Star Wars Saga in HD

[TLBradbury]

This weekend (Labor Day) we finally hosted our marathon of the entire Star Wars saga in HD, and it was quite a treat. Now before any of you get your shorts in a twist on how I have HD copies, it was pretty simple. During the month of May (30th anniversary of the original film), they were all shown in HD on DirecTV, so I recorded them on my DVR.

The second trilogy (episodes 1-3) were all spectacular in sight and sound, as should be expected of any newer film, especially if it was all shot and edited digitally. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the original trilogy.

Episode 5 was simply stunning, particularly the scenes on the ice world of Hoth, but the original film (ep. 4) came off a bit corny, and episode 6 was just painful to watch because of all of the obvious matte paintings in the background, as well as the sparse soundstage on all 3 of the original trilogy. The mattes reminded me of the old days of film making, where they would project a pre-shot film of scenery and have the actors stand in front of it (or sit in a stationary car in front of it). The sound problems can be somewhat forgiven, since these were, in fact ground-breaking films in the world of surround sound and THX, and the technology was being developed along with these films, as well as the fact that if a full restorative work was to be done on these for Blu-Ray release, the sound would be the easiest part to dress up. The video and effects can be more problematic.

It was quite interesting for all of us watching to notice characters in the dark corners of Jabba's lair that none of us had ever seen before. These were obviously inserted for the 'Special Editions' that came out about a decade ago, but seeing them like this was still a lot of fun.

So why am I bringing all of this up? Am I simply trying to make some of you jealous? OK, I'm a little guilty of that one, but my real point is that with all of the pent-up demand out there for SW to be released in HD, what we get when it IS released might be a bit disappointing, given the state of the films, and the era in which they were made. Trying to compare them along side with today's films is simply not fair to the films or the viewer. We owe a lot to George and the folks at Lucasfilm for what they've done to advance the science and technology of movie making, and it is largely due to their efforts that the films we enjoy today are just so mind-numbingly spectacular, but when the saga finally arrives in HD (as it inevitably must), just don't be too disappointed.