the minder of the husband (a.k.a. the gunman) comes looking for Rose while she’s down at the party with Jack; we see him come down and scan the crowd, but that’s it. Did he see her, did he approach them, what happened with this? A shot to close this action was missing, though I’m sure director Cameron must have had it in his film. Again, a bit later, the gunman is jumped by Jack in the flooding dining room (so that Jack & Rose can escape him hunting them), and then later he is quickly shown on the deck, bloodied by trying to survive as the ship is going under. This was more acceptable to be there, but surely Jack did not see him, so I just felt that the shot should not have been left in.
Another couple scenes had some transitional wipes, which seemed to be added, not original to the film – and thus noticeable. It also stood out that the theme song “My Heart Will Go On” was used about four or five times, though it was thankfully the orchestral ‘score’ version(s) and not the Celine Dion ballad (ugh).
Other than what’s mentioned above, this fanedit didn’t seem too much different, which is complimentary because it is an hour shorter! It still provided the main story, and yet at the same time it was appreciably briefer, with no Bill Paxton modern-day submariner sequence. It all adds up to make it a go-to edition of “Titanic” for me, and it’s done very well, but just not one of Boon’s/CBB’s best releases (which are plentiful).
7/10

April 10, 2010 @ 10:02 pm

Every year in April I dust off my Titanic movies and documentaries for watching on the lead-up to the night of the 14th/15th. I’ll select one of the movies to watch over the approximate time frame of the sinking. This year is a little different, since I had got it in my head that I wanted to find and own a copy of the 3 or 4 disc “complete” package of Cameron’s epic. Within minutes of starting my google search I discovered fanedit.org. Imagine my glee at finding not only a complete Cameron “Titanic” but also the “Ship of Dreams” and the “Jack” edits! Talk about striking a motherlode!

So the “Jack” edit by boon23 is my first official complete DVD fanedit package. Others have expressed most of what I liked about it, so I’ll just hit one thing. The choice of perspective — focusing on Jack — makes for a totally different take on both the love-story and the sinking of the ship. Not to mention the relegation of many a solid supporting role into that of walk-on bit-players. In this I think CBB has hit a bases-loaded home-run. Whereas Cameron sold us the Jack & Rose love-story in order to be able to tell us the real love-story (his obsession with the ship), the “Jack” edit sells the viewer a scrappy Saturday-night high-adventure TV story of a young explorer of the the world who happens at the wrong place and wrong time to fall in love with the wrong girl…and paid in full-measure for that love.

It is really quite a strong piece of work, and makes for a perfect 2 hour movie. Very little drags in this version of the story — except perhaps the restored scene where Lovejoy pursues Jack & Rose at Hockley’s urging. That restored sceen could have had a minute trimmed out of it and been just as effective. By focusing half the running time on events during the collision, sinking and death-by-freezing in the water, the CBB “Jack” version of the story mirrors the pacing of the classic “A Night To Remember”, which uses the POV of 2nd officer Lightoller as it’s guideline.

I have to agree with the comment that ironically, in recrafting this manly, heroic, POV the love-story is actually of even greater-importance than before. But in a good way because now there’s more focused action and high-adventure, and the love-story drives everything that happens, rather than only 50% of it. Perhaps a cut to the final scene of Rose by herself claiming Dawson as her name would have been good. (Food for thought: I wonder if an equivalent strictly-imposed “Rose” POV edit would be as interesting. Certainly not as action-packed!)

I thought that technically this DVD was well-assembled. The bonus features were useful to watch first in order to establish what the faneditor was trying for. I was never quite able to get a decent widescreen on my TV that didn’t seem just ever-so-slightly squashed, but that may be me and my equipment. I shall try it again on another setup and see if that doesn’t fix it. My other issue with the film was that it seemed perhaps just a bit too video-compressed and lacking in crispness @ DVD5. Sort of like watching it on VHS. I’d like to see it in dual-layer DVD9 for comparison.

Still, those are minor quibbles. All things considered a very strong fanedit that makes me interested in having a go at a few things in my own DVD library. 10/10 for achieving the faneditor’s stated goals and perhaps 8/10 as a full-fledged DVD experience that would have been quite a delight to have arrive in my Netflix queue!

February 3, 2010 @ 10:50 am

Watched this excellent edit last night, it moves along at a cracking well paced speed, for me i found it be very enjoyable, the focus on Jack and Rose is wonderfull the way it unfolds, this could have been released as the final movie! Plenty of scenes I have seen before, that work really well in this edit.
The ending has been mentioned, it’s the editors choice, it worked as an ending, it could have gone two other ways, They both die in the water, which is left in the air here, or with a couple more short scenes
could have shown Rose to have been saved, and arrive in the states,
video/audio quality 10/10

Thanks.