Synopsis:
This edit takes Slark’s original ideas for Doc SalvageD The Fanedit of Bronze! and refined it to the highest level, seeking to bring dignity to a beloved character, and his many fans!
Intentions:
Hollywood lore says that Warner execs were fearful that a serious depiction of a pulp hero would not play to audiences in the mid-‘70s, and that they insisted the film be given a “camp” approach, akin to the 1960s TV series “Batman”. Rumor has it that a “straight” cut of the film does exist, somewhere in Warner’s vault. The idea of this edit was to try to extricate as much of the cringe-inducing “camp” as possible from this film – in effect, imagining what that “straight” cut might have been like.
Change List:
Likewise, the “cut-list” is rather extensive, and is not easily described in terms of scenes/lines cut. (We’d be here into next week.) Perhaps the best way to get a feel for the “cut-list” is to view the “Fragments from the Faneditor’s Floor” section of the disc, a ½-hour of UNEDITED clips from the original film, provided for comparison. The “Fragments” section is liberally peppered with wiseass captions that are pretty funny. (But then again, of course I think so – I wrote them.)
Additional Notes:
Needless to say, a fanedit that takes THREE YEARS to complete is going to have a lot of “Edit Details” – it seems less-than-practical to imagine a comprehensive list here. Suffice it to say that this is, as my friend and key advisor on this project, Imp, put it: “a head-to-toe re-edit”. For the record, the fanedit includes a running “text commentary” – on the second subtitle track – that goes into much of the “Edit Details”
Other Sources:
Special Thanks:
I would like to thank my “advisors” on the fanedit.org forums: Gantz101, Monroville, Jorge, Spence, ImperialFighter, JMB, Blackhawk, Bleujayone, MonkandHam, Dwight Fry, Ray Zell, Ripplin, Hebrides, and imp_ardnfi. And I would like to thank all the past and present administrators of fanedit.org for providing a site that inspires and facilitates all this.
There is a much more extensive list of thanks in the crawl that follows the movie, but I would like to single out Mr. Ron Ely – to whom I have dedicated this fanedit – for a wonderful performance that made all the time spent on this project bearable!