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It's Official -- Star Wars on DVD
savagexp writes "There's yet to be an actual press release, but according to DVDFile.com, 20th Century Fox and LucasFilm have confirmed that The Original Trilogy will arrive on September 21st in a four-disc set. More info can be had here."
Lucas was going to wait longer, but realized if he did it would have to be released on HDDVD and he'd lose the opportunity to sell it to you twice.
Non gratis rodentus anus
Please bear with my rant..
When I read of the Star Wars DVD release I immediately thought of the speech Gordon Gekko give the board of Teldon Papers in the movie Wall Street (1987) Years after the DVD has become ubiquitous they decide to release the original 3 on that medium. It was only a few years ago that they released the VHS set to the consumers. Wow! Thanks, George! The story makes it sound like they're doing us a favour! Yeah right. The only favour is to their bank accounts. The tide of cash flowing in from the "Official VHS set" has slowed to a crawl. They want the consumers to re-purchase the same stuff on a new format. George didn't "[find] some time", the market studies indicated that this is the right time to release the DVDs.
Thanks but no thanks George. After the embarassment of Episodes I & II and your blatant milking of the franchise you've lost a big fan in me. I'd only buy the set if I could guarantee that my money buys the exact slice of pizza you choke on.
Trolling is a art,
there were rumors floating about in regards to changes Lucas was supposedly making for the DVD edition. I guess we'll have to wait and see if it actually happens.
Mike
It has nothing to do with politics, the final product is George's choice...not yours
Don't like it, vote by not buying it
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
Funny that you mention ripping. I knew that he'd never release the original movies on DVD, so I've been copying my "Definitive Collection" laserdiscs onto DVD via my PC. The end result is pretty good. Very little loss of quality. I'm sure it would look better if I had a nicer LD player for output. Too bad Lucas has to shove the crappy special editions out to the public. Sad to see a once celebrated franchise become the biggest joke out there (well, maybe a close second to the Matrix sequels). :-)
Big differences:
1) In LOTR, they told everyone up front was the plan was so the informed consumer could choose... instead of feeling ripped off.
2) In LOTR, they made sure that there was no overlap in the special features between the theatrical cut and the extended cut.
3) In LOTR, the extra features on the extended cut, plus 45 minutes of NEW footage justify the second purchase - instead of only offering a version that was modified (for the worse) for sale initially, and then relenting and offering the original at a later date.
In other words, with LOTR the extended cuts are actually GOOD, and are put out there for fans, while leaving the original theatrical cut available for everyone. In the Star Wars case, no one can get the original version they know and love, and are stuck with the extended/special versions, DESPITE the fans.
Peter Jackson and New Line are treating fans like people worth of respect, and offering them as much of the LOTR magic as they can soak up. George Lucas is treating Star Wars fans the way a school bully treats kids in cartoons - turning them upside down and shaking money out of their pockets, all the while trying to dampen whatever Star Wars magic is left with a thick blanket of corporate greed.
There are 3 versions of the film on the disc. Firstly, the original theatrical edition that means that if you want to watch what was first released at the cinema/on VHS, you can. Secondly, a 'work in progress' edition that was shown at the NY film festival - lots of non-coloured images/coffee stains etc. Thirdly, the Special Edition which includes "Human Again" which was a song added for the stage show and added in later (which as an add-on is quite entertaining and works with the rest of the film).
I imagine these versions were done by setting the film to just use different chapters, so parts could be added at different points.
Why can't Lucas do that? Give us the improved sounds and visual effects of the Sp. Editions, but give people a choice of Original or Pointlessly Remixed versions of the film.
PS If you've never seen the Platinum Edition of B&TB, do so. It's a great example of how to make a great DVD set.
""What George did in 1997," Ward explains, "was [to] make the movie he originally wanted to make.""
Which is an interesting comment. While the 'special editions' suck less than the prequels, they do suck almost as bad as the original 'Star Wars' scripts before Lucas read Joseph Campbell's books, so we can conclude from this that if Lucas hadn't been kept in check by the studio he'd have released a 'Star Wars' movie that sucked in 1977 and would have vanished without a trace.
Of course, having seen the prequels, the fact that Lucas' "artistic vision" sucks shouldn't really be a surprise.
As someone hinted at elsewhere in the posts, Lucas may be pulling an intentional version of the "New Coke" fiasco. According to Wikipedia:
The public were unhappy with the new taste, and even more unhappy that they were no longer able to obtain the original product, and so the company had to backtrack and return to the older formula. However, when they went back to the original formula - now renamed Classic Coke/Coca Cola Classic - demand for the classic taste grew to a greater extent than before New Coke...
Sounds like something an evil marketer might want to try... Who knows, maybe we'll see Classic Star Wars in 2006, when all of the marketing from the newer Star Wars' is finished and Lucas is scrounging around for something to sell before making Episode 7. G'ah.
Er. Pardon my fanboyism.. but during starwars:a new hope, jabba wasnt NEARLY as big of a gangster he was in the later movies.. he was still getting his whole big shebang together. He was still mobile.. eventually, hes too chubb to even move. Plus, he wasnt on such bad terms with Han at the time.
I also agree that this scene just didnt work.
(all of this negated by starwars ep1)
no
Lets not forget about the changes to the end of Jedi. Personally, I liked the original tribal song, not the latin symphony that apparently replaced it.
All, in all the new scenes were a waste of time. Its sad that Lucas is such an arrogant that he refuses to put the originals out on DVD. I was actually hoping he'd do something similar that my T2 DVD does, watch the original, or watch the expanded version...
Oh well, I'm on the fence on whether I'll get these or not. I'm actually pretty sick of the whole Star Wars brand at this point which is sad, cause I was one of the die-hards originally. (guess I wasn't die-hard enough)
-- A computer without COBOL and Fortran is like a piece of chocolate cake without ketchup and mustard