Topher Grace Cut All 10 Star Wars Films Into a 5-Minute Edit, and It Actually Rules
Topher Grace has made something of a side-hustle for himself in recutting the Star Wars films. That’s not to say he’s making any money off of it-as he’s likely violating a whole slew of intellectual property laws-but he’s certainly become established as the preeminent fat trimmer of the iconic Lucasfilm franchise. After chopping his way through the prequel trilogy, in addition to a number of other films (including The Hobbit trilogy), Grace has now premiered what may be his most ambitious project to date: truncating all 10 Star Wars movies into one five-minute edit. And while that may sound completely insane, somehow, he actually pulled it off.
Star Wars: Always is a kaleidoscopic trip down the rabbit hole of the iconic Skywalker lore. Charting the original trilogy from the 1970s, to the prequel trilogy of the 2000s, to new Disney era (and even some deleted scenes along the way), Grace’s masterful edit is really a thrill to behold. His match-cutting is on point, with in some cases imagery being smashed together that happened onscreen over 30 whole years apart. It’s no easy task to take finished movies and recut them-especially when most dialogue has soundtrack imprinted beneath it-but this cut feels like it could have come straight from the Lucasfilm archives. For fans of Star Wars, this thing is a dream come true.
Grace shared the edit on Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, and it has since gained over 635,000 views on YouTube at the time of this publishing. His tweet mentions collaborating editor Jeff Yorke and the Twitter account Lou’s Cafe, which seems to be Grace’s hub for publishing these recuts.
While Star Wars: Always is a picturesque snapshot of the ideal Star Wars timeline-eschewing all the burdensome, scandal-ridden details like Lucas’s frustrating visual updates, or the Neimoidians-anyone following the franchise knows that the current state of Star Wars is in a weird place. Solo did not perform the way Disney had hoped, and after efforts to update the archaic rules of the franchise in The Last Jedi, much of the Star Wars fan base has exposed itself as misogynistic, regressive, and just downright shitty. With good-natured efforts like this from Topher Grace, it’s nice to see that there are still some wholesome Star Wars fans out there.
Maybe Disney should hire Grace to start cutting their films. He certainly seems to know how to eliminate the bad stuff–and seems to be pretty good behind an editing software as well.
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