Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[Volume11]

Originally Posted by Spike Killer

Well, I caved in to peer pressure. Today I bought the Widescreen editions of the Original Trilogy (the blue box version), and I plan on turning my sound up to 11 to watch them tomorrow.

I support this decision.

[phatrat1982]

I couldn't get the picture to load but I know what you are talking about I encounter that a lot upscaling VHS to DVD I just didn't get the abbreviation.

[Lincoln6Echo]

Originally Posted by phatrat1982

I couldn't get the picture to load but I know what you are talking about I encounter that a lot upscaling VHS to DVD I just didn't get the abbreviation.

The EE in the SPIKE HD broadcast was really noticeable. And I'm one who noramlly doesn't notice EE, but it was pretty obvious with that broadcast. In the scene where Luke walks out to the farm dwelling crater and looks at the twin setting suns, there was a halo around his sillouette.

[slick1ru2]

From dvdverdict.com
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/starwarstrilogy.php

Overheard at a Bicentennial party in the Hollywood Hills—early July, 1976…

"George! How are you! It's been a couple of years, hasn't it? Yeah, I'm still over at Universal. Yep, still in the front office. Same old same old, you know.

"Listen—I see you're finally making that film you pitched to us back in '72. What was it—'The Star Wars,' right? Your Flash Gordon film? Yeah, yeah. I remember that one. That and Graffiti—you were pitching them both. And thank you for pitching Graffiti! Great, great film, George. Great film. Very profitable.

"But George…Really, are you sure about this space flick? I like you, George. You don't talk much. I like that in a director. But you're young, and you've got to consider your career. Yeah, American Graffiti was a big hit. Everyone loved it. But now you've got Alan Ladd and Fox tied up in an eight million dollar science fiction picture. Sci-fi isdead, George. Dead. Died with 2001. I don't think I can find three pictures in the last decade that collectively made as much as 2001—and 2001 was a fluke, because the hippies loved it. Maybe Planet of the Apes. That did pretty well—about but it also had Heston. Big names sell small projects, you know.

"Eight mil is a lot, George. Do you honestly expect to make that back? Who's going to watch this film? I'll tell you who—if anyone, it'll be that geek crowd. The ones who still read comic books in college. That's it, George. Even the kids have tuned this stuff out. Are you going to make $10M back off of geeks?

"It's a 'space western'? Good Lord, that's even worse. Great idea, George—combine two dead genres. Hope you've got Clint Eastwood in there somewhere. Or Steve McQueen.

"Didn't you learn anything from that artsy film-school flick you made…what was it, THC something? Yeah—THX 1138. That one. I liked it—it was different; looked great. But it's too different. Nobody got it, and nobody even wanted to get it. That's why people didn't exactly flock to the theaters, George. I'm sure you recall that aspect of the film. Don't get me wrong—there's always a niche audience somewhere for anything—but if you want to be that 'out there,' and appeal to some small niche, you can't spend money like that. You almost bankrupted your friend Coppola because of that film, George. He's got talent. You do too, but you almost brought the both of you down.

"Really—I'm just concerned about the direction you're taking with your career. You have a big feather in your cap from Graffiti, George. Why haven't you learned from it? People—adults—don't want Orwell films or space operas today. They want films concretely grounded in reality. Stuff like Chinatown, The Godfather, and the like. And stuff like American Graffiti. Not a new version of Buck Rogers. Go make a sequel to Graffiti. People can relate to that story, not some space fantasy. Make some money from your triumphs. Play within the system, George.

"Okay, okay…I really shouldn't tell you this—but I saw a script of your film. I've got sources, okay? We'll leave it at that. Call me crazy, but it looks like the story isn't even told from the perspective of Flash Gordon, or whatever your lead's name is. Starkiller? Something like that? It's told by a couple of robots. Robots! What is this, Lost in Space? What? Kurosawa? The Hidden Fortress? I don't follow you. Never saw it…So he told a grandiose war story from the perspective of lowly minions. Okay—so what? This isn't China, or Japan, or wherever he's from, George. You're spending real money on this. Assuming anyone wants to see your film, they're going to want heroes and cowboys and gunfights at the OK Corral. Not a couple of robots, one of whom can't speak English.

"And honestly, you're compounding the problem by casting all these unknowns. I told you—big names sell small projects. At least I've heard of Guinness and Cushing, but they're hardly 'big' names. But the rest? You've got that Hamill kid from General Hospital and The Texas Wheelers. Excuse me, who is he again? And you've got Debbie Reynolds's daughter…Carrie, right? The one with Eddie Fisher? What, exactly, do these two bring to the table? I hear you even cast that former set carpenter; the one you gave that bit part in Graffiti to. Questionable, George. You're putting your career in the hands of amateurs. And robots. Robots!

"Now I really shouldn't be saying this—but like I said, I've always liked you, George. I'm hearing whispers out of Fox. Whispers like 'over budget.' And 'never work with this guy again.' And 'let's cut our losses now.' You're off in London at Elstree filming this stuff, and everyone's getting ready to watch you fail. George, your ass is seriously on the line here. So is Ladd's, for greenlighting this fiasco.

"You know whose ass isn't on the line? Mine, George. You know why? Because I'm smart. I know what people want. It's my job to know what they want. And like I told you four years ago, people don't want sci-fi, they don't want Flash Gordon, they don't want space cowboys vs. space indians, and they don't want some damn homage to a Japanese guy nobody's ever heard of outside of USC Film School.

"Okay, maybe I've had a few drinks here, George. God Bless America and all that, and I'm sorry if I'm being a bad guy here. But I'm damn glad we passed on this "The Star Wars" deal. I was right back then, I'm right now, and I'll be right 25 years from now. People don't want to see this. It will fail, and fail miserably—and you'll be the new local red-headed stepchild to beat on. If you brought it to me today, I'd pass again. I think Fox wishes they had passed already. Let someone else go down with your little space-ship.

"But I like you, George. I really hope you rebound from this. If you're interested in doing a Graffiti sequel, give me a ring, okay?"

[Duffy12]

Originally Posted by slick1ru2

From dvdverdict.com
http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/starwarstrilogy.php

Thanks for that link slick.


Wow! I found this interesting.


"Digging deeper, the colors in Star Wars have been enriched, perhaps enriched a bit too much. On several occasions I watched C3PO or some other character standing in front of banks of red and blue lights, and the lights asserted themselves to the exclusion of all else. I thought to myself, "Those lights sure are bright!" and was too distracted to pay attention. When the escape pod lands on Tatooine, the shadow of the pod is a brilliant violet blue. The hue exists in the original print, but it looks oversaturated now. The color balance seems to have been punched up to match the video game brightness of the new trilogy, and I'm not convinced that the muted hues of Star Wars support that level of saturation. The two pictures below, one from the laserdisc version and one from the DVD, reveal this increased saturation, as well as the mosquito noise that follows Artoo in this scene. To be fair, this is arguably the low point of the entire trilogy in visual terms.

Increased color density and the quest for true black is also responsible for slight over-contrast. Contrast is good, and conventional wisdom is that you can't have too much of it, but the trilogy in general seems to have too much."

Laserdisc:



DVD:



Blu-ray:

.

[slick1ru2]

Originally Posted by Duffy12

Thanks for that link slick.


Wow! I found this interesting.

Laserdisc:



DVD:



Blu-ray:

.

Thought it would be interesting for everyone interested in the film.

William Friedkin changed the color cast of The French Connection to make it "colder" on the BD release. The original cinematographer called it atrocious. He is also the Exorcist director and that is coming in the fall. I just wonder if Lucas with his changes to the DVD were the inspiration for these directors to go back and do radical changes to their movies we loved just the way they were.

[Duffy12]

Here we go slick, I think that I found the same matching Blu shot.

Laserdisc:



DVD:






Blu-ray:

And NOW it matches the Clone Wars cartoon more closely too.

I can't wait to see what he does to the soundtrack.


.

[BillieCassin]

You know, it's funny, watching the Batman Anthology this past week made me think a lot about this thread.

As I was watching them, from the original '89 Batman to even the last one, Batman & Robin, I was thinking, "Gee, I wouldn't mind a special edition where they updated the effects".

For example, the final sequence in Batman (from the time they start falling off the roof of the church to the death of the Joker) doesn't hold up terribly well. Each shot uses a different effect, and on Blu you can really see the difference in quality shot-to-shot and the different techniques used (which, generally, I prefer the old-fashioned practical effects - but this is essentially the same technology they have been using since the days of Gone With the Wind). I totally would not mind a clean-up of those things. On the later films, the CG work isn't bad for the time period, but again could be spruced up a lot more today.

Anyway, the reason it reminds me of this thread is because I can see the same for the Star Wars movies. I don't think nearly as many people would have been/still be "up in arms" over the "Special Editions" if they were just CLEAN-UP, and not totally changed in many ways.

That's the key difference. Cleaning up/redoing the effects already there, versus adding new things. I remember seeing the SE of ANH in the theater, and being like, "They put a cartoon over this scene" when watching portions of the film. Tatooine used to be desolate and I thought that was the point - who knew all the "cute" little creatures that were added were ever there.

It's similar to what they did with the original Trek. Now, Trekkers are almost as finicky as SW fans, and those have gone over EXTREMELY well with the fanbase. Why? Because they just enhanced/replaced what was already there, they didn't try to re-edit and tinker with them endlessly.

I guess I just have a middle of the road view on this; sure, go ahead and make some updates to the effects they couldn't do as well then, but it's when you go in and mess with the actual content of the film and add things that were never there is where it gets a little iffy for me.

[slick1ru2]

Originally Posted by Duffy12

Here we go slick, I think that I found the same matching Blu shot.

Laserdisc:



DVD:






Blu-ray:

And NOW it matches the Clone Wars cartoon more closely too.

I can't wait to see what he does to the soundtrack.


.

You know what it reminds me of? Al Davis and the Raiders. Back in the day, the man knew what he was doing. For the past 10 years, it seems he has no clue. Sigh. Must be a part of aging and being successful in the past. Going overboard later in life, out of touch with reality.

[slick1ru2]

Lucus is probably waiting for 200GB Blu-Ray media to have enough space to add everything he wants. Or 2000GB discs so he present it in 1 giant 12 hour continuous film that just run right into the next.

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by slick1ru2

Lucus is probably waiting for 200GB Blu-Ray media to have enough space to add everything he wants. Or 2000GB discs so he present it in 1 giant 12 hour continuous film that just run right into the next.

All joking aside, at one point many years ago before the DVDs ever saw the light of day, that was one of the things some of the Lucas PR folks were talking about - not on a single disc, mind you, but presenting them as a continuous story as opposed to the single-film presentations.

Of course, that led to much argument about which order they should be in...oops, we seem to have avoided that one so far, think I might open up a can of worms.

[Duffy12]

Originally Posted by slick1ru2

You know what it reminds me of? Al Davis and the Raiders. Back in the day, the man knew what he was doing. For the past 10 years, it seems he has no clue. Sigh. Must be a part of aging and being successful in the past. Going overboard later in life, out of touch with reality.

Yea, that's a good analogy.

I think that the route cause of all this, was that by the time he did the SEs and prequels, he had some children that the was raising at the time. I believe that his son was eight years old when he made 'The Phantom Menace'.


Which I now see a similarity with Cameron and his latest movie Avatar, as he has three young daughters of his own now.

Coincidence? I think not.

Originally Posted by slick1ru2

Lucus is probably waiting for 200GB Blu-Ray media to have enough space to add everything he wants. Or 2000GB discs so he present it in 1 giant 12 hour continuous film that just run right into the next.

Originally Posted by BillieCassin

All joking aside, at one point many years ago before the DVDs ever saw the light of day, that was one of the things some of the Lucas PR folks were talking about - not on a single disc, mind you, but presenting them as a continuous story as opposed to the single-film presentations.

Then PLEASE reboot the OTs, as the 70's look of IV (chest hair, sideburns, beards and hair combed with fingers) does not mix with this new modern look of the prequels 30 years later at all.

But of course keep the OT available to the public.


.

[aiman04]

I'm sorry, but all other threads about this little talk by Sansweet have been moved to the Wish List section. I wonder what kept this thread here? Is there an official announcement already about this set that I don't know of?

I keep looking at this thread every day because I thought there's an official announcement or something new, but every time my excitement turned to a disappointment.

[phatrat1982]

I guess I didn't notice the flaws in the Spike Hd presentation because I only watched the last few minutes of Phantom Menace. I keep telling myself eventually I am going to watch them but the timing is always off. I am unemployed now so looks like I should have some time on my hands.

[Pondosinatra]

Originally Posted by Lincoln6Echo

But anyway...just because some people fell for the highly overpriced LD fad of the '90s before DVDs

Careful buddy, you're walking on very dangerous ground...

[Pondosinatra]

Originally Posted by Malik True

For anyone attempting to keep their LaserDisc players and collection alive Click here

Hey awesome link! I figured I'd be forced to ship it to Japan for service. Good to know. Thx!

[Pondosinatra]

You guys might find this an interesting read...

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2010/05/star-wars.ars

[Lincoln6Echo]

Originally Posted by Pondosinatra

Careful buddy, you're walking on very dangerous ground...

Yeah, whatever...you go right ahead and keep flipping those discs every 30 minutes...for your 425i (NTSC) video.

I'll gladly sit there and enjoy 3+ hour movie in 1080p on a single CD-sized disc without flipping.

Oh wait...I thinm I gotg a Betamax player laying around here somewhere...time to break out an old copy of Superman the Movie.

[Pondosinatra]

Originally Posted by Lincoln6Echo

Yeah, whatever...you go right ahead and keep flipping those discs every 30 minutes...for your 425i (NTSC) video.

I'll gladly sit there and enjoy 3+ hour movie in 1080p on a single CD-sized disc without flipping.

Oh wait...I thinm I gotg a Betamax player laying around here somewhere...time to break out an old copy of Superman the Movie.

Your ignorance is growing with each post. I don't have to flip anything.

[Duffy12]

Originally Posted by Pondosinatra

You guys might find this an interesting read...

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2010/05/star-wars.ars

Yep, that was interesting, thanks for posting that.


A couple of bits-

The thing he stresses is that a perfect, uncut version is possible with the film left from the edits, and there is money to be made there. "It's certainly possible to do a new, high-quality transfer from original 35mm material. You could totally restore the original films from their original negatives for a few million dollars, and the 2004 release sold $100 million in a single day, so that pricetag is meaningless."

We're not asking for much, here. "Even films like Revenge of the Nerds have new transfers from 35mm prints. It costs nothing, and there are fine-grain masters and Interpositives that would only require mild clean-up to be presentable, even if the transfers were grainier and a bit damaged."

Why is this important?

The story of Star Wars is the story of film, and of how we keep our past to share with the future. George Lucas does have the legal right to change and adjust his own work any way he'd like, but Star Wars existed in a very specific way for its original theatrical run. Those memories, and those scenes, have a very real value and meaning to fans. This isn't just a science fiction film anymore—it's an important piece of culture.

Star Wars is always going to be an ephemeral thing, changing and shifting as the film adapts to the technology of the time. As the film gets older, digital copies will become more important, but fans are always going to yearn for a version of the film that may exist mostly in their imaginations. Every time George Lucas or a fan takes another crack at the film, it's a new interpretation of the past, and as the film ages and our viewing technology changes, it will continue to look different from how each of us remembers it.

.