Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[Martoto]

I just looked at a whole bunch of demos on youtube for 4k77.

Just goes on the list of alternate versions IMO. Skin tones look inconsistent. Density too. Black crushing. Missing stars.

None of the available versions, official or otherwise, escape these criticisms. But I fail to see what makes it any more definitive than the other HD versions.

[Takeshi666]

Originally Posted by shinobipopcorn

If you have a well cleaned and maintained VCR, a set of the Faces release in excellent to good condition, and a TV with great composite input picture, depending on where you sit to watch your movies, you can just about get DVD quality. I'd much rather watch my tapes than those terrible LD versions on the bonus discs when I'm in the mood for the originals.

Yeah well I'm sure the DVD bonus discs look fine if you just squint your eyes, too. The faces tapes use the same transfers ffs!

[bobbyh64]

Originally Posted by Takeshi666

Yeah well I'm sure the DVD bonus discs look fine too if you just squint your eyes, too. The faces tapes use the same transfers ffs!

I think the bonus DVD for Star Wars is the only official version that doesn’t have “Episode IV - A New Hope” added to the title, so it has that going for it!

[Takeshi666]

The biggest issue with the original THX certified transfers used from the Definitive Collection onwards, up until the special edition and including the DVDs, is that the digital restoration was done in '93 with relatively primitive equipment, and introduced a slew of issues of their own with DVNR and digital smearing, like the four-eyed Stormtrooper or an extra's legs disappearing when he walks past the moving landspeeder.

That's what actually piqued my interest in the pre-THX widescreen laserdiscs (which was now an option since I'd just recently bought a player) and was hoping to get my hands on the CBS/FOX US releases from around 1990, but ended up getting a good deal on the earlier Japanese Special Collection releases that I showed in my post here which utilize the same transfer but are in CAV as well.

[Torgon]

Originally Posted by spanky87

Forgot this scene existed since I haven’t watched the special editions in over 10 years. I don’t think a scene that was added into the film 20 years later helps your argument.

EDIT:

Wait, isn’t that a deleted scene anyway? Makes it even more irrelevant.

It doesn't make it more irrelevant; it's in the book. Is the book any less relevant or canon than the movie? It was only removed from the movie due to pacing/time constraints and doesn't add to the storytelling as it's been established already. It doesn't mean the 'conversation' never took place, does it?

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by Torgon

It doesn't make it more irrelevant; it's in the book. Is the book any less relevant or canon than the movie?

Yes.

Also canon is for nerds.

[imsounoriginal]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Guys, this is just a guess, and you're probably going to throw a brick through a window...I just have a feeling we will see the unaltered OT versions....as streaming bonus features. I hope they're included on-disc, but when I saw the isolated music track for The Last Jedi not included on the disc, presented only on streaming....if you were Disney/LucasFilm trying to push consumers to a specific streaming market, well...that's how you'd do it. The UOT presented on streaming when you buy the next version of the saga on home video...I can so see that happening. Just a guess. Hope I'm wrong.

This makes an alarming amount of sense.

[Brown]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

Is there a track where Leia uses an American accent to say, "I thought I recognized your foul stench when I was brought aboard."?

Excellent. I know the Special Editions were all about digital tinkering, but I never understood Lucas' "belief" that he was making these movies better when he left in such a cringe-worthy moment. Every time I hear this line it makes me think of when Madonna went all Fawlty Towers.

[Takeshi666]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Yes.

Also canon is for nerds.

Considering Disney wiped the entire EU, that's actually true at this point.

And I'm one of those nerds. I bought those big hardcover omnibus books collecting the original Marvel comic. Those things aren't cheap!

[Egons Ghost]

Originally Posted by Memon

I guess overall that's true but I recently noticed some people claim Marcia Lucas deserved more credit:

And Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew; and Gary Kurtz; and DP Gilbert Taylor, who dissuaded Lucas from shooting the movie soft and diffused; etc. What would Star Wars be without Ben Burtt, Dykstra, Edlund, etc. etc. ? The auteurist notion of film director as god gets very old and tiring, especially on these kinds of movies.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Memon

I guess overall that's true but I recently noticed some people claim Marcia Lucas deserved more credit:
(I haven't watched this one yet, to be honest)

Sigh. This revisionist history nonsense needs to stop.
They also don't mention George worked with Marcia in the edit suite. He's always done editing on his own films (and for Francis Ford Coppola) uncredited.

[JackStraw]

Originally Posted by Takeshi666

Considering Disney wiped the entire EU, that's actually true at this point.

And I'm one of those nerds. I bought those big hardcover omnibus books collecting the original Marvel comic. Those things aren't cheap!

No, they're not.

But damn, they're good!

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

It’s nice that Spielberg is able to come to his senses, and so quickly too. Too bad George lacks this character trait.

The Star Wars Special Editions did such great business, it led to re-releases of The Godfather, The Exorcist, and others. Spielberg probably felt at the time he was giving people a reason to see the film again, perhaps not realizing people were actually angered by his walky-talky alterations, dumbing the film down like Greedo Shooting First. While Star Wars earned over $100 million, the 20th anniversary release of E.T. pretty much tanked (relative to Star Wars, anyway), and must have been a stinging embarassment. Spielberg later apologized for it, said he'd never do anything like that again. Now if we could only get the original broadcast version of Duel released, as Spielberg says he prefers it to the longer theatrical cut....

[crissrudd4554]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

The Star Wars Special Editions did such great business, it led to re-releases of The Godfather, The Exorcist, and others. Spielberg probably felt at the time he was giving people a reason to see the film again, perhaps not realizing people were actually angered by his walky-talky alterations, dumbing the film down like Greedo Shooting First. While Star Wars earned over $100 million, the 20th anniversary release of E.T. pretty much tanked (relative to Star Wars, anyway), and must have been a stinging embarassment. Spielberg later apologized for it, said he'd never do anything like that again. Now if we could only get the original broadcast version of Duel released, as Spielberg says he prefers it to the longer theatrical cut....

You also have to wonder as successful as the SE’s were if the negative reaction to them, and I guess in a way the prequels, created such a bad taste in people’s mouths that it in a way contributed to the backlash given towards other filmmakers who began to do the same thing. The 20th Anniversary of E.T. was 5 years since the SE’s were released and we had one prequel under the belt as well as a second one coming later that year. Once fans realized how enhancing these films was degrading the original content it became almost natural to give the same reaction when another filmmaker did it to one of their films especially a popular director like Spielberg and a popular movie like E.T.

[JackStraw]

Originally Posted by crissrudd4554

You also have to wonder as successful as the SE’s were if the negative reaction to them, and I guess in a way the prequels, created such a bad taste in people’s mouths that it in a way contributed to the backlash given towards other filmmakers who began to do the same thing. The 20th Anniversary of E.T. was 5 years since the SE’s were released and we had one prequel under the belt as well as a second one coming later that year. Once fans realized how enhancing these films was degrading the original content it became almost natural to give the same reaction when another filmmaker did it to one of their films especially a popular director like Spielberg and a popular movie like E.T.

When it comes to nostalgia, folks want what they first fell in love with. It's kinda like if you went to a particular restaurant when you're younger. You go back 20 years later and maybe the food is seasoned a little differently, they don't have napkins already on the table, they substituted some items on the menu for others, and they switched the decor some. While it's still a good experience it wasn't what you remembered it to be...and you most likely won't go back again. In the case of Star Wars it goes further than that, and the fans have swung in the exact opposite direction of the filmmaker.

Enhancing classic cinema was a bad idea that Lucas destroyed. He set a standard where the slightest alterations in other classic movies are going to be met with a high level of vitriol by fans of that movie. So if there's one positive to come out of those Star Wars SE's it's that.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by JackStraw

When it comes to nostalgia, folks want what they first fell in love with. It's kinda like if you went to a particular restaurant when you're younger. You go back 20 years later and maybe the food is seasoned a little differently, they don't have napkins already on the table, they substituted some items on the menu for others, and they switched the decor some. While it's still a good experience it wasn't what you remembered it to be...and you most likely won't go back again. In the case of Star Wars it goes further than that, and the fans have swung in the exact opposite direction of the filmmaker.

Enhancing classic cinema was a bad idea that Lucas destroyed. He set a standard where the slightest alterations in other classic movies are going to be met with a high level of vitriol by fans of that movie. So if there's one positive to come out of those Star Wars SE's it's that.

Jack, a lot of filmmakers have altered their films, usually for reasons of bad taste or misunderstandings. It goes back decades. It isn't going to stop. Look, it happens, especially in comedy. the generations that grew up with Star Wars and E.T. viscerally rebelled at the idea their own children were given a "safe for school" version of a film they loved.

[ChainsawJedi]

Originally Posted by JackStraw

When it comes to nostalgia, folks want what they first fell in love with.

I haven't been watching Star Wars since 1977 for nostalgic reasons; I've been watching it for over forty years because I believe it to be a damn good film.

[ChainsawJedi]

Originally Posted by Brown

Excellent. I know the Special Editions were all about digital tinkering, but I never understood Lucas' "belief" that he was making these movies better when he left in such a cringe-worthy moment. Every time I hear this line it makes me think of when Madonna went all Fawlty Towers.

Carrie Fisher's dialogue was not changed in the Special Editions of the film was it? I thought she always spoke with that faux English accent when speaking with Tarkin in in A New Hope.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by ChainsawJedi

I haven't been watching Star Wars since 1977 for nostalgic reasons; I've been watching it for over forty years because I believe it to be a damn good film.

[ChainsawJedi]

Originally Posted by drush9999

What?