They should have negotiated for the rights to include the NPR radio drama in the package. I had never heard this program (or even knew it existed) until a few months ago. At 13+ hours, it fleshes out a great amount of the backstory and gives the whole thing a more epic feel. I doubt the owners of the series are making a killing with it, very few people I know recognized it when I mentioned it to them.
For sheer all-out Star Wars geekery, it would be hard to top the new HomeTheaterForum thread on the OT. The set’s only been out for a day and the discussion thread is already up to 48 pages… on page 3, one wonderful trainspotter lists 4 1/2 screen pages’ worth of audio differences (mostly Foley stuff) in Ep. IV.
[Wayne’s World genuflecting] “I’m not worthy! I’m not worthy!”[/WWg]
“No work of art is ever finished, only abandoned.”–Henry James
Here’s the AP interview. Basically, what it boils down to is this: “the SE is finally the version I wanted to make, and I’m not spending millions of dollars to put the original on DVD.”
Now, maybe that’s bullshit. one would think he’d be able to recoup those costs, but maybe not. Anyway, maybe he’s being a dick but you could really only see it that way if you take something like this personally (and if you do, get a reality check).
AP: Why did you rework the original trilogy into the special-edition versions in the late 1990s?
Lucas: To me, the special edition ones are the films I wanted to make. Anybody that makes films knows the film is never finished. It’s abandoned or it’s ripped out of your hands, and it’s thrown into the marketplace, never finished. It’s a very rare experience where you find a filmmaker who says, “That’s exactly what I wanted. I got everything I needed. I made it just perfect. I’m going to put it out there.” And even most artists, most painters, even composers would want to come back and redo their work now. They’ve got a new perspective on it, they’ve got more resources, they have better technology, and they can fix or finish the things that were never done. … I wanted to actually finish the film the way it was meant to be when I was originally doing it. At the beginning, people went, “Don’t you like it?” I said, “Well, the film only came out to be 25 or 30 percent of what I wanted it to be.” They said, “What are you talking about?” So finally, I stopped saying that, b! ut if you read any interviews for about an eight- or nine-year period there, it was all about how disappointed I was and how unhappy I was and what a dismal experience it was. You know, it’s too bad you need to get kind of half a job done and never get to finish it. So this was my chance to finish it.
AP: Why not release both the originals and special editions on DVD?
Lucas: The special edition, that’s the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it’s on VHS, if anybody wants it. … I’m not going to spend the, we’re talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn’t really exist anymore. It’s like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I’m sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I’m the one who has to take responsibility for it. I’m the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they’re going to throw rocks at me, they’re going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.
I don’t understand much about DVD, but wouldn’t it be horrendously easy to have both versions on the same disc, and switch from original to special the way you switch subtitles or languages? How difficult could that possibly be? That’s something that’d make me rush to buy the box.
As for the “millions of dollars” Lucas talks about… please. As if putting the original versions on DVDs would cost an amount of money that he’d even notice, and he’d make it back in any case.
And this is the version he’s always liked it to be? He always wanted Ghost Anakin to be played by Hayden Christensen? He always wanted a fat version of the Emperor appearing to Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back, only to inexplicably and rapidly slim down in time for Return of the Jedi? He always wanted the letters on the tractor beam control panel to be alien, but didn’t do it in 1977? Bullshit.
The film has to get from the original footage to DVD format somehow. It’s a little more complex than simply connecting a VHS player to a DVD writer.
Also, most of the cost will be cleaning up the original footage so it is DVD quality. Star Wars or not, I don’t want to shell out all that money on a DVD with 1970s production values.
It is? I thought VHS-to-DVD recording equipment was commonly available.
I would. That’s part of the point.
If it is difficult/expensive, whence the flood of old movies on DVD? Don’t tell me Metropolis, Nosferatu or Cabinet of Dr Caligari are blockbusters when they come out on DVD, and yet my video store has them and many more.
I don’t buy that as an excuse. They’d have had to clean up almost all the footage for the “SE” release anyway, so it’d be trivial to clean the rest.
I give it no more than two years before the originals come out on DVD. I’d get them off torrent, but I still feel bad about that.
[Disclaimer] I am not a lawyer! I generally have no idea what I’m talking about! [/Disclaimer]
Far be it from me to tell you how to feel, but if you own the original trilogy on vhs or any other format, then there is no legal problem with torenting it. The US copyright act of '76 allows for copies of materials for personal use, so long as you bought it at one time.
As for revisioninst historian George, I hate to point out that he’s been doing this since day one. There any number of sites with exhaustive lists of changes he made within the original theatrical release. The only difference is they were more minor changes, a lost line here, another beat between cuts there. I own Star Wars on 8mm, RCA CVA Disc, 2 versions of laserdisc, and three versions of VHS. Every one is different.
While hate the special edition with the undying passion of a thousand suns, it’s his universe, he just let us play in it. You may harp about changes to a film that shaped you as a child, but you’re not a child anymore! If he released an ultra-special edition where Empire takes place not on Hoth but in Vegas, it will not change your memory of hours spent in a snowsuit protecting the rebel base. Perhaps you’re worried about the children, that they will somehow be worse off growing up in a world where Greedo shot first. They will, there is not doubt, but this is the province of parents, to keep the “Real” version and pass it on. It also seems the concensus on this board that it’s only a matter of time before the one true grail is returned unto the believers in the form of DVDs. And while Star Wars speaks to all people, in all times, it is quite likely that it will never again have the impact it had on it’s first generation. So my grandkids might turn out alright if someone, in the vile spirit that people sometimes possess, tells them that “Greedo shot first.”
Sorry, I get verbose when I talk about Star Wars.
So don’t lose heart that George has begun erecting false idols. Remember, Moses never set foot inthe promised land either.
I didn’t buy the DVD, haven’t decided if it’s worth it. My wife has a VHS copy of the original trilogy that I don’t think has ever been viewed. Maybe I’ll stick with that.
Lots I could say about Lucas and Star Wars, but I said most of it in my lengthy post in the “Is Star Wars Dead?” thread from April.
I’ll just ask: When is the “Star Wars Life Day Special” Special Edition DVD coming out?
Please tell me you have your tongue firmly implanted in your cheek. I mean Some of the changes I like (cleaning up some of the special effects), some I don’t care for, and most I simply don’t care. But overall, I don’t care, I love the movie the entertainment as a whole. The details are nice, but it is the scope of the Trilogy and where it takes me that matters. Greedo shooting first? I honestly don’t care.
Why does everyone keep repeating this? Lucas hasn’t released the original (i.e. non-digitally-tampered-with) cuts since the SEs supplanted them however many years ago. Not on VHS, not on DVD. He says he doesn’t consider those versions to be the “real” films, and I believe he’s being honest; I also think he’s being meddlesome and stupid, but that’s his prerogative.
The Star Wars movies are going to be like crack to DVD buyers; the few fanboys who refuse to get them out of principle won’t amount to so much as a rounding error as far as George’s profits are concerned. So why bother to release the originals, the ones he’s described at length as being technically inferior and not congruent with his true vision of the films? How is he supposed to market films whose main selling point is the datedness of their visual effects?
You will never see a legitimate release of the original films while Lucas is alive. It’s highly unlikely you’ll see one after his death, unless his estate is managed by someone with no regard for his wishes, something that is also very unlikely. The only way I could see it happening is if some reputable line like the Criterion Collection approached him about preserving the original releases; the promise of respectability might appeal to his vanity sufficiently to make him agree. But that, once again, is not likely to happen.
Lucas has been whoring the franchise for 27 years. I venture he will give in eventually. He was going to wait until after Ep. III, to release this set, but here it is.
Sure it is. And you wind up with a DVD that looks exactly like a VHS tape. DesertRoomie bought for a dollar some British costume drama on DVD; looked like it was made for TV. Anyway, a buck was about all it was worth. The definition was terrible, the colors were muddy, and the sound even worse. There was even flagging at the top due to tape stretch. It takes time and money to do a DVD transfer properly whether it’s from film or tape.
DD
Well, yes, I think that’s huge bullshit. Wait a few years and you’d sell tons of original Star Wars DVDs marketing them as the “originals”. Especially if they put different special features or something on them. There are movies far less marketable than Star Wars that have multiple versions on DVD.
And no, you can think he’s being a dick without taking it personally. When thousands of people are telling you “please, let us give you our money!” and you throw the directorial equivalent of a hissy-fit and refuse, you’re pretty much being a dick. I’m not going to send him letter bombs or anything, I’m just saying he’s being stupid.
Just watched Star Wars with the commentary on.
Lucas doesn’t even address the issue of Greedo shooting first. :mad:
Coward.
Thankfully I’ve still got the original VHS boxset 
Atomic Dog:
Episode IV, heh?
So, what does Kirk have against Michelob, and why does Spock hate Italian?
Once he’s finished Revenge Of The Sith {an anagram, incidentally…}, my money is on him going right back to the beginning and remaking the original Star Wars trilogy in line with his “original vision”: the first 3 should take him 10 years or so, by which time the next 3 will probably be in line for a makeover. Hell, he could sustain this thing for the remainder of what he is presumably pleased to refer to as his career.
I hear Lucas digitally replaced all the blasters with walkie-talkies.