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"The Mentor," a Feature-Length Fan Re-Edit of Saga, Includes Improved Fett
Today at the Vista in Los Angeles — one of the remaining single screen picture palaces — editor John Venzon (@animeditor) premiered his fan re-edit to a packed crowd of friends, family, and industry professionals. The film takes the perspective of Obi-Wan Kenobi as the hero. We were there — and it was incredible.
Between flashbacks in “The Mentor” between the prequels and A New Hope, when we see just one of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s interactions with Jango Fett, it remains very mysterious. Nobody is unmasked. Young Boba Fett and Kamino are gone. Most importantly, Jango doesn’t have any lines — and dedicated shots. Instead, we cut to the chase with the dogfight over Geonosis. Venzon’s choice of quickly including a shot of the masked Fett inside Slave I from “Empire” — and that’s as close as we get. If any of the directing/casting/acting/dialogue of Fetts in the prequels bothered you, this fan re-edit will make you smile, and remind you of how great Fett’s portrayal was in the original trilogy.
Watching “The Mentor” on the big screen made it feel like the prequels could have had some of the same energy and pace of the well-regarded first “Star Wars” film. This re-edit gives us a fresh perspective focusing the narrative around the initial act of “A New Hope” where Obi-Wan is the hero instead of Luke Skywalker. It’s a testament to the power of editing when it’s also just using existing footage from the saga, some editing tricks like elongating a subtle smile, and some re-mixed scoring cues.
One of several posters for “The Mentor.” Design by Matt Flynn, who helped Venzon with the project.
Venzon, who you may recognize from “The People Vs. George Lucas,” works full-time at Warner Bros on a forthcoming 2017 feature. In between that work, he cut this in less than four months during just spare nights and weekends. He used Harmy’s “Despecialized” Edition as its source material, as well as a cut-scene from a DVD bonus feature and some choice moments from the Complete Saga Blu-ray release.
Fan re-edits are nothing new. Like fan films, they’re using existing footage. Two years ago, actor Topher Grace was in the news for re-editing the entire prequel trilogy into one 85-minute video.
Because of its nature as a fan re-edit, you won’t find this film for sale. Because of the total length of “The Mentor,” and a word-of-mouth strategy, you also won’t find it on YouTube or Vimeo (for now). However, you may find it for free if you look in the right places/times:
- Visit a torrent site of your choosing
- Search for “Star Wars The Master Fan Re-Edit” or something along those lines
- Grab the 3.7gb or so file
- Watch and enjoy the fan re-edit
If you’ve seen it, or heard about it, let us know in the comments what you think.
UPDATE: The filmmaker has the film now on Vimeo!
About the Author, Aaron Proctor
Founder and editor of the Boba Fett Fan Club, established in 1996. Aaron curates all of the content for BFFC and also designs/develops the website. He works with a team of volunteers worldwide. When not volunteering here, he's a cinematographer and runs his own production company.
BFFC Member #2
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As a working motion picture editor, and one who had the privilege to be at the Vista Theater to see The Mentor, I can say that this film is a testament to the power of editing. The Mentor’s ability to so thoroughly achieve the shift of focus to Obi Wan, using only existing material is a master stroke. Cutting down of so much Lucasian chaff, let’s the real story be told. See this movie if you can!
“Watching “The Mentor” on the big screen made it feel like the prequels could have had some of the same energy and pace of the well-regarded first “Star Wars” film”
An odd comment to say the least since the energy and pace of the prequels was far higher than IV which is by far the slowest paced of the films and forever will be since no one is going to make films that “slow” as it were.
Denying Jango and young Boba is rather bizarre in a movie titled The Mentor as that exactly is what Jango was to Boba.
Ryan – Intersting point. I found it hard to find a version of Jango & Boba where it didn’t play super young in that part of the film. The idea of Jango teaching young Boba how to handle trouble out in deep space would have been great, but since most of the conversation was “Get ’em Dad!” I opted for the serious the pose of Jango/Boba from Ep V. FWIW.
Still searching torrents, no luck so far. Hope to see this soon!
Here’s are some we’ve seen and heard:
http://thepiratebay DOT se/torrent/11575649 (NSFW site)
https://kickass DOT so/star-wars-the-mentor-re-edit-by-john-venzon-t9899858.html (more SFW)
https://mega.co.nz/#F!NkR1XTjZ!hqvS59eqxmp_GE-DCFusRw
Thanks. Ill check for these when I get home from work tonight.
Off the top of my head tho, I know the PBay one to be a dead link.
Thanks again. For the links and the effort to make this!
What John Venzon did in The Mentor was brilliant. Taking 3 movies we love so much and giving us an inventive way to look at them. We got to see it with fresh eyes excitement to beloved footage – suspense, not knowing where the story was going to take us next. Thus making it a edge of seat screening. It really was such a masterful concept.
We all have commented on the Story structure, but when you see it notice (or better dont) the care in color timing, seamless mx editing. And the sound work blew me away. Knowing there was limited content to work with, only made the work unbelievable. The sound flowed from scene to scene between films made decades apart. Done with sophistation by someone who knows his stuff. My breathe was taken away when there was one scene with an absence of sound to emphasis the film makers vision.
All added up to a treasure that gave more detail to the true meaning of the Force.
Bravo John, and a huge thank you so much.