Star Wars DVD Box Set Released

dealsites writes "CNN reports that George Lucas is releasing the Star Wars DVD box set early on September 21, 2004 due to piracy concerns. Lucas had intended to release the box set of the original 3 movies after Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released. However, he mentions that due to piracy concerns the profits are being eaten up and there might not be a market for the films at that time. The box set contains the changes that Lucas has made from the original releases. CNN also reports on the top 5 major changes. Lucas is quoted as saying that he never intends to re-release the original 3 movies in the first CNN link."

Comments

Attack of the Clones!

[bje2]

Attack of the Clones!!!

Re:Attack of the Clones!

[REBloomfield]

yeah, exactly. If he was going to wait till after no. III, he may as well just release a big stonking 6 disc set instead.... as it stands, the DVD box set came out yesterday in the UK, and that's always been the date since way back in April, IIRC...

Re:Attack of the Clones!

[Methlin]

..he may as well just release a big stonking 6 disc set instead....

And you really think this is *NOT* his plan? Come on, we're talking Lucas here. Release "final" box set of the "original" trilogy now and hopefully grab tons of cash. Then a year later release a box set of the prequals, then 6-12 months later the super-special-ultra-delux box set, with stickers!, of the prequals, then 6-12 months later a box set of all 6, then 6-12 months later.... you get the idea.

DVD Quality?

[crtfdgk]

You know, even when they say they've digitally remastered it and all, I just can't tell the difference. I can always tell the difference in recent movies, but for old movies put into DVD, how does that increase quality? Doesn't the saying go "you can't get something from nothing"? How do they get "DVD quality" from old film? How could it look any better than the original VHS quality?

Re:DVD Quality?

[the_raptor]

It can look better on DVD because VHS is lower quality then film.

Re:DVD Quality?

[Outsider_99]

I don think it would look better then the original. I assume they would apply filters etc to make it seem to look better? May be color enhacements etc?

Re:DVD Quality?

[Phexro]

Film has vastly more resolution than modern video devices are capable of displaying, including HDTV.

The process of transferring a film goes (roughly) like this:

Source material (film) -> master (video) -> cleanup -> duplication master -> consumer product.

"Remastering" refers to re-transfering the original film elements on a telecine, and cleaning them up to provide the best quality master for mass production possible. Unlimited quantities of DVDs may then be created from the duplication masters.

So they aren't creating the consumer DVDs from the VHS masters, but rather re-transferring from the original film elements. That, with the additional cleanup work (e.g. Scratchbox) is what makes a remastered/restored film look good.

Re:DVD Quality?

[tokachu(k)]

We must have the facts:

• Film has about 4000 lines of resolution.
• DVDs in the U.S. have 480 lines of resolution.
• VHS tapes in the U.S. have about 220 lines of resolution.
• ...common sense calls...

Re:DVD Quality?

[binaryDigit]

Doesn't the saying go "you can't get something from nothing"? How do they get "DVD quality" from old film? How could it look any better than the original VHS quality?

I'm sure there are 50 people replying right now, but ....

It's better because the original film is significantly higher res than VHS (one would think this goes without saying, but anyway). Even if it were a simple direct from master copy to DVD, you'd still get a significantly better end result than could be achieved by VHS. But typically they'll do other things in the process like cleaning up the print (digitally) while they're at it. Also note that the 35mm film is higher res still than DVD (which is actually quite low res) so there is still a lot of headroom there for even better quality formats in the future (e.g. DVD-HD).

Re:DVD Quality?

[minasoko]

Take a look at these pages for alleged quality differences between recent home releases of the films, including the 2004 DVD release.
- Episode IV
- Episode V
- Episode VI

Re:DVD Quality?

[dotwaffle]

Two points - they don't remaster the VHS, duh!

Other point - they remastered it a few years back for VHS, and at the end of Return of the Jedi there is a sequence where everyone is happy as big explosion yadda yadda yadda, and the Ewoks start leaping around, and they put in a montage of computer generated fireworks over cities we have never seen before, and it looks completely out of place and rubbish. Why can't people understand that Special Effects for the sake of Special Effects is CRAP? The only Special Effects movie of recent years remotely watchable was I, Robot. And that was because I slept through the bit with Will Smith in the car being attacked by Robot-a-likes.

Re:DVD Quality?

[Phexro]

Your question is nonsensical and out-of-context.

If you'd care to elaborate on the kinds of "black spots," and the type of TV (HD, old) you're talking about, I can probably answer your question.

Re:DVD Quality?

[Phexro]

Fact: All NTSC video has 480 lines of resolution, including VHS.

Re:DVD Quality?

[WebfishUK]

It could never look as good as that night when my dad took me to the cinema when I was just 7 back in 1977. Largely because, after the subsequent years of squinting at cathode ray tubes and tft screens, my eyes where better when I was 7!

Re:DVD Quality?

[Tim C]

That's probably down to dirt/degradation of the film, rather than a lack of resolution (which would manifest as a lack of fine detail and blurriness)

Re:DVD Quality?

[aussie_a]

They're too small to notice any difference!

Re:DVD Quality?

[Anonymous Coward]

*sigh* It has 525 lines of which it uses 480. It then uses interlacing so you have a 50Hz refresh rate at approximately 240 lines per field. With DVD you can get the full 480 lines because it is deinterlaced.

Re:DVD Quality?

[Phexro]

Rather than dispute your assertion, which is technically accurate (but practically irrelevant) I will simply point out that:

* DVD can have interlaced video footage just as well as VHS.
* The 3:2 pulldown film footage must be put through to be transferred to NTSC VHS preserves the complete, progressive film frames.

Any discussion of these topics is going to be a compromise between detail and brevity, and for all practical purposes, NTSC has 480 lines of resolution. The only actual case I know of where this is not the case is VCDs, which contain 240 lines of resolution at a maximum of 29.97fps.

Re:DVD Quality?

[minasoko]

WTF? Too small? Don't tell me you're just looking at the thumbnails? I'm at 1600x1200 here and the comparison shots are perfectly adequate imho.

Re:DVD Quality?

[0123456]

In addition to which, 35mm film does not have 4k resolution vertically, particularly not by the time it's shown on a cinema screen. An awful lot of CG work, for example, is done with scanned film at closer to 2k x 1k, which is pretty much the same as HDTV. 4k across the film (and about 2k vertically) is really the best you'll get from current low-grain 35mm film in ideal conditions, not a general figure.

Re:DVD Quality?

[BlackHawk-666]

They use digital restoration and colouring techniques to restore prints made from the original masters. These can be colour balanced, and have contrast, brightnesss, etc all adjusted to really suit the better range of the DVD format (over VHS). But even if they didn't do all this, the DVD's should always look better than VHS in any case since they are a better format.

Re:DVD Quality?

[geordie_loz]

you mean too small to notice things like alien languages and uniforms fastening on opposite sides?

Re:DVD Quality?

[OP_Boot]

That's no moon!

Re:DVD Quality?

[AlphaJoe]

What the hell? Are looking at the page on your cell phone or something?

Re:DVD Quality?

[AlphaJoe]

I like how they reworked Jabba in the SWSE to look more like the others. But they goofed on the eyes. Should have given him a little more red, they are too yellow still.

Re:DVD Quality?

[Johnny O]

What does LaserDisc have?

Re:DVD Quality?

[Silvrmane]

Don't confuse raster lines with lines of resolution. Lines of resolution refers to how many changes of color/brightness can occur ALONG each raster line. TV was designed an analog medium, after all. The lines of resolution that you see is dependent not only on the source material, but on your viewing equipment as well.

Film has nowhere near 4000 lines of resolution - you are in the territory of grain at that point. More like 1000 - 2000, depending on the quality of the film stock and the lenses used. VHS sits at around 300 lines of resolution. DVDs potentially carry up to 780 lines of resolution (this is the maximum provided for in its digital image format) but chances are, your TV set, unless its HDTV or top of the line NTSC, is showing you 500-600 lines of resolution.

All of these mediums have exactly the same number of raster lines - 525, of which you can see approximately 480 - again depending on the overscan properties of your viewing device.

Re:DVD Quality?

[llopis]

Chck out http://dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=12228 for a review of the image quality of the DVDs.

Overall, they look fantastic.

Re:DVD Quality?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's some natural confusion about 'number of scan lines' vs. 'lines of resolution'.

Lines of resolution, as it is used for video, has nothing to do with how many scan lines a picture has. It is a measure of how many white vertical lines on a black background the signal can resolve. One line requires two "pixels" to properly resolve, since you need one white pixel and one black pixel to get a distinct line. So if your image is 720 pixels wide, it is only capable of resolving 360 lines.

35mm film, as it was in 1977, was capable of resolving somewhere in the neighborhood of 5000 lines, more or less depending on the manufacturer, ASA, grain type, etc. Today's 35mm film is higher quality than 70mm film from the 70's, which could be over 10,000 lines, depending. 10,000 lines translates to 20,000 pixels. The best consumer HD is only 1920 pixels wide, or 960 lines of resolution.

Re:DVD Quality?

[Badfysh]

So far nobody has mentioned the sound - I've been waiting 27 years to *hear* it properly again..

Re:DVD Quality?

[techwolf]

See this article for more information on how and what was used to do the remastering.

Article follows:

John Lowry: Restoring Films to the Galaxy
September 16, 2004

On September 21, when Star Wars fans insert A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi on DVD for the first time, they are going to see picture quality no Star Wars audience has ever seen... including those at the first screening of the first day back in May 1977.
The growing popularity of films from all eras on DVD format has helped to illuminate a growing problem with some of the movie industry's greatest treasures -- they exist only on physical film stock, and that film stock is fragile and deteriorating rapidly.

When Lucasfilm began to prepare the trilogy for a digital release, they called upon John Lowry and Lowry Digital Images to step in to save the day. In the past four years, Lowry Digital has been hired to use their patented custom software processes to digitally clean and restore hundreds of films, including high-profile efforts on Snow White, Citizen Kane and last year's acclaimed Indiana Jones Trilogy DVD set.

At the Lowry Digital Images facility, over 600 Macintosh dual-processor G5 computers utilizing over 2400 gigabytes of RAM and 478 terabytes (over 478 million megabytes) of hard drive space processed each of the classic Star Wars films for over 30 break-neck days to create the stunning new versions fans will see in the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set.

"There are three key contributing factors to the degradation of film," Lowry explains. "Dirt, time and chemical damage due to conventional restoration processes."

When creating a duplicate of a scratched original, a wet-gate printer is commonly used. The master copy passes through a special fluid which temporarily fills any scratches or holes in the original. According to Lowry, this process is physically harsh and actually adds more grain and softens the images. Proper storage of the fragile film is also an industry issue. "Storage problems in the past have led to flicker, color damage and color flicker," says Lowry.

But the greatest challenge on the Star Wars trilogy was dirt damage. The more a film is used, the more dirt it accumulates. The unexpected success of A New Hope took a particular toll because each copy of the film ended up being played far more often than is usual, to the point where even Fox Studio's master originals began to wear out keeping up with demand.

"We have never seen anything quite this bad from a dirt perspective," says Lowry. "At some point the dirt becomes part of the picture and very, very hard to get rid of."

Over the years, Lowry Digital's computer algorithms have evolved from automating the removal of hundreds of pieces of dirt in a scene, to handling the 100,000 pieces of dirt in the Indiana Jones trilogy, to taking on the Star Wars trilogy which required automated and manual removal of up to a million pieces of dirt in scenes like R2-D2 and C-3PO's arrival on Tatooine in A New Hope.

The Star Wars restoration process began with a 10-bit RGB high-definition scan of the original negatives. This data was then used by a team at Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic to work with George Lucas to do some significant color correction to the movies. This color-timed data was then transferred to Lowry Digital hard drives, to begin the massive clean-up effort.

Most effects in the original trilogy were achieved, at least in part, with the aid of optical printing -- a process in which one piece of film is passed through a printer multiple times, once for each effects element. With each optical effect layer, grain can be introduced and some of the original clarity reduced. "Every time there was a lightsaber in frame, it was exceedingly grainy due to opticals," Lowry recalls.

"Sometimes the scratches were very bad," says Lowry, "at one point in Return of the Jedi there was a literally

Re:DVD Quality?

[tabrnaker]

Do what i did. STOP SQUINTING!!! I no longer need glasses, going from -2.25 to perfect. Do yourself a favour and look up the bates method. I couldn't believe it at first, it seemed so simple and went against what they teach you in school. However, it doesn't go against modern research, but the whole industry will never tell you that glasses aren't necessary because then there won't be any industry.

Re:DVD Quality?

[kylant]

Film has about 4000 lines of resolution.

Sorry but that's a theoretical value. The original negative may have 4000 lines but for editing and replication the film is transfered several times film to film.

What you get in the end is usually not better than HDTV at 1080 lines. The most important exceptions which come to mind are IMAX and 70mm-films, which use larger frames.

Re:DVD Quality?

[LilMikey]

because it is deinterlaced.

'Deinterlaced' implies you took interlaced footage and doubled and smoothed the missing lines to get to the final 480 lines. Most DVDs are progressive and have a full 480 lines of resolution which is what you were getting at. Of course you have to have a progressive scan DVD player and a TV that can accept progressive input before it's of any use.

Re:DVD Quality?

[Anonymous Coward]

Film does not have "lines of resolution". Its quality is usually designated in terms of grain density.

Re:DVD Quality?

[Hobadee]

50Hz refresh rate

Here in the US we have a 60Hz refresh rate. (This is because our AC outlets are at 60Hz. Europe AC outlets are 50Hz, but of course lots of them are 220-240V instead of 110-120V)

Re:DVD Quality?

[Pope]

I doubt it, considering it was never in multi-channel surround sound before the SEs came out.

Re:DVD Quality?

[shirai]

Don't forget that there are also wandering gate issues with projecting film. That is, the film is never projecting exactly on the same spot on the screen and therefore you get image jitter which blurs the image.

So, even though an individual frame may have quality greater than High Definition, the fact that watching a well projected High Definition image is *rock solid* means that film isn't necessarily better than a well projected High Definition signal.

Re:DVD Quality?

[shirai]

There is a link to a funny comic where they take Han Solo to court over the shooting of Greedo and its revisioning history. Very well done and funny. Check it out.

Han Solo in Court Comic

Re:DVD Quality?

[Anonymous Coward]

So...the parent post was correct, you're saying?

Re:DVD Quality?

[lordofthechia]

The visual changes look ok. Though it may seem trivial, I'm most upset about Lucas getting rid of the Ewok song at the end of ep VI and replacing it with the new gay new age composition by John Williams.

The composition sounded as if they woke up John in the middle of the night and didn't let him go to sleep until he composed something to fill in the longer celebration sequence.

Well if Lucas wont sell the original versions on DVD too, then I'm sue alot of folks are gonna step in to supply them instead.

I'm sure lucas wouldn't like the music that he grew up listening to only being released in remixes and recorded only by new artists. Sometimes you wanna listen to the original version of hotel california or whatever to take you back.

Re:DVD Quality?

[snuf23]

And in a perfect world every DVD would be properly remastered and cleaned up before release. Unfortunately, it seems like some DVDs - particularly earlier releases that were rushed to market have horrible transfers. I have some DVDs that look grainy and spotted with a flat color range.
Oftentimes these movies are cleaned up and rereleased on DVD later as a special or deluxe edition with a cleaner transfer.
It's a a good idea to check out DVD review sites for information about the quality of the films transfer.

Re:DVD Quality?

[snuf23]

NTSC is interlaced at a rate of 60Hz (60 fields per second) which gives you 30 frames per second (an interlaced field being half of the frame). PAL is 50Hz, 50 fields a second, 25 frames per second. PAL also has a greater vertical resolution at 576.
It should be noted that the aspect ratio of the DVD actually affects the resolution that the DVD check out the chart at:

PAL vs NTSC

Re:DVD Quality?

[Badfysh]

Well I was only 14 at the time, but I distinctly remember the Empire at Leicester Square (London UK) adding another eight speakers (four each side) to the auditorium. I remember it clearly because the job looked so rough, with wires hanging down etc. Maybe it's just my imagination, maybe it's false regressed memories, but I also remember the sound of bolts whizzing past my ear, and the sound of giant space vehicles passing over my head. Let's not forget these were the early days of THX sound, (minus the branding) maybe somebody with more info can clarify?

Re:DVD Quality?

[Phexro]

He could be referring to an inverse telecine, versus smoothing out interlaced video frames.

Re:DVD Quality?

[Performaman]

Why would Lucas change English to an alien language while the characters still speak English? This makes no sense.
And, technically, it is not a language, it's only a script/character set. Each letter corresponds (as far as I can tell) to a letter in the English language. An example of a ficticious language would be Klingon, which has its own nouns, verbs and rules for usage. The same goes for Tolkein's Elvish.

Re:DVD Quality?

[iamcf13]

That comic is funny and insightful.

Too bad one must 'bootleg' to get the original 1977/1980/1983 versions of the first 3 STAR WARS films on DVD (via DVD rips of the first laserdisc release of the films). :(

Re:DVD Quality?

[Anonymous Coward]

DVD has about 720 lines, not 780. Only 711.5 of which should ever be active.

Re:DVD Quality?

[BoogieChile]

It's gorgeous. Truly beautiful to behold.

For example, the blue parts of R2-D2. They glow. In that particular shade of glowing blue that you usually only see on some species of tropical fish.

c-3p0 is gold, really, really gold. The images are sharper, absolutely crystal clear. The scene looking down over Mos Eisley, you can even see individual boulders all the way down the valley. Mos Eisley itself isn't just a grey blur off in the distance, you can make out individual buildings and roads.

I think it looks incredible.

Sure.

[Phexro]

Yeah, the Star Wars franchise is really suffering due to piracy.

Versus, say, producing two completely crap prequels, oversaturating the tie-in market, and then not releasing the original versions that many people want to buy.

George Lucas doesn't need any more of your money, and this seems to be reflected by the decisions he has made as of late.

Re:Sure.

[BathTub]

I don't know if that is what George Lucas actually believes but I certainly don't believe it. I think that he waited another few years for the DVDs they would be going out of fashion, and the next big thing (HD DVD) is more likely, which of course he will be able to milk then too.

Re:Sure.

[Jugalator]

At least we got the original trilogy DVD. But I guess I'm in minority who actually appreciate this DVD and don't care much about who bloody fires first. :-)

Re:Sure.

[Chester K]

Yeah, the Star Wars franchise is really suffering due to piracy.

Everybody knows its because GREEDO DIDN'T SHOOT FIRST .

Re:Sure.

[metlin]

Who? George Lucas?

Oh you mean that fire. Sorry.

Re:Sure.

[nkh]

and the next big thing (HD DVD) is more likely, which of course he will be able to milk then too.

But won't it be too late? I mean, I'm not even sure I will buy the DVDs released today. And when the original SW will be released on SuperUltraHDVD (in something like 10 years), all the geeks who wanted to buy the movies will be either too old or won't care anymore about all this. And will the original material be preserved enough to allow a clean copy to a new kind of DVD?

Re:Sure.

[gfxguy]

He has to blame something when every man, woman, and child on the planet don't buy a copy.

Reporter: "You were expecting roughly six billion sales, but only 10 million were sold. Care to comment?"

Lucas: "Must be piracy."

Re:Sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have not pirated any movie from the original Star Wars trilogy. I've been waiting on the DVD-Rips to appear :D

Re:Sure.

[Technician]

and then not releasing the original versions that many people want to buy.


When they released the first one to the big screen, they announced they would never release it to the home market. I saw it on the big screen. Because they would never release it to the home market, piracy couldn't hurt anything. I was overseas and picked up a nth generation VHS copy. (not good quality) Because of piracy, about 4 years later they released a VHS version. They missed the market by not filling the void. They should have sold into the market when the demand was high. It's a case of a company not listening to it's consumers.

Now that consumers may want the original theatrical version, why is a studio going to play the it's not for sale game again.. Will they ever learn.

Some movies I am hesitant to buy simply because it becomes a pig in a poke. Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a good example of this. There are at least 3 versions out. The original big screen version I don't think they ever released to the home market. The re-done one (with out the crazy scene of ripping up the garden, upsetting the lady with the ducks next door, and tossing everyting into the kitchen window) and the extended version with the extra footage of the ship.

Get a clue. Release the uncut big screen version in a timely manner. If I know I can get the full version legaly in good quality, than there is less incentive to look elsewhere.

If you want additional scenes, or an alternate ending, put it in the menu on DVD.

Re:Sure.

[TGK]

Given that the films were scanned into the ILM system in a format exceeding HD's pixel count, I'd say an HD release is inevitable.

I read somewhere (but now can't find the source to save my life, so call it heresay) that Lucas is essentialy doing this in preparation for a HD release of the films. I think he'll be waiting for the HD format to settle down before he makes any moves.

For those of you who want to try out HD DVD you've got only one choice as of right now.... Terminator 2's latest addition (fugly metal case etc) is the only HD DVD on the market in the US.

Re:Sure.

[Maestro4k]

• and then not releasing the original versions that many people want to buy.

If there really is a huge piracy problem for the original trilogy then this is the reason why. People have been begging, screaming, whining and complaining about the lack of a DVD release of the original trilogy at least since Episode I came out on DVD. That's been about 4 years now so of course people are going to start turning to alternatives. I'd be willing to bet a large amount of those "pirating" the original trilogy own the VHS version and have already preordered the DVD boxset.

Personally I have the only digital version released up till now -- the laserdisc version. Still I'm not keen on the two pauses you have to deal with per movie (one double-sided disc, one single sided per movie) so I preordered the box set. There's not a huge number of people with laserdisc players (even at the height of their popularity, such as it was) much less both a player and the Star Wars LDs, everyone else wanting a digital version has been SOL up till today.

While that doesn't really make it right that people have pirated it, I'm not going to be feeling sorry for Lucas. Quite frankly, he brought that particular piracy mess on himself by being stubborn and ignoring fan requests. He'll still make barrel loads of money off the DVD boxset anyway so it's not like he's going to suffer. Neither are those that worked on the original trilogy, he did share profits with the cast and crew on The Empire Strikes Back at least, I believe he did so on Return of the Jedi as well. (For those buying the boxset the new documentary included will tell the details, I caught it on A&E a few weeks back.) About the only "victims" I can see for piracy of the original trilogy would be the stores who didn't have the product to sell in the first place.

And frankly it'd sell well even if he'd made us wait as long as he originally intended, although he may have lost all remaining fan goodwill towards him.

Re:Sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

But then you have to watch it on your pc monitor or at a lower resolution because there are no affordable pc projector that can do 1080p. At least I don't find any and I'm actively searching for one.

Re:Sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

George Lucas would be a good candidate for residence in Mos Eisley. He isn't quite the scum of the universe, but he is a known liar regarding the future and fate of Star Wars. He's claimed, at various times, that he intended Star Wars to be 1, 3, 6 and 9 films - from the start! No matter what the current plan, he's always had it in mind. It took him several decades to even admit that Star Wars was not only not originally planned to be 3, 6 or 9 films, but that it didn't even have an original plot or characters, and was a reconstitution of The Hidden Fortress in a space setting. He steadfastly denied that negative fan reaction to elements of The Phantom Menace (idiot Jar Jar, whiny Hayden) caused changes in Attack of the Clones - nope, he'd planned it that way from the start. He's even on record lying to Steven Spielberg about having 3 Indiana Jones films ready - from the start. It could be a pathological condition. Perhaps Lucas is a megalomaniac and always needs to perceive himself as the sole architect. The point of all this is, don't expect that Lucasfilm/Fox won't be hawking the original versions sometime, for some extreme premium, just because Lucas currently says that isn't going to happen. For all we know, he planned for the originals to be released on DVD when he first conceived of all 15 movies of Star Wars... we just haven't been informed yet.

In all likelihood he's probably trying to drive up fan demand. He's been constantly commenting on the release of "the originals" in the press for about 2 years now.

And piracy doesn't affect squat - what people really want to pirate doesn't exist because Lucas hasn't authorized it yet. You can pirate HDTV rips if you just want the movies, but the originals on DVD, with brand-new new bells and whistles and the attractive packaging we all enjoy, will sell like hotcakes when released even if they're pirated non-stop from now until then.

If Lucas actually isn't lying for once, consider that he's 60 years old and could retire, cede control to someone else, or pass away at pretty much any time now. Even if his mind's made up now, it might not be his choice to make for much longer.

Re:Sure.

[guinsu]

Actually, I think there is also an HD transfer on the disc "Standing in the Shadow of Motown".

Re:Sure.

[rabel]

Versus, say, producing two completely crap prequels, oversaturating the tie-in market, and then not releasing the original versions that many people want to buy.

Actually, what I think really happened is that George accidentally overwrote the original movie when doing his editing.

"Damn! I should have Saved As rather than Saved. Oh, man.. the fans are going to be pissed, that was the only copy of the original movie and I just overwrote it with these edits. What to do... what to dooooo?? *jumping up and down wringing hands*

"I know, I'll just pretend like that's what I meant to do all along! I'm sure they'll understand since *I* am the true Lord of the Sith! " *picks up toy light saber, starts making wha-wha sounds*

Re:Sure.

[royalblue_tom]

This is the crux of it, and Lucas is not the only copyright abuser in this regard (see also disney's "buy now, 'cause it will be locked back in the vault forever" scam.

We give them the sole protected right to charge for their work, on the basis that they will make the work available to the public. Artificially making movies scarce to milk additional profits is the antithesis of the copyright deal.

Given that the three Star Wars films have been out for over a decade, and DVD has been out a while too, and that these are some of the most popular films ever, it is unbelievable that there would be a justification in delaying the DVD release.

In these cases (where a work is deliberately made unavailable, even though it is in demand) the government should revoke copyright protection to the works in question - the studio can still release it anyway they like, but they can't stop anyone else doing likewise. Let's stamp out this copyright abuse!

Re:Sure.

[colmore]

I don't know about anyone else, but Lucas is definitely losing my money.

If he were to release the original editions on DVD, I'd certainly buy them.

As it is, I'm going to be ebaying for a DVD transfer of the 80s laserdisks.

Re:Sure.

[crawling_chaos]

In these cases (where a work is deliberately made unavailable, even though it is in demand) the government should revoke copyright protection to the works in question - the studio can still release it anyway they like, but they can't stop anyone else doing likewise.

Look, I don't like Lucas' changes any more than the next guy, but this is retarded. We grant the creator of a work exclusive rights ostensibly to encourage people to create new works so they to can make a mint. Exclusive rights include the right to not release it if they choose not to. I'll agree that these rights should expire after a time, but in this case the author is still living and I believe that it is worthwhile to adhere to his wishes.

You do not have a right to see the original Star Wars. You have a desire to do so. Lucas does have the right to monkey with it, and I have the right to think he's a money grabbing talentless jerk who got lucky once and is desperately trying to prove that it wasn't a fluke (and failing.)

Re:Sure.

[royalblue_tom]

The point I was trying to make is that we grant the right to encourage people to create new works - that does not necessarily include the part about them making a mint. I doubt I'm ever going to see a penny for this post - but it's still copyright me, 2004.

Similarly, Lucas the right to "monkey" about and create derivative works based on his original - but since he released the original for profit, it is supposed to be available to the public. He's already made money out of it, so why should he have the right to make it unavailable once it has been sold to the public. So yes, as long as I pay whatever fee is reasonable for access to the work, I should have the right to see the original Star Wars.

My point was that copyright is supposed to be a two way street. He's seeing the quids, and we ain't seeing the pro quos!

This is same argument regarding out of print books - why should the work be made unavailable because the rights holders did not come up with a procedure for access to the work. It's not profitable for them, but they won't licence someone else to make the work available. They helped themselves to the benefits of the copyright agreement, but are unwilling to live upto the responsibilities.

And thus, I opined the idea that if a rights holder does not uphold their responsibilities, then they should lose the benefits going forward. It's not a difficult concept.

Re:Sure.

[BillyBlaze]

No, it's quite true that they are suffering due to piracy, though in this case, they deserve it. At some point they released the original version on laserdisc, and this got ripped, so there's a better-than-VHS quality version going around.

Now, there's a huge demand for Star Wars, and there's a huge demand for it on DVD. But it's been so long since DVDs came out that even honest people convinced themselves, "screw it, they're never going to release the DVD so I may as well get the pirated version - after all, I own the VHS." Most of these people will buy the DVD, but some will not, especially those upset about who shoots first, etc.

Basically, there was a huge demand, and because Lucas was too arrogant and wimpy to release a DVD ("But it's not perfect yet - Han still shoots! Greed should just have a heart attack!"), the piracy filled the demand. If he had just released a DVD when they became the format du jour, he would have made way more money, and not seemed like such a jerk. He screwed up - piracy is a feature of the industry: you can either profit from this, or be destroyed.

Re:Sure.

[spirality]

A better question is why is a thirty year old work not in the public domain? Let me answer that, because this aspect of the government is owned by the entertainment industry.

There has to be a REALLY good reason for the public to allow a monopoly... I would guess that if Start Wars lost it's copyright we could procure DVDs of the original for somewhere around five bucks a piece. The fact of the matter is that a thirty year monopoly, and it will inveitably become perpetual, only artifically raises prices, with the only benefactors being the producers. The public does not benefit an inkling from 70+ year copyrights. Copyright should last no more than 14 years, period.

Fuck Star Wars, and fuck Lucas. The movies were cool at one time, but profiteering, and that's exactly what it is, is despicable.

Re:Sure.

[Wanker]

Profiteers? Sounds like a Disney movie to me. :)

Re:Sure.

[supabeast!]

Actually, I totally agree with Lucas on this one, because I bought my bootleg Star Wars: Special Edition Episodes IV-VI DVDs on ebay for $35 before Lucas ever announced that he would be selling copies. I have no plans to buy Lucas's updated versions, and I just wish I could find a bootlegger selling laserdisc-rips of the original theatrical releases.

Re:Sure.

[mark-t]

Except for one, small, detail....

The "home market" didn't even exist yet when Star Wars first came out in 1977.

Re:Sure.

[Udo Schmitz]

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a good example of this. There are at least 3 versions out. The original big screen version I don't think they ever released to the home market.

Yes they did. I saw at least a for rent VHS. But this wasn't available for at least 10 years now.

I wonder if there ever was a LaserDisc of the original release ...

Re:Sure.

[Pope]

Possible they're right, I've seent DVD-Rs of the 2004 Trilogy floating around for the past week or two.

Re:Sure.

[NanoGator]

" But I guess I'm in minority who actually appreciate this DVD and don't care much about who bloody fires first. :-)"

Well, you're not standing too far away from me. I don't have a problem with the special edition DVDs. (maybe I'm biased since I do digital FX for a living?)

Normally I roll my eyes at nitpicks like this. Unfortunately, though, I have to side with those that are annoyed by it. It really did make the his character more interesting (especially Han's surprise return at the end) plus it added credibility to the whole "this is a dangerous place to be" mood that bar was in.

I imagine you already see that, but I thought it was worth mentioning just in case. It was one of those changes that George shouldn't have made. I think a lot of us are annoyed simply because we saw what could have been. hehe.

Re:Sure.

[sdo1]

Personally I have the only digital version released up till now -- the laserdisc version

Laserdisc is not digital. It's analog. Well, the picture is anyway. Some laserdiscs had digital sound though.

I have the original Star Wars laserdiscs. The good ones. And a really nice laserdisc player. And a 50" DLP rear-projection TV. And you know what? They look like crap. Compared to a well-mastered DVD, there is absolutely no comparison. Poor shadow detail, chroma noise, etc.

Am I disapointed that I'm not going to get the version of these movies that saw in the theater in the 70's? Absolutely. But I am looking forward to seeing them on DVD. The bad look of the laserdisc is to me, at this point anyway, far more important than the tweaks Georgie boy has done. They're just not very watchable on laserdisc given current state-of-the-art reproduction.

-S

Re:Sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, I sense the dark side of the RIAA is strong in this one.

Re:Sure.

[dvdeug]

A better question is why is a thirty year old work not in the public domain? Let me answer that, because this aspect of the government is owned by the entertainment industry.

Or because authors got really pissed off when publishers would starting printing their early books and they wouldn't see a cent for them, especially if they got screwed with in the process.

Re:Sure.

[snuf23]

Ah, but the pirated market did. The second time I ever saw Star Wars we in the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia. About 100 people gathered around a 15 inch black and white T.V. and a honking huge VCR. For most of the staff there, it was the first time they had seen it. I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen during a trip back to the states.

Re:Sure.

[neurojab]

>I have the right to think he's a money grabbing talentless jerk who got lucky once and is desperately trying to prove that it wasn't a fluke (and failing.)

My take on this is that George Lucas is a money-grabbing talentless jerk that really had an amazing gift for film at one time, then lost it somewhere along the way. He had it in 1972 with "American Grafitti". He had a series of hits... the Star Wars Trilogy, the Indiana Jones saga. His brain slowly began leaking out in 1983 when work began on Return of the Jedi, and was nearly complete in 1986 with the release of "Howard the Duck"... but he still managed to squeak out "The Last Crusade" with his few remaining brain cells. Now, it's all over for George Lucas. He simply doesn't have the gift for filmmaking he once had. He should find an apprentice that has the gift and bequeath the Star Wars franchise to him/her.

First you have it, then you lose it. Then it's gone forever. - Irvine Welsh

Re:Sure.

[checkyoulater]

Personally I have the only digital version released up till now -- the laserdisc version.

You do realize that the video on your laserdisc is analog, right? The media itself is digital, sure, but the video is plain old analog.

Re:Sure.

[Anonymous Coward]

Mark sez: The "home market" didn't even exist yet when Star Wars first came out in 1977.

Sure it did - it just wasn't "home video".

I've been seriously contemplating digging out the 17-minute Super-8 excerpt of Star Wars (never got the second part) and the two 17-minute excerpts of ESB ("Part One" through the asteroid field and "Part Two" the conclusion) to watch while everyone else is at home with their DVDs. Sure, they're not widescreen, or Lucas' original cut, or even complete - but I can be 100% sure there's no CGI or other modifications in there. In glorious Color - AND stunning monaural sound! But the zoom lens on the Super-8 projector means I can throw a much bigger picture than any TV I've ever owned. And while my prints of SW and ESB part one are "warming" (blacks turn brown, colors slightly fading), the second half of Empire is printed on low-fade stock and really does look quite good. Maybe not 35mm widescreen good, but very enjoyable.

Star Wars was the hottest selling contemporary film on Super-8. Don't believe me? Look in eBay's Super-8 department. They made a 8 minute version (in black & white silent, color silent, or color sound) and the more-complete 17m color sound version was so popular they hastily assembled another 17m reel called "Star Wars Part Two", although part one took you through the escape from the Death Star, part two was apparently the cantina scene and the attack on the Death Star. I've seen 800' reels on eBay where avid collectors cut the two parts back into the correct order...

If you're looking for a brand-new (not used or dusty old) copy of the original non-CGI Jedi, I think the only place left to get it is from Derann Films in the UK, on Cinemascope stereo Super-8, on five 30m reels. They used to sell a print of Star Wars, too, but it's no longer on their web site...

Re:Sure.

[SlippyToad]

It was really hilarious to listen to his pathological lying on the commentary for Empire. He started immediately with the "studio let me put the Episode V in the title." I mean one absolute crock of shit after the next. As if nobody could tell that Mark Hamil's wampa sequence was inserted specifically to hide scars from his car accident.

Re:Sure.

[Technician]

I wonder if there ever was a LaserDisc of the original release

Close encounters was released on LaserDisc, but I don't know what version. I didn't buy it due to the cost. I mostly sprang for the musicals that the format would be best for such as Fantasia, Fiddler on the Roof, etc. The disks never became reasonably priced to build a substantial library of movies. Went with tape instead at a quarter or less price.

Already got it ...

[drmancini]

I already got my DVD set yesterday ... pre-ordered from UK amazon.

Had enough time to see some of the documentaries and i'm more then happy so far ... The documentary about the making of ANH was nothing I have ever seen before ...

Re:Already got it ...

[Silas is back]

mine arrived Friday, preordered it from a Swiss online store. When they sent me the "Status: shipped" -email on wednesday last week I was quite surprised. And compared to the LD-rips I own they look damn awesome. Whats not reported in the CNN-Story is the change to the han-greedo-fiddle. It was changed to my pleasure, they fire almost at the same time. BTW jabba now looks quite realistic...

the ultimate box set

[politicsie04]

They should really bring out another box set with all the old changes, and new changes, infact just include the raw unedited movie footage, for all the uber star wars fans.

Re:the ultimate box set

[CityZen]

The uber fan/hacker will recreate the original release by extracting all the available sources to digitally recreate the desired version. Has anyone done this already?

5 changes? I think not

[alnapp]

Star Wars here and Empire and Jedi here

No Market?

[Anonymous Coward]

No Market? seriously now...there are 1,000,000,000 people foaming @ the mouth at the prospect of buying an "official" Star Wars Trilogy DVD Set....right?!?!

Re:No Market?

[Brando_Calrisean]

Maybe he knows that Episode III is going to be _that bad_ that it'll sour the first three...

Bad Wikipedia link

[Jugalator]

... and here's a user-edited, unauthoritative, small, article from Wikipedia about the changes in case anyone missed them. Please use multiple sources to confirm the validity of this information.

Re:Bad Wikipedia link

[NFNNMIDATA]

The imdb links at the bottom of the wiki have some very good info revealing how much Lucas has tinkered with these films since day 1, way before the SE's. Also reveals how, in the process of re-cutting the films for the SE's, they got some odd dialogue changes entirely by accident.

HA HA HA HA HA!

[Anonymous Coward]

However, he mentions that due to piracy concerns the profits are being eaten up and there might not be a market for the films at that time

Yeah, and I'm sure that it has NOTHING to do with

1. The fact that everyone in the world who might want to buy copies of the Star Wars trilogy already owns it
2. The people who love the Star Wars trilogy enough they might buy new copies even though they already own it don't want anything with Lucas's stupid "digital enhancements" on them

It's becoming increasingly the case where ANYTIME anyone says ANYTHING about piracy, all this means is "we can't create a quality product people are willing to buy, and we're going to blame it on others". I mean, people have been talking about piracy for years, but at least at one time the people whining about so-called "piracy" were people whose products were actually being illegally traded online in some small quantity.

Re:HA HA HA HA HA!

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually I can't wait to download an SVCD DVDip of the Box Set! I'm sure as hell not buying that shit!

Hey, why lie, I admit it, I pirate shit like a mofo...

Re:HA HA HA HA HA!

[Anonymous Coward]

So, you download files then turn around and sell them to people for your profit? You know, as in the true definition of software piracy... Or do you just download them and use them personally?

Re:HA HA HA HA HA!

[Anonymous Coward]

I just watch them.

Shit, I don't even give out copies for free.

By your own damn broadband ya cheap bums you ain't leechin' my video collection. Fuckas.

Re:HA HA HA HA HA!

[Anonymous Coward]

I've seen the changes the folks @ digital bits found and screen shotted, and frankly I don't mind the changes. I don't own the trilogy, in any format, legit or otherwise, and I know I'll be buying it. So there goes your theory of 'everyone in the world'.

Hypocrisy filter

[koh]

George Lucas is releasing the Star Wars DVD box set early on September 21, 2004 due to piracy concerns.

s/piracy/marketing/g

We had it yesterday in the UK

[Zog The Undeniable]

Looks really good in terms of picture quality, but Han/Greedo obsessives will not be placated; they now shoot at almost exactly the same time. And Sebastian "Anakin Skywalker" Shaw (at least in his non-disfigured state) has been CGI'd out of history and replaced with a mulleted Hayden Christensen.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

What the hell is it with that stupid scene!? In 5 years Lucas will make the Reloaded Edition where additional digitally spliced in Howard the duck, Indiana Jones and 20 identical Agent Smiths shoot up the entire cantina in slow-mo. WHAT WAS WRONG WITH THE FRIGGIN ORIGINAL SCENE, IT WAS ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!!!!

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Chess_the_cat]

And Sebastian "Anakin Skywalker" Shaw (at least in his non-disfigured state) has been CGI'd out of history and replaced with a mulleted Hayden Christensen.

You know what really makes that edit stupid? Why would Luke recognize the young Anakin as his father?

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[tabdelgawad]

Um, why would he recognize the *old* Anakin as his father?! There's at least a chance he remembers his young father from the Episode III timeframe.

Frankly, the only bitch I have is that Greedo shoots (first or at all) because it changes the essential character of who Solo is. Other than that, all the other cosmetic changes are fine by me.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[TheTick]

It kind of makes sense that the Anakin-ghost would manifest as he appeared when he was "whole", before the corruption of his spirit (and body) by the Dark Side.

God, I'm a geek.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

You know what really makes Ep. 6 stupid? How Darth Vader can sense his son from thousands of miles away.

Oh wait: it's the Force, the same plot driver that allows all sorts of heroic and/or sappy things to happen when necessary.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[CreatureComfort]

He would recognize the old Anakin because, after Vader killed the Emperor, Luke removed the dying Vader's helmet so that Anakin could see Luke "with his own eyes". This is the only time that Luke would have ever seen his father's face, and so this is what should be in the ghost scene.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[duffahtolla]

Um, why would he recognize the *old* Anakin as his father?!

Call me senile if I remember this wrong, but didn't this seen happen after Luke took off his fathers mask and cradled his fathers head as his father died. Hair or not, his face was clear.

But I agree with you, The greedo edit was unneeded and imo unforgivable.

In the next imporved release, the storm troopers will be carrying walkie-talkies instead of blasters.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[danheretic]

You know what really makes that edit stupid? Why would Luke recognize the young Anakin as his father?

Because of the mullet, duh.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[royalblue_tom]

So, as young Anakin from Episode 1 then ;)

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[knowles420]

You know what really makes that edit stupid? Why would Luke recognize the young Anakin as his father?

and how come yoda's ghost doesn't appear as a strapping young [mulleted] green dude? maybe with a camaro?

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

but what about redemption man?
vader is gone, and in his place is only anakin.
luke turned him, man, and new anakin (by which i mean old anakin) is just as much anakin as the young anakin (by which i mean new anakin).

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Recessive Gene Boy]

You know what really makes that edit stupid? Why would Luke recognize the young Anakin as his father?

And by extension, why would a first time viewer recognize him either?

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[sharkey]

Yippee!

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[bicho]

He used the force and looked into his heart.
He just knew it, just how Vader knew the emperor was telling the truth about Skywalker, the pilot who destroyed the Death Star.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[magefile]

He'd recognize 'old' Anakin, the guy who repented on his deathbed as Luke pulled off his mask. And just in case you don't remember, one of the "approved" Star Wars novels states that Luke and Leia were spirited away before Anakin/Vader saw them.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Holi]

I wonder how his estate feels to have been removed from one of the biggest trilogys of our generation. I mean he was there, he did the acting and now this no talent upstart is getting the credit. It's kind of offensive.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Baseclass]

Why would Anakin revert to a younger state while Obi-Wan remains the same age at which he was killed?

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

Who knows? But I'm putting my money on, 'from a photograph'

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

And just in case you don't remember, one of the "approved" Star Wars novels states that Luke and Leia were spirited away before Anakin/Vader saw them.

There are also a few lines from Obi Wan in RoTJ (the film) that say this as well.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Morgahastu]

Because Anakin died when he went evil. The ghost that appears is Anakin - not darth.

Obi-Wan died still whole and on the light side.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Baseclass]

How wonderfully Disneyesque of him.

All Darth ever wanted was to be a 'real' boy.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[kalidasa]

I just checked the US version. Greedo fires first by a few frames.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Anonymous Coward]

I will not be satisfied until Han shoots first
and Greedo does a Wilhelm on the way
to the table!


pek

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[Dirtside]

It kind of makes sense that the Anakin-ghost would manifest as he appeared when he was "whole", before the corruption of his spirit (and body) by the Dark Side.

It's a crappy change for a few reasons:

1) Luke wouldn't recognize young Anakin (although he's not a moron, he would probably be able to figure out who it's supposed to be).

2) Anakin turned back to the Light Side when he threw the Emperor down the shaft. Even if that one act didn't necessarily make up for years and years of horrible evil, it was his turning point. He should have appeared as he did when he was last good.

3) Sebastian Shaw died in 1994 and erasing part of his appearance in the movie is just plain insulting.

4) I seriously doubt that Lucas intended, in 1983, for that appearance -- of Anakin's ghost -- to ultimately be played by the young actor who would play Anakin in the prequels, 19 years down the line. My opinion is that this change was intended to act as a tie-in to the prequels, but it's a change that is unnecessary in any dramatic or storytelling sense, or even in a purely visual sense.

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[twelveinchbrain]

You know what really makes that edit stupid? Why would Luke recognize the young Anakin as his father?

Uhh, because maybe they had ... pictures of him?

Re:We had it yesterday in the UK

[SlippyToad]

Kind of, if you're an obsessive-compulsive control freak who has to continually tinker with shit and drive everyone else batty. I am increasingly glad that I retain not one but two copies of the original Star Wars (it will always be Star Fucking Wars to me, and never "A New Lame-Ass Hope," and one copy each of the other two on Laser Disc. I am awaiting an opportune moment to purchase a couple of extra players (which now cost less than the discs used to) in order to have the originals on hand for years to come.

Whats up with these DVDs

[coolsva]

Not to troll or something, whats up with these new 'enhanced' DVDs. I mean, it is the same movie, same scenes, with some extra conversations added and repackaged and sold as 'new and improved'. This is actually worse than the sequels to squeeze more money off the first one. Cant believe people still fall for it.
On a side note, I think this trend will continue since it seems to be the only way to make money despite piracy, increase customer base or sell more to same customers, in essence increase revenue. Trouble is at some point, the proverbial camel's back would break and people would comletely refuse to buy these 'new and improved' items.

Re:Whats up with these DVDs

[drmancini]

only that it's the first star wars old trilogy release on DVD ... only that fans are waiting for a copy with digital 7.1 sound ... only that it's one of the best film trilogies of all time ...

Re:Whats up with these DVDs

[YowzaTheYuzzum]

I know! I can't believe people actually want something better than VHS!

Re:Whats up with these DVDs

[snap-hiss]

I like it better in VHS quality. I own now four versions of these films: Origional, THX remastered, Special Edition, DVD edition. I still enjoy watching the crappy VHS origional version the best. It IS star wars for me.

Too Late

[mirko]

Lucas used Microsoft's strategy which consists of pre-announcing a product long before it'd be released.

The problem is that I made my mind and I am not sure I want to acquire this set because I am unsure I might watch it again and again...
This observation came after somebody lent me the 3-DVD set of the Indiana Jones Trilogy (which happened to have gotten really... obsolete) : I then thought it could be the same with SW.

But otherwise, had he released it today without pre-announcing it, I might have considered buying it... Simply because of the surprise effect which he voluntarily spoiled.

Re:Too Late

[Anonymous Coward]

Lucas used Microsoft's strategy which consists of pre-announcing a product long before it'd be released.

Also Microsoft's strategy of blaming piracy for problems they created.

Re:Too Late

[Anonymous Coward]

Are you shitting me?!? The Indiana Jones DVD set RULES! It's not one of those movies that are played on TV over and over all the time, and they're actually movies I want to see. I got the DVD set a while back, and watched it twice already, not counting the times when other people came over to watch them.

Old news

[weapon]

I don't know if it has yet been released in Australia but there has been alot of ads for it all ready. (at least a fortnight)

Re:Old news

[Zonnald]

Mine arrived here in Marrickville at 8am.

Yes, but

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately the profits they would have made from those 1,000,000,000 people would be EATEN... by PIRATES! The scary "pirates" would somehow magically make all the money the legitimate customers paid just EVAPORATE!

Ehm, logic anyone?

[__aagctu1952]

Hm, let's see here:
* Fans are screaming after the original, non-Special Edition version.
* Lucas admits he's never going to release the original version.

So, the only way to get the original trilogy, on a decent medium (VHS doesn't count, Laserdisc isn't an option for 99% of the people out there) is through... piracy?

Now, here comes the big irony:
* Lucas releases the Star Wars SE DVDs early, over fear for piracy concerns.

Way to go Lucas!

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[xSauronx]

well youre right anyway

i may *rent* the new ones eventually for the hell of it. i liked some of the new changes in the released in 97, and i went to the theatres to see star wars in a theater...

but im not into seeing hayden christense; having bobas voice changed., or much else....nice that lucas gets to play Big Brother with his fantasy world; but its starting to get annoying.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[javasensai]

Actually purchasing a laserdisk player can be a very cost effective entertainment decision. Take a look at eBay. You can buy "lots" of laserdisks at ~$1 a movie. The quality is better than you'd think. We have a 56' hitachi HDTV and they hold up very strong.

Ok you've found me out. Yes, I actually talked my wife into buying a laserdisk player solely for the purposes of watching Star Wars. Thankfully a friend gave me his old pioneer AND his mint boxed set of the Star Wars trilogy in exchange for some website work -Score!

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[loveaxelrod]

So, the only way to get the original trilogy, on a decent medium (VHS doesn't count, Laserdisc isn't an option for 99% of the people out there) is through... piracy?

eh? - what's a decent medium? are you saying you'd rather have a DVD copy of a video tape? Because, unless I'm mistaken, that's the only pirate copy of the original you're going to be able to get on a decent medium.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, he's talking about a DVD copy of the laserdisc version.

The problem with the laserdisc version is that noone has the player nowadays, and the ones still being sold are heavy prices entusiast models, that noone is going to buy just to watch the original Star Wars.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[Danathar]

Actually you can get the original movies on LaserDisc off of Ebay and then do a transfer to DVD if you really want them on DVD. It would be legal to do so.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[Quobobo]

Nah, transfer to DVD from the laserdiscs. Not the greatest quality, but easily found at the usual places. Here's an excellent thread with info on a lot of the different fan-made releases (not only for the original trilogy, but also re-edits of the prequels).

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[zoeblade]

Now, here comes the big irony: Lucas releases the Star Wars SE DVDs early, over fear for piracy concerns.

No, the big irony is making a film in which people have to buy products for the sake of it, presumably pointing out that this would be a bad idea, then going on to make another film which you proceed to market toys for, do deals with fast food eateries over, and so on.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[91degrees]

You can make a copy from LaserDisc to DVD. Should be very good quality as well. Getting hold of the original version on Laserdisc may be a little hard, but apparently it does exist.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[BigJimSlade]

Seriously... I spent the weekend downloading the *fantastic* Non-SE DVDs off BitTorrent. The reason I did this? Because of the confirmation that there wouldn't be a non-SE release from Lucas himself. These version don't exist in his eyes? The new ones don't exist in mine.

Gimme a call when you change your mind, Lucas, as I'm sure you will.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[magefile]

Heh. I saw a TV ad saying THX-1138 was coming out on DVD - did anyone else see it?

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[rd_syringe]

You do realize you don't *have* to have Star Wars, don't you? It's not like it's a necessity of life. Who freaking cares if Jabba the Hutt is now in A New Hope? Is it really that important that you must turn to the "black market" to get the "pure stuff?" You guys talk about Star Wars like it's a drug. Nobody HAS to get the films, much less through piracy.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[Rogerborg]

Can you recommend .torrents for that? Because, I'm right there with you.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[LordNimon]

http://suprnova.org/.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

I find you lack of faith disturbing...

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Holy fuck does Suprnova suck! THAT'S what everyone's raving about? They don't even have search! And where is the Star Wars link? Only Star Wars IV is listed under Action and Adventure sections.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yawn.

Re:Ehm, logic anyone?

[Anonymous Coward]

It has a search - I've used it successfully a number of times. And the Star Wars movies are under the "sci fi" category, where they belong. You're just stupid.

Greedo!

[ImaLamer]

From the article:

(sadly, Greedo still shoots first on the DVD of "A New Hope")

Damn you Slashdot!

My hopes were up for nothing, why should I buy this now?

Re:Greedo!

[yorugua]

CNN : If the SE series is the Star Wars you " really wanted to make", can you please describe the technical difficulties when filming Greedo shooting first with the 70's technology so that you had to came up with Han shooting first instead? George : eeehhhh, aahhhhh....

Re:Greedo!

[MouseR]

First shoot!

Anoymous Greedo

Already in europe

[blackmonday]

I've been in Europe for 2 weeks, and it's been available at least since last week. It's selling for 79 euros, about 100 dollars. They're having TV promotions and everything. I thought most stuff showed up in Europe last?

Re:Already in europe

[drmancini]

wake up ... that's only what they want you to believe in the States ... :-P

BTW ... seen farenheit 9/11

Re:Already in europe

[TheIndividual]

It's about 45-50 and available since yesterday IIRC.

Re:Already in europe

[CountBrass]

79 Euros!?!

Woohoo about time the Europeans rather than us Brits got the stiffed on the pricing of identical goods. In the UK it's GBP26.99 - GBP29.99, which is about 45euros/50dollars.

Re:Already in europe

[gowen]

RRP is 45 UKP, mind. Amazon.co.uk do them for 27. You can probably get similar discounts in the rest of the EU...

Re:Already in europe

[Jugalator]

79 Euros!?!

Woohoo about time the Europeans rather than us Brits got the stiffed on the pricing of identical goods.

I don't know what he was talking about, I recently pre-ordered this thing in Sweden, Europe, for 54 euro, or $66. :-)
79 euro sounds like a terribly bad deal to me. :-P

Re:Already in europe

[Anonymous Coward]

Lucas has stated that this 'early' release was due to 'piracy concerns'; as we don't have the DMCA in Europe, obviously we're *all* pirates, so he had to release it earlier here.
There are no courses in 'IP-idiot logic', you just have to imagine how a lunatic with a highly tenuous grasp on reality would reason.

Re:Already in europe

[ttsalo]

79 Euros!?!

Who the hell is asking that much? Amazon.de is selling it for 48 euros.

--

Now I get it...

[Lars Clausen]

"due to piracy concerns the profits are being eaten up"

So, if they just stopped being concerned about pirates, theyød keep their profits. Laywars^H^H^H^H^Hwyers are quite expensive these days, aren't they?

-Lars

The scene change that upset me most

[yuud]

Was NOT the Greedo scene (a close second), but actually the music-scene in Jabba's palace - the original song was called "Lapti Nek" by Sy Snoodles and the Max Rebo Band. It was a really catchy tune (just before Jabba dropped his pet/slave girl into the Rancor pit).

Now, Lucas swapped in some forgettable piece of crap and added pointless annoying extra characters, and ruined one of my favourite scenes.

So f! you, Mr Lucas.

On the weekend I watched Star Wars IV ('Special' Edition), and a friend who doesn't really remember star wars at all, commented on how stupid the Greedo scene was (looked fake).

Re:The scene change that upset me most

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, the song was actually quite good, "funkay" even. I only saw a glimpse of the new sequence in ads, and hated it instantly. *Really* bad CGI, really annoying song.
Put me off watching the Ep3 Special Edition completely.

misquote

[Anonymous Coward]

Lucas was misquoted! He actually said "I will never ever release the unaltered originals unless it would be profitable, which it would, so I will."

Lucas went on to say that "I will only release these altered versions if I think people might buy them, which they wouldn't if I'd already announced the unaltered versions, which I never ever will."

The Lucas-bot then began spinning uncontrollably, shouting "Abort! Abort! until his handlers declared the press conference to be over.

Re:misquote

[secolactico]

"I will never ever release the unaltered originals unless it would be profitable, which it would, so I will."

Expect the release of "Star Wars Classic" sometime in 2006. You know there are some fanboys that will start forming the line tonight.

Re:misquote

[eclectro]

Expect the release of "Star Wars Classic" sometime in 2006. You know there are some fanboys that will start forming the line tonight.

Actually, expect the release of the hi-def version (on the new format heavily DRMed DVD whatever that is) that will look fantastic on all the HDTV sets that everyone will have to buy with the new TV standard.

Everybody will be buying the same movies they have now over again. Hollywood is not going to be hurting anytime soon.

Don't you get the feeling that the studios are shouting "piracy" to divert eyes off from something else?

In this case, Lucas wants to divert eyes off the truckloads of money he is making off from this -- oh yeah, and the fact that the prequels are crap.

Or...

[DrJonesAC2]

...However, he mentions that due to piracy concerns the profits are being eaten up and there might not be a market for the films at that time...

Right, the only reason there won't be a market is because everyone will be so disappointed with Episode III: Revenge of Jar Jar, that they would rather peel off thier own cuticles than see any more Star Wars movies.

I don't get it

[chrisgeleven]

The majority of Slashdot readers seem to be pissed about the greatest trilogy of all-time being released on the most popular video format right now.

Yes I know it isn't the original trilogy. But the SE is damn close to being it. Some of Lucas' "improvements" are *gasp* actually improvements! Yes, I know it isn't what was originally released, but this is Lucas' story and he owns the rights, so he is allowed to tinker with it until he is satisfied.

When I watch the SE, I don't vomit, I don't cry, I don't think about some part of my childhood slipping away. The great parts of the movie are still there. Luke meeting Obi-wan, the sunset, meeting Han, saving Leia, Obi-wan vs. Vader, "I am your father", the final duel, etc. It is all there still, just like it was back in the day.

The movies still give me that chill during certain scenes, where they just touch some part inside that you never knew you had.

Yes it might not be the originals, but I'll take 99% of the original on DVD over nothing. Maybe if you don't agree you should go watch again with an open mind. Instead of saying "why the fuck did Lucas change this! It isn't the same!" ask yourself "there must be a good reason for this."

Now I am going to go watch my copy of the trilogy...on DVD!

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

Some of Lucas' "improvements" are *gasp* actually improvements!

Name one. I'm waiting. That's right. We will be here all fuckin day. Cause the only person who thinks those pieces of remasterd shit are improvements are George Lucas. Well I sure as fuck he is gonna buy all the copies they pressed of it. Cause all the geeks aren't.

Re:I don't get it

[0123456]

"Some of Lucas' "improvements" are *gasp* actually improvements!"

Which ones? I can't think of any offhand, and most of the "improvements" are awful.

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

...you should go watch again with an open mind. Instead of saying "why the fuck did Lucas change this! It isn't the same!" ask yourself "there must be a good reason for this."

Then shouldn't the same apply for episode I? After all, there George Lucas had every resource available to complete his creative vision. And it turns it out that it wasn't all that good.

Re:I don't get it

[91degrees]

Name one. I'm waiting.

Snowspeeders on Hoth. They're slightly transparent in the old version (this was done to reduce the thick outlines) whereas in the special edition they're not.

Would have been nice if the only improvements were these little cosmetic effects.

Re:I don't get it

[CoffeeJedi]

but by using the word "most", you are admitting that SOME of them are improvements!

Re:I don't get it

[0123456]

No, I'm saying that all the ones I could think of are worse. Someone mentioned fixing the speeder matte issues, which I'd agree is an improvement... but that's the kind of thing which has no effect on the story.

Re:I don't get it

[Illserve]

Yes he has the right to do this. I've also got the rights to do alot of things I shouldn't.

You should be outraged because it's a very disturbing outcome of the digital age, that classics of the past will change gradually and people will eventually forget the way things were.

It dilutes our cultural history and we should be outraged, *especially* if he's not going to release the originals.

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

A disturbing outcome of the digital age is that artists can now make the moview they want to? I still don't get it, its not like he bought the rights to Casablanca and then made a completely different movie, he added things that at the time he didn't have the budget/technology for. Sorry I watched Episode IV this morning with my Nephew, he's 5 and has never seen Episode IV, he looked just like me when I was 5 and saw it for the first time.

Re:I don't get it

[BigJimSlade]

Now I am going to go watch my copy of the trilogy...on DVD!

Me too! I'm going to watch the original movie I watched as a child on DVD, without any changes! No rose-colored glasses, with things changed to how they "should've been".

Real artists don't go into a museum, take their painting off the wall and change it whenever they have a whim. It's one thing to touch up the special effects... it's another to insert/replace characters in the movie, changing the meaning of entire scenes by changing character's actions.

I think if Lucas had any respect for the work he had done in the past, he would want to preserve it. In the meantime, I'll be doing my best to make sure that the movie how I saw it still exists for me to enjoy with my children someday.

Re:I don't get it

[MBaldelli]

The majority of Slashdot readers seem to be pissed about the greatest trilogy of all-time being released on the most popular video format right now.

No, this Slashdot reader's pissed because Lucas is releasing another revision to his original vision. I can only put up with just so much retooling before it starts looking like an act of greed. Especially given the way that Episode VI panders to pre-teens with those blasted Ewoks

Re:I don't get it

[Tackhead]

> When I watch the SE, I don't vomit, I don't cry, I don't think about some part of my childhood slipping away. The great parts of the movie are still there. Luke meeting Obi-wan, the sunset, meeting Han, saving Leia, Obi-wan vs. Vader, "I am your father", the final duel, etc.

...looking at blue-glowie Anakin at the end of Episode VI and going "Who the fuck was that guy?"

> It is all there still, just like it was back in the day.
>
> The movies still give me that chill during certain scenes, where they just touch some part inside that you never knew you had.

Actually, that's your prostate. I prefer metal bikini Leia myself, but if you want to put in a CGI Jabba doing a Goatse Guy impression while R2-D2 uses his manipulator arm, hey, it's the Special Edition. Go nuts.

Re:I don't get it

[0123456]

"Especially given the way that Episode VI panders to pre-teens with those blasted Ewoks"

Yeah, but it also panders to the dads with that metal bikini :).

Re:I don't get it

[0123456]

"he added things that at the time he didn't have the budget/technology for"

What, like Han Solo shooting second? That would really have required radical technology that was unavailable back then.

Also, frankly, the CG effects he added to the 'Special Ed' versions looks worse to me than the original models. At least they're real, the CG versions are way too clean (and let's not even mention the CG stormtroopers on CG animals).

Re:I don't get it

[erroneus]

...and of course I am buying it like everyone else. But I'll tell you one thing, if I ever see anything like "Pepsi" or "Nike" appearing in Star Wars again, I out forever. I mean it this time. And to think they were entertaining the idea of putting that tardo from Titanic, Leo DeCrapio in there too?

Movies, like music as ceased to be art and has become another tool for "industry." It sickens me but voting with my own dollars don't seem to help much -- they keep pumping ou the crap. But then again, there's still a huge demographic for the classics (movies and music) and I think it sends a clear message that the people STILL appreciate quality even if they have to go back 20 years to get it. What does the industry hear? "Oh wow! Now we can re-sell the old stuff and the new stuff too!! MORE Money!"

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

Empire. Cloud City (IIRC) has a barely noticable aesthetic change with the sunset through the windows. It's not a *big* change, but that along with the flyby intro adds a lot of context to the scenes. I mean, this pristine jewel in the sky infested by Imperial invaders (pun/alliteration unintended)?

Empire has never been my favorite (don't ask my why, I dunno. Might be that it's so dark), but I don't remember any big-huge changes in it (correct me if I'm wrong). Because of that it's the best of the Special Editions in my mind simply because there are no real glaring changes.

Everyone complains about CGI Jabba, Han shooting first, and so on (why doesn't anyone complain about the godawful music video in Jedi?), but I've not seen any complaints about the additions to the Sarlacc, the skies of Bespin, or the 'sneak preview' of Coruscant at the end of Jedi.

For the record, not that anyone's asking, but Jedi was my favorite, simply because it was the first one I ever saw as a kid (born in '81). And it still is. Ewoks aside, the conflict between Luke and Vader and Palpatine makes the entire trilogy for me. I found a copy of the radio drama for Jedi the other day and listened to it, and my eyes watered just a little (yeah, I know, it's dumb... but still) when I heard the extra dialogue they added for Anakin just before he throws the Emperor down the ventilation shaft. I need to get the whole set of the radio dramas, just because they did Jedi so well (well... apart from Threepio's color commentary in Jabba's palace, but hey, it's radio. :p )

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, talk about a sheep. I mean really. You are pathetic.

Re:I don't get it

[Achoi77]

I'm gonna guess that most of the improvements are going to be over the picture and sound quality(the whole 5.1 sound thing, which VHS didn't carry too well - yeah yeah, laserdisk has the same).

Whoops, nevermind the sound quality :-)

Slightly offtopic, after we got a 5.1 stereo set for the living room TV, watching dvds haven't been the same since. Those two little speakers from the TV just don't cut it (watch Master and Commander on both and you'll hear the difference). I'm pretty sure this dvd set will have some great audio.

Re:I don't get it

[Rombuu]

Real artists don't go into a museum, take their painting off the wall and change it whenever they have a whim

There are at least 3 other versions of the Mona Lisa that Leonardo painted beneath the current version.

Was he a real artist?

Re:I don't get it

[galen]

Even if you don't want to go the whole way to 5.1, I'd recommend everyone pick up a set of 2.1 (stereo + sub) computer speakers and plug them into the TV or DVD player. What a difference that makes! Those little speakers jammed in the TV housing are just horrible and for about $40 can be replaced or augmented easily.

~~Galen~~

Re:I don't get it

[pyros]

It's not a change for the DVD edition, but I think the change in the Ewok celebration at the end of RotJ was an improvement.

Re:I don't get it

[tuffy]

The majority of Slashdot readers seem to be pissed about the greatest trilogy of all-time being released on the most popular video format right now.

I'm only pissed that RotK:EE doesn't arrive until December. Then the greatest trilogy of all-time will be out on the most popular video format right now. Much like the Godfather, Star Wars manages to be the greatest trilogy only by ignoring how much the third one drags the first two down. Between the "Leia as sister" pulled out of thin air, the "lies are all a point of view" excuse, Vader getting soft the first time Luke shows up, Yet Another Death Star and those oh-so-marketable Ewoks, Jedi really is a mess.

Re:I don't get it

[JCholewa]

> Everyone complains about CGI Jabba, Han shooting first, and so on (why doesn't anyone complain about
> the godawful music video in Jedi?), but I've not seen any complaints about the additions to the Sarlacc, the
> skies of Bespin, or the 'sneak preview' of Coruscant at the end of Jedi.

Er. This past Sunday, I and my friends were having a discussion on this very subject, and I covered two of the above three points in my ranting of the changes. I absolutely *hated* the Sarlacc pit changes. The creature initially was something really alien, a monster without any features traditionally associated with carnivores. And then they turned it into a damned Audrey II. Bah!

The end of RotJ was a mix for me. The montage of celebration scenes were okay, I guess, but the original "Jub Jub" song had this rather neat crescendo leading into the Star Wars theme song, and I really missed that after they changed the music.

The changes over Bespin were phenomenal. Empire was the only movie whose coolness wasn't detracted by the Special Edition alterations.

--
-JC

PS: I also object to the removal of RotJ's brief nude scene in Jabba's Palace.

Re:I don't get it

[jokell82]

Did he release the painting and go back to it 20 years later?

I'm sure there were other cuts of Star Wars before it was released to theaters, that shouldn't surprise any one. There is a huge difference between changing something before you release it and changing it 20 years later.

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

True, I remember that bit of music. It was a really fine way to end the series. And the montage was nice, except for some reason every time I see it I can't get past the 'crowds' overlayed on top of the paintings/CGI. the scale seems... off.

And you do have a point on the Sarlacc. I forgot the feeling I had when I first saw it. you go from this huge, mammoth monster lurking under the dunes to 'alien-style tongue mandible attached to monstrosity.'

I guess my point was that some of the not-as-bad-but-possibly-good changes are the ones nobody ever mentions because they're so subtle they just sort of fit right in. Adding in a background landscape (airscape?) to Empire is a lot less noticable than 5 bajillion CGIed X-Wings. :p

And I vaguely remember the scene you're talking about. Isn't that the scene they replaced with the music video?

-Parent

Re:I don't get it

[Deagol]

Empire has never been my favorite (don't ask my why, I dunno. Might be that it's so dark), but I don't remember any big-huge changes in it (correct me if I'm wrong). Because of that it's the best of the Special Editions in my mind simply because there are no real glaring changes.

Like most, I enjoyed the film and sound restoration. There was an NPR story last week about the complexities of transferring old movies to DVD. Aside from the problems of acquiring the rights to do so, a major problem is finding good prints to use. The prime example was the original Star Wars trilogy, and I guess they hired the best man at the time to restore and clean up every frame.

Had Lucas stopped there, it would have been a breathtaking release. The "sunset scene", and all the others we loved so much would be immortalized in digital format in vibrant color and sound for the enjoyment of future generations.

You ask specifically about Empire. My major gripe follows. In the original ESB, the introduction of the Imperial March theme sends chills down my spine. The scene dynamic, as well as the score dynamic, is rarely duplicated in cinema. That one scene sets the tone for the rest of the movies of just how bad-ass the Empire is.

Now maybe my memory was skewed by how my young eyes and ears first experienced that scene. But when I saw ESB Special Edition, I was really pumped to see that scene on the big screen. However, I was let down. The theme was there, but they did something to the volume, or something. The impact was totally gone. I bitched to a few friends about it, and they agreed (one being a huge ESB fan). So I guess something was changed, even if I can't remember exactly what it was in that scene.

These subtle differences, these nuances, are the very heart and soul of films.

Also, wasn't Vader's "bring me my shuttle" scene totally botched in the re-make? You really think he gives a shit about having the entire guard in formation as he boards his ship before hunting down his escaped son?

For fuck's sake, Mr. Lucas! -- leave well enough alone. As soon as I can scrape the cash together, I'm gonna pay the $300 or so to get a LD player ad the true original trilogy on LD. Then I'm gonna pay even more for some A/V freak to transfer to DVD. And I may -- just maybe -- give these transfers to good friends who hate the new editions as much as I do.

Re:I don't get it

[Deagol]

Also, frankly, the CG effects he added to the 'Special Ed' versions looks worse to me than the original models.

This goes for the new movies, as well. Am I the only one who thinks that the Fett/Kenonbi asteroid scene in Clones didn't hold a candle to the Tie-Fighter/Falcon asteroid scene in ESB?

I love CG as much as the next geek, but those real models are sometimes the best thing for the job.

Re:I don't get it

[Rogerborg]

He never displayed it, nor got paid for it. Thanks for making that distinction for us.

Re:I don't get it

[toby]

"there must be a good reason for this."

Why? There may be no good reason.

What the changes do prove is that Lucas is not an artist; he's a coward.

Re:I don't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

Once again that's artists vision and his right to do whatever he wants with his creation. The parent was suggesting that this would lead the way for people who did not create certain films to alter them and rerelease them until the originals had long been forgotten. That is not the case.

Re:I don't get it

[fermion]

The movies still give me that chill during certain scenes, where they just touch some part inside that you never knew you had.

Star Wars, as original, was an intermidiate step. The technology was not advanced enough so that fx could carry the whole movie, but good enough to have the enough realism to transport the viewer into another world. This realism allowed for a much better story of basic good versus evil, redemption, and human fraility. These were the happy touchy feely places.

The changes as made mostly put the movie into a more modern fx movie in which everyone is so distracted by the bells and whistles that no one notices there is no story to speak of, or, even worse, misses it.

Look at it this way. The IMDB lists barbershop as one of the first movies. It is of a guy going to the barbershop. Terrible boring, but must have been quite a spectacle. Like the horse does not have to play good music, it is interesting that the horse can play any kind of music.

So by adding the fx, Star Wars is no longer a nealy one of kind movie, almost a first and last of it's kind movie. It is now just a common space action flick. Like Buck Rodgers or Battlestar Galactica, without the camp. Which is good for money, and as you say really doesn't mess with anything substantially, but the loss is nonetheless real.

Re:I don't get it

[OoSync]

I still don't get it, its not like he bought the rights to Casablanca and then made a completely different movie, he added things that at the time he didn't have the budget/technology for.

IIRC, that would be Ted Turner. He colorized a lot of classic black-and-white films.

Re:I don't get it

[dogmatixpsych]

Someone mentioned fixing the speeder matte issues, which I'd agree is an improvement... but that's the kind of thing which has no effect on the story.

That's what most of the improvements/changes are - cosmetic. Most of them really do not have an effect on the story and the ones that do just flesh it out, like the Jabba/Han scene in IV. People seem to really only be upset at the Greedo/Han thing (which really doesn't matter in my opinion; it doesn't change the story or who Han is. He was always firing in self-defense) and Hayden added as Anakin. Big deal, it still does not affect the story that much, it just makes it have more continuity.

Re:I don't get it

[scot4875]

Slightly offtopic, after we got a 5.1 stereo set for the living room TV, watching dvds haven't been the same since. Those two little speakers from the TV just don't cut it (watch Master and Commander on both and you'll hear the difference).

Wow. You just triggered a serious well, duh moment.

You mean my $2500 stereo provides better sound than the tinny-little (yes, tinny, not tiny) speakers on my TV? Who'da thunk it! :)

What's more -- are there actually people out there who don't realize/deny that even a $200 surround package will sound lots better than their TV alone?

--Jeremy

Re:I don't get it

[jonnystiph]

When I watch the SE, I don't vomit, I don't cry, I don't think about some part of my childhood slipping away.

I envy you, you have a stomach of iron, tear ducts of lead, and a way of letting your inner child die on deaf ears. Oh woe ist I. ;)

Re:I don't get it

[CaseM]

Wait until you hear Obi-Wan scream like a girl when scaring the Sand people away from Luke's speeder.

Coincidentally, "why the fuck did Lucas change this!" were my exact words when I heard the new "scream" :(

What the fuck, pray tell, was wrong with the old scream?

Re:I don't get it

[YowzaTheYuzzum]

Movies != paintings

Big difference.

Re:I don't get it

[MBaldelli]

Yeah, but it also panders to the dads with that metal bikini :).

There had to be a perk for some of the parents in order to sit through some of that rather painful episode.

I have lost all faith

[Groo Wanderer]

I read the CNN article about the changes, and it strikes me that Lucas wasn't satisfied with dumbing it down, so he did more. The part about Greedo shooting first is simply inexcusable (yes, I know it is old).

Then he said the origionals won't be re-released. Come on now, I know Lucas has decided to turn in his testicles and make things all happy and pretty and safe, but why do you have to taint things that are already done?

I saw the midnight showing of PM, and the noon showing, and waked away wondering what went wrong. Later viewings only confirmed that it was indeed pablum. The midnight showing of AOTC was similarly painfull, but much less so. It took me further down the road of 'why god, why' rather than back 'OK, we are heading down the right path'.

The news from ROTS doesn't fill me with, wait for it, a new hope either. Someone put Lucas out of our misery before he directs again.

Then I read about the DVD. Yup, he wasn't satisfied with ruining only the memories, he has to ruin history. Does it seem cowardly to you that he won't allow the origionals to be put out for side by side comparison? Someone should lock him in a small cell with a copy of 1984 until he writes "I am soory for being so stupid and arrogant' on the walls once for every memory he killed.

-Charlie

Everyone would do well...

[CliffH]

... to buy a laserdisc player, buy the trilogy on LaserDisc (my dad still has the original trilogy), record to DVD, and voila. Star Wars Episodes IV, V, and VI the way they were ORIGINALLY viewed. As an added bonus, the LaserDiscs do sound better than any VHS your going to find and the picture (barring laser rot or a warped LD) is pretty nice too. :)

CliffH

Re:Everyone would do well...

[jridley]

That's why there's bittorrent, my son. There are currently 3 copies of the movie made from the Definitive Edition laserdiscs, all with great care, probably better than most people could do themselves. Check it out. They're all good.

Re:Everyone would do well...

[Anonymous Coward]

for anyone whose interested:

http://everythingisnt.com/torrents/

Re:Everyone would do well...

[Clanner]

Maybe I'm dating myself here, but I also still have the laserdisc releases of the original Star Wars releases, and I have no plans on getting rid of them. I also have the laserdisc version of Star Trek- The Motion Picture. Note, I also have the DVD versions (or soon will), but there's something about the original theatrical releases that makes me want to keep them...

It's too bad Lucas didn't offer the different versions on the new DVD's. It should have been a relatively simple task to offer viewers a choice between original theatrical release and his newer versions...

Re:Everyone would do well...

[Technician]

I bought a laser player when blank VHS tapes were still about $15 each and pre-recorded movies were from $30-$90.

The promise was that Laser Disks would soon be cheaper than videotape because they could be mass pressed.

Due to the content lisence issues it never happened. Same reason a Compact Cassette was always less expensive than a cheaper to mass produce Compact Disk.

In a nutshell, my 20 year collection of laserdisks still number less than 15. Then people wonder why the format never really caught on.

I do break out the player about once a year to watch a great copy of Fantasia and Fiddler on the Roof. The soundtracks are outstanding.

Re:Everyone would do well...

[Darth Maul]

These Laserdiscs have been ripped to very nice DVDs already, with menus and commentaries, even. Search your local bittorrent sources for DVD-R images ready to burn.

Re:Everyone would do well...

[ttsalo]

In a nutshell, my 20 year collection of laserdisks still number less than 15. Then people der why the format never really caught on.

The fact that they are friggin' huge and only hold 40 minutes of movie per side might also have had something to do with it...

And they weren't that cheap to make. Reportedly there were a lot of difficulties to get the pressed disc to detach from the mold properly (it's big and it's got a lot of pits), the finished disc needs the two sides to be properly sandwiched, and one movie often takes more than one disc.

--

Re:Everyone would do well...

[Anonymous Coward]

Any ideas where are those encoded to xvid/divx?

Re:Everyone would do well...

[trawg]

I'd love to see the BitTorrent stats that show number of downloads of Ye Olde Goode Edition vs New Bad Edition of Death

Re:Everyone would do well...

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe I'm dating myself here...

How so? Do you mean that you are taking yourself to the Star Wars movies because you can't find a girl willing to watch them with you?

Re:Everyone would do well...

[Akoma The Immortal]

You what I gonna do, I gonna head over there and buy the new DVD release. So Lucas will have his cut.

Then I'm gonna download the 3 Originals, burn 3 DVD with it.

The new Boxed set will be a Gift to whomever I want. And I will not feel bad about it, because I did not "steal" a sale from Lucas. I bought it and burned it the way I like.

And I have one purchase receipt to prove it.

Thanks for the info.

Re:Everyone would do well...

[mrscorpio]

I think that link has been posted before here and I can never get any of the torrents to connect. Can anyone help me find a working torrent for these?

Re:Everyone would do well...

[snuf23]

All three have been posted to suprnova.org within the last week. Go there and check out the movies section.

Re:Everyone would do well...

[Technician]

The big selling points were great picture and sound. No macrovision. It was TRUE NTSC. The big hang up for me was the high cost. Movies on laser disk went up in price, not down. The choices came to getting it on VHS for $10-$15 or on laser disk for $60 and up. If the laser disks were price competitive with videotape, my library would be mostly disks, not tape.

As far as them being huge, I can get more disks on a shelf than tape. They are not as thick. I also don't have to rewind them.

Re:Everyone would do well...

[AeroIllini]

I have downloaded all four discs (the fourth is the Special Features disc that came with the laserdisc release) and they work beautifully. The creator included a couple of easter eggs which I found humorous, but unnecessary, and any moderately knowledgable DVD author can remove them before burning the DVDs.

In my zeal for a DVD version of the original films, I also found/designed case covers and DVD labels for the films. The DVD cases come in two flavors: one matching the "faces" scheme of the VHS release, and one matching the scheme of the prequel DVDs. I found the full Prequel scheme online. I found three (out of four) of the Faces scheme: I created a fourth to match, for the Special Features disc, and I added some images to the spines which would make the entire set look snappy sitting on a shelf. I also created four circular DVD labels with images from the films. If anyone is interested in these materials, email me for URLs. They are very large JPEG files (300dpi), and I hesitate to obliterate servers by posting them here.

I have previously purchased the collection on VHS, so I will lose no sleep over fears of piracy. And when (if) George finally comes to his senses and releases the originals on DVD, I will be first in line to buy them.

What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, the Star Wars franchise is really suffering due to piracy. Versus, say, producing two completely crap prequels, oversaturating the tie-in market, and then not releasing the original versions that many people want to buy.

Uh how does the latter somehow negate the former? Either it's suffering from piracy or it's not. Now I do understand the argument that it might be suffering MORE from the whims of it's creator, but it doesn't make his statement any less valid.

Re:What's your point?

[Steve B]

Now I do understand the argument that it might be suffering MORE from the whims of it's creator, but it doesn't make his statement any less valid.

Hollywood has cried "wolf" far too often, using "piracy" as a convenient explanation for any and all problems (even problems that are obviously the result of its own poor products).

Thus, Hollywood claiming to have found yet another "piracy" problem is about as credible as Dan Rather claiming to have found another set of Bush's National Guard records.

Re:What's your point?

[sidhartha]

Also the record and movie industries never take into account the fact that every pirated copy does NOT mean one less sale. Many people will take something for free that they would never buy. Of course there are also some people will buy what they can get for free.

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

or Bush finding WMD.

Re:What's your point?

[rd_syringe]

That's quite a risk you're asking people to take with their copyrighted works. Pardon me, but if I were in their shoes, I'd be less than willing to trust in the moral heart of some online pirate, hoping that they will eventually buy what they now already have for free. It's unfair and inethical to force them to do that, effectively taking their work without asking them for permission and distributing it online as though you have the rights to do it.

A lot of people shit on Metallica during the Napster lawsuit, but the truth is that Lars had a point--they wanted to have control over their music. Nobody asked them first before putting it online. For all the cries about consumer rights that happen here on Slashdot, artist and content creator rights are swept under the carpet and ignored.

Re:What's your point?

[strikethree]

Dan Rather acknowledged his errors and apologized. Hollywood has not. I trust Dan Rather more than Hollywood.

strike

Re:What's your point?

[sidhartha]

Good point, but I'm not suggesting that they shouldn't pursue illegal distribution of copyrighted material simply because most of it's crap and wouldn't sell anyway. Just suggesting that maybe they overestimate the effect pirating and therefore resort to unreasonable policies like the article described. It's not what they are doing, but the manner they do it in.

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

A lot of people shit on Metallica during the Napster lawsuit, but the truth is that Lars had a point--they wanted to have control over their music.

No, Lars was full of shit--whether or not he was sincerely full of shit is left as an exercise for the reader. Lest anyone forget, this is the man that said "We don't mind when our fans pay money to wear our promotional T-shirts, and it's fine when they pay forty dollars to come to one of our concerts, but when our fans think they can listen to our music for free, they just crossed the line."

It's not about control. It's about greed. Get a clue.

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

YHBT. YHL. HAND.

Love,
rd_syringe (aka Overly Critical Guy aka bonch)

Re:What's your point?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, queercakes, but one isn't trolled unless they react in an angry or extreme manner. You'd better go back and hit the books, fatboy.

"Sith" is anagram for "shit"

[sean@thingsihate.org]

I know it must be an old joke by now, but I just realized it.

It seems very fitting.

Wohoo

[mowler2]

So now it might be on all the torrent trackers, nice.

A thought: if I have bought the original VHS movies, is it morally wrong if I download this higher quality version of the same movie that I have already bought?

Re:Wohoo

[acceleriter]

Why not? The movie industry already claims you ownly have a license, and that if you own a Macrovisioned, CSSd, or other copy inhibited medium, that they won't provide a backup.

Re:Wohoo

[alwayslurking]

This handy ethics flowchart is designed for music, but it works for films too.

In this particular case I think it says yes, on the basis that the company isn't making the originals available.

Piracy wouldn't be such a problem if

[Anonymous Coward]

There wouldn't be so many of us dedicating bittorrent bandwidth to sharing these if he'd just release the damn movies in their original theatrical release.

I personally had already waited years for the DVD release, and would have happily waited another year and just bought the damn thing. But I've bought the original series THREE TIMES already; on CED videodisc, then twice on VHS (the first one wore out), then I bought the "special edition" on VHS, which was good because it told me I didn't want to ever see THAT again.

All I want is an archival quality copy of the ORIGINAL movies. I would have paid for it even though I've already bought the damn movies 3+ times. But it's not for sale. I hate to call it pirating, it's just that I'm just not buying what Lucas is selling.

Re:Piracy wouldn't be such a problem if

[mbrod]

This is why I think they should go to consumers being able to buy a "license" to any digital media and not even worry about putting CD's in stores or DVD's or software. Let me buy a license to it and I always have a right to torrent it and have it.

Then have the company provide it on their servers and torrents help with the bandwidth.

It could be cheaper because they don't have to create or distribute the media to hold this on, also we can easily be legal and prove legality to what we have on our systems, it wouldn't wear out, and I know this is a novel concept but it would be giving the consumer what they want and they may actually stop hating the industry so much.

Steve Jobs if you are listening make it happen bro!

My feelings on the changes

[AndrewStephens]

• Jedi Don't Scream
  This is a good, it sounded stupid. Kudos to Lucas for correcting a mistake
• Boba Fett has a new voice
  Again, not a bad for consistency.
• A new and improved Jabba
  Thank god, the SE scene looked incredible dumb. Hopefully they have also removed the Han walking over Jabba's tail bit with some creative editing. Actually, I wish that the whole scene was removed, or greatly shortened since Greedo basically repeats all the information to Han later on.
• The emperor's new clothes
  Fair enough, since we all know by now that Palpatine is the emperor (or do we...)
• The big finale
  Everyone seems to be complaining about this, but I think it makes sense. The picture circulating on the net looks a bit stupid though, seeing Christensen smiling untouched at the end looks somehow wrong. He could at least look a bit guilty for wiping out the Jedi. Still the original wasn't much better.

Final Verdict: mainly positive

Re:My feelings on the changes

[Gax]

Yet they forgot to edit the bit where a storm trooper hits his head. All clone troopers are created equal, but some are more clumsy than others?

Re:My feelings on the changes

[JPelorat]

I think the unofficial explanation for that is: By that point in time, they had lost the ability to make 'good' clones, and were relying on conscripts. Thus the glaring difference in accuracy (and physical similarity) between the AotC troopers and 4/5/6 troopers.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[AndrewStephens]

That was a mistake, but one they have already addressed. In Attack of the Clones, Jango Fett bashes his head on the door of his ship as he is fleeing from Obi Wan. In the directors commentary on the DVD, Lucas mentions that this is a deliberate joke to establish that Jango (and hence his clones) are sometimes a bit clumsy around doors.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[Anonymous Coward]

The Big Finale
i've got two things that i don't like about it:
-at the end of the original film, anakin looked relieved, or ressurected if you will, because he was brought back from the dark side. and ben kenobi looked proud, because he saw his old friend once again.

-how would luke know what his young father looks like? and if the ghost is truly a ghost, and not luke's perception, than why is it a younger anakin, and not the real anakin who finally "defeated" vader and returned to his normal self?

Re:My feelings on the changes

[SuiteSisterMary]

Or maybe they're reduced to making clones of the clones, as the original genetic material was lost, or the planet that the Cloners lived on was destroyed in the war, or whatever.

And as we all know, analog copying introduces generational errors.....

Re:My feelings on the changes

[sharkey]

A new and improved Jabba
Thank god, the SE scene looked incredible dumb. Hopefully they have also removed the Han walking over Jabba's tail bit with some creative editing. Actually, I wish that the whole scene was removed, or greatly shortened since Greedo basically repeats all the information to Han later on.

Umm, Greedo dies before this sceen, which is why Jabba talks about Han killing Greedo.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[Anonymous Coward]

And as we all know, analog copying introduces generational errors.....

DNA is digital. ACGT, no spectrum in between.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[mark-t]

I haven't picked up the boxed set yet... probably will do so later tonight. Personally I don't mind Hayden being used in the "force ghost" scene at the end of Empire that much. After all, it could be argued that if he had never had the accident, he could have aged much more gracefully, explaining why he looked so different. I would hope however, that they've used a bit of makeup on him to make it at least _passable_ that he could be old enough to be Luke's father. Won't know for sure until tonight though.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[JPelorat]

Physical reproductions are not and cannot be digitally copied. There is no such thing as a 'perfect copy' on the physical layer. Not outside of theoretical physics, anyway.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[JPelorat]

Yeah, that's another one I've heard. Like they had to use their own substandard cloning vats or something.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[optimus2861]

Actually, I wish that the whole scene was removed, or greatly shortened since Greedo basically repeats all the information to Han later on.

Earlier on, but you're right. There's a reason for that:

Link

IGNFF: I've heard different stories. One was that it was never intended to be in the film, that it was just a let's see if we can do this, and replace it later. The other school of thought was, it was always supposed to be there.

KURTZ: Well, the original idea was that it was supposed to be there. It is in the script ... but it was a guy, a human being, this sort of fat guy... looked a bit like Sydney Greenstreet... and the scene is pretty much, I mean dialogue wise, it's exactly what you see in the Special Edition. But it was a person that was there, and we had technical difficulties with that scene. We shot it over three times for camera problems, focus problems, and film stock problem, and then abandoned it because we ran out of time. We just said, "Well, the bulk of the information that comes across in that scene, about Jabba threatening Han Solo and wanting his money and all of that, we could get across in the scene in the Cantina, with Greedo." It's basically the same kind of information. So we just added some bits to the Greedo scene to make it a little bit longer that gets across that information, and then jettisoned that other scene. This all happened while we were shooting. It wasn't done in the cutting room.

(End excerpt)

Lucas seems to have forgotten, or simply doesn't care, why that Jabba scene was cut in the first place and that the film was reworked at the time to account for that. Without shortening the Greedo scene, Jabba's scene really does come across as a pointless rehash of what we just learned -- not to mention ruining the introduction of the Millenium Falcon (originally not seen until Luke first sees it), tossing in a pointless Boba Fett cameo, and undermining Jabba's threat somewhat. Of all the changes Lucas has made to the films, I think this one is tied with the infamous one as the worst.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[SuiteSisterMary]

Or, like any other gov't bureaucracy, they sold the contract to the lowest bidder.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[dswensen]

It also undermines Han's later line, "We're a bit rushed, so if you'll get on board," which one assumes is because he just blew Greedo away and Jabba will now be after his head. No, apparently Jabba is a very forgiving sort and doesn't mind people just shooting his henchmen.

I'm glad to see someone else feels the same way I do about this scene. It's kind of novel to see the scene restored, but it's gratuitous, and not in a good way. It unravels a lot of the tension and drama present in the original version.

It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if George Lucas's genius isn't some sort of fluke or accident on some levels.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[Boronx]

That's the same problem I had with it. He just had to wax Gredo preemptively, but now he runs into Jabba himself, and gets away with a little sweet talk?

Re:My feelings on the changes

[Hast]

It's stuff like this that makes me wonder if George Lucas's genius isn't some sort of fluke or accident on some levels.

Are you dense? Let me spell it out for you J-A-R-J-A-R-B-I-N-K-S (although there are a lot better examples in the first and second movies which demonstrate that he has no functioning movie skills anylonger).

IMNSH both Lucas and Spielberg have gotten too big for their heads. They have no concept of what is good any longer, and apparently no close enough friends to tell them the truth.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[dswensen]

Well, what I mean is... I'm not debating his skills / talent now, which I think is far diminished and just this side of insanity, but I think the original trilogy, in its unaltered form, was very successful in a lot of ways. What I sometimes wonder is if that success was just accidental, and the result of Lucas not being able to "finish his film the way he wanted to" is the only thing that made it any good, i.e. Lucas' technical limitations saved him from himself in the OT, but couldn't for the prequels / SEs.

I also think he's lost his marbles a bit with age.

Re:My feelings on the changes

[Hast]

Ok, then I see where you're coming from a bit better. And I agree with you too. And for the record I think that too much money tend to be bad for stuff like this.

I just saw the commentary on Starship Troopers for the first time and that movie could probably have been a lot better with a smaller budget. What annoyed me was always that it disguised itself as a big flashy "Beverly Hills in Space" standard SciFi movie with big colourful explosions. (And the fact that it had nothing to do with the book, naturally.)

Being forced to be inventive and not having squadrons of people probably make a better end product. It seems to be a recurring theme with big budget productions. (Things like LOTR being an exception IMHO.)

Big movies tend to have a lot of crap stuff in them "just because they could".

Piracy concerns?

[fib2004]

I always wondered why there could be piracy concerns at all and why releasing things earlier could prevent piracy.

In my opinion, a DVD box set is something you want as an object in itself, you just don't want the poor copies of the movies. The way the box looks, the way it smells (!) makes it an object of devotion, something you realy want to have in your collection. And I don't think that I'm the only one that puts more value in the box than in the movies it holds.

For piracy concerns, I don't see the point. The films have already been released illegaly, of course in the unmodified form but surely also in the new form (if this wasn't the case, Lucas wouldn't mind about an early release), and I don't see why people that have the choice of copying or buying it would change their mind because the legal form is released earlier

If anyone choosed to buy it, he would download it from the net first, then buy it when it's released. If another person choosed just to copy it, he surely wouldn't buy it because it is released earlier, but this is just my opinion...

Not the original versions?

[Anonymous Coward]

"These aren't the DVDs you're looking for."

hates him Lucas forever!

[Illserve]

"But the most noticeable change -- and perhaps one some "Star Wars" diehards will have a tough time stomaching -- is Hayden Christensen (who plays young Anakin in the prequel trilogy) now appearing in the scene where the "force ghosts" of Anakin, Obi Wan, and Yoda smile at Luke."

he stoles it from us, my precious
Filthy filthy changeses!!

Re:hates him Lucas forever!

[Master Ben]

What about Qui-Gon Jinn or Mace Windu. Perhaps they will be as well.

Re:hates him Lucas forever!

[CrazyTalk]

Not to mention Jar-Jar. For awhile there was a rumour that they were adding him to Ep. 4. Fortunately, that seems to not be the case - but I won't be watching these new DVDs anyway. Sorry, it's not Star Wars. If it was just the 1997 special edition, as bad as that was, maybe. But, enough has been changed that it's a 2004 remake/hack job of a 1977 - 1983 movie series.

Do these changes really have to be made

[Blue23]

Look, it's well established that the first three movies are a classic. But some of the changes seem to bring the classic in line with the latest shovel-fed garbage. Redubbing Boba Fett's voice? Replacing the Anakin Skywalker ghost?

It's like taking Dracula (the original) and "updating" it so it's got smoother continuity with all of the cheesy vampire moves made over the years.

Guess what - there already is a break between the original trilogy and the 2/3 releases prequel trilogy. If you need to adjust to bring them in line, adjust the new junk to be in line with the classic, not the other way around!

Hopping mad,
=Blue(23)

Re:Do these changes really have to be made

[CountBrass]

Good lord talk about anal.

Take a deep breath and repeat after me: "It's only a film, It's only a film, It really is only a film".

Re:Do these changes really have to be made

[Anonymous Coward]

Look, he's only butchering the Muppet Movie anyway; the two good ones are still (mostly) ok.

Re:Do these changes really have to be made

[Blue23]

Take a deep breath and repeat after me: "It's only a film, It's only a film, It really is only a film".

It is only a film (er, well, three films). They happen to be fairly influential films from my formative years, and since I see the newer folms also as "just films", but lousy ones, I am astounded that someone would go through the effort to downgrade perfectly good films.

It's so much easiler to leave it along.

I'm not going to say "the Mona Lisa is just a painting", but I will say that the first three movies were classics, just as many books are classics. And I get just as annoyed if someone changed around classic books and would only publish the new versions and never again the old.

*shrug* I don't expect you to agree, btu I hope you understand where the thought comes from.

Cheers,
=Blue(23)

Piracy

[here4fun]

In some ways, the studio's are just as unethical as a pirate. They will re-release a movie over and over again. First comes the vanilla version, with maybe a trailer and nothing else. Then comes the Collectors Edition, with a commentary track and production notes. Then comes the Directors Cut with added footage, remastered nontheless. Why can't they release the best version first? Instead, if you want the movie and the extra's, you have to buy it twice. BTW, this all comes after the $10 movie ticket price where popcorn is $5 and a coke is $5 and you have to sit through half an hour of commercials if you want a good seat. Now tell me again, how are the pirates unethical? What money are they taking away from the studios? Clearly piracy ain't cutting in on the movie ticket sales, or any of the special edition sets.

This is not to say that piracy is good, but considering how the movie studios treat the customers, I don't feel bad for them one but. Maybe if the movie studio's treated me better I would have more sympathy for them (for example, quit with the half hour advertising before a movie). Oh, and my biggest DVD gripe, STOP WITH THE ADVERTISING THAT CAN'T BE SKIPPED.

BTW, in unreleated news, I was reading that movie studios will now accept advertising in movies. Like in "I, Robot" the studio recieved money for a shoe commercial (converse shoes, I think). What is next? I can just see some of the classic movies, improved with product placement. I can just imagine Citizen Cane where everyone where's nike shoes and drinks Pepsi.

Re:Piracy

[AndrewStephens]

Product placement in movies is nothing new, its been going on for decades (ET is full of it for example). Depending on the movie, a significant percentage on the production costs can be offset by accepting product placement deals and having your hero drink a nice can of Coca Cola(tm) to quench his thirst. Basically, any time you see a recognisable logo in a movie, money has changed hands.

What is next? I can just see some of the classic movies, improved with product placement. I can just imagine Citizen Cane where everyone where's nike shoes and drinks Pepsi.

This has already happened to an extent. For older movies from the 1980s, often the original product placement deal has expired and the movies have been altered to show other products when shown on TV.

Of course, being SciFi not even Lucas could manage to squeeze any product placement in the StarWars films.

Re:Piracy

[jratcliffe]

"They will re-release a movie over and over again. First comes the vanilla version, with maybe a trailer and nothing else. Then comes the Collectors Edition, with a commentary track and production notes. Then comes the Directors Cut with added footage, remastered nontheless...This is not to say that piracy is good, but considering how the movie studios treat the customers, I don't feel bad for them one but."

Yeah, I fully agree. I was pretty outraged when Peter Jackson came to my house with a shotgun, dragged me down to Best Buy, and held the gun to my head while I bought the vanilla edition of The Two Towers.

Nobody's forcing you to buy the movie on DVD. If you don't want to, don't! I've held off buying any of the LotR movies until the boxed set of the extended edition arrives at Christmastime. Nobody's stopping you from doing the same.

As for product placement, there's hardly anything new there. Do you think ET ate Reese's Pieces because Spielberg really really likes them? If Mars Inc. had ponied up more than Hershey, he'd have been happily munching on peanut M&Ms. Do you think that Bond drove an Aston Martin because he loved it? Nope, because Aston _paid_ MGM.

Re:Piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

where's nike shoes

I don't know. Where are they?

Re:Piracy

[Bloody Pulp]

In some ways, the studio's are just as unethical as a pirate. They will re-release a movie over and over again. First comes the vanilla version, with maybe a trailer and nothing else. Then comes the Collectors Edition, with a commentary track and production notes. Then comes the Directors Cut with added footage, remastered nontheless. Why can't they release the best version first? Instead, if you want the movie and the extra's, you have to buy it twice. BTW, this all comes after the $10 movie ticket price where popcorn is $5 and a coke is $5 and you have to sit through half an hour of commercials if you want a good seat.

They can't release the "best" version first because different people have different ideas of what is "best". Not everyone needs or wants the extra features or footage. Some people don't see the need to spend extra money for special features when they can buy a DVD with just the movie for half the price. Some people consider variety a good thing. Nobody is forcing you to buy every single version of the DVD that is released. Nobody is forcing you to buy a $10 movie ticket, a $5 popcorn or a $5 coke or sit through half an hour of commercials if you want a good seat. Maybe, theatre owners are charging high prices for tickets, popcorn, showing half an hour of commercials, and don't have enough good seats but are the theatre owners being unethical? How are the studios being unethical? Please explain.

Now tell me again, how are the pirates unethical? What money are they taking away from the studios?

In my opinion pirates are being unethical if they copy materials when they have no legal right to do so. Pirates take away money from the studios when they distribute illegal copies of materials to people who would have otherwise purchased a legal copy.

Clearly piracy ain't cutting in on the movie ticket sales, or any of the special edition sets.

I do not see any evidence in your post that "clearly piracy ain't cutting in on the movie ticket sales, or any of the special edition sets". I don't really believe it is actually possible to determine the precise effect of piracy on movies sales. Even if movie sales are down from last year's numbers, you can say for certain if piracy is responsible.

This is not to say that piracy is good, but considering how the movie studios treat the customers, I don't feel bad for them one but. Maybe if the movie studio's treated me better I would have more sympathy for them (for example, quit with the half hour advertising before a movie). Oh, and my biggest DVD gripe, STOP WITH THE ADVERTISING THAT CAN'T BE SKIPPED.

While I dislike the advertising before movies in the theatre, I do not believe that the movie studios can stop the advertising or high prices for popcorn or pop. I believe that the theatre owners have control over the concession prices and any advertising shown before the movie in the theatre. As for advertising in DVDs, I am not exactly what you are referring to. Are you talking advertising prior to the actual movie? Because I can't actually recall such type of advertising on DVD. Can you please clarify.

BTW, in unreleated news, I was reading that movie studios will now accept advertising in movies. Like in "I, Robot" the studio recieved money for a shoe commercial (converse shoes, I think). What is next? I can just see some of the classic movies, improved with product placement. I can just imagine Citizen Cane where everyone where's nike shoes and drinks Pepsi.

As other posters have already stated, product placement in movies has already been around a long time though you may not have noticed it. As for what is next? What about product placement in editoral content in magazines and newspapers? Advertisers have already been pushing for this. It seems to be the next logical step since product placement is already in novels, video games, and television shows.

BTW, when Ted Turner stated that Citizen Kane would be colorized, there was such public outcry

Re:Piracy

[razmaspaz]

I can just imagine Citizen Cane where everyone where's nike shoes and drinks Pepsi.

You had me right up until this sentence. I thought the argument was intelligent, and then you used where's (Where is) instead of wears. I can take the accidental misuse of a homonym, but HOW can you use a contraction in a verb? I assume you meant wear since I don't think that "where" owns a pair of shoes, and "everyone where is nike shoes" just doesn't make sense.

Anyway just my two sense. ;-) No harm intended.

Re:Piracy

[Spoing]

1. In some ways, the studio's are just as unethical as a pirate. They will re-release a movie over and over again. First comes the vanilla version, with maybe a trailer and nothing else. Then comes the Collectors Edition, with a commentary track and production notes. Then comes the Directors Cut with added footage, remastered nontheless. Why can't they release the best version first?

In the case of Dogma, they did. I didn't see the 'regular' version for months...only the deluxe version. Bought the deluxe version for about $15 when it was released, though now most stores want ~$30.

Re:Piracy

[nikster]

the studios are filthy pigs and try to milk their customers for all it's worth, while, at the same time, try to restrict the right to fair use.

but that doesn't make it right to pirate.

the industry furthers piracy by driving people away from the legit choices, which is something they will eventually realize - though, judging from past behavior, it might take a good number of years or even decades.
the reason it takes so long is that there really is no free market competition in this business. it's large conglomerates acting in sync - with a "the emperor doesn't make mistakes" kind of attitude. if there was an alternative movie industry, somehow creating blockbuster movies with well known actors, we would have easy-to-use DVDs already.

what's surprising to me is that DVD player manufacturers don't just ignore the "no skip" sections on DVDs. for example, 99% of the time when i insert a DVD, i want to just watch the damn movie. i don't want to watch special-effects transitions, copyright notes, the little title music with splash screen animation, or any of this BS. yeah, some are nice, some are bad, but i don't want to see any of it. i want to watch the movie. the DVD player should ignore any skip prevention and just do what i want it to do. after all, this is MY DVD player and MY DVD...

Re:Piracy

[jridley]

Oh, and my biggest DVD gripe, STOP WITH THE ADVERTISING THAT CAN'T BE SKIPPED.

1) Buy movie on DVD
2) http://www.dvdshrink.org
3) Select "Remove Prohibited User Operations"
4) enjoy pressing "Menu" during previews and having it work.

Re:Piracy

[The boojum]

I usually just end up turning on the DVD player a couple minutes before I'm ready to watch and leave the TV off. Then I go off, use the restroom, grab my food, etc. When I get back it's played through all those no-skip sections and reached the main menu, so I can just turn the TV on and start.

But yes, I agree. It would be nice to just skip those parts.

Re:Piracy

[OWJones]

Nobody's forcing you to buy the movie on DVD. If you don't want to, don't! I've held off buying any of the LotR movies until the boxed set of the extended edition arrives at Christmastime. Nobody's stopping you from doing the same.

The difference between Peter Jackson and George Lucas is that, by and large, Jackson wasy very upfront about which versions would come out when, and what would be on them. You know before the two-disc set hit the market that there would be four-disc and five-disc sets coming out in a few months.

With Lucas, you've got no f@$%^ng clue what's going to come out when, which changes it will have, whether it can be seen in the theater again, or what format it will be in. I like Star Wars, but I haven't bothered to buy any of the sets since I know whatever I get will just be re-released in some LIMITED EDITION BUY NOW OR SEE IT IN THE THEATERS SINCE THIS VERSION WILL NEVER COME OUT IN YOUR LIFETIME (*cough*wellmaybeitwillifLucaschangeshismind*cough *) edition. I don't have the time or money to get jerked around by Lucas, so I don't play the game.

-jdm

Re:Piracy

[poot_rootbeer]

if you want the movie and the extra's, you have to buy it twice.

Or, you wait until the second version comes out, and buy it only once. With the most prominent recent examples of the multiple-release marketing strategy -- the Lord of the Rings trilogy -- you can't argue that fans weren't aware that extended special editions were going to be coming out after the standard editions.

how are the pirates unethical? What money are they taking away from the studios?

Whether or not the pirates' behavior results in any real financial losses is irrelevant to the question of ethics. It is simply unethical to take something that has a price tag on it simply because you don't feel like paying.

I was reading that movie studios will now accept advertising in movies.

Product placement is nothing new. Do you think Pan-Am got their logos plastered all over "2001: A Space Odyssey" for free? How much did Burger King pay to have Taco Bell signs all over "Demolition Man"'s dystopic landscape instead of their own? ;)

Re:Piracy

[taradfong]

I'm pretty sure the studios also get a piece of the concessions. So they are probably a driving force behind $5 cokes. But then again, I'm sure they'll charge what the market will bear regardless. Most people think that $5 is throwaway money when you're going to the movies. Why charge less if you sell the same amount at a higher price?

Re:Piracy

[VAXGeek]

"Instead, if you want the movie and the extra's, you HAVE TO buy it twice."

Stop whining. No one is holding a gun to your head. If you are SURE that these versions are coming out why do you NEED to buy the inferior ones first?

Re:Piracy

[rilian4]

If Mars Inc. had ponied up more than Hershey, he'd have been happily munching on peanut M&Ms.

ironically Spielberg offered the deal to M&M's first but they turned it down! Nobody but nobody realized that E.T. was going to be the monsterous success that it was. The M&M's execs are still probably reeling from that one to this day...

UK release yesterday

[CountBrass]

Got to be a first, we actually got a US release *before* the US, rather than 3 months later as is usually the case.

Wife and I watch epIV last night (and yes Greedo and Han do shoot at the same time) and thoroughly enjoyed it: the improvements are noticable: especially compared to our worn out VHS copy ;-) some changes (all the wild life wandering in and around Mos Eisley for example) seem a little gratuitous but not over the top.

I'd give it a thimbs up so far (but then I always did like IV, V was risible, ewoks *spit*, and VI was OK).

Re:UK release yesterday

[REBloomfield]

shouldn't that have been:

"...V was ok, and VI was risible, ewoks *spit*"

Re:UK release yesterday

[Anonymous Coward]

That's two spits in two posts, say it don't spray it please

Re:UK release yesterday

[evilWurst]

"Got to be a first, we actually got a US release *before* the US, rather than 3 months later as is usually the case."

Or, given that the first star wars movie came out in the US in 1977, the UK got this one some 300+ months late... :P

MOD PARENT UP !

[mirko]

Very good shots.

I just wonder where he got the 2004 ones. ;)

BTW, it looks like the colo(u)rs were warmer before they applied the digital correction...

Re:MOD PARENT UP !

[csteinle]

The DVDs were released yesterday in the UK. I would imagine that's probably also true for France (where the webpages in the GP appear to be hosted).

Not impressed

[Opalima]

What we're basically getting here is a tired rehash of a series that's over 27 years old.
Not really worth getting excited over imho.

And while I think George deserves his due, he's already made bazillions off the series - piracy should be the least of his rationals for rereleasing the original series early.

On not releasing the orignal versions...

[bluegreenone]

This is from a recent AP interview with George Lucas.

Q: Why not release both the originals and special editions on DVD?

A: The special edition, that's the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it. ... I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore. It's like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I'm sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I'm the one who has to take responsibility for it. ....

What a totally selfish point of view. George Lucas has this idea that Star Wars was his baby so the fond memories of millions of people and the historical significance of the film take a back seat to his wishes. The argument about spending money on releasing the originals is obviously unfounded, there would be enough fans out there to pay for it. Of course it's possible he's saying this to make sure to maximize sales of the special edition, and he could "change his mind" later and release the originals. But even this would be preferable to never releasing them because of his whims.

Re:On not releasing the orignal versions...

[Anonymous Coward]

What a totally selfish point of view. George Lucas has this idea that Star Wars was his baby so the fond memories of millions of people and the historical significance of the film take a back seat to his wishes.

How the fuck is THAT selfish? It'd be like me writing a novel, people loving it, and then going back and revising some parts of it, saying "This is what I always had in mind"

Bottom line: Don't fucking criticise someone's work until YOU make something equivalent.

Re:On not releasing the orignal versions...

[91degrees]

It'd be like me writing a novel, people loving it, and then going back and revising some parts of it, saying "This is what I always had in mind"

Which - assuming you prevented the original from being released - would be incredibly selfish. Ruining other people's enjoyment simply to brush your own ego.

Re:On not releasing the orignal versions...

[demana]

You do realize that other people wrote and directed Empire and ROTJ, right? Would you say that is making something equivalent? And yet, I don't see Irvin Kershner, Richard Marquand, or Lawrence Kasdan saying "this is what I always had in mind".

Released yesterday in the UK

[GothChip]

I got my DVD box set yesterday so spent last night watching Star Wars.

Picture quality was good overall but they have really upped the colour saturation. The other changes I didn't like was the new blaster bolts and the lightsaber "flares". Now whenever two lightsabers touch I large flash appear on screen that even shows in of objects that should be blocking it (Like Darth Vader's back in the Obi Wan showdown). I'm half expecting a recall announcement due to how crap they look.

Re:Released yesterday in the UK

[Sandman1971]

Check your VHS version. They all include the flash when lightsabers meet, including the non SE versions. This is not new to the DVD version.

Re:Released yesterday in the UK

[GothChip]

I'm trying to borrow an old copy to verify this. I first noticed when checking out the DVD yesterday at work and none of my colleagues (all SW geeks) said they had noticed it before.

Maybe it just goes to show how much they have cleaned up the picture on DVD.

I knew it

[SQLz]

From interview:

Q: Why did you rework the original trilogy into the special-edition versions in the late 1990s?

LUCAS: To me, the special edition ones are the films I wanted to make.....

I knew it all along. Given enough time and money, he would have fucked up the first 3 episodes anyway. Obviously they were all just luck.

Out yesterday in the UK

[EnglishTim]

It was out yesterday over here in the UK.

I have so far resisted its siren call...

Added to original episodes

[Inuchance]

Among one of the changes to the original movies is the addition of Jar Jar.

So....

[Flabby Boohoo]

The process of creating these DVDs takes some amount of time I would imagine. I wonder if Lucas planned to do it this way all along?

Or is it possible to crank out a box set last minute?

Say what you want, just spell my name right....

[CFD339]

Lets all keep in mind two things.

1. Its all fodder for the massive publicity machine. We're talking about, that will sell the box set. Lucasfilms is very aware that the /. community types will buy this no matter what (with of course some die hard exceptions out of protest). In the mean time, all this talk means everyone else will be more and more aware of the release and its 'improvements' -- and many will buy it.

Say anything you want about me, just spell my name right -- classic marketing.

2) ITS JUST A MOVIE. Its a good movie. Its a great story. Its a (somewhat) well realized SF world. That's it.

What about the poor guy that played Boba?

[343 Guilty Spark]

Has anyone spared a thought for this poor guy? For years, he was Boba Fett.. that was his claim to fame.. Now even his voice in has been replaced by Temura Morrison or as we down here in NZ like to call him "dear old movie whore" for his ability to pop up in the most unlikely movies (the worst being Vertical Limit with that horrible fake shifting accent as the helicopter pilot). I mean sure he can say "thats me" and point... but people will just say "you don't look Maori to me man.." :)

Re:What about the poor guy that played Boba?

[CoffeeJedi]

That's Jeremy Jeremy Bulloch. He appears briefly as an Imperial guard on cloud city who drags Leia off of Cloud City just as Luke gets there. So he still gets a moment of un-helmeted glory.

Re:What about the poor guy that played Boba?

[snap-hiss]

Jeremy Bulloch did not voice Fett.

Re:What about the poor guy that played Boba?

[343 Guilty Spark]

I thought that might be the case, so who did voice him? And does he still have a moment of voicing glory? Or has he been completely removed by the Voice of Movie Whore?

My reasons to buy it

[hsoft]

I am currently struggling. The fight is extremely tough. I know I shouldn't. This is waste of money... but there are 3 main reasons for me to buy this:

- I will finally own the ENGLISH version. When I bought the VHS set, I was a clueless teen, and I wasn't clever enough to buy english versions. I *hate* french versions of movies. The french voices in most movies sound so... gay!

- The movie quality is a concern. I will finally see that movie at high resolution.

- I guess that... the box look and feel and smell (!) would be a distant third. (Edgar modified quote in FFVI. Believe it or not, I restarted a game yesterday. Still the best game ever... Darnit, I'm definately in a nostalgic period...)

Re:My reasons to buy it

[ObitMan]

I beleive that you will be shocked.
Hate to spoil it for you but Luke will sound just as whiney/gay in English as he did in French.

Now i must scrub my mind of "Toshe station to pick up some power converters."

He is insulting his customers!

[Kevin Burtch]

He's basically saying that all Star Wars fans are pirates suffering from obsessive/compulsive disorder!

He's saying we will all pirate his movies as soon as they are posted somewhere, but if he releases them... we will all go out and buy them rather than waiting for someone to post them.

WTF?!?

Way to win a loyal customer base, bonehead!

Re:He is insulting his customers!

[sg3000]

> He's saying we will all pirate his movies as soon as they are
> posted somewhere

Well, count the number of people suggesting you find a laser disk version on Bit Torrent. There are at least a half a dozen posted on this story already.

Lucas may be right

Re:He is insulting his customers!

[Kevin Burtch]

Well, count the number of people suggesting you find a laser disk version on Bit Torrent. There are at least a half a dozen posted on this story already.

True, but the people doing that are interested in the original version anyways... which he won't release.

1. Don't give people what they want, give them something you want.
2. Insult customers.
3. What do you mean "no profit!"???

Re:He is insulting his customers!

[sg3000]

> 1. Don't give people what they want, give them something you
> want.
> 2. Insult customers.
> 3. What do you mean "no profit!"???

Sounds like extortion to me. "Give me what I want, or I will take it by force."

Having a few ... let's be charitable ... hundred people say they want to purchase a DVD does not make a viable market.

It's Lucas's movie; he's allowed to release any version he sees fit.

Having said that, I do recognize the desire for someone to have the original version or the original version but restored, but with no new elements or scenes. But again, Lucas has every right to release a movie as he sees fit.

Thanks

[hsoft]

That the kind of comment I needed to read to resist the temptation of wasting my money on that.

Old news

[Danj2k]

Yesterday called, they'd like their current affairs back. Oh wait, I forgot that you AMERICANS didn't get your Star Wars yesterday :)

Audio problems with A New Hope DVD

[RedSwingline]

The Digital Bits notes that there may be audio problems with the DVD of A New Hope. From their comments, the problems seem fairly minor, but audiophiles may want to take note.

Re:Audio problems with A New Hope DVD

[RedSwingline]

Oops, screwed up my link: The Digital Bits

Piracy Wins this time!

[mrshowtime]

For once video piracy has a positive effect. I bought the HK bootleg dvd several years ago, but I already owned several versions of the SW trilogy on Laserdisc, let alone the countless vhs tapes I still have. In effect, Lucas has given free reign to pirates to pirate the original trilogy (unenhanced) for good. Lucas himself has said that the original trilogy does not exist anymore, thus giving free reign to copy it. If he really did push up the release of the original trilogy because of piracy, then he did it for the wrong reasons.

People will buy the Star Wars Trilogy FOREVER, no matter what formats come after DVD. In 2020, people will buy the "Holovision" version of the Trilogy, just as many bought the dvds today.

I can agree with Lucas' decision to "enhance" the trilogy to his original vision, but to deny the release of the original versions, just because he is stubborn is just him being a prick.

Re:Piracy Wins this time!

[Tsunam]

*procedes to hunt down a HK laserdisc bootleg* I might not of been old enough to see the orig. in the theaters...minus the last two. However, I refuse to buy the remade special editions. I'd rather get a "bootleg" of the laserdiscs then go out and buy something I know i'll loathe. And the straight out refusal is just going to cost lucas money, his "piracy" comment just makes that all the more real, because a lot of people won't stand up for this kind of stuff. P.s yes i thought episode 1 was really attrocious, ep 2 was slightly better, and episode 3 I don't expect anything from. Just let it die and let us keep our memories lucas

In movies advertisement always existed

[hsoft]

Advertising "in movies" always existed! Fedex in Cast away. Don't tell me you didn't think THAT was advertisement!

And dolorian (I don't know how to spell it, I'm too young) in back to the future (We also see his Nike shoes a lot in that movie...).

Re:In movies advertisement always existed

[Chess_the_cat]

Not sure how Back to the Future was an advertisement for De Loreans since BTTF was released in 1985 and De Lorean filed for bankruptcy in 1982.

Re:In movies advertisement always existed

[hsoft]

As I said, I'm too young to know that :)

Re:In movies advertisement always existed

[91degrees]

The DeLorean in BTTF wasn't product placement though. It was put in there because they wanted the joke where the farmer thinks it's an alien spaceship.

Re:In movies advertisement always existed

[Anonymous Coward]

Christ, posting messages on the Internet should require a minimum age... "Born after 1984? Sorry, can't post."

Re:In movies advertisement always existed

[Anonymous Coward]

w00t, I'm an 83'er!

Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[BRock97]

"At least we got the original trilogy DVD."

I hate to disagree, but we did not get the original trilogy. We got a trilogy that has been monkeyed with and, in parts, made worse while in other parts made better. On the whole, I like what he did to the three (even though I have seen the Hayden Christensen thing at the end of Jedi and hugely dislike it), but this is definately not the original trilogy.

Personally, I think that is what Lucas is worried about. Here you have three movies how he wanted them, now complete we can assume. But, a great many people hate the changes. So much so that in recently (like in the last couple of years), those with the laserdisc originals have been painstakenly moving those over to DVD and those are appearing online. I believe this is the piracy that Lucas is talking about. He wants to make those originals go away (he said so recently).

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[gfxguy]

Here you have three movies how he wanted them, now complete we can assume.

See, this excuse is really annoying. So, for some reason, he couldn't make Greedo and Han shoot at the same time in 1977? And it was so difficult to fix, he still couldn't get it right in revisions? Yes, that's right... it took 2004 technology to make both shoot at the same time.

Maybe with 2004 technology they could've given Greedo glasses so that he wouldn't miss from two feet away.

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[Joey7F]

"At least we got the original trilogy DVD."

I hate to disagree, but we did not get the original trilogy. We got a trilogy that has been monkeyed with and, in parts, made worse while in other parts made better. On the whole, I like what he did to the three (even though I have seen the Hayden Christensen thing at the end of Jedi and hugely dislike it), but this is definately not the original trilogy.

I think this may come from me seeing the original movies in 1999 when I was 16, but I always thought Anakin should have been a young guy at the end of Jedi given the argument that Darth Vader killed him 30 years ago. It is still a great ending, and if anything, I think this was an actual improvement. My top 4 grrr... changes have been improved / fixed. Greedo/Han (fire simulataneously, not as bad), Luke screaming as he fell in ESB (back to the way it was), the Emperor (is consistent through out), Jabba scene (looks more consistent) etc.

I seriously wonder how many complaints there would be if more people liked the prequels. I like them, especially AOTC, which is my favorite of all 6 (yeah, even ESB, so suck on it). I am looking forward to Episode 3...

--Joey

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[Anonymous Coward]

"Anakin should have been a young guy at the end of Jedi given the argument that Darth Vader killed him 30 years ago"

Err... dude. Anakin is Darth Vader, that's the whole point of the prequel trilogy. The Darth Vader killing Anakin was a story made up to protect Luke from finding out the "horrible truth". It's not as if this is secret, geek information either. It was mentioned in the bloody middle of The Empire Strikes Back.

Whether or not the ghost image of Anakin should be of Christensen or of an older actor, appropriately aged is another question.

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[jokell82]

I seriously wonder how many complaints there would be if more people liked the prequels. I like them, especially AOTC, which is my favorite of all 6 (yeah, even ESB, so suck on it). I am looking forward to Episode 3...

I'm sorry, did we see the same movies? There is a HUGE difference in quality of writing between the original trilogy and the prequels. Lucas cannot write dialogue to save his life. "I hate sand" has got to be the most awkward lines of dialogue EVER. He tries to portray a love between Anakin and Padme but it's just not there. The whole time I'm left wondering how in the hell Padme could fall for some whiny little jerk like Anakin with the way he's written.

The ONLY redeeming value in the prequels is the special effects. Other than that they are a joke, and I refuse to see the third one.

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[Richard Whittaker]

SPOILER ALERT!!!! Darth Vader = Anikin Skywalker = Luke's Dad Oh yeah, and Leia is his sister. Mebbe you should go watch them all again, and say 'hi' to Jar Jar for me.

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[clf8]

"I think this may come from me seeing the original movies in 1999 when I was 16, but I always thought Anakin should have been a young guy at the end of Jedi given the argument that Darth Vader killed him 30 years ago. It is still a great ending, and if anything, I think this was an actual improvement."

Ok, I have to disagree with this. Anakin never was killed by Vader in any sense of the word. If he HAD been, then Luke couldn't have seen any good in Vader, any remnant of Anakin, and couldn't have turned him back. You can't have it both ways.

Also, a point my friend just made, how's Luke supposed to recognize the young Anakin as his father, he's never met the guy, he's only seen old Anakin.

And finally, young Anakin was an angry, impetuous boy, not a true Jedi. Only old Anakin was a true Jedi at the end, so he should be the nice glowy thing at the end.

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[DeadScreenSky]

Also, a point my friend just made, how's Luke supposed to recognize the young Anakin as his father, he's never met the guy, he's only seen old Anakin.

Did your friend miss that whole 'Force' thing in the series? Or was he confused in the many sequences where Luke doesn't use his sight while doing something (or uses normal vision when augmentation is needed, like in the attack run on the Death Star)?

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[clf8]

Ahhh, I didn't know the force let you see everything past and future. Man, Yoda could really have used that, everything was just cloudy to him. Or maybe just glowy force people can appear however they want.

But let's be realistic (yes, even on /.), how does a regular movie viewer who is watching just the Return of the Jedi have any clue who this little punk in a mullet is.

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[DeadScreenSky]

Come on now! The Force lets you feel all sorts of things. If Luke has enough Force power to see a few dead guys, surely he can sense "Hey, that's my dad!" :D The past has nothing to do with it.

And not that I necessarily agree with it, but Lucas has said in the newest Entertainment Weekly that he expects new viewers to start with Episode 1. Makes sense to me.

As an aside: it was a good interview too, a lot of Slashdotters would enjoy it (a shame it doesn't seem to be available online). At one point (with no real push by the interviewer) he goes straight out and says he is a terrible writer, that he isn't surprised that a lot of people disliked the intentionally old-fashioned corny romance of Episode 2 (for the record, I am apparently one of the few it clicked with and I enjoyed it for what it was), etc. Lucas is a lot more down-to-earth than a lot of his 'fans' realize.

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[LSD-25]

Come on now! The Force lets you feel all sorts of things. If Luke has enough Force power to see a few dead guys, surely he can sense "Hey, that's my dad!" :D The past has nothing to do with it.

I think you're on to it. When Luke sees or hears Ben, Yoda or Anakin, I don't think he actually sees or hears them. He senses them in some psychic way. The images and sounds are in the films to let the audience understand what is happening.

So we shouldn't wonder whether Luke saw Anakin as old or young. There's no actual appearance. The only question is which actor should represent the spirit of Anakin.

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[Rhonwyn]

"I hate sand" has got to be the most awkward lines of dialogue EVER

I beg to differ.

"Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?" has to be the most deadpan line ever delivered, especially considereing he is going to be one of those two fighters against a Star Destroyer.

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[jokell82]

"Two fighters against a Star Destroyer?" has to be the most deadpan line ever delivered

That has nothing to do with the way it was written. That was still some decent writing with a poor performance. Episode II combined mind-numbingly moronic writing with mostly mediocre performances (although I wouldn't call Hayden's performance mediocre, it was much worse).

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[Joey7F]

Yeah, dude, I know. I have seen each movie upwards of 20 times each. I am saying that Darth Vader was Anakin giving in to evil allowing Anakin to "die", so Anakin when he died was 20 or something.

I can accept the explanation that others offered that in order for Luke to see good in him and turn him, he was never evil and died a good, but old, man .

--Joey

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[Cappy Red]

You're automatically buggered in trying to watch all six movies. If you see episodes four, five, and six first, you can make a pretty decent guess as to which heroes and villains are going to die, and when. You know who is going to go where, what they're going to do, and what they're going to become. This wouldn't be a problem, but, to me, and I believe to many others, the prequels have blundered about so clumsily that one feels little to no incentive to see it all played out.

If you start from episode one, then episodes four, five, and six lose a lot of punch. Especially in Empire, a lot of the best parts get neutered or otherwise destroyed. Where's the surprise in Yoda's revealed identity? Where's the surprise in finding out that not only is Anakin Skywalker still alive, but that he is Darth Vader?

We've seen Yoda in the prequels, and we know what he looks like. There's no enlightenment there that there are alien jedi. My conjectures about episode three are such that we'll see what happens to Anakin, and we'll see that he wasn't killed by Darth Vader. Either we see him in the mask, and there is utterly no surprise when he reveals his identity later, or he disappears a la Gandalf... but even that way, we do not see him fight Darth Vader, or be betrayed and murdered by Darth Vader.

An idea with a touch of finesse that I doubt Lucas will use or surpass in episode three to solve the "Anakin/Vader identity problem," is to actually introduce one more Darth as another pupil/former pupil of Obi wan. Hell, he could even have the pre-Vader wear the mask.

The major problem with all solutions is that Anakin/Vader has to come out of episode three victorious, a rising pupil of Palpatine, and a rising star of the nascent Empire. I just can't see Lucas writing through this problem without severely buggering the best parts of Empire, and thus buggering most of the best writing of the original trilogy.

Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here....

[Jugalator]

I hate to disagree, but we did not get the original trilogy. We got a trilogy that has been monkeyed with and, in parts, made worse while in other parts made better.

I of course meant "original" as in "first trilogy".

The revisions he has made was only because the first release didn't live up to his vision with Star Wars due to technical limitations, etc.

Mothers...

[chrysrobyn]

My mom knows that I enjoyed Star Wars and even bought a great number of the Lego sets a few years ago. I think my wife and I may have singlehandedly kept Vermont Toy and Hobby open for a while...

My mom heard on the TV a long time ago that the Star Wars DVDs were coming out. Last time I talked with her, she excitedly told me that the release date was coming up, and of course I knew about it, but was it marked on my calendar? I tried to fend off this Christmas gift in the making becase I recognized that excited tone in her voice.

Most of us have a decent ability to explain pet peeves and flaws in our obsessions to others with similar backgrounds or obsessions. My mother has nothing in her universe that can compare with enjoying Star Wars. She sees bad acting and a story line reminiscant of the Lone Ranger and his predescessors, so she thinks that even better special effects and additional scenes can only make it better, can't they?! I tried explaining the cantina scene to her. She remembers vaguely that there was some violence, but she remembers Han Solo (Harrison Ford) being involved. I explained that Lucas changed his mind on who shot first and the repercussions involved to me.

I'm not sure I actually got through. The difference between Han Solo defending himself and shooting first (under the table no less) is a world of character development to me, and my mother seemed to understand what that meant in terms of defining who the characters were. I told her that we had just inherited the laser disc version of the original triology so that one of these years we'd just have to transfer that to a better version. Of course, we could save ourselves the work and just find a torrent since we have all the source material bought, paid for and licensed just not yet ripped to DVD / MPEG.

Of course, maybe she was just listening to the sound of my voice. I probably should expect the DVDs under the Christmas tree this year. I have to ready a look of absolute childish joy on my face because she cares enough to remember my insterests.

Re:Mothers...

[Anonymous Coward]

Here you are chap. Consider it an early Christmas present from me.

What do I want? I wan't George Lucas's head on a stick.

Re:Mothers...

[gaylenek]

You mother seems better than mine at remembering interests. Last year, mine asked for a gift idea list for me and my hubby.

Then she turned to eBay...ugh...to say the least.

She got my hubby a pile of books, about 1/3 weren't on his list...same author, but not titles from the list. Guess where those will go (anyone looking for Andre Notron books?)...and for me...she knows I collect model horse figures, very specific ones, I've only so much shelf space and only certain ones appeal to me...I got two off the list (I was amazed, after 4 years of asking for a list, she actually got ones off the list)...and they rest...well, they were horse shaped objects that were quietly and prompty removed from my house.

Oh yes, she got DVDs from my list off eBay, 1/2 were loose/scratched up, at least the local blue and yellow box store let me exchange them for ones that weren't loose/scratched. One of the few perks of picking out DVDs yourself, you can give them the gentle shake test.

Other times, she has flat out given gifts that neither of us would have ever wanted. Maybe I can offload them on eBay...if I'm lucky.

Re:Mothers...

[Anonymous Coward]

boo fucking hoo, quit whining about this bullshit on slashdot

Mistake in article summary

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

The CNN article linked to makes no claim about any sort of order or importance to the changes and the summary should be corrected to reflect this.

The article summary says, "CNN also reports on the top 5 major changes." The actual article states, "Here are five changes Lucas made:"

Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Lucas is quoted as saying that he never intends to re-release the original 3 movies in the first CNN link.

Fine, I never intend buying another Lucasarts release or see ROTS until he does release the original. I advise everyone else who hates his attitude to do the same.

Star Wars gets rescued?

[UpnAtom]

Q: After "Episode III," will you ever revisit "Star Wars"?

LUCAS: Ultimately, I'm going to probably move it into television and let other people take it.

Re:Star Wars gets rescued?

[0123456]

"Ultimately, I'm going to probably move it into television"

Thank God! We can finally have a sequel to the 'Star Wars Holiday Special'!

Re:Star Wars gets rescued?

[JimLynch]

Heh,heh,heh. I got a good chuckle off of that one. I had completely forgotten that awful TV special thing. Good lord, let's hope Star Wars on TV is a LITTLE bit better than that. LOL

Re:Star Wars gets rescued?

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh,heh,heh. I got a good chuckle off of that one. I had completely forgotten that awful TV special thing. Good lord, let's hope Star Wars on TV is a LITTLE bit better than that. LOL

There were two Ewok movies that were basically made for television.

Master of Marketing

[WebfishUK]

George Lucas is releasing the Star Wars DVD box set early on September 21, 2004 due to piracy concerns.

A (fictional) conversation with GL...

George: "Hey everybody I've released the 97 versions of the SW films you love so much on DVD"
SW Fans: "Fantastic! Heres my credit card details"
George: "Thanks a bunch, here are you disks"
SW Fans: "Hey George couldn't you have relased the original versions I saw when I was a kid?"
George: "No sorry, but for various artistic reasons I just won't do that"
SW Fans: "Oh but George watching my nice shiny 97 box set made me want to see all the changes you made in the glory by comparing to the originals rather than my foggy memory of what happened"
George: "Well since you put it that way...."

George Lucas is releasing the Original Star Wars DVD box on May 21, 2007 due to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the relase of ANH and due to pressure from fans to be parted with yet more money

Re:Master of Marketing

[iamcf13]

George Lucas is releasing the Original Star Wars DVD box on May [25], 2007 due to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the relase of ANH and due to pressure from fans to be parted with yet more money

Deep down inside, I am counting on this to happen.

Then there won't be any reason to buy those bootleg DVD rips of the first laserdisc release of the 'Original Trilogy'.

Hollywood lives in a fantasy land

[kc_cyrus]

The Web site for the DVD Entertainment Group (their BOD is stocked with bigwigs from the large entertainment and electronics companies) states that "DVD [is] the fastest adopted consumer electronics product ever". There have been literally thousands of news articles written about the explosive growth of DVD sales; here are some quotes from an article on the CBS News Web site(from 10/2003):

Home video sales now account for nearly 60 percent of Hollywood's revenue. DVD sales are not only the fastest growing part of the movie business, they're changing the way Hollywood does business.
He says DVD sales can save a film like "Dark Blue," which pulled in a modest $9 million in theaters. "It actually did more revenues in DVD than it did at the box office," says McGurk, because the DVD market is a man's world.
Blockbuster films now often sell more than 10 million DVDs in the U.S. alone. And that's at $20 a pop. And with DVD players still in only half of American homes, Hollywood believes those soaring sales will just get hotter still.

Finding Nemo grossed $320 million from DVD sales in 2003. "Consumers spend more money on the DVD version of almost every movie than they do on that same movie in theaters, including blockbusters such as The Lord of the Rings, Finding Nemo and Pirates of the Caribbean" (USA Today). CNN/Money reports that the movie studios "pocket roughly 80 cents of every dollar on each DVD sold, a take well above the 50 cents for each dollar at the box office" and The Hollywood Reporter says that "studios are earning about 60% more upon initial release from video sales of theatrical feature films than they did during the VHS-only era". So, not only are video sales up overall, DVDs are more profitable for the media companies than VHS or the box office.

And the future looks rosy as well. PriceWaterhouseCoopers has a sample chapter of their Global Entertainment and Media Outlook 2004-2008 report online which says:

We project filmed entertainment spending in the United States, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa), Asia/Pacific, Latin America, and Canada will rise at a 7.5 percent compound annual rate, reaching $108 billion in 2008 from $75.3 billion in 2003. EMEA will be the fastest-growing region, rising by 10.3 percent compounded annually to $36.9 billion in 2008 compared with $22.6 billion in 2003. The U.S. market will expand at a 6.3 percent rate, from $34.3 billion in 2003 to $46.6 billion in 2008. Spending in Asia/Pacific will increase from $13.3 billion to $17.3 billion in the five-year period, growing at a 5.4 percent compound annual rate. Filmed entertainment in Latin America will total $1.6 billion in 2008, up from $1.3 billion in 2003, representing a 4.6 percent gain compounded annually. Spending in Canada will rise from $3.9 billion in 2003 to $5.6 billion in 2008, 7.7 percent compounded annually.

This is anything BUT piracy eating into sales. Mr. Lucas, would you like to change your answer?

Re:Hollywood lives in a fantasy land

[Anonymous Coward]

This is anything BUT piracy eating into sales. Mr. Lucas, would you like to change your answer?

He'll "edit" his answer on the next release, care to preorder it now?

Re:Hollywood lives in a fantasy land

[Intrinsic]

Im glad you posted somthing about this, cause I was going to. WTF is lucas been talking about, he has said this before that he thinks piracy is going put and end to theaters... What kind of crack pipe are they(The Film Industry) using? the supersized or the slim version?

They clearly dont seem to understand the issues..I would never choose to watch a ripped divx version of of LOTR before watching it on the big screen...

I bought all of the StarTrek NG DVD series at a 100$ a piece, I could have downloaded all of them off the net, but it wouldnt be the same.

MAYBE priacy will become an issue when home theaters can be put into our private homes at low cost. And that is a big maybe.

Re: Re:Hollywood lives in a fantasy land

[Anonymous Coward]

MAYBE priacy will become an issue when home theaters can be put into our private homes at low cost. And that is a big maybe.

I don't know how much exactly "cheap" means for you, but I just searched a bit on ebay and you can get stuff like this and this under 1000$. If you search deeper you will find even cheaper.

I have more or less the same configurations. It works better than buying an expensive new Flatscreen or Plasma TV.

For Sale 1 & 3 on VHS

[adzoox]

For the purists:

I have A New Hope & Return Of The Jedi on VHS - asking $50 shipped to USA $60 shippped Internationally.

NTSC

Sleeves and movies are in 9.75 out of 10 condition

Empire is actually mostly unchanged or changed for the better, so this is why I never acquired it.

Remember, Laserdisc is fine but next to impossible to find a player. But for those that aren't interested in my VHS tapes:

Here's a few tips though if you need to find a LaserDisc player:

1) Pawn Shops
2) Thrift Stores in major metro areas
3) College town want ads
4) Borrowing from local educational institution

You can go here to get my email address.

Re:For Sale 1 & 3 on VHS

[snap-hiss]

Why would anyone pay this? You can get any version of the films on VHS for much less on eBay or anywhere else.

Re:For Sale 1 & 3 on VHS

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, I just sold three sets on eBay this past week for $100 - this is a bargain.

Original versions not special editions and NOT video CDs.

Boycott!

[spottedkangaroo]

These are not the Star Wars films -- although, they are similar. The Star Wars films were released "for the last time" in the familiar black box on VHS.

Do not buy these! Use the internet to find the laser disc release. They provide a very DVD experience.

Fuck Lucas. Boycott.

Re:Boycott!

[oneandoneis2]

Use the internet to find the laser disc release.

But I haven't got a laserdisc player...

Re:Boycott!

[spottedkangaroo]

People have ripped the laserdisc and will put it on DVD for you... usually for the cost of media and shipping.

Re:Boycott!

[jimmyharris]

I'm having a few problems with the Torrent of the files. How do I find such people? ;-)

Re:Boycott!

[spottedkangaroo]

Hmmm, it can be quite a hunt. Check on ebay, youceff, torrentbits, and suprnova [sic]. You'll find it eventually.

Only 25 or 30% of what he wanted?

[Apple Acolyte]

From the Q&A article, Lucas provides this insight:

"Well, the film only came out to be 25 or 30 percent of what I wanted it to be." They said, "What are you talking about?" So finally, I stopped saying that, but if you read any interviews for about an eight- or nine-year period there, it was all about how disappointed I was and how unhappy I was and what a dismal experience it was. You know, it's too bad you need to get kind of half a job done and never get to finish it. So this was my chance to finish it.

If it were only a third of what he wanted, then I'm absolutely sure that the Second Special Edition has not compensated for the missing 70%. What in the world could Lucas be talking about? If he's telling the truth, then may we indeed infer that the prequels equal another 30% in his mind? And the logical consequence of that inference is that he is toying with episodes VII, VIII and IX! Now I don't think that will come to pass, but what else could those remarks mean?

Some additional thoughts on the subject:
Usually, when I try to improve upon some art form I've created, I end up obsessing and eventually screwing it up completely. (I'm not really drawing an analogy here, or am I?)

I like the fact that they replaced Boba's voice with Jango's, since they committed themselves to it in the prequels.

Most important prequels question: Will they figure out a way to erase that damnable mitichlorians BS? The Force should not be constrained to biological constructs, IMO.

Re:Only 25 or 30% of what he wanted?

[0123456]

"What in the world could Lucas be talking about?"

Presumably that he wanted to make 'Phantom Menace' in 1977, but the studio realised what a pile of sith it would be and how it would destroy his career, and stopped him.

THX 1138

[Slurms]

I just saw his re-re-release of THX 1138. I liked it a lot. I don't remember his re-release well enough to have an opinion on whether I liked it more or less.

I think it was his best movie. Too bad it was also his first.

I did notice some echos of his Star Wars universe in it, and it sort of makes me wonder if the world we see in THX 1138 is the 'dirty little secret' of the Star Wars world. It adds an new dimension to consider maybe that world is what is under the cloud city.

Re:THX 1138

[singleantler]

He's been messing with that too.

Relevant quote: "...but the good news is that these add-ons don't suck."

Personally I'd be happy if he'd concentrate on 'improving' his old films and hire a good script writer to work on his new ones.

No more $$$ for George

[(shea48)]

George Lucas has already recieved the last nickel he ever will from me. After paying to watch his two prequel films, I have vowed to spend no more. I will keep a VCR for years just to watch the originals. -Shea

Jedi's may not scream...

[CrazyTalk]

But I sure did when I read of the changes. No sense in endless debating Han Shoots first etc. etc. - that's been done. But, where Lucas really went too far was in putting elements of the new movies like Naboo, the voice of Bobba Fett, and Hayden Christensen in. Basically, the original trilogy has been remade - this is not your fathers (or mine) Star Wars. No DVD purchase for me, thank you very much.

does anyone else feel like this is just redundant?

[holy_smoke]

I mean, seriously, how many different ways can they release this and still dupe people into buying it?

My brother-in-law is a Star Wars FREAK! He has tons, if not all, of the collectables from the original trilogy, a VHS copy, and DVD copies. He will probably buy this version also... Sheesh!

At what point does one say "you know, I already have that, what's the point in buying it again?"

Serious question.

And you can't change soundtrack!

[Snaller]

At least not here in europe; normally i can press the "audio" button and switch soundtrack, or press subtitle to change subtitle - but nooooooon, the lamers as lucasarts have disabled that (or perhaps, since they don't release that man DVD's - they don't know how to do it) - you have to manoeuvre back out to the menu to change it - rather lame.

Re:And you can't change soundtrack!

[onosendai]

Seems that's common to the R2/R4 release and yah, it's lame.

Re:And you can't change soundtrack!

[Snaller]

I wonder who authored it, and where we can complain...

Huge mistake in the audio mastering

[Anonymous Coward]

Music score reversed in rear channels of the 5.1 mix

It's mind boggling that they allowed this big a mistake in a release this high profile. For one scene it might have been tolerable, but this is in the whole movie. Yikes!

Interview with Mark Hammill

[dealsites]

Hi, I missed this link when submitting the article, but here is an interview with Mark Hammill via CNN.
--
Live deals

the post

[cmdr_forge]

the washingotn post is having an online chat with one of the producers of the dvds. Go and vent you frustration with him.

Ah, so that's what

[Anonymous Coward]

Lucas meant by "piracy concerns would eat into profits". The pirates are producing a better product than he is.

Consistency with the prequels?

[brucmack]

So Lucas has said that the changes he makes bring the trilogy in line with his original vision. Now he's making changes to make them consistent with the prequel movies. Aren't these mutually exclusive reasons?

It's as if he thinks the audience is too stupid to realize that Anakin in eps 1&2 is that old guy in ep 6. Better change the ghost! I can deal with Boba Fett's voice, that's a relatively minor change since he barely speaks, but making changes to the appearance of characters is insulting both to the audience and the original actors.

Re:5 changes? I think not

[Sc00ter]

top 5 major changes

That list is just the major ones, not all of them.

Lucas' cronies boned him

[catmistake]

The one and only thing that bothered me about the prequals, what seemed obvious to me, is that those around Lucas influenced him to make his movies worse. For example, Warwick Davis, the little dude who played Wicket in Return of the Jedi, appears 3 times as an extra on 3 different planets (at the pod race, and later on Naboo during the parade... uh, I can't remember the other time). Is this supposed to be some sort of crudy inside joke? Screw suspension of disbelief! The mythology was shot to hell by these kinds of decisions... If only he had followed his original plan. It gave the impression that he was no longer really concerned with the seriousness involved in making good films, and spent superfluous energy to appeas all the asswipes that were bent on taking advantage of the old man's good nature. Don't blame Lucas, blame the jerks that reappeared out of arrogance and self-importance that wanted to make their mark ("Hey I was in Star Wars... look what I got away with!") but really all they wanted was another pay check.

Star Wars Nerds.....take a chill!

[Chanc_Gorkon]

Ok, so he changed the film yet again. First off I happen to agree with most of the changes. The Anakin change is a bit suspect, but then again, if you think of it in the ways of the Star Wars Universe, it makes sense. When Anakin makes the full turn towards the Dark Side in Revenge if the Sith, he will cease to be Anakin and will then become Darth Vader. When he turns back to the Light in Jedi, he dies right away. His spirit was as it was when he was still a padawan. I know you won't agree with me, but that's the way I see it and adding Naboo to the celebration scene - a scene not in the original - make sense also if you look at all of the films as a unit. Now the Jabba scene in the first movie will look better as well. Now stop whining about how Lucas changed things and just watch them.

Wanted so Bad to Find a Midnight Sale...

[syntap]

...so I could sell the copy I got early to some hapless Star Wars junkie at around 10p for $100. He could then skitter away and watch the movie, muttering something about "the precious" on his way home.

This sig is my best one.

Re:Wanted so Bad to Find a Midnight Sale...

[snap-hiss]

um.... what?

Make a *NEW* version of IV-VI !

[Anonymous Coward]

If the original trilogy really *weren't* what GL wanted when he made them, then why not *make them again*!?!?

He wouldn't have to go back and reedit and splice in. He could do Mos Eisley with modern technology. Jabba could be done "correct" from the start. Light sabre battles could be redone because they won't brake so easily.

Why not?

Re:Make a *NEW* version of IV-VI !

[Nodatadj]

But why replace Sebastian Shaw with a piece of wood and not replace Alec Guinness with Ewan McGregor? Why would Anakin's ghost return to his young man (which luke never knew him by) instead of the only image of him that Luke knew him by.

Unless there's now dialogue added where Luke says "Okay, you're Yoda, you're Ben, but, I'm sorry, I don't think I know you?"

Re:Make a *NEW* version of IV-VI !

[rikkards]

This question has been asked twice. Here is my response with a question. It is a time where they have FTL technology, what's to say that he didn't have a picture of him from way back when? Just because they didn't show it doesn't mean it wasn't there.

Re:Make a *NEW* version of IV-VI !

[neurojab]

>what's to say that he didn't have a picture of him from way back when?

That picture wasn't in the movie, was it? From a viewer's perspective, Luke has no picture. Putting this in is just bad direction.

Comes out today?

[Masami Eiri]

Hm.. I've had it since Thursday.
Visually, its very nice.
And for the record, Greedo's shot is off a frame or two earlier than Han... though Han fires twice.

From the CNN article

[Angstroem]

But the most noticeable change -- and perhaps one some "Star Wars" diehards will have a tough time stomaching -- is Hayden Christensen (who plays young Anakin in the prequel trilogy) now appearing in the scene where the "force ghosts" of Anakin, Obi Wan, and Yoda smile at Luke.

Isn't that illogical? If they put in young Anakin to the row of "force ghosts", shouldn't Obi Wan's ghost then be replaced by Ewan McGregor? Not that I wanna see that...

Once more I get the feeling that Mr. Lucas is just a CGI addict and so f*cking proud of what can be done (so it has to be done)... It was already obvious with his first row of "reworks". There was nothing wrong with editing out the "force field glow" (resulting from Vaseline or whatever they put on the lens to make the wheels disappear) below the antigrav glider. It was ok to re-edit Tie fighter scenes where you could spot the double imaging in the original. And, yes, the city of clouds underwent a major improvement.

Hell, it was even ok to put in the mis-rendered Jabba as it was planned to be there in the original. Plus, I won't complain about adding some "life" here.

What I do object, though, are the truly unnecessary modifications such as little robots teasing big robots in Mos Eisley, making Han shoot second (what kind of bounty hunter would miss at table distance!?), or that galaxy-wide party instead of the original Ewok party. (Not that I like Ewoks anyway, he should have stuck with the original idea of the Wookie planet.) Also the re-rendering of those singers was way overdone: where the original looked too much like puppetry, the redone version was just annoying because of exaggeration.

Now doing another "mordification" by adding Hayden I wanna slap his face Christensen into the line of force ghosts once again falls into the field of "look what I can do".

I guess it's time to bring out our own version of StarWars by ripping the new DVD set and the old LD version and cutting together the versions as they should be.

More outrage

[Illserve]

Check out this page

http://perso.club-internet.fr/willow/SW_Changes/ SW _Changes_18.htm

More and more sanitization, it's sickening. Might as well put an Antibacterial sticker on the box.

translation

[stinky wizzleteats]

Lucas is quoted as saying that he never intends to re-release the original 3 movies in the first CNN link.

Lucas wants to save the "originals" special edition set release until after episode 3.

However, he mentions that due to piracy concerns the profits are being eaten up and there might not be a market for the films at that time.

Lucas needs to release the "New Coke" edition early enough for the release of the originals to make a marketing splash, again, after episode 3. Since he has resisted DVD technology from the beginning, and has been dragged kicking and screaming into releasing his films on non-disposable digital media format by consumers, he is going to take a parting shot at "piracy" to mask his desire to generate the "release of the originals" hype twice and make the same money over again after Episode 3 comes out.

Re:translation

[snap-hiss]

Apparently there will never be a lack of people on the internet to criticize it using poor sentence structure.

On the bright side....

[JustAnOtherCodeSerf]

"It really just came down to, there may not be a market when I wanted to bring it out, which was like, three years from now."

Ok, so he's releasing them 3 years early. Hey, that's just awesume! "Piracy Concerns" are forcing him to give up some of his slow-milk-it mentality.

Just an other example of the power shifting back to the consumer. I dig it. Give us what we want at a fair price and we'll pay for it (itunes anyone?), or we'll get it some other way.

I still don't think it would have been hard to release the modified version and the original on the same disk... Put it as a menu option, kinda like "bonus features" or "deleted scenes". Only now it would be "added features and scenes" or "theatrical release".

Sheesh.

The Emperor's Black Slug

[grendelkhan]

I cannot believe that yet again, the most glaring technical error (besides the horrible rear projection during the Rankor scene), the black "sharpie on the film" slug on the emperor's face is still there! If we can make a muppet song and dance number in ROTJ, why, oh why, can't we get this one little thing fixed?

Ever get the feeling...

[TintinX]

... that the copious scene alterations and 'enhancements' might just be another marketing ploy?
I can see it now - just in time for the Christmas 2005 market 'Star Wars: The Original Trilogy - Classic Edition DVD'.
Lucas et al aren't stupid. They know we geeks wants DVD quality version of IV, V and VI.
I betcha this is on the cards.

translation

[fgb]

...due to piracy concerns the profits are being eaten up and there might not be a market for the films at that time.

really means

by the time Episode III comes out there won't be anyone dumb enough to pay for this left.

Why people don't like the SE

[starseeker]

This is just a guess, but I think every movie garners a certain "integrity" in the technologies which were used to make it. Certain techniques were used to create it, and the movie audiences know based on viewing LOTS of TV and films over the years what fits and what doesn't (perhaps without quite appreciating it). CGI doesn't fit in the original Star Wars, at least not for major visible additions (clean up and touch up is fine).

Of course, a lot of it is nostalgia, too. But what's wrong with that? I still don't get why Lucas doesn't do a "historical release" and make another zillion bucks.

Re:Why people don't like the SE

[Illserve]

No, it's because Lucas is sanitizing these movies. Han is no longer the rough bounty hunter he used to be in IV who would shoot first.

Re:Why people don't like the SE

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it's because Lucas is sanitizing these movies. Han is no longer the rough bounty hunter he used to be in IV who would shoot first.

You mean "smuggler" not "bounty hunter", but your point still stands. Han is supposed to be a morally ambiguious criminal at the start of the OT, this makes his change throught the series more powerful.

Re:Why people don't like the SE

[Anonymous Coward]

Frankly, if some bozo was sitting there with a gun telling me he was going to shoot me and drag me into some crime lord, I wouldn't wait for him to shoot first, moral or not. Morality means very little if all the moral people get killed for their morality.

Display device ...

[gstoddart]

You know, even when they say they've digitally remastered it and all, I just can't tell the difference.

What you're watching it on will probably be a factor. On a big-screen TV, the difference is really apparent.

Remember, the original film wasn't filmed in VHS. It was filmed in a much higher resolution film format and then downgraded to VHS for release. It was, after all, filmed to be displayed on a 40 foot screen. That actually captures a lot of detail that gets discarded when you format for NTSC.

Sometimes the digital mastering just cleans up the colour palette or removes a lot of grain and artifacts. But it really does have an observable difference on the right display.

Cheers

Happilly Paying "The Lucas Tax"

[onosendai]

I bought them pre-release on Monday and, well this is going to be an unpopular view-point here, they're "impressive". The print is great, there are scenes especially in ANH that have never looked so good that you'd forget that it was shot nearly 30 years ago, the sound is really tremendous and it's awesome to see "The Holy Triology" on a decent home-theatre setup.

Once you overcome the inevitable resistance to having what, to most of us, is the single most defining piece of entertainment in our short lives, they kind of make sense, and although the Han/Greedo shoot-out V3 is clunky, most of the changes make the two triologies flow together better (Ian McDiarmid, Temeura Morrison and Hayden Christenson's additions in particular).

It is after all *only* a film after all, and if you were Lucas, wouldn't you go back and fix the things that you'd wanted to change but never had the resources?

Just my AU$69.95 anyway ...

Re:Happilly Paying "The Lucas Tax"

[0123456]

"if you were Lucas, wouldn't you go back and fix the things that you'd wanted to change but never had the resources?"

Yes, but I'd still release the original versions too. Of course the idea that Lucas always wanted Solo to shoot second and never had the resources to do so is a joke in any case.

Re:Happilly Paying "The Lucas Tax"

[Anonymous Coward]

ok, here's a stupid question:
why the need to keep everything consistent? (ie. temura morrison)
in fett's case, sure the younger one is a clone of the older one, so initially they'd start with the same vocal chords and all.
but seeing as he's a bounty hunter, isn't it possible that he snuffed some bad gas, either at a party, or maybe while fighting a tough opponent, and that scarred some of his chords, so now his voice is more raspy?
i'm not inventing an excuse, but it's a perfectly possible situation, and doesn't need any explanation.

or maybe the fetts are known metrosexuals of the bounty world? hmm, i guess i never thought of that!

What's with goldenrod?

[TrekkieGod]

Does 3CPO look frigging silver in those pictures??

Never releasing the original OT

[{tele}machus_*1]

I might not like all of the changes (especially Greedo shooting first), but I see GL's point. It's not just that GL is an "artist." He's a professional. He wanted to put his vision on screen, and he couldn't do it exactly the way he envisioned. I can completely understand the desire to go back years later, when he has his independent resources, and re-work the old movies to more perfectly match his original vision. It's his legacy, and he has control over how the movies will be viewed long after he is gone.

Keep this in mind: J.R.R. Tolkien made minor revisions to the Lord of the Rings several times after the books were first published (and then published in successive editions). And Tolkien didn't have to deal with a movie studio taking a huge chance on something that essentially no one had done before. Professionals (and I speak from experience) have an irrepressible desire to revisit our past work, because we always have a feeling that the demands of time and the client (or the editor or the studio) force us to push out work product that could be tweaked to perfection if only we had a little more time.

Re:Never releasing the original OT

[snap-hiss]

I understand his reasons for making the SE, but that is no reason to not make the previous two versions available on DVD.

Re:Never releasing the original OT

[0123456]

Lucas is a hack: 'Star Wars' is 30s pulp SF combined with Kurosawa's 'Hidden Fortress' and Joseph Campbell's writings on mythology, supported by the best that 70s effects technologies could provide.

For its time it was great, but there's nothing really original there and Lucas has no claim to be an 'artist' or whine about his 'vision'. We've seen what Lucas' 'vision' looks like when he doesn't have a studio to keep him on track (i.e. the prequels), and it's dire.

Re:Never releasing the original OT

[snap-hiss]

blah blah blah

Re:Never releasing the original OT

[SlippyToad]

I've done textual analysis of Tolkein's revisions; partly because I have several copies. None of them, aside from the "riddles in the dark" episode, were anything on the order of what Lucas has done. If Lucas had just gone through the films and cleaned up dirty special effects, that would be OK. But what he's doing is jacking around with things in some misguided attempt to correct the moral leanings of his characters (taking out blaster shots, re-timing them, etcetera) or actually trying to "improve" existing pieces of the story that originally worked just fine. Tolkein did far more esoteric things, like correcting errors in spelling and internal continuity -- not surprising for a book for which not one or two but several new languages have been invented.

Piracy is not a problem for this film.

[lifebouy]

I'm sorry, I just don't see it, George. The people who are going to go out and buy this, are going to go out an buy it so they have the collection. The entire collection. A pirated copy just wouldn't do. Yes, some people will pirate it. But it's not going to dent George's wallet, because anyone who is fanatical about SW is going to buy, and the mainstream populus is going to buy. George may have his knickers in a knot about people pirating his movie, but piracy affecting his profits is PURE PROPAGANDA.
Personally, I will not be buying it, because of that stupid CG Jabba. It breaks my suspension of disbelief, because I know that Hutts are supposed to live thousands of years. There is no explanation of Jabba being the size of a whale in Ep I and then being the size of a horse in Ep IV and then being back to the size of a whale in Ep VI. Plus, Hutts are supposed to be very snooty and regal, and Jabba would never lower himself to go and 'visit' Han Solo. Then his eyes bug out of his head when Han steps on his tail? Wow, Leia didn't get them to pop out that far when she choked his ass with a chain. Must be some heavy boots, Han. After that scene, I just can't watch anymore.It breaks the whole film. Most of the rest is forgivable, but that Jabba just sucks.
I will wait 10 more years until he changes his mind, or until he dies and his kids release the originals on DVD or whatever format is cool at the time.

I don't believe it........

[rwinston]

...is Hayden Christensen (who plays young Anakin in the prequel trilogy) now appearing in the scene where the "force ghosts" of Anakin, Obi Wan, and Yoda smile at Luke.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The humanity!!!!!!! I could live with Darth Vader with no eyebrows, but this is ridiculous!! It's bad enough that we have to endure his pathetic acting all the way through Attack of the Clones, but now he's polluted the original trilogy as well!! Bah!

So mad I'll be bad

[Wubby]

Oh, yeah, George! I'm so mad about the whole "new Anikan" at the end of the DVD, that I'm going to watch a PIRATED (Arrr) Ep III when it comes out JUST so you don't get paid!

Yeah, that'll teach him.

Unfortunately

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, LaserDisk is not digital, it is analog.

if you look here...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laserdisc

You'll see it is an analog format, not digital.

Re:Unfortunately

[Naikrovek]

yeah its analog, but the picture is AMAZING, even when compared to DVD.

At least that's how I remember it...

Re:Unfortunately

[LetterJ]

"At least that's how I remember it... "

Yeah. I've been telling my wife all about the elementary school I went to. The one with the 16 foot ceilings in the classrooms and the 20 foot basketball rims. For some reason she thinks my memory may be exaggerating the details.

Re:Unfortunately

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, no, the picture sucks, ESPECIALLY compared to DVD. Personally, I don't think this rose coloured tint helps the quality, take them goofy glasses off!

I remember watching Star Wars and Blade Runner on LD, and the picture was maybe a little better than VHS, but of course with no noise from the read heads. A merely modest improvement.

Piracy, had to throw it in there

[nurb432]

They just had to plan ahead and blame piracy now, instead of having egg on their faces when no one really cares about the movies they produce..

Id say 'when will they get a clue', but they already know the truth, and are using the media to manipulate the facts to push their agenda..

I for one wont be buying the disks and supporting that industry.... And I now regret purchasing the VHS special edition years ago. ( as well as the 500+ CDs that helped support the RIAA's future )

21st?

[isorox]

I could have sworn a copy came through the post yesterday. Ironically one of the guys in the studio I'm evesdropping on just this second said he bought it yesterday too.

Re:21st?

[Warlock7]

I got mine in the mail yesterday, during the day.

Some Best Buy stores had promo events where they opened up at midnight to sell copies. That would constitute yesterday for many.

The Force Maybe

[Prince Vegeta SSJ4]

I am your father, search your feelings, you know this to be true.

Bad News Is Still News For Nerds

[EXTomar]

This is still news worthy simply because the /. crowd is so emotional about it. Or to put it another way, many readers would be wondering what in the world the editors are doing if they didn't post a thing on this.

the originals are here (torrents)

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually you can download the original trilogy in DVD format copied from the laser discs here.

Piracy my ass, these versions are dead and the community who wants them should be keeping them alive.

In the words of James Dean ...

[sbowles]

Live fast, become corrupted by the Dark Side young and leave a good looking Force ghost.

Further question

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

I've always thought that dvds look much better on my laptop. Can I actually view all of the 780 lines of resolution on it?

Re:Further question

[spikestabber]

Yes if your screen can do higher then 1024x768. A 1280x800 16:9 screen laptop is best.

blah blah blah

[Anonymous Coward]

star wars blah blah blah crap blah blah blah jedi blah blah bah blah lucas blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah jar jar most boring topic ever

Product placement in movies

[Generic Guy]

I was reading that movie studios will now accept advertising in movies.

Because in the near future "...all restaurants are Taco Bell" -- Demolition Man, 1993

Advertising and product placement in movies is nothing new. The earliest example I can personally think of is Attack of the 50 foot woman (1958) where 7*up soda is featured prominently.

The only way we will get the original movies.

[cheetah]

I was thinking about this the other day, and I want to be clear I am not in ANY WAY suggesting that anyone acts on what I am about to say. The only way that we will ever see the original movies is if Lucas dies. He might not want to put out the original movies on any new format but I am sure that his estate will. It's sad but true, I think we can all yell at him until we are blue in the face and we will never see the originals...

Han Solo's day in court

[kbahey]

Someone with a lot of time on their hands wrote a comic titled: Greedo Shoots First Comic.

Greedo's mother sues Han Solo because he shot first, with Palpatine as the judge, and C3PO as an attorney.

Read it yourself!

(Some people really need to work on their acceptance of reality ... It's just a movie...

Audio Problems in Star Wars Trilogy DVD set?

[antdude]

According to this (9/20/04 - 12:30 PM PDT), this (9/20/04 - 10:30 PM PDT), and TheForce.Net, there are audio issues in Star Wars Trilogy DVD set.

Lucasfilm denied with this statement, "We are always impressed with how closely fans listen to the many different sound mixes we have made for the Star Wars movies over the years. It is flattering to know that, indeed, the audience is listening. Consequently, each mix comes out differently and any changes that you hear on the all-new Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround EX tracks on the Star Wars Trilogy DVD set are deliberate creative decisions. We can confirm that there are no technical glitches as reported."

Not just the movies but the orignal docos

[ivano]

haren't included either. My biggest want was to have the original 1977 Making of Star Wars documentary that showed how he created the "realistic fantasy" of the show. I haven't seen the DVD but I know it's a new doco.

Though to be honest the Episode V and VI ones were pretty lame, more of a hour long promo but the original making of satisfied the thirst of "how the fuck did they do that!" Especially all the experiments with sound.

Anyway I might be quietly surprised with the new doco BNHMB

Ciao

Re:5 changes? I think not

[geekboy2k]

I believe they were referring to changes from the Special Editions (rerelease) not the original movies.

Not alone though ....

[gstoddart]

But I guess I'm in minority who actually appreciate this DVD and don't care much about who bloody fires first. :-)

I'm included in the group of people who also aren't going to really lose a lot of sleep over who fires first or some of the minor details. Overall, I liked the story and I'm looking forward to finally having them on DVD.

I honestly only know about the 'controversy' from hearing it on Slashdot, not because I have the original cinematic release seared into my head. I was, after all, about 8 years old. =)

Quality over resolution every time...

[tentimestwenty]

I'd always take quality over resolution. When something is finely balanced (pictures, sound, food) you think less about the pure scale of it and more about the experience. The worst is high resolution with poor quality because the flaws are way more apparent.

Re:5 changes? I think not

[TWoodham]

The submitter never stated there were only five changes, and neither does CNN. The article states there are five major changes and goes into detail about what they are.

Chill out, this isn't worth having an aneurism over.

Hurray for piracy

[RenHoek]

Another great victory due to piracy!

* It makes legit DVD's cheaper, otherwise there would be no incentive for movie studio's to offer competative prices.

* It enabled the public to enjoy Lord of the Rings as soon as it was out, worldwide. Instead of having to wait 6 to 9 months for a European release.

* And now it saves us legit customers from artificial waiting times..

All I can say is, huzzah for piracy!

Re:Hurray for piracy

[evilviper]

Now if piracy could just force Lucas to un-fuck the movies...

Trilogy on DVD

[CdnShaggy]

Didn't he say that he would *never* release that trilogy on DVD ? That everyone that wanted it had to get it on vhs ? Maybe he will eventually do it.

Lucas has lost whatever talent he had

[Morpeth]

I mean really, the guy is just churning out revamped versions of the same ol' sh*t time and time again for two reasons 1) money, 2) he has nothing original to offer, his creativity is spent.

Go look on imdb to check out the ridiculous amount of milking of SW & Raiders he's done http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000184/

I think as time has passed he's clearly gotten worse, not better, like many writers-directors. When's the last time he wrote or directed a good movie? Decades imo; maybe Empire Strikes Back in '80 or Raiders of the Lost Ark in '81? [the 3rd one was ok I guess, 2nd was lame, we'll see about the the 4th]

People are free to buy yet another version of these films, I won't be one of them, in my book - he's wasted any good will and positive feelings I ever had about the SW universe by being the biggest commercial sellout I can think of, and diluting the 'myth' to the point of comedy.

He won't be getting any of my coin, for this or the upcoming SW films - ever since Jar Jar I was done with them. Too bad he ruined such a good thing.

Boxes around X-Wings in final battle?

[orcus]

Ok,
what I want to know is - can you still see the square outline around the ships (X-Wings and T.I.E. fighters) in the final battle around the Deathstar in IV?
It was very visible in the VHS versions.

Re:Boxes around X-Wings in final battle?

[jswalter9]

The thing that bothered me most was not addressed in the special edition episode 4: final battle, every time you see someone in an X-wing cockpit in open space the stars in the background are moving like the ship is in a hard spin. It's really disorienting.

Re:does anyone else feel like this is just redunda

[nagora]

how many different ways can they release this and still dupe people into buying it?

I don't know. Let's ask Peter Jackson.

Me: Peter, how many ways have you found to sell your LotR films to the public?

PJ: I can't count that high, it make ma hed hurt.

TWW

Fullscreen vs. widescreen, Lucas money-grubbing

[koelpien]

It is interesting to note that George Lucas, so concerned with the "integrity" of his films, is allowing them to be released in pan-and-scan fullscreen as well as widescreen. I guess money is indeed more important than artistic integrity to George despite his flimsy rhetoric. How sad. When will he have enough $$$ in the bank, and not focus exclusively on making more?

Well...

[SuperKendall]

The technical improvements are usually improvements (like the light sabers). The only one I have a qualm with is replacing the death star explosion with a "ring explosion" like you'll find in every videogame for the last five years.

As for scene changes - the Greedo scene I would rate as "neutral now", I don't feel like it's either better or worse, just there. I did actually like the increase in the number of storm troopers Han runs into in the death star. The Emporer replacement is better, and having Vaders eyebrows removed is MUCH better, regardless of if they were burned off or not - they looked out of place on a face that was supposed to be buried in a mask for years.

Really the only truly questionable thing left in my mind is still the whole Jabba scene in ANH... and at least there they GREATLY improved Jabbas look to where I can stand it. I haven't seen the whole scene yet so I can't say if it's better to the point I can tolerate it.

Jedi Don't Scream

[Anonymous Coward]

What's the really big deal with Luke screaming? If I understand the problem correctly, then we're talking about the scene when Luke wails about Darth Vader being his father.

1) Luke was arguably, at the time, not a Jedi (until he faces Darth Vader one more time in ROTJ)

2) Assume Luke *is* a Jedi. He's still a 19-ish year old kid who just found out that he is the son of the being nearly synonymous with applied terror and misery on a galactic scale. (For you mentally awake people: imagine that you found out your father is Dubya. For everyone else: imagine you found out your father is Osama.)

Given all that, is it *really* a big deal that he screams? Considering that for most of the three movies Luke is an incompetent, whining, arrogant idiot, and only at the end he manages to mature a tiny bit, I don't find his emotionalism to be a serious problem.

Maybe it's just me, though.

Hey you whiners - do something about it!!!

[SuperKendall]

For all you people that don't like the changes - here's a suggestion. Take the BitTorrent LD rips, then buy the DVD's. Now rip the DVD's and edit the footage, splicing in footage from the DVD's. If you pirate some good video editing software as well you could probably get the spliced footage to match OK.

Then, you get the great quality of the originals with the canonical scenes from the original movies. It doesn't even seem like it would have to be as hard as the Phantom Edit was, because you would be simply removing some scenes (like Jabba).

I expect final copies on BitTorrent by the end of the day. Thanks.

Uh...

[rd_syringe]

We give them the sole protected right to charge for their work, on the basis that they will make the work available to the public.

No, we don't give them the "right to charge for their work." Legislation does. And it's not on the basis that they will make the work available to the public, it's on the basis that they own the work and can therefore charge however much they want. I can make a bunch of kick-ass Linux ceramic teacups and decide only to sell them on Thursdays for $50 a piece. That's my right.

Artificially making movies scarce to milk additional profits is the antithesis of the copyright deal.

Nobody's holding a gun to anybody's head to buy these things. I'm so sick of people who pretend like they're victims because they willingly bought something. If you don't like the way someone handles the availability of the product--too bad! Don't buy the product then. It's a free country and nobody's forcing you to do anything.

Stop whining! This sense of entitlement is sickening.

Re:Uh...

[royalblue_tom]

> Don't buy the product then.

I can't. Thanks to your assinine idea that the creator owns the idea, the original Star Wars is not available because the creator thinks the work should not be available, period. His sense of entitlement is sickening ...

> No, we don't give them the "right to charge for their work." Legislation does.

Would that be the legislation created by the government? Our government? We, the people, government? Presumably on the planet your mind inhabits, laws fly out of monkey's butts? On this planet all laws are a contract with society created by the government of the people to regulate behaviour. Copyright laws are the granting of intelectual property rights in order to achieve some benefit to the people in return. So, yes - *we* grant a benefit in order to secure a benefit in return. Read the Constitution.

yeah right

[SuperKendall]

I don't think so. There were a lot of people buying the thing at Midnight, and a lot more will be going off the shelves today. Even with some grumbling, most fans will buy this to have a really good quality DVD copy of the movies.

George is pretty stupid to be worried about piracy because even if guys had been handing out bootleg copies at supermarkets for the last four months people would still buy it for the packaging and box. Indeed, if he had released four different box sets with different cover art a lot of people would have bought all four of those! So you see, there is still room up ther on the evil scale and piracy is not really much of a problem for Star Wars at all.

What a bunch of bullshit

[rd_syringe]

Slashdot on Monday: "REAL artists don't go back and change things! Suddenly I have moral qualms and a sense of cultural integrity."

Slashdot on Tuesday: "Return of the King: Extended Edition due out soon! Yay!"

Speaking of Tolkien, it's not like the Hobbit wasn't revised after the fact to fit in with the stories written afterward...

Get over yourselves. It's a sci-fi film series from the 70s. Star Wars is hardly as revolutionary as it's being made out to be. Who cares if there are more creatures in Mos Eisley now? Does it matter that Greedo fires his gun? What relevance does it have to life?

Re:What a bunch of bullshit

[dswensen]

As both the theatrical and altered editions of Lord of the Rings are readily available to the public, and have been from the word go (quite unlike Star Wars), your argument is both nonsensical and irrelevant.

Also, Star Wars was revolutionary at the time it came out, and was and is an enormous influence on popular culture, special effects, and moviemaking. Even if the story of Star Wars itself is not particularly profound to some people, it is a piece of film and pop culture history that ought to be preserved.

Re:What a bunch of bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

YHBT. YHL. HAND.

Love,
rd_syringe (aka Overly Critical Guy aka bonch)

Re:What a bunch of bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

yawn

Read comment above

[SuperKendall]

You'll have to seek your rationalization elsewhere. Just suck it up and buy the set.

Fans will fix it

[tuxlove]

Lucas is quoted as saying that he never intends to re-release the original 3 movies in the first CNN link.

Guess we'll have to do it for him. Well, not me personally, but I'm sure someone else will do so/has done so.

When I was a kid, somehow one of my friends got a copy of Star Wars on VHS (in the '78 timeframe). It was obviously illicit, and very low quality. But we watched it 14 times in a row at his overnight birthday party, and it was a blast. No forgery of the original, no matter how high-quality, even if Lucas himself has made it, will ever be the same as the original.

Do the right thing, George. Put the original on DVD or the nerds will do it for you. Do you want to control it, establish the quality, and collect the proceeds, or do you want someone else to? Not even an army of jackbooted thugs wielding walkie-talkies can stop it!

Lucas is lying

[Anonymous Coward]

This DVD set should have been released years ago. He released it in the exact moment he needed more money. And he made it the DVD event of the year (aside from the ROTK DVD that's coming in December). Did anyone notice the multiple TV shows covering Star Wars? That's called payola, folks.

And, come on: Star Wars (along with The Godfather) has been for years the most frequent DVD search in any online retailer's site.

He's lying. And by holding off for so long, he created the market for the pirates. His choice. His fault.

What *I* don't get

[Sycraft-fu]

Is why the hell not offer both? The orignals haven't gone away or anything. It would likely be feasable to use branching to have both versions on the same disc. However he wouldn't even have to do that, release them seperately, and charge for both. Fans would BUY both.

That's the thing that frustrates us all to hell. We WANT the orignals and we are more than willing to pay for them. We aren't saying he can't release an SE but please, please, sell us the orignals in new formats.

We'd all shut up about the updates if he'd just do that.

Re:What *I* don't get

[miskatonic alumnus]

Here is why --- Lucas is a CONTROL FREAK as should be obvious by listening/reading any of his interviews on the subject. To paraphrase, They are MY movies. I can do with them as I please. And, of course, he's right. However, I paid to see the originals in the theatres (along with millions of others) and purchased a few action figures and some trading cards, back in the day, thereby financing GL's later projects. And now he slaps the fans in their faces by refusing to re-release the originals? Okay. Fine! I'll buy the newly remastered Videodrome instead. Long live the new flesh!!!

Summed up in one image

[Rogerborg]

The box set cover has a CGI image of Vader's mask looking the way Lucas thinks it should have done. It's a big fat historical revisionist kludge before you even rip the shrink wrap.

Well, this cuts it. . ! It's open season.

[Fantastic Lad]

Time to create legions of hack copies of the LaserDisk set and distribute them.

Lucas used to love film. There was a time when he was annoyed that the toy companies did not release plastic replica blasters along with the figures and vehicles. He pushed for Star Wars gun toys in an age smarting from Viet Nam war fatigue. He did this because he understood that the story went beyond the screen. He understood the mythological weight of Star Wars.

Now perhaps in the last (how many years??) he has slipped, forgotten how to care, the spark went out, built an ivory tower, surrounded himself with Yes Men. Whatever the reason, the Lucas of Old is gone. --And frankly, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility that he's been mind-bugged by the Forces of Evil to deliberately destroy his own legacy. The kind of story potential of Phantom Menace, and the kind of public focus its release drew. . ? I've not seen that kind of power in a long, long time. That sort of power can change things on a global level. I think it is entirely possible that the world might right now be in a very different state had Phantom Menace not sucked. I mean, like no war in Iraq different.

The parallels were many and very present. 9-11 WAS the Phantom Menace. --Designed to launch a dictator into power. But Lucas dropped the ball on this one; he squandered the opportunity to score some big points for the Light Side. (Or his mind-jobbed clone did. Hard to say.) He also turned the Force from being an analogy of Chi/Energy into a dumb Star Trek Science thing. Medichlorines? Please. He turned Star Wars into another piece of half-assed Materialist nonsense. Energy awareness is playing an increasing role in the world today; it's going to become very difficult to survive without a solid understanding of such 'taboo' knowledge. Lucas could have helped steer this planet-boat into the right waters, but instead Star Wars has become another Nail in the Coffin. Another Brick in the Wall. Another Shot of Thimerosal. (Etc. . .)

Anyway. . .

It won't make any difference now, but for the sake of good film at least, I think it's time to start making damned sure that copies of the three film Laser Disk set of the cleaned up and pure original movies are transferred to DVD (and whatever other medium is becomes popular), and made available to the world. (The Laser Disk set versions are AMAZINGLY superior films. People forget. I've heard some wool-pulled guys say, "Oh, Star Wars wasn't that good. It's no big deal." This is bullshit. --Anybody who knows anything about editing realizes that surprisingly small changes can make or break a movie, and in this case it is very, very true.)

I know some of you out there must have the ability to make copies from LaserDisk to DVD, so DO it. It's nothing but a couple days of compy-crunch time and the cost of some disks. So DO it! Mail copies to friends with the instructions to make copies themselves and mail those to more friends. Chain-letter the thing. Keep it off the web, because the LucasLawyers have their antenna up these days. The Lucas Clone himself is working his damnedest to destroy all evidence that Good Films ever existed in the Star Wars universe.

Do you want to sit by if you can do something about it? Then don't.

May the Force be With You!

-FL

Release Episode III: Revenge of the Sith now!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

That'll take care of any piracy concerns on that too....

Thank God for Piracy

[ThoreauHD]

So now corporations have to actually supply the demand, rather than monopolize and artificially inflate it. That sounds like piracy and business are a marriage made in Heaven.

How do I vote for more of this "piracy" stuff again?

Who sucks more?

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't make up my mind about who sucks more, George Lucas or George Bush?

Lucas nominated by Dairy Farmer's Association

[Anonymous Coward]

George Lucas is now an honorary member of the American Dairy Farmer's Association -

For milking these movies for every last cent of revenue he can get out of 'em!

How do you access the blooper in Windows?

[Randar the Lava Liza]

There's a gag reel on the bonus disk. To get to it you have to key in 1138 on the DVD remote control.

Sitting here on my XP machine at work, I've got no idea of how to do this. RealPlayer, WiMP, PowerDVD, VLC and Media Player Classic don't allow you to use the number keys or numeric keypad to type into the running dvd like a remote. PowerDVD has a keypad, but only when the player isn't playing, it switches to a directional navigation and select button when the dvd is running.

Anyone figure out how to play the gag reel on a Windows PC? I know I can wait and watch it at home tonight, but where's the fun in that?

Answering my own question...

[Randar the Lava Liza]

Answering my own question. Use VLC to playback, then go in the Navigation menu, then Navigation, then Title 38, then Chapter 1.

Umm

[Anonymous Coward]

Can someone clue me in why he wanted to fidget with the movie? Why not have a "clean" and "dirty" version (ie the one we all know and love with all the problems from mating to sound)

the worm is still there?!

[Chiisu]

link

the worm is still crawling on the Emporer's head; that would've been the first thing I'd have edited.....

Can any buyers confirm the rumoredaudio screw-ups?

[DeadScreenSky]

I was really looking forward to this set until I read this. The music changes (ie cuts) are especially galling, as apparently some of my favorite musical parts have been cut. (For example, that thread has some MP3s demonstrating the removal of the "Force theme" when the Xwings attack the Death Star - that is one of the best parts of the score, both thematically and musically!)

I am hoping that maybe just certain copies are messed up, though that is probably just naive. But did anyone else notice them in the DVDs?

Piracy of the "Original" LD Version?

[fraudrogic]

I'm not sure I understand the comment about "there won't be a market for the DVD's in 3 years". Why? Because people are downloading the original untouched version of the movie and won't want the crappy CGed version that is being released? That's a big f*ing clue stick if I've ever seen one.

Couldn't have in 77?

[slapout]

From the CNN interview:


"Q: Why did you rework the original trilogy into the special-edition versions in the late 1990s?

LUCAS: To me, the special edition ones are the films I wanted to make. Anybody that makes films knows the film is never finished. ... I wanted to actually finish the film the way it was meant to be when I was originally doing it."


I find it hard to believe that he couldn't have Greedo shoot first back in 1977, if that's how he orginally wanted it.

Theres something to be said for nostalgia.

[FrankieBoy]

I'm glad I've got my copies of Star Wars and Empire on LaserDisk. Now if I could only find someone to repair my player...

The only answer that will make sense...

[Stoutlimb]

They will RE RE RE Release the Return of the Jedi, with an aged and mutilated Hayden Christensen underneath Darth Vader's helmet.

At least, that's what I'd do if I wanted more money.

Bullshit,

[Anonymous Coward]

there might not be a market for the films at that time

I call bullshit. In 3 years, there won't be a market because of HD-DVD. He knows it. He sucks. I'm going to pirate this version and we'll see if I buy the next version in 3 years.

Re-releasing in the link?

[Anonymous Coward]

Lucas is quoted as saying that he never intends to re-release the original 3 movies in the first CNN link.

Yes, he might use so-called "DVD" disks or "Beta-max video tapes" for his re-releasing needs.

Voices of clones

[TuringTest]

From the article: "Since Boba Fett is a clone of Jango Fett, and Jango Fett is played by Temura Morrison, doesn't it make sense that he should sound like him, too?"

It doesn't. I know some twin sisters, and their voices are quite different.

Re:Voices of clones

[snap-hiss]

Big difference between twins and clones.

Re:Voices of clones

[TuringTest]

What difference? They're both formed from the same genetic material.

Curious George

[rutabagaman]

I read George Lucas' AP interview yesterday, and I just have to conclude that the man's gone insane.

When asked about releasing the originals on DVD, he replied:

The special edition, that's the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it's on VHS, if anybody wants it. I'm not going to spend the, we're talking millions of dollars here, the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn't really exist anymore.

This seems completely defensive and disingenuous to me. If the original movies are available on LaserDisc, presumably the difficult part of the mastering process has already been done.

I also just plain don't understand why he's so hostile towards the original films:

I wanted to actually finish the film the way it was meant to be when I was originally doing it. At the beginning, people went, "Don't you like it?" I said, "Well, the film only came out to be 25 or 30 percent of what I wanted it to be." They said, "What are you talking about?"

I've got to side with the people here; the "Special Editions" are different, but they're not that different! What did he want, a musical?

Maybe he's just trying to justify why he's spending so much of his time digitially tinkering with 20+ year old movies.

What I really hate about his positioning is that he seems to want to will the original movies out of existence even though these are the ones, warts and all, that made film history. Like many of you I just want to see them on DVD as I remember seeing them in theaters in 1997, 1980, and 1983.

If Lucas is really dead-set on not releasing the original films, even after releasing them many many MANY times on VHS, he's getting absolutely no patronage from me.

And don't get me started about I and II...

A brief summary of 99% of the comments here

[inkswamp]

For those of you who have better things to do than listen to the screaming and wailing of a bunch of fanboys, I present a summary of most posts in today's forum:

"Wwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!! !!!! Boohoo... sniffle..."

wait, who's the emperor again?

[geekpuppySEA]

Everyone knows by now that the Emperor is actually... ZELL MILLER! - one of those *old*-school Southern "democrats." You'll remember him from his meltdown at the Republican National Convention and from one of the interviews afterward...

Versioning

[Atario]

Clearly, filmmakers are going to have to adopt the version numbering system we've enjoyed (hah!) for so long in the software arena.

Original, theatrical release of Star Wars = "Star Wars 1.0"
Revised with "Episode IV: A New Hope" = "Star Wars 1.0.1"
Revised in 1997 = "Star Wars 1.1"
Revised for these DVDs = "Star Wars 1.2"

(Whether Episode IV should be 4.x vs. 1.x is left as a flamewar for the reader.)

Oh, and has anyone seen the new "THX 1138 v.1.1" yet? Not bad.

I couldn't resist, I picked up a copy

[JimLynch]

Haven't watched them yet but there's no way I could resist buying them.

It's Lucas' thing. If he wants to change things then more power to him. He's got a vision and he's following it...for good or ill.

What the FUCK.

[CAIMLAS]

4. Boba Fett has a new voice

Since Boba Fett is a clone of Jango Fett, and Jango Fett is played by Temura Morrison, doesn't it make sense that he should sound like him, too? That's exactly what George Lucas thought, so Morrison was brought in to revoice the four lines of dialogue (yes, believe it or not there are only four!) Boba spoke in the original trilogy.

Does anyone else think this is shit? Bobba Fett in the original trilogy, the way I understood it, was the son of Jango Fett - you know, that kid that was with Jango in Episode 2? Seems like saying Bobba Fett was a clone simply discards the purpose of even having the kid in Epside II at all.

I also seem to recall something in one of the novels, or something like that, about Bobba Fett being Jango's progeny. This would make sense, as progeny is more likely to follow in their father's footsteps than a clone is to follow in the footsteps of the person they were cloned from, no? I'd think a clone would be more interested in seeking their own identity.

And what's with changing Bobba Fett's voice? Even if he were a clone (I'm not believing it), half of what made Fett such a badass was his -voice-. It was fucking hardcore and made you fear the guy. Now, Jango? Not so much. Not only that, but a clone is going to have different cultural influences than Jango, and thus his accent is going to be different anyway. But I digress.

In conclusion, Lucas sucks. What a hack.

Re:What the FUCK.

[Anonymous Coward]

I dont care about the voice. Its his HAIRDOO after he is shot that provides me with howls of laughter. Dear GOD! Change the hairdoo, and I done.

Re:What the FUCK.

[snap-hiss]

"Even if he were a clone (I'm not believing it), " Have you seen Attack of the Clones??

Re:What the FUCK.

[CAIMLAS]

Yes. Did you see the little boy Jango called "Boba" that was always running underfoot?

Old school vs new school

[Akosmian]

Maybe the difference between old school and new school Star Wars fans is their memory of the first time they saw the Trilogy. I was an impressionable eight years old when Episode 4 came to the movie theater. I remember my mom dropping me off to see a different movie. Star Wars had not yet arrived in theaters. While standing outside, waiting in line, I saw a poster. It was completely back, accept for a small space ship (Tie Fighter) and a small bright spec in the center (Death Star). The poster said STAR WARS. I remember thinking, "What the hell is this movie about. It is obviously a movie with space ships. That's good, but where is the war.....I have to see this movie, with or with the war." At that time, SCFI was hard to come by, and good SCFI was absent. My diet of SCFI, up till then, consisted mostly of poorly translated, weird, Japanese robots and monsters. When I sat in my seat and the lights went down. The sights and sounds of the opening sequence blew me away. Space ships blasting each other, super menacing evil dark helmet guy, princess spies and robots running for their lives by escaping to the dirty, back-water, desert planet below. Orphaned farm boy (space cadet wanta-be), hermit old wise man, space cowboy gun slinger and his trusty, two legged, woolly horse side-kick. All taking up arms to fight the evil empire who has a weapon that makes nukes seem like mouse farts. This was deadly serious SCFI, the only thing funny was Han's contempt for chatty droids. "Holly Shit this movie totally kicks ass!". I saw that movie 10 times when it was first released and countless times since, in its original form. I was eight and I didn't need floppy ear clowns or teddy bears to keep me entertained. I am 36 now. Time has delete and faded countless memories. But the pure awe and sense of wonder revealed to me in original Star Wars, still lives vividly in my memory as it did when I was a boy. For me, any noticeable change in the original, is pure blasphemy. For me, Star Wars is the holy scripture of a SCFI profit. Copyright has become the only way to save the faith. Alas, it looks as though I will have to pirate Lucas's original vision to preserve for future generations. It is sad to see one who was once so powerful in vision, fall weakened by the temptations of the dark side. Lucas, by all appearance seems to be following in Anakin's footsteps. Maybe he will also, redeem himself on his death bed at the hands of his adopted (orphan) son.

Formatted: Old school vs new school

[Akosmian]

Maybe the difference between old school and new school Star Wars fans is their memory
of the first time they saw the Trilogy.

I was an impressionable eight years old when Episode 4 came to the movie theater. I remember my mom
dropping me off to see a different movie. Star Wars had not yet arrived in theaters.
While standing outside, waiting in line, I saw a poster. It was completely back, accept for a small space
ship (Tie Fighter) and a small bright spec in the center (Death Star). The poster said STAR WARS.

I remember thinking, "What the hell is this movie about. It is obviously a movie with space ships.
That's good, but where is the war.....I have to see this movie, with or with the war."

At that time, SCFI was hard to come by, and good SCFI was absent. My diet of SCFI, up
till then, consisted mostly of poorly translated, weird, Japanese robots and monsters.

When I sat in my seat and the lights went down. The sights and sounds
of the opening sequence blew me away. Space ships blasting each other, super menacing
evil dark helmet guy, princess spies and robots running for their lives by escaping to the dirty, back-water,
desert planet below. Orphaned farm boy (space cadet wanta-be), hermit old wise man,
space cowboy gun slinger and his trusty, two legged, woolly horse side-kick. All taking up arms
to fight the evil empire who has a weapon that makes nukes seem like mouse farts.
This was deadly serious SCFI, the only thing funny was Han's contempt for chatty droids.

"Holly Shit this movie totally kicks ass!". I saw that movie 10 times when it was first released and
countless times since, in its original form. I was eight and I didn't need floppy ear clowns or
teddy bears to keep me entertained.

I am 36 now. Time has delete and faded countless memories.
But the pure awe and sense of wonder revealed to me in original Star Wars,
still lives vividly in my memory as it did when I was a boy.

For me, any noticeable change in the original, is pure blasphemy.
For me, Star Wars is the holy scripture of a SCFI profit.
Copyright has become the only way to save the faith.
Alas, it looks as though I will have to pirate Lucas's original vision
to preserve for future generations.

It is sad to see one who was once so powerful in vision, fall weakened by the temptations of the dark side.
Lucas, by all appearance seems to be following in Anakin's footsteps. Maybe he will also,
redeem himself on his death bed at the hands of his adopted (orphan) son.

Re:Well, this cuts it. . ! It's open season.

[Anonymous Coward]

If there was ever a reason to round up the liberals, make them wear giant yellow Ls, then march them off to the death camps, this post is it...

OT: liking AOTC

[DeadScreenSky]

I like them, especially AOTC, which is my favorite of all 6 (yeah, even ESB, so suck on it). I am looking forward to Episode 3...

Just wanted to say you aren't alone. AOTC is my favorite (though ANH and ESB are damn close in my mind), and I first saw the films back in the early 80s. Dressed up as Luke Skywalker (Return of the Jedi cloak-style) for one of my first Halloweens, etc. :D

All of the Star Wars films have cheesy writing, hammy acting, lame jokes, obviously marketable machines and creatures (that's the same thing that makes them so memorable!), and silly plot devices. I think just a lot of people didn't click with the type of romantic relationship displayed in AOTC. I thought it had a good portrayal of some of that awkward silly melodramatic adolescent romance at least a lot of us go through. You don't see it portrayed in American film much anymore (even in the various teen sex comedies the character's act almost completely like adults - totally experienced in relationships, just not sex. Probably partially because the actors are all so old). Nearly all of us are corny sometime in our life!

Star Wars - a new master?

[silentbozo]

I wonder how long it will be before some fan creates a "new master" based on combining audio and picture elements from both the newly released DVDs and the old Laserdiscs (tweaked to match the restored footage, of course.) There are only so many scenes that have been tampered with, and some of them can be "reverse tampered" (ie, by painting out picture elements and compositing the old footage in place).

Hey, several people re-edited EP I, with the technology of the day, so you know that it's definitely doable now...

Re:Star Wars - a new master?

[sdo1]

I've actually thought about doing this myself, though to a lesser extent. Rip the DVD, capture the Guido/Han scene from the laserdisc, replace. Repeat as necessary for pathetic musical numbers, excessive celebrations, and extraneous characters.

Yes, I'm sure someone will do a fantastic professional job of it.

-S

Han vs. Greedo, the Umpteenth post

[Anonymous Coward]

Just for the record, it wouldn't have made sense for Greedo to fire first, since Boba Fett announced in Empire that Han was worth a lot more alive than dead.

Personally, I was always under the assumption that Greedo never fired at all, that only Han did. As many have pointed out, there's no way a bounty hunter would miss at that distance. Not even a Rodian.

And thanks to guys like you. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

there's a very good chance you'll get your wish.

The only problem is that by virtue of the fact that the word 'Liberal' actually holds a prominent spot in your vocabulary indicates to me that you've in all liklihood, 'Bought The Line'. --Which in turn means your chances of getting out of this intact are next to nil. (Assholes think that they'll be safe by embracing the rhetoric. Safe is relative, chuckles.)

What's the age of draft in your country?

You'll learn.

-FL

Bad DVDs or Some Wacky Copy Protection?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just bought the set, and the first two refuse to play properly. I use a PowerBook hooked to a DLP to project a nice 6' wide screen on my nice flat white wall. Star Wars plays for a while the begins having glitches. Empire Strikes Back won't even mount in the drive.

Return of the Jedi appears to work, but obviously I haven't had time to watch the whole thing - I skipped through all the chapters and each one at least starts to play - unlike Star Wars which craps out after the first few chapters.

It seems odd that two disks in a set would be bad, so I'm wondering if there is some new sort of "copy-protection" which is acting as "ability-to-view-protection" on my PowerBook.

Anyone else having this problem? Obviously I'll be returning the set and hoping it is just some bad DVDs, but what happens if that isn't the case? I don't even own a stand-alone DVD player anymore, and even if I did I wouldn't want to use it since they don't support the resolution of my DLP properly.

Rats Rats Rats!

m&ms vs. reeses pieces

[timothy]

In the book (said my mom, a long time ago, but I remember it well ...), ET eats M&Ms. Making your point even clearer ;)

That movie made me cry, so I don't want to see it again.

timothy

Major video Flaws in the New Hope DVD

[bigtrouble77]

Well, I noticed at least one. When the gang has left the Death Star and is fighting the 4 Tie Fighters, the Tie Fighters have MAJOR masking flaws. You can see a very visible green box around the fighters in several shots. I don't remember this in the original, and if it was it should have been fixed for this release.

Finally, why is the compression so bad for a 123 minute movie!!!!

-BT

Re:Major video Flaws in the New Hope DVD

[cmcginty]

Was it just my imagination or did some of the final Death Star battle scenes in Ep IV look like the color level drops out almost entirely? Especially the Death Star explosion, it looks horribly pixelated and almost entirely in black and white. Can anyone confirm this or is my TV/DVD just messed up? I'll try it on my computer to confirm.

Re:Major video Flaws in the New Hope DVD

[Anonymous Coward]

Those green boxes are always there. I haven't watched the whole film yet, so I can't comment, but sometimes changing your contrast settings can help. I saw these on the VHS and LD releases as well. I have like eight legitimate copies of these movies, so Lucas can suck my dong if I decide to get some illegit DVD rips of the originals at some point. I've paid his ass, already.

Here bloody here!

[spoco2]

Or is that hear hear?

Anyway... Damn straight... I am SICK of the industry trying to roll out the excuse that piracy is draining them of life and blood etc... and on the other hand saying what an amazing boon DVD is... suck it up people, you're making a packet from us.

no SW original ever...

[mabhatter654]

SW original can't ever be done!!! one of the things in the 1997 "special edition" was the revelation that the cash cow had rotted because it was ignored for 20 years. Most of the original master shots were wiped out and unuseable...that was the original motivation for many of the changes...they had to completely rebuild many shots from the seperate elements or unused footage...the movie was in THAT bad of shape.

Frankly, I think it's kinda funny that he was so busy milking his cash cow he forgot to protect it from rotting from old age!!! In reality, those of you with Laserdiscs are probably some of the few who will continue to have the original, "as seen in theaters" version!!!

He's still got piracy concerns...

[solios]

The number of people who WANT the ORIGINALS on DVD and are willing to track down laserdiscs, etceteras and actually do the work themselves to get a decent transfer of better movies.... yeah, that's loosely Fair Use. Problem is, there's one HELL of a market for The Original Trilogy on DVD. Probably BIGGER than for the current bastardized fuckstain that is the special edition.

Shit, I'd pay what the Short Bus version costs if I could just have the originals, remastered. Fuck interactive anything. I don't even need scene selections.

I want the originals. I refuse to pay for the sped editions, regardless of format, price, or extras. >:|

Re:5 changes? I think not

[eingram]

If anyone is still reading:

I created a small and short animated GIF of the Han/Greedo sequence. You can get it here.

The *real* reason DVDs are being released now

[Anonymous Coward]

They want to release the standard definition DVDs now, before DVD-HDs are available.
That way they make money when you buy it now, and when you buy it again on DVD-HD.

Number 1 Change Lucas *should* make

[Anonymous Coward]

Taking *himself* off of the entire starwars project.

Star Wars Rerelease

[Octel]

Besides all the debates on what's changed, I viewed the first DVD. I cranked up my stereo and was blown away by the quality of the sound and widescreen adaptation. IMO I was taken back to 1977 when I was 12...sitting in my local movie theatre (they had just installed a new sound system to accomodate the movie) and was in awe! It felt like the first time I heard the score being played and the Stardestroyer firing on the smaller ship; it send shivers up my spine. So to be honest, I don't mind the changes, the effect was the same on me. Even though I only have a 27" TV the widescreen works very nicely..the sound is what really got me (and having my wife yell at me to turn it down--now you know it's working!). After seeing "sky captain" yesterday (and being pissed at the crappy acting and non memorable lines), i can say that george has taken me back to my childhood! somehow I can forgive him (just a bit) for the crappy prequels he vommited out! Excuse me...but i have a date with the episode v!

still not satisfied

[jonesy16]

So, after some 25 years, half a dozen releases, countless hours of computer time "enhancing" the movie, plenty of George's wasted time "enhancing" the movie, and what are we left with a DVD edtion featuring: 1) gray boxes still floating around tie fighters 2) Death Star computer plans to plan an attack that look like an Atari game from the 80's 3) No bloopers reel 4) No added footage of Carrie Fisher (oops, Princess Leia) in her bikini. Guess we'll have to wait for the Ultra Special Edition in 2007, or the Director's Cut in 2009, or the Fox Collector's unrated version in 2012 . . .

Re:still not satisfied

[Warlock7]

The blooper reel is an Easter Egg on the Bonus Disc.

Re:still not satisfied

[Warlock7]

To access a Star Wars Trilogy gag reel, go to the Video Game & Still Galleries menu page. Using your remote, press "10+", "1" (or "11" depending on your player) and wait for the pause as the player accepts the input (note that a small box next to R2-D2 will illuminate if you're on the right track). Then press "3" and wait for the pause. Finally, press "8".

My take on it

[Bob Finklestein]

OK I know there's probably no chance of this actually being read, but I've gotta throw this out there anyway. I just rented the DVDs from my campus video store, and after watching only the first one (yes it's still the first one) I have to say I'm quite satisfied. When I watched the movie, it was the first time I was really excited by it in a while. I used to watch it with every line of dialog memorized and in the usual geek mode, but this time I just sat back and watched it as a movie, and I got just as excited as I was the first time I saw it. Does it matter to me that Greedo (now barely) shoots first? No. Do I really care if Jabba shows up and confronts Han? Not much. Am I going to be pissed off to see Hayden "I can only express one emotion" Christensen in the Return of the Jedi? Of course, but that's another matter altogether. Point is, while it would be awesome to have the original films, this is what we've got. And if I remember correctly, the joke in 1997 was that he had changed so little, that the only reason he was releasing them again was to money grub. Now we're complaining that he's changed too much? Give me a break guys. Before I picked this up I was convinced I would never own those filthy DVDs and was going to bit torrent the laserdiscs instead. But I gave my inner fanboy a rest. Anyone else who's that upset over these movies should do the same. If it's still too much for you to handle, then fine. But if you find yourself sitting on the edge of your seat during the Death Star fight, it's not really important when Greedo shot, is it?

Ugh

[mlylecarlin]

He's releasing them early because after the third new movie, there might not be anyone left who doesn't hate the series.

It's all worth while!

[gphinch]

I just finished watching ANH DVD and though it's not much different than the Special Edition, one new addition gives Lucas +100 points in my book: when the storm trooper hits his head upon entering the command room, there is now a loud "clank!" sound. That had me rolling on the floor!

fanboys praise LOTR, hate SW

[Anonymous Coward]

can't help notice a double standard here. you fanboyz whine and bitch and moan about the changes george lucas makes to sw but you fall all over yourselves in glee when peter jacksoff adds additional footage to the dvd releases of lotr. isn't he tinkering with the wonderful work that was originally released in the theater too? and before you rush in to whine that the original sw films are not available unlike lotr, check yourself. they just aren't available on dvd.

Re:fanboys praise LOTR, hate SW

[Anonymous Coward]

If you mean the LOTR SE, then no, Jackson isn't "tinkering" with anything. Adding material just help sell SE DVDs (theater releases are still on DVD, jerkoff). Lucas changed existing material and added to it. For better or for worse, it's how SW is.

Re:Teabagging Homo Nerds

[Anonymous Coward]

Pay you are goddamn SCO fee? What?

Lucas can't cook

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.lucasfilm.com/employment/jobs/lfl/ranch ops/job20040805.html

Now, if he has so much money from licensing Star Wars and all that and can afford his own cooking staff, why is the Star Wars DVD set $70 at most places ($50 for me from Suncoast)? At what point does rich people decide that they have too much money to spend in thier and thier great grandchild's life?

This reminds me of Turner colorizing movies

[KatchooNJ]

This totally smacks of Ted Turner taking old black and white movies and using computer technology to colorize those movies. They look dreadful. Is this somehow and improvement?

I agree that we should be outraged because of the changing of classics... Star Wars might even be a more intense case because of the HUGE changes that have been made. It makes you forget how revolutionary the FX were for their time and how they were done and how they looked. None of this applies if they aren't around in their original state anymore. It's a real shame. Lucas is like Turner squared or even cubed.

Also... just imagine the poor guy who was in the original trilogy that was digitally edited out so that someone else can be pasted in their place. It sure wouldn't feel good to me to see my name vanish from the credits. "I swear... I was in this movie!! I swear it!"

~Kat ^_^

Re:Cut up film..

[Technician]

Speaking of Star Wars, the original, does any one know if they edited out the scene where a stormtrouper knocks himself out? Most people miss it. It was supposed to hit the cutting room floor, but somehow made it into the film. It's a scene on the death star with 6 stormtroupers going down a corridor. The one in the back on the far right side catches a low arch right in the forhead and goes down.

I'm worried they may have removed some of the classic bloopers that we enjoy. Are you listening. We want the original.