Backlash from a certain segment of the Internet to blockbuster movies that cast women (as well as people of color) has led to some pretty horrible things, like online harassment. It also leads to ridiculous, even hilariously stupid things, like someone editing “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” to remove all the women.
That edit of “The Last Jedi,” which was made from a bootleg recording of the movie made by someone watching it in a theater, purports to be “basically The Last Jedi minus Girlz Powah and other silly stuff.” It slices the movie down to 46 minutes, and apart from being an exercise in sexism, the cut has the virtue of making no sense at all.
There’s an upside to the “de-feminized” cut of “The Last Jedi,” though — it has led to some pretty good jokes about the ridiculous nature of the entire idea. The funniest response is probably that of Twitter user Logan James, who decided to make a joke of the reaction to “The Last Jedi” by making a fan edit of his own.
James’ response to a woman-free cut of “The Last Jedi” was to give equal attention to a movie by removing all the men. His choice is the hilarious part, though — James recut Steven Spielberg’s war epic “Saving Private Ryan” to remove all men from the film. That’s quite an undertaking, since the cast is overwhelmingly male. The result is a short film that’s just over two minutes long — down from the movie’s actual run time of 170 minutes — that’s mostly made up of stoic, sad shots of Arlington National Cemetery. James posted the results to Twitter.
https://twitter.com/loganjames/status/953750374804021250
The funniest part of the “Saving Private Ryan” edit is that it actually comes off as pretty artistic with all the scenes of men removed. Cutting from the cemetery to shots of hard-faced women, then to shots of Normandy beach with no one on it — this feels like a student film that might have gotten a decent grade.
After putting out the “Saving Private Ryan” edit, James one-upped even himself, and made another “de-masculated” fan edit. This time it’s “The Shawshank Redemption,” a movie that takes place in an all-male prison and so has next to no women at all. This one comes down from 144 minutes to just 97 seconds.
https://twitter.com/LoganJames/status/954134191062601729