I know about the original theatrical cuts as a bonus feature on the DVD box set, but have heard quality is poor.
I don’t mind efforts to clean up the picture and sound, but I don’t want to see CGI pratfalls in Mos Eisly for example or muppets hogging the screen in Jabba’s palace.
I’ve heard about bootlegs being made from some source floating around online? No links but a name would be ok.
What is the best match between pic and audio quality and unaltered content?
Rules prohibit info promoting or aiding illegal behavior, so you’re not going to get much traction there.
That said, I’m a purist also, and I had a lot of luck with the below linked DVD set from Amazon. The second disk of each set is the original, and the quality is not any worse than I remember from my old THX VHS set back in the day. I bought two sets, and have one stored away for safekeeping, and one to watch.
I at one point also had the original VHS set of the theatrical releases, but my never-to-be-sufficiently blamed younger brothers didn’t realize how precious they were, and let friends borrow, and subsequently destroy, them. KHAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!
If you have a VHS player, they pop up every once in a great while, but they’re usually expensive as all get out. You want, of course, the old 1995-1997 set.
I know that original VHS quality isn’t great, but with Lucas on a quest to erase all memory of the originals from the records of mankind, he’s not going to be remastering those originals any time ever, nor is he going to grant permission for others to do so either.
Eventually true Star Wars fans will be known by their “small tv” shrine in some room or other, dedicated to the watching of the no-so-good-quality artifacts they’ve carefully preserved and treasured through the years, in direct defiance of his lord and majesty King Lucas of Entertainment.
The laserdisc versions look great
Like I said no links, I was just wondering what people were talking about when they said some kind of fan effort put out a original cut.(or why if the DVD set has the movies).
The amount of alterations done and versions is confusing at this point.
What about the bluray set? Can we expect the original versions to show up there?
Lucas has stated (around the time of the first revisions in ~97) there will never be another official production of the original, 1977-83 versions. Ever.
So no DVD versions. No Blu-Ray versions. No YouTube versions. No Hulu versions. Nada.
At best, you’ve got VHS and maybe laser-disc. But I’m not even sure about the latter.
This will probably continue until Lucas dies and the language of the will is muddled enough to allow the estate to produce it.
While that’s technically correct, and the reason I really am not fond of Lucas overall, it’s not actually physically correct.
The set that I linked to (as well as at least one version of the newer cardboard-packaged DVD releases) has “bonus disks” with the original theatrical cuts packaged in with the updated “real movie” disks.
The theatrical cuts are packaged specifically as “bonus materials” but they are the full thing, just as I remember from my 1995 VHS set. I don’t know what kind of strings the marketing and promo people managed to pull to convince him to do that, but we DO have actual, non-bootleg DVD versions of the theatrical release available.
I own the “tin” DVD version myself, and have watched them many times. I have seen that the newer DVD release we just got for my library has the theatrical releases for each of the originals as a bonus disk as well, but I have not watched those copies, so I don’t know if they’ve been ‘adulterated’ or not.
And again, as much as I hate to disappoint - I don’t KNOW any bootleggers or pirates, so even if I wanted to flaunt board rules, there’s not anything I can offer you. Sorry! 
:rolleyes:
Lucas was able to fall back on this line of thinking: “The original theatrical cuts on the DVD were ported directly from the Laserdisc version. So I didn’t have to create a remastered version for the DVD.” Basically, the DVDs are non-anamorphic, thus are of a lower picture quality than a remastered version for DVD (or Blu-ray) would be.
That said, I agree that the second Lucas dies, his family will announce the “Lucas Memorial Star Wars Set” containing the originals, the Special Editions, the 3D editions and everything else there’s ever been. The cost? Your very soul. And nerds will pay… just for the originals probably.
On the subject of SW music, this is fun:
Not Canon, but fun.
A few years back, before the theatrical cuts were re-released in the new DVD boxed set, I was looking for the same thing: the best version of the original trilogy.
My research at the time led me to the same conclusions that people have already offered in this thread: either the LaserDisc version, or the early VHS tapes.
But I also found a bootlegger selling DVD-R’s of the original trilogy, plus a boatload of extras, including the infamous Star Wars Christmas Special, and the original cut of THX-1138.
This particular bootlegger had apparently gone to a lot of trouble to fix up these versions of the films as best as he could. Other members of a message board that I belonged to attested to the quality. This was before the release of the new DVD boxed sets, however, so I don’t know how the versions compare.
This guy was selling his DVD-R’s on an eBay clone site. Even though I wouldn’t be allowed to post it, I honestly forget the name of the site, and the seller, as I never did end up buying them (and this was all several years ago, anyway).
So there are ahem not-quite-Lucas-approved versions of the films out there.
Expensive as all get out? Really?
[wanders off to contemplate her still in the original shrink wrap 1995-1997 box set.]
I think I have a set too. I was never a big fan of the movies, but for some reason I had all the toys and someone gave me the set as a gift. Maybe it’s time I sold them.
In total seriousness, if either of you two want to unload them, check out ebay and the Amazon marketplace for price comparisons, and send me a PM - I will totally buy a set from either of you if they are in good condition (shrinkwrapped? swoon).
Not kidding. This could be the end of a bitter and long-lasting unpleasantness between me and my siblings.
Is this the “original original” version of the movie, with the bad matting problems around the TIE Fighters, for example (I have a VHS copy of that), or the “remastered original” version, where they THX-ified the audio, recomposited the mattes (to clean up those big blocks you would see around the starships), but hadn’t yet added the CGI horror?
Not unless $10-20 is expensive. eBay has oodles of the pre-THX and/or pre-Special Edition VHS versions available.
This link describes the set of dvds I bought of the ‘unaltered’ original trilogy. This site lists a 2008 release date but another site I found listed 2006, which sounds more accurate to me - I bought them when they came out. Each dvd set contains the digitally remastered/enhanced movie on one disc and the ‘unaltered’ version on the second bonus disc.
I haven’t watched them in quite a while but I do remember that the fx looked rather ‘warts and all’ compared to contemporary fx. You can definitely see the mattes quite clearly. The bad mattes I most remember are the shots in the Falcon cockpit looking from behind Han and Chewy and you can see how badly they’re traced out compared to the starfield outside. I can’t remember if you can see the big blocks around tie fighters etc. that toadspittle describes. I should check it out tonight when I get home.
Maybe even the Phantom Edit so we can see what could have been.
The THX version still has the boxes around the TIE Fighters. I went back to check a few years ago because I’d never noticed them yet sure enough, there they were. It’s one of those “can’t unsee” things once you know what to look for.
Anyway, the DVD version w/ the originals on the 2nd discs, even though it’s not anamorphic, is the best you’re gonna get for the originals now. Or maybe if you have a laserdisc player go for that version, since the DVD was mastered using those. But then you gotta worry about the player breaking down and the discs getting “bit rot” or whatever it is. DVD is just the better choice for most people.
Any VHS copy is going to be lower quality, just by nature of VHS. The tapes also will wear out over time. Furthermore, most VCR’s will only play via composite or RF/coax outputs, whereas with the DVDs you can pop them into players using much better outputs like component or even HDMI. Get one that upscales well and it’s going to be a lot better than trying to watch a 20 year old video tape on a rickety old player.
I’ve just verified that I see the same thing on my copy. I just had a quick peek at Episode 4 (which doesn’t say “Epsiode IV: A New Hope” in the title crawl, btw). The boxes around the ships aren’t in every single shot, if it’s any consolation. Besides being non-anamorphic, the overall picture quality is pretty grainy. Lucas made these unaltered versions available simply to appease those who had negative reactions to his digital enhancements and he didn’t really go out of his way to do a good job of it.
I have a set of VHS, proving that Han did shoot first, damnit.
But no, you can’t have them. <3
Aren’t the laserdisc versions the same as the theatrical DVD ones? I thought Lucas just slapped the laserdisc copies onto DVD to get some money out of folks.