Redacted

There is a lot of detail out there in the process and making of this film but here is the Wiki summary:

Judge Dredd is a 1995 American science fiction action film based on 2000 AD comics character of the same name. It is directed by Danny Cannon and stars Sylvester Stallone in the title role, a law enforcement officer in the crime-ridden futuristic metropolis of Mega-City One. The film co-stars Armand Assante, Diane Lane, Rob Schneider, Joan Chen, Jürgen Prochnow, and Max von Sydow. It was filmed entirely at Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom and released by Buena Vista Pictures on June 30, 1995. The film was produced by Charles Lippincott and Beau E. L. Marks, with a screenplay by William Wisher Jr. and Steven E. de Souza. Reviewers criticized the film for its script and perceived lack of originality and faith to its source material, along with Stallone's acting. The film is often considered to be one of Stallone's worst films,[5][6] but its visual style, effects, music score, stunts and action sequences were praised.

This is a terrible mark against the film, and I think it deserves more praise. There were many things the film got wrong, but also many things the film got right. The same can be said about the Karl Urban reboot film, but that one is more easily recognisable as a ‘good’ film. Finding bad reviews is very easy, and there is a sense of great disappointment for a missed opportunity because it was so close to being right. Richard Trenholm from CNET wrote that the film "drew more more shrewdly on the comic's abundant history than the 2012 version" and "absolutely nailed the look of Mega City One". Drew Dietsch praised the surface elements of the film "As a piece of pure production, [Judge Dredd] needs to be heralded as one of the best achievements of the '90s. Everything about the film's texture is a resounding success."

There are many aspects worthy of note:

• Director Danny Cannon, a long-time fan of the Judge Dredd comics, described his vision as "the Ben-Hur of comic book movies”.
• Stallone personally selected Gianni Versace to design futuristic yet functional attire for the film.
• The prosthetic make-up designs for Mean Machine Angel were created by artist Chris Cunningham.
• Judge Dredd had to be re-cut and submitted to the MPAA five times to get it down from a NC-17 to a R rating. This suggests the original intent of Danny Cannon, to create a dark satire.
• The end credits song for the film, "Dredd Song", was written and performed by The Cure.

Stallone

“It had political overtones. It showed how if we don't curb the way we run our judicial system, the police may end up running our lives. It dealt with archaic governments; it dealt with cloning and all kinds of things that could happen in the future. It was also bigger than any film I've done in its physical stature and the way it was designed. All the people were dwarfed by the system and the architecture; it shows how insignificant human beings could be in the future. There's a lot of action in the movie and some great acting, too. It just wasn't balls to the wall. But I do look back on Judge Dredd as a real missed opportunity. It seemed that lots of fans had a problem with Dredd removing his helmet, because he never does in the comic books. But for me it is more about wasting such great potential there was in that idea; just think of all the opportunities there were to do interesting stuff with the Cursed Earth scenes. It didn't live up to what it could have been. It probably should have been much more comic, really humorous, and fun. What I learned out of that experience was that we shouldn't have tried to make it Hamlet; it's more Hamlet and Eggs.” - Stallone, Uncut (2008)

Even Stallone seemed to understand the work and lamented what could have been, but in that quote, he hits upon why it ultimately was regarded as a failure. He wanted it to be more fun, humorous, and comic. In reality, it should have been more Hamlet, not less. All the same elements but make it more Swiftian, more dark satire, more serious in tone where the humour comes across by contrast instead of slapstick.

All in all, there is much here to revisit. Maybe if I can just tweak the edit, make enough small changes and the final film can be restored to something a little closer to Danny Cannon’s obvious passion for the comic source.

Fan Edits

In 2013, a fan edit was submitted to fanedit.org by TM2YC. The Danny Cannon's Judge Dredd re-worked the 1995 film with the main intent of cutting Stallone’s performance to remove emotion, romance, and wise cracks. It removed Rob Schneider’s character to a minimum. Made it more serious without diluting the action. Although I have not watched this version, I agree with this approach and will follow a similar path.

Judge Minty was a fan film for 2000AD/Judge Dredd that did a superb job in recreating Mega City One and the vibe of the comics.

Goals

My goals in making a new fan edit of the 1995 Judge Dredd film are as follows:

• Colour: See how much I can colour-match Judge Dredd to look closer to modern sensibilities, using Dredd as a template. There is something in the Judge Dredd colour scheme that is a little too upbeat. I think toning things down, bringing flatter colour palettes, would help.
• Score: See how much I can remove and separate the original score from Judge Dredd and use the Dredd soundtrack or Dredd adjacent music. There is nothing wrong with the score, but it will be attempting to codify a film that is going to be fundamentally changed.
• Fergee: This character was supposed to a top dog thug, a hulking man that was often depicted attracting flies. His catchphrase was “Hurr Hurr Hurr!”. Schneider’s “Fergie” is not the same character at all, described in the script as a hacker and a genius without skill, but because he acts as comic relief, his character must be removed as much as possible.
• Romance: There should be no romance with Judges. Definitely no romance with Dredd; that’s six months in the cube for fraternising with a Judge.
• Emotion: Stallone’s Dredd should be edited to remove as many shots as possible of smirks, smiles, doubt, horror or any other emotion.
• Dredd’s Face: The biggest problem of the film, as far as fan comments are concerned, are the removal of Dredd’s helmet.

Sources

• Danny Cannon's Judge Dredd is a prior edit and should be noted. I’ll try not to replicate or emulate but TM2YC was first, as far as I can tell.
• Silver Nemesis on Batman-Online gave a very clear comparison between this film and the comic source, so kudos. It is very helpful for this task.
• ‘The Return of Rico!’ (2000 AD Prog #30, September 1977).
• ‘The Day the Law Died’ (2000 AD Prog #89-108, November 1978-April 1979).
• The Judge Dredd script on IMSDB.
• Judge Dredd Motion Picture Soundtrack.
• Dredd Motion Picture Soundtrack.
• Judge Dredd 1995 DVD (Édition Premium).
• Judge Dredd 1995 Blu Ray.
• Dredd 2012 DVD.
• ‘Judge Yr’self’ by Manic Street Preachers, from Lipstick Traces (A Secret History of Manic Street Preachers) 2003.
• ‘Dredd Song’ by The Cure.
• Judge Minty: a fan film.

Changes

1. The opening sequence. I wanted to do away with all of the flickering comics, as they had a kind of ‘fourth wall’ effect on the viewing experience. I wanted to instead frame the experience as a Hall of Justice record, introducing new graphics. The soundtrack is replaced with the track ‘Mega City One’ from Dredd. The original sequence had room for a long list of credits as we move from establishing Cursed Earth to the city. The new sequence does not introduce anything outside of the city and the list of titles is much shorter.
2. First scenes. The film opens with Fergie returning from Aspen prison and being allocated Heavenly Haven. It acts as a vehicle, literally for Fergie, so the audience can see Mega City One and understand how low Fergie is in the society order. I have stripped this down to shots of the city without titles or Rob Schneider and intercut with clips from the opening of Judge Minty. This segues into the block war riot and begins the film properly from that point. This also means there has been zero focus on Fergie so far, and cuts away the goons in the apartment. Using the Fergie character as an anchor point and a means to guide the audience to some major ideas is a good opening. As a script, it does a great job, but I don’t want to focus on Fergie any more than I have to. Now, the audience begins with a city in chaos, a vast metropolis at war where Judges rule.
3. Dredd Arrives. Judge Hershey and a rookie arrive and call for backup. Judge Dredd arrives and tells the blocks they are under arrest, fulfilling a still from the comics. I cut the elements with Fergie and the goons, and Stallone’s use of “I knew you’d/they’d say that.”
4. Fergie and the Goons. Another edit to get rid of Fergie. The first real goon interaction is yelling at Dredd. We cut stright to Dredd shooting his way in.
5. End Scene. This scene ends with a final shot from Dredd after which Stallone delivers a line like it’s a punchline. I cut it out for dramatic punch. The sentence is death, boom, pose, cut.
6. Fergie Appears. First time we now see Fergie, he is inside a robot vending machine. Why not. Makes as much sense as him escaping the carnage and getting caught, plus Dredd neatly tells us his backstory. There is, what I humbly consider, to be a fine edit to get rid of the ‘suicide’ routine between Fergie and Dredd.
7. End Scene. As Dredd walks away, Hershey mocks his ‘knew you’d say that’ catchphrase, so I cut it.
8. Dredd Removes His Helmet. Much maligned and for good reason. I had considered placing a black bar across Stallone’s face, but he is without a helmet for the entire film and Hershey already removed her helmet earlier. I left it alone.
9. The Locker Room. There was a scene with Dredd talking to Hershey about his feelings. All gone.
10. Happy Motoring. Trimmed the scene by removing the catchphrase (IKYST) and the punchline of ‘happy motoring’.
11. AH AUHM DUH LUHHH! I removed the entire emotional outburst, rearranging the responses shots and using “the defence rests” as a cut point.
12. Fergie Hangs Loose. When Dredd and Fergie are hanging around, being talked at by the Angel Family, Fergie keeps quipping and joking, so I trimmed all those bits out. This includes any cut away, reaction or the joking around after cannibalism is mentioned.
13. IKYST. Another one snipped away.
14. Cursed Earth Pizza. Just fck off, Fergie. Fck right off.
15. Necrophelia Jokes. Dredd knocks a Judge unconscious and Fergie makes as though he believes Dredd wants to strip it in a perverted way. I trimmed that awful mugging out.
16. Walking Helmet. Dredd takes a uniform and walks about until someone recognises his chin. This Justice removes Dredd’s helmet and Dredd hits them. This was inter-cut with the main conference room. Now, the walking scene is removed and the appearance of Dredd without helmet flows better. Also, the editing of the actual film here is abysmal.
17. More Comedy. More of Fergie hitting the cutting room floor.
18. Fergie Shits His Pants. That was in the film. That’s what Fergie is implying. I trimmed it out.
19. Need a Lift, Kid. Any small comedy quip has been cut where ever possible. Where Dredd lifts Fergie from the flying Lawmaster and where Fergie complains. Now, it just cuts straight from an explosion to a door opening.
20. Cleaning Deposit. Quippety quip quip quip. Fergie destroys the mood once more.
21. This Janus Thing. Here, there is a scene between Hershey and Dredd which is interrupted by Fergie. This was cut down to Dredd giving Hershey a stern look and Hershey looking abashed. No romance.
22. Hey Dredd! At the end of that scene, Hershey calls Dredd back and they share a moment. Trimmed out and cut straight to the next scene.
23. We’re a Team. I didn’t cut everything out here, but I trimmed Fergie down considerably.
24. Fergie is Alive. I left in a small cut of Fergie being alive after his heroic actions, but trimmed away any continual stupidity. There was a temptation to cut it in such a way as to show Fergie dying…
25. Kissy Kissy. This edit now shows Dredd saying goodbye and riding off. He takes a single second to look at Hershey and then he is off. No kisses. I also cut out the clip of Dredd grinning and bopping along on his Lawmaster.
26. Judge Yrself. The ending of the film has a very long, bombastic brass score going on, so I cut the sound early and went straight to “Judge Y’rself” by the Manic Street Preachers. I followed it with The Cure’s “Dredd Song” as the credits complete.