Synopsis:
The Buckaroo Banzai that you know and love (or perhaps hate), now half an hour shorter and at a much quicker pace.
Intentions:
I wanted to experiment with editing, and I figured it would be best to start with something I know. If you think the movie is too slow, you may prefer this cut. Otherwise, this isn't supposed to replace the original, just provide a new way to watch it. I aimed to trim scenes to remove shots that are unnecessary or trim shots that are too long, as well as cutting down characters and lines that I found annoying or unfunny. Above all else I tried to be careful to retain all of the charm through all of the cuts.
Change List:
1. Film now starts with the club scene. Various small trims. 2. Immediately followed by a short rocket car sequence, leading into Emilio seeing it on the news. 3. We see Emilio fastening the equipment leading into his flashback. No more rummaging for the equipment, he already has it. Various trims to flashback, no more "Holy Toledo" because I didn't like the delivery. 4. After the flashback and the guy taking the TV, we transition to Buckaroo and co. in the bus. Scene ends after "Or else he wouldn't be ready to make a fool out of himself" 5. Emilio then breaks out, various trims. 6. Back at the bus, Rawhide reports of Emilio breaking out immediately after, removed him saying "Last night". Various little trims. The rest of the movie follows regular scene order. 7. During the conference there is a flashback to Buckaroo exiting the mountain and finding the alien thing that he brought over, in B&W. 8. The hunters in the woods who find the alien ship are trimmed a lot, I find them annoying. 9. The president is completely removed. 10. The president's secretary is removed from the final act, he's annoying and unnecessary. He only appears at the conference. Beyond these noteworthy changes, there are various trims to almost all other scenes.
Additional Notes:
I used DVD Decrypter to rip my DVD, then Handbrake to convert it to an mp4. I'm not sure if it's ideal, but it was the first answer I got when asking for advice, and it worked well enough. I edited with Adobe Premiere. Source is the SPECIAL EDITION DVD.
Special Thanks:
TM2YC for watching and giving feedback bionicbob, Malthus, and LastSurvivor for showing interest in the thread, it really helped to motivate me All of the amazing editors who inspired me Lavender Zagranis and Zack Zagranis for supporting me along the way.