Fan edit or the real thing
The history of fan edits began properly a few years ago when an editor made an alternate, unauthorised cut of The Phantom Empire called The Phantom cut. The phenomenon grew until fan edits are arguably a form of film making in and of themselves, although still in shadowy legal territory, often indistinguishable from the real thing in quality and tolerated by the studios. They benefit from the work of people who know and love each film enough to make things better, in their view at least. I've seen a few now and in some cases imho they supercede the original (for instance de Palma prefers the fan edit of Raising Cain more than his own version and there is a Vertigo which removes the redundant mid-way exposition scene which Hitchcock wanted removed but was too late etc), even though there is still too much duplication with classic films so far largely neglected. It's a funny thing; I would not tolerate a fan-edit of my favourite books but do a film I love. It could be that this is because a movie is always a collaborative effort and I am used to 'director cuts'.
Has anyone seen these edits and feels, like me that they can be worthwhile or would be good idea?
https://fanedit.org/
https://www.reddit.com/r/fanedits/