The regular version of VLC Media Player has rudimentary video editing capabilities; it allows you to cut down a video file so it is shorter. To do this, select the "View" menu in the VLC player interface and click "Advanced Controls." This will open up extra controls. Simply click the "Record" button (it is on the left, with a solid circle on it) and play your movie from a DVD or hard disk file. Press the button again to stop recording. The clip will automatically save in your Documents folder as an .mp4 file.
The team behind VLC Media Player is, at the time of writing, working on the release of VideoLAN Movie Creator (VLMC). VLMC will be an open-source video editor that, like VLC, will be user-friendly and available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
There are many different free trials of media editing software available on the Internet, which can be found through sites like Videomaker.com. A few are free, but many are free with time-limited or watermarked trials. Of note are Adobe's suite of programs and Ulead's MediaStudio Pro.