A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away—or a few years ago in Brooklyn—Star Wars fans assembled to give their favorite film the ultimate tribute. Now that tribute has at last arrived in its supreme form: A feature-length crowd-sourced remake of the original Star Wars, available to watch on Vimeo and YouTube.
Reminiscent of both Ridley Scott’s crowd-sourced feature Life In A Day and the adolescence-spanning Indiana Jones tribute Raiders: The Adaptation—not to mention the “sweded” amateur remakes of Be Kind Rewind—Star Wars Uncut: The Director’s Cut represents the culmination of the work of hundreds of different collaborators. Creator Casey Pugh began asking for submissions in 2009, dividing the film into more than 470 15-second segments for contributors to fill in. In 2010, Pugh’s team won an Emmy for their work on the project, but the final cut only became available last week.
Pugh and his team may have been the ones to make the whole project possible, but the film’s real star is the weird world of Star Wars fandom. The kaleidoscopic Director’s Cut includes reenactments with Toy Story action figures, salt shakers, college kids, the family dog, and just about every form of animation you can imagine—it’s a veritable Gesamtkunstwerk of fanboyism. Even after disappointing prequels, blasphemous Special Editions, and a plethora of geeky competitors (from the Lord of the Rings trilogy to the Dark Knight saga), the force is still strong with this one.
