Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[Neon Rabbit]

Originally Posted by Allgood

It would be AMAZING if Disney would release all three cuts of each of the OT films

Three? There's four cuts of each film in the original trilogy at this point, and that's not even counting the minor print variations during each film's original release or the addition of Episode IV to the original film's title crawl in the early 1980s. As much as I would love as comprehensive a set as possible for these films, I think it would be a miracle at this point just to get the original release versions along side remastered versions of the most recent Special Edition of each film.

There is of course the original cuts of each of the films released in 1977, 1980, and 1983 respectively, and then in 1997 the Special Editions were released with significant changes and additions to all 3 films, then in 2004 even more changes were introduced for the first DVD release, then in 2011 yet even more changes were introduced for the Blu-ray set, with each one being even more bizarre than the next. Basically there was a whole new set of changes done each time they were released on a new format.

The Prequels are all over the place, and I'm pretty sure Episode I is the only film to have ever been initially released on video in it's theatrical cut on VHS. None of the prequels have ever been released on DVD or Blu-ray in their theatrical form.

If George Lucas was still in charge, We'd probably get digital streaming copies with new "updates" every week. Every time you'd go to stream the movies they wouldn't be the same from one viewing to the next.

[shinobipopcorn]

Originally Posted by muffie1985

I just don't understand why Fox before and now Disney don't see the value and the money to be had by releasing the original unaltered trilogy. I myself and I know other countless Star Wars fans would easily throw $99 per movie in a 4K remastering of the untouched OT. Heck, at this point I'd pay $400 for all 3! Disney needs to for once, start listening to what its consumers want...

Because George said "don't" and they're going to listen. It's the same with how Walt said "none of my characters on gravestones" and they comply, causing the Spider-Man uproar.

[moviebuff75]

Not to mention the stereo remix of the first film, done in the early 1990s.

[Gold Ranger]

Isnt the Blu-ray of Revenge of the Sith actually the theatrical version?

[Gold Ranger]

What is Georges explanation for why Anakin is a Force ghost?

[JEDGAR1000]

Originally Posted by Gold Ranger

Isnt the Blu-ray of Revenge of the Sith actually the theatrical version?

No, all 3 prequels had some minor changes made for the blurays. Not as much as the OT, but there's still 2 versions of each film (3 for AOTC actually, as it had a shorter IMAX cut that removed several scenes). Biggest is replacing puppet Yoda in Phantom with cg, the others are pretty small.

All Yoda Scenes Comparison - The Phantom Menace [1080p HD] - YouTube

Star Wars: Speeder Chase | DVD/Blu-ray Comparison. - YouTube

Dooku Escapes - DVD/Blu-ray Comparison | Star Wars AOTC. - YouTube

Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith Blu-ray Changes (2011) - YouTube

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Same here. I mean, I'm not in the biz and I have no contacts but I gots a feeling that as long as Lucas is alive then the original originals are never going to be officially released.

Got 4K77 and 4K83 a while ago, even in their V1.0 versions (can't be arsed to take ages to download them again) they're a joy to watch and I'll probably grab TN1's 'Grindhouse' edition of Empire while we wait for 4K80. I too will be buying the inevitable 4K UHD editions of all the SW movies and have also bought SW a huge number of times over the years (17 purchases of the OT thus far across VHS, LD, DVD and BD) so I've no guilt whatsoever about obtaining these incredible fan restorations.

Agreed. I've bought Star Wars ever since the original VHS.

I really enjoyed 4K77 1.4. Really has a vibe to it as well.

As great of a job Harmy did with the 2004 source material, I just cannot stomach the inherent flaws of that 15 year old mess any longer.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by JEDGAR1000

Biggest is replacing puppet Yoda in Phantom with cg, the others are pretty small.

As much as I want the original version of any film, I greatly prefer the cg Yoda.
I remember seeing TPM in 1999 and thinking, WTF did they do to him?

[BNex99]

Originally Posted by JEDGAR1000

No, all 3 prequels had some minor changes made for the blurays. Not as much as the OT, but there's still 2 versions of each film (3 for AOTC actually, as it had a shorter IMAX cut that removed several scenes). Biggest is replacing puppet Yoda in Phantom with cg, the others are pretty small.

Phantom Menace has three versions, too. The 2001 DVD was extended by 2 or 3 minutes from the theatrical version, and the Blu-ray built on that.

The theatrical cut was released on VHS and (in Japan) laserdisc.

[JEDGAR1000]

Originally Posted by BNex99

Phantom Menace has three versions, too. The 2001 DVD was extended by 2 or 3 minutes from the theatrical version, and the Blu-ray built on that.

The theatrical cut was released on VHS and (in Japan) laserdisc.

Thank you, I wasn't actually aware of that.

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

As much as I want the original version of any film, I greatly prefer the cg Yoda.
I remember seeing TPM in 1999 and thinking, WTF did they do to him?

Agreed, while I generally prefer puppets over cg, the one in Phantom looked terrible. Plus it just creates a more consistent feel over the trilogy.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by happydood

Well, time marches on and all that. And we can demand that people be purists all we want, but it's an ultimately pointless exercise. I'm sorry GL doesn't want to release the originals, but at this point it doesn't get anybody anything but angry and I choose to look at the positives of the situation instead of the negatives and still respect what he's given to the world. I could lament that nobody listens to classical music or Tin Pan Alley songwriters anymore and I'm sure I'm speaking Greek to someone born even in 1974. It's all relative.

What's Greek?

[TripleHBK]

I'm sure many of you have seen this, but it makes me laugh every time I watch it and in the off chance you haven't, you may enjoy it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9t-slLl30E

[bobbyh64]

How did Vader know that he killed Obi-Wan? For all he knows old Ben found out how to teleport.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

I'm sure many of you have seen this, but it makes me laugh every time I watch it and in the off chance you haven't, you may enjoy it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9t-slLl30E

My wife loves this video....she got in a fight with her brothers in the back seat of a car when she was a kid, she threw their Yoda action figure out of the window. They had to pull over and spend an hour looking for it before they gave up.

Flash forward 20 years, my parents are going through their storage, they find my original Star Wars action figure collection from when I was 7-10. I think it's cool, I show the set to my wife, and there's my Yoda with the snake and the robe and the cane and everything. The story comes out that she was a kid, got mad at her brothers, threw their Yoda figure out of the back window of a car. So now she sees my Yoda figure and her eyes flash that there's a possibility for her Yoda redemption. Giving that action figure to her brothers.

No, brothers-in-law. You ain't getting my Yoda.

[crissrudd4554]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

I'm sure many of you have seen this, but it makes me laugh every time I watch it and in the off chance you haven't, you may enjoy it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9t-slLl30E

This past Christmas I got two shirts that reference this song lol My stepdad and I love this song!

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

How did Vader know that he killed Obi-Wan? For all he knows old Ben found out how to teleport.

He knows somethin in the revised dialog..."Obi-Wan can no longer help him now." Or somethin somethin.

[chrislong2]

Originally Posted by stvn1974

Yep, us UOT fans are a dying breed. I bet these new releases sell well because of the fans who keep buying the same crap over and over. Why would Disney even think there is a demand or a need to restored the UOT?

I think you've basically got it there in your first sentence. The UOT fans are a dying breed - literally...I don't mean to be morbid there, but it seems to me the people who are most ardent about the UOT are the ones that were the diehards 40 years ago or that grew up on it and to them for a very long time THAT was Star Wars. So any monkeying around with that is seen very skeptically - it's literally messing with people's childhoods etc. Nostalgia is a powerful thing and when one goes back and changes what you knew from your past it can really be hard to swallow.

While I totally get that and can sympathize to a degree, I'm not really in that boat. I'm a litttle younger and while I do remember the UOT, I barely saw them and certainly wasn't a diehard fan. I have watched Ep1-6 in numerical order (+ Rogue One between 3 and 4) on the SE blu's, and they look and sound great to me and when you watch them in order like that with the blu's (especially back-to-back or within a short timeframe like a week or two) one would be hard pressed not to acknowledge that many of the OT changes help them flow better with the feel of the prequels and make everything mesh better. And as a non-die hard that never really knew the UOT that well it doesn't really matter to me if Vader says "NO" or not. Most of the arguments to me seem just plain petty, but again I don't have that intense nostalgia factor with the OT that some might. I might not love "Jedi Rocks" for instance, but I have ZERO serious gripes about it. I don't care if there's a rock in front of R2 or not... And quite honestly some of the changes I've seen the UOT version of and definitely think the new is better (i.e. Celebration replacing the old song in ROTJ). But what most stood out to me when watching Eps1-6 in order is that they all flow reasonably well in terms of "feel" and even "look" (i.e. the color changes made for 4-6). The look and feel of the SE Eps4-6 help it match with Eps1-3. Now I get that if one isn't a fan of the prequels then that wouldn't be welcome. But if you're looking at the whole or do kind of like the prequels, then the SE versions on the blu's with the CGI and other additions (i.e. Jabba in ANH) make everything flow smoother and mesh better with each other as a bigger story arc - no small feat considering the prequels were done 20+ years later from the OT. So I do understand many of the changes and I have no problem with George having done them and the changes I don't understand I don't care enough to get worked up over in the slightest. I do agree though that the UOT should be made available (probably as it's own thing, separate from a complete set). It's one thing to make changes, but it's another to also not make the originals available in a reasonable form/way.

What does bother me is that the prequels downright contradict a few things in the OT (especially ANH) - and yeah, Jar Jar in TPM is annoying (but I'd take Jar Jar anyday over L3 in Solo...). But I don't think the prequels deserve nearly the level of hate that gets thrown their way. What DOES deserve a high level of criticism to me is what Disney has done with the new trilogy. Rogue One was great but Eps7&8 both hit me wrong and just came across as cash grabs and I went into it WANTING them to be great. But seriously if you try watching them after having just seen the OT (unaltered or not) - Ep7 is nothing more than an obviously completely recycled ANH with a complete different "feel" in dialogue from the 6 episodes that came before it and an obvious attempt to try to bring current social agendas/concerns into the SW universe (whether one likes that or not is irrelevant to my point which is that's it's very blatantly obvious). And TLJ oh my goodness...

What I don't understand is how many of the UOT Star Wars people also seem to like the new Disney trilogy (or at least reasonably like) and yet hate on the prequels which to me even with their flaws are lightyears better and more original than what Disney is doing. I don't get it AT ALL...

[bobbyh64]

Originally Posted by octagon

Mostly agree. Things like Greedo and 'Noooo' have crept into the popular culture to a point where I think a decent chunk of Star Wars fans are at least aware that the OT has been altered but beyond that?

I agree that a very small subset of theater goers would really know what the hell we're all talking about.

Surely the average movie-goer who watches the OT films must know changes were made to them. Unless they believe all that CGI was actually created between 1977-83, which I find hard to believe.

[chrislong2]

Originally Posted by TripleHBK

I'm sure many of you have seen this, but it makes me laugh every time I watch it and in the off chance you haven't, you may enjoy it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9t-slLl30E

Yeah, that one never gets old!

[reason108]

Originally Posted by Neon Rabbit

Three? There's four cuts of each film in the original trilogy at this point, and that's not even counting the minor print variations during each film's original release or the addition of Episode IV to the original film's title crawl in the early 1980s. As much as I would love as comprehensive a set as possible for these films, I think it would be a miracle at this point just to get the original release versions along side remastered versions of the most recent Special Edition of each film.

There is of course the original cuts of each of the films released in 1977, 1980, and 1983 respectively, and then in 1997 the Special Editions were released with significant changes and additions to all 3 films, then in 2004 even more changes were introduced for the first DVD release, then in 2011 yet even more changes were introduced for the Blu-ray set, with each one being even more bizarre than the next. Basically there was a whole new set of changes done each time they were released on a new format.

The Prequels are all over the place, and I'm pretty sure Episode I is the only film to have ever been initially released on video in it's theatrical cut on VHS. None of the prequels have ever been released on DVD or Blu-ray in their theatrical form.

If George Lucas was still in charge, We'd probably get digital streaming copies with new "updates" every week. Every time you'd go to stream the movies they wouldn't be the same from one viewing to the next.

Originally Posted by JEDGAR1000

No, all 3 prequels had some minor changes made for the blurays. Not as much as the OT, but there's still 2 versions of each film (3 for AOTC actually, as it had a shorter IMAX cut that removed several scenes). Biggest is replacing puppet Yoda in Phantom with cg, the others are pretty small.



All Yoda Scenes Comparison - The Phantom Menace [1080p HD] - YouTube

Star Wars: Speeder Chase | DVD/Blu-ray Comparison. - YouTube

Dooku Escapes - DVD/Blu-ray Comparison | Star Wars AOTC. - YouTube

Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith Blu-ray Changes (2011) - YouTube

Is Rogue One and The Last Jedi the only SW films that have not been tinkered with on home video? Wasn't the only change to Force Awakens was an extended end credits sequence? Sorry, if these questions keep coming up again and again but I'm old now and probably won't live long enough to go back through and re-read all 3000 pages of this thread.

Honestly, we are so far along now in changes for each film that Disney should just allow us to order a custom blu-ray or 4k UHD, whatever, off a menu like at the restaurant. Personally, I don't like mayo, tomato nor onion, so please leave that off my sandwich. As much as I want the original theatrical, I don't mind some of those early changes. Some of them seemed to "improve" things somewhat. I really wish that Lucas had stopped with cleaning up the special effects (matte lines, etc), cleaning up the emperor`s appearance, etc and some minor other tweaks. Hell, even extending a scene or two here and there if it gives added value. But, some of the changes that were made once the prequels came out, was just...well, it really didn't make sense to me. Did Lucas want revenge because of the prequel backlash and decided to just change things to mess with people?