VOTD: Edgar Wright's 1993 Mash-Up 'Gun Fetish'
We post a fair amount of montages here on /Film, but this one's extra special. Back in 1993, well before the days of Final Cut Pro, a 19-year-old Edgar Wright holed himself up in an editing suite for several weekends to put together this montage, "Gun Fetish." The clips are pulled from VHS tapes, which explains the low quality. Even so, it's apparent that Wright has an excellent sense of rhythm and timing, as well as real affection for the films he'd go on to reference and parody in work like Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World. Watch it after the jump. Be forewarned — the video is, as Wright puts it, "a little NSFW and spoiler heavy."
Per Wright's request, here's his original blog entry reposted in full, to provide some context for the compilation.
Recently I have been sent, have enjoyed and have reposted lots of filmic mash ups and montages. Some of them by editors as young as nineteen, such as Joel Walden who gave us this most recently.
The montages I'm sent make me a little nostalgic, because that's exactly what I was doing at age 19. In between making amateur no budget films as a teen, I'd teach myself to edit by cutting together montages of movie clips on a theme. You might have heard me talking to Kevin Smith about it on a recent podcast.
The following clip I edited together while at Bournemouth Art College. Way before I'd ever seen an Avid suite, this was done over some long weekends locked in a VHS tape to tape editing suite. Yes, VHS!
So if you are wondering about the low quality of the sound and visuals in the following montage, there's a simple answer. All of the clips were sourced from either films I've recorded off the TV, sell thru VHS tapes I had bought and also films that happened to be in the college library. I literally had piles of VHS tapes in the edit suite. So that explains some of the glitchy clips.
As for the audio edits, hey it was VHS and I was 19. This is the first time I used a 'real' editing suite.
So cast your minds back to the last century and see how I misspent my youth; cutting together bullet ballets to John Lennon's melodic attack on the NRA.
I give you my 1993 mash up; 'Gun Fetish'.
Beware: This is a little NSFW and spoiler heavy.
Now a couple of things. Before any of you comment "Where's —– or ——", bear in mind that the 19 year old me had a limited supply of tapes at the time. Most of these are one I copied off the telly.
I haven't, as is customary, included a list of the clips, as I thought you guys could guess them all. First one to guess them all in order, including close ups, I will send a little prize.
Apologies to any rights holders, I was young I didn't know what I was doing. Please don't arrest me.
And finally. I have another one, if you'd like to see...
PS. I'm going to enable embedding of the video – but if you do re-blog it, would you mind quoting my blog text too, context is king! – Thanks Edgar
Sadly, the prize mentioned in his post has already been won — but on the plus side, that saves us the work of figuring them out. See how many you can identify, then scroll down for answers (as posted by user "Jonathankilloran" on Wright's blog).
Shot 1-3 A fistful of dollars
4 Robocop (dialogue)
5 The Naked Gun (dialogue)
6 Robocop (dialogue)
7-10 Goodfellas
11 Bonnie & Clyde
12 Blues Brothers
13 Bonnie & Clyde
14-19 Terminator
20-25 Taxi Driver
26 Aliens
27-33 Terminator
34-35 Evil Dead
36-37 Bad Taste
38 Goodfellas
39. Split second flash of Dawn of the Dead if paused just right around 1:17
40-41 Dawn of the Dead (1978)
42. The Untouchables
43-44 Robocop
45-46 Taxi Driver
47 Robocop
48-49 Once Upon A Time in America
50-51 Deer Hunter
52-54 The Wild Bunch
55-57 The Untouchables
58-61 Bonnie & Clyde
62-63 The Godfather
64-66 Wild at Heart
67-71 Dirty Harry
72-74 Blazing Saddles
75- Taxi Driver
76 Silence of the Lambs
77 Split second of muzzle flare
78-79 Raising Arizona
80-84 Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)
85 The Getaway (1972)
86 Road Warrior
87 Batman
88-89 Road Warrior
90-92 The Untouchables w/ repeating shots
93-95 Raiders of the Lost Ark
96-105 Robocop
106-109 Midnight Run
110-112 Blues Brothers
113 The Wild Bunch
114-116 Raising Arizona
117 Dawn of the Dead
118 Raising Arizona
119 The Wild Bunch
120-122 Once Upon A Time in America
123 Taxi Driver
124-126 The Wild Bunch
127 Take the Money and Run
128 Butch Cassidy and the Sundace Kid
129-131 Evil Dead II
And the next time we post a montage, pay close attention, because we could be introducing you to the next Edgar Wright. Hey, you never know.