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Classic Star Wars Trilogy Finally on DVD
chinton writes "From starwars.com: 'In response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie, as well as the original theatrical edition of the film. That means you'll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983.'"
Didnt george lucas come out years back with some rhetoric about how DVD was tehsux and lucasfilm would only pump out VCDs or some shit like that? .. yeah .. good plan ..
Is it truly the original? Did Han shoot first?
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
You know, there's something undeniably good about Episodes IV, V & VI.
Especially when you see it on the big screen. Unfortunately, I was born in 1982 meaning that I wasn't quite to the point of being able to go see it in theatres when it was released. But the special edition releases changed all that--though the changes George Lucas made did leave me feeling kind of hollow (wtf, Han?).
I would think that the mass turn out to see the special edition movies would be proof enough that releasing the originals to theatres every ten years would be profitable. In fact, I would conjecture that releasing it every ten years would give everyone the chance to see it at an early age and be beneficial to the Star Wars franchise. I know Lucas wouldn't be able to resist changing parts of it but hopefully he'll be preoccupied with destroying the Indiana Jones Trilogy by then.
I did notice that Mr. Lucas isn't cited once in this article and instead we hear from Jim Ward who is perhaps actually interested in what the fans have to say as they are providing his paycheck.
If you were to ask me on any day of the week, "Would you like to go see one of the Star Wars movies on the big screen?" You bet I would. It's immeasurably better than the utter drek that's in theatres now. Oftentimes my friends propose we go see a movie only to discover that there is nothing but pure crap. What does Lucasfilm have that so few movies today lack? Timelessness--the ability to surpass the aging of the film and the advances in technology that every movie today uses.
While it's true I'm a fan of Star Wars so my opinion might be biased, I've never found anyone who's outright hated it.
Well, I got original separate movies for my birthday at a young age, the VHS set of this trilogy when I was about 15, I bought the special edition DVDs in wide screen format a couple years ago and now it looks like I'll be purchasing yet another copy of these movies. Boy, Lucasfilm sure has my number.
My work here is dung.
I should have known they'd eventually cave to milk another buck out of me. I never would have bought the redux trilogy if I'd believed this was coming. Sad thing is, I know I'll buy them...
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
I seem to remember back when they were selling the original films on VHS in the UK shortly before the remastered version came out the advertising said that this was the last chance to buy this version of the film.
-- Sorry, I can't think of anything funny to say here.
It pissed me off to no end when I got the original trilogy on DVD, and they'd replaced the ghost of the "old" Anakin Skywalker with the ghost of the "young" Anakin Skywalker at the end of RotJ.
Lucas is essentially releasing a high grade dvd bootleg of the Uber 1993 Laserdisc release. The picture quality will be 1993 and the sound 2.0 stereo AND you still have to essentially re-buy the crappy 2004 release which comes in the same set. Lucas is such a cock. I know damn well he has perfect, unaltered, un-CGI'ed, versions of Star Wars; he has to have them. But, instead, he is pretending that they were somehow destroyed.
"Jeremy, you need to get to an internet cafe and cut and paste some appropriate sentiments about me from the world wide
I know that the scenes were filmed, and I seem to remember seeing the scenes with Luke's friends in Anchorhead, where Biggs told him he was joining the rebellion (leaving Luke behind on Tattooine). Sure, it's 29 years ago, and I was only nine years old at the time, but I can still remember later reports saying that it was in the original theater release (and the first victim of George's redacting desires). It was one of those things that Lucas didn't want to do, but added because he was told just having the 'droids would remind people of THX 1138 in a bad way.
I personally liked the scenes. It made it easier for the audience to feel Luke's feeling of being left behind while important things happened Elsewhere, and made Bigg's death in the trench more painful.
Do what I did. Have a kid and raise him until he's around 8-9 years old. Get the original trilogy in DVD. Sit down on a Sunday afternoon and watch it with him. Relive the moment.
Granted, my boy is only two right now, so my plan won't come to fruition for a few more years. Also, I don't know what to do whith the kid afterwards. Oh, those pesky details.
No. He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil.
Seriously, this isn't about good in the least. Let me do some translating here. From TFA:
"Over the years, a truly countless number of fans have told us that they would love to see and own the original version that they remember experiencing in theaters," said Jim Ward, President of LucasArts and Senior Vice President of Lucasfilm Ltd. "We returned to the Lucasfilm Archives to search exhaustively for source material that could be presented on DVD. This is something that we're very excited to be able to give to fans in response to their continuing enthusiasm for Star Wars."
Like all PR machines, there's a certain amount of fudging that goes on, let me translate:
"Over the years, a throng of vicious purists have told us that the so called 'improvements' suck balls. What they want to see is the original before we did more damage than repair. There was also a large number of nerds stationed outside George's house chanting, 'Han Shot First.'" said Jim Ward, President of LucasArts and Senior Vice President of Lucasfilm Ltd. "Pretty much, all we have to do is take the last VHS release before the special editions and prime it for DVD release. However, don't make the mistake that we're being altruistic to our fans in any way. The fact is, many of these weak willed nerds broke down and bought the first DVD release and now that their failure is complete, we can sock it to them with yet another release. George loves cash, what can we say? We double charge the weak and now even milk the cash out of the purists that were holding out."
Dammit. Dammit. Dammit.