Original Star Wars on DVD... Sorta

An anonymous reader writes "The Original Star Wars is available on DVD. Sure it's more moola in Lucas's pocketsess (Gollum accent). But he did finally release the original version for a limited time. But which Original Star Wars, I bet Episode IV is in the opening titles. " Also apparently the original versions are basically non-anamorphic transfers from the laser discs. So basically, they look terrible.

Comments

George Lucas' Fear of Failure

[eldavojohn]

Well, there wasn't much to the 'article' in this one except a bunch of odd links on www.starwars.com. But I noticed that CBS's Early Show was covering this and states:

Like it or not, this is probably all you can expect if you're clamoring for new "Star Wars" material. Lucas has vowed not to make any new movies for the series.

"I said it might be amusing to come back with Harrison and Carrie when they're 70-years old and make a movie, but I forgot that I'd be 70-years-old, too," Lucas said, referring to people who ask him about more sequels.

Lucas has talked about doing 3D version of all these films, for theaters. They would be released one-a-year. There is also talk of a 2007 "ultimate set" with all six films and new bonus material. There have also been rumors of a TV series, books, cartoons, and video games.

What, will the 3D releases offer you another chance to alter them? Was your 'original vision' to have Jabba the Hutt slither out on people's laps?

Oh, an ultimate set? You don't have enough of my money?

Seriously, I wish Lucas would understand that we would rather see completely new material from him than to see him repackage and alter what we have and do love from him. I would rather see him release 9 mediocre or bad movies than to have him edit, 3D-ify and edit again episodes IV, V & VI.

Damnit Lucas, let the studio technicians re-master the movie (they went to school for it, they know what they're doing) and give us more original content! Look at all the famous directors you've studied. Did Akira Kirosawa edit and re-release Shichinin No Samurai or Rashômon over and over and over again? No, he continued to make more movies, some very very good and some mediocre.

Re:George Lucas' Fear of Failure

[nucal]

Seriously, I wish Lucas would understand that we would rather see completely new material from him than to see him repackage and alter what we have and do love from him.

George Lucas had a few good movies in him, but in reality he had one great thing and that was to revolutionize the use of special effects. He is more of a technical specialist rather than a story teller - why else would he continue to re-work the same material over and over again by enhancing the effects?

But to expect any great new material in the form of new stories and plots from him is unrealistic. I think that Star Wars volumes I-III proved that.

Re:George Lucas' Fear of Failure

[elrous0]

why else would he continue to re-work the same material over and over again by enhancing the effects?

Piles and piles of money?

-Eric

Re:George Lucas' Fear of Failure

[Anonymous Coward]

So when the geeks beg and plead for another release of Star Wars, George Lucas releasing another release is... pure selfishness on his part? Oh wait, defending Lucas is like defending MS or Sony. My bad, returning to group think in 4...3...

Horrible Transfer

[night_flyer]

I was looking at the comments section at Amazon, and that is the biggest grip, Im going to hold onto my 60.00 and wait for them to show up at the pawn shop if this is the case.

Is Lucas trying to make a point?

Re:Will we ever get what we really want?

[saxoholic]

I agree. This definitely isn't what the fans wanted. But it is a step in the right direction given lucas's stance in the past of never releasing the original version. I'm also very happy for there to be a dvd version of return of the jedi that doesn't have hayden christiansen. he just pisses me off.

Slashdot just can't be pleased

[Pigeon451]

He finally releases the originals after he said he never would, and /. still complains bitterly ... If it's all original but fixed a couple typos (such as the opening credits), is that such a horrible thing?

Re:Slashdot just can't be pleased

[Deluxe_247]

You are right, we have nothing to complain about. And the next (first for most of /.ers) time you get a kiss, your lips meet, and he/she pukes down your throat, Im sure you'll have nothing to complain about.. After all, you DID get the kiss.

Re:Slashdot just can't be pleased

[Kjella]

What people want is really the special edition without any story changes. Most of the improvements were space battles, compositing and pyrotechnics. The improved/extra landscape scenes change essentially nothing, nor did the replacement of a few puppets/masked people to CG aliens. But when you go through the changes there's approximately three changes that could ahve any impact on the story:

1) The imfamous gun scene... who shot first?
2) Han steps on Jabba's tail - rather respectless for a man in Han's position.
3) The more graphic blaster shots were usually cut for a few frames.

Now, taking them in reverse order... The blaster shots were poor effects, essentially whiting out the area. Almost all the other pyro work (like ship explosions) was redone as well. It could have been done for rating reasons but I doubt it, I think it was more to save some work. How graphic death by light saber is doesn't matter a bit to the story anyway. or maybe it makes it more of a Jedi weapon, quick and painless not brutal and painful.

The Jabba scene is not intentional, it's because Han walks that way around Jabba. It's over the top but not desperately out of a character for the kind of ragged smuggler Han's supposed to be. Besides, it's another reason for Jabba to hold a grugde against him, which rather fits the rest of the story. They weren't friends, aren't friends and it only adds a little more bad blood between them.

So basicly.... we're left with the gun scene. It is the only one that significantly changes a main character or the relationship between them. Now, if someone could redo the five seconds worth of changed footage in the special edition to match the original scene but with redone graphics, should shut 99% of the people up. Because it's in fact the ONLY significant change I've found that's not a definitive improvement.

The Defense of I, II & III

[eldavojohn]

Sadly, after the crapola that was ep's 1,2, and 3, Lucas has already failed, and failed in a very spectacular manner. So he should be used to failure by now.

I'll defend them.

I hated Episode One, I liked Episode Two and I loved Episode Three. Overall, they're a good addition to the Star Wars universe. Episode One was fluff and terrible fluff at that. But it'd be a lie to say I don't own them and I know that these are movies that will survive time and last in my movie collection.

The important thing is that I will show them to my kids, much like the IV, V & VI were shown to me. And hopefully, they'll spur imagination and entertainment for everyone that sees them. That is the point of sci-fi movies, by the way, not to satisfy everyone that views them. I think that any eight to fourteen year old kid would enjoy all the Star Wars movies thoroughly and that makes them good. I, II & III contain excellent social commentary even though some of the acting might be terrible and the plot clunky.

We expected platinum for Lucas and he gave us silver. That's not very fair. Still, I'd rather watch Episode One than 90% of the crap I see hit movie theatres these days.

Re:The Defense of I, II & III

[CxDoo]

All Episode One had was a bunch of CGI muppets.

Re:The Defense of I, II & III

[Moby Cock]

I thought Qui-Gonn was an interesting charcter. Darth Maul was very good. The light sabre fight was really well done. The starfighter and capital ship battles were astounding. This is all good sci-fi stuff.
The movie had its faults. The little boy was awful, the introduction of midi-chlorians was a mistake, and of course, Jar Jar was a disaster.
But for me, Ep 1 did not have the scope that the others had. It was too localised, and perhaps in that respect it was aptly named.

Re:The Defense of I, II & III

[CxDoo]

I guess no one expected Episode One to be a festival of good acting or superb storytelling, but I for one hoped we'd get more background to characters involved, as in why & how. Sadly, the movie wasn't neither character, or at least action (like the original), driven, but served as a special effects showcase.

Not in a single moment was I involved in what was happening on the screen; at best I was impressed by CGI, at worst I was plain bored.

Re:The Defense of I, II & III

[jank1887]

Ep 1 seemed way to formulaic to me. ep's 4-6 worked and he was trying to just copy what they did. Jar jar was trying to be another Chewbacca, but he was so horrible he had to get virtually written out of the rest of the series, making for a wasted character opportunity. Seemed like he was trying to copy the end battle of Jedi, with a space battle, a ground battle, and a few selects attempting an infiltration. The whole thing just seemed forced to a formula.

Re:The Defense of I, II & III

[Opportunist]

Episode One is by default boring to someone who knows the SW universe. It's supposedly the explanation to everything following it, the cause to what we see as the effects in later movies. Of course it is boring to someone who has seen the "old" trilogy of IV to VI. And Lucas most likely knew that it would have been equally boring if he filmed it first.

Why else would he have started with Episode IV? Usually, you start at the beginning.

My guess would be that IV is just as boring (over long stretches) for someone who saw them the first time in the "right" order (i.e. new trilogy first, old one last). Because it, again, explains a lot. A lot that you already know when you've seen I-III.

In total, though, EpOne was a huge disappointment in pretty much every aspect. It has long passages of rather boring background info that doesn't really come to fruit in the movies (it does in the books, but the movies left out a sizable portion of this). Generally, it consists in large parts of Anakin being introduced as a very great Jedi-wannabe and the zany antics of JarJar.

What was the REAL disappointment was the rest of the Trilogy. Ep2 had the ability to become a great SciFi movie. Hey, it had the growth of Palpatine, it had the beginning of Anakin's corruption and let's not forget, it had what made every SciFi movie great: Tons and tons of robots. Lucas decided to make a cheesy love story out of it. A love story. Now, name ONE SciFi movie that is named when it comes to numbering the greatest SciFi movies of all times that consists basically of a love story. Yes, of course, Anakins love was one of the key elements to his ultimate corruption to the dark side, but does it have to be stretched to the lengths that the average SW fan falls asleep?

Finally Ep3. I was waiting to be compensated. I was actually expecting, no, demanding that we'll see a movie that rivals the greatness of IV and... hell the whole old trilogy! Hey, we all knew what was supposed to happen. And we all wanted to know one thing: HOW? Just HOW exactly does Anakin become Vader? What do we get? A laser sword fight over a lava pit that doesn't even come close to the emotional struggle displayed in VI between Vader and Luke. Great CGI, no doubt. But where was the emotion?

And in the end, without further ado, we get a Vader presented shouting a simple NOOOOO. What? No gory details? I, at the very least, would have expected some bargaining between Palpatine and Anakin, something like "I save your life and you join me on the dark side", some epic personal struggle for Anakin, at least SOMETHING that gives me a reason to feel for those characters.

Generally, great CGI, great effects, great eye candy, shallow story. If I wanted that, I could as well play a game.

Re:The Defense of I, II & III

[Keebler71]

Why else would he have started with Episode IV? Usually, you start at the beginning.

First, he didn't start with Episode IV. He started with a movie called "Star Wars". Empire was the first movie to carry an episode number, and the original Star Wars did not get its "Episode IV" subtitle until its re-release. Second, it should be very clear to anyone who watched the series evolve in real-time that George Lucas was making up as he went. He may have had the very vague concept of something larger in his head but I refuse to believe that he:

• Had any idea of the plots for sequels
• Didn't improvise the death of Kenobi
• Luke and Leah would end up sisters (come on... would that kiss be in Empire? Note that the original theatrical trailers highlighted aspects of the movie as a love story)
• Knew Vader would be Luke's father (come on "from a certain point of view"?!.

Re:The Defense of I, II & III

[Fallingcow]

Ripped-off from the awesome "Tales of the Jedi" comic book series, set many (many) years before Episode I, and released when the new trilogy was little more than a twinkle in Lucas' eye.

Still cool, but it kind of pisses me off that he ignores continuity created by 3rd party stuff that he sanctioned and licensed, while stealing ideas from them. Now that loser Darth Maul is forever associated with the aweseom double-bladed saber, while poor Exar Kun--a much, much better character--is practically unknown (outside of geek circles, I suppose).

That series also had writing that was better than probably either trilogy. If they ever make new movies, it should be based on either that or on Zahn's trilogy.

Re:The Defense of I, II & III

[Josh Hiles]

You're preaching the gospel, that entire series is far (far) and away better than anything Uncle George has cranked out of his wheezing marketing factory in the last decade. Even ignoring the fact that Epidsode One could have been replaced by flashing pictures of the characters w/ captions explaining who they are, never mind that Episode Two had a plot that only a demented crackhead could follow. They managed to screw up Darth Vader's origin story! How in the hell does that work. Lucas should just stick to toymaking and leave creative work to the creative people he hired and paid to carry on his "legacy." It's so funny when people butt-rape their own life's work the way he has.

Re:The Defense of I, II & III

[AgentSmith]

And that was the real hook with Tales of the Jedi. The Sith history and background. Real in depth and conflicted characters. You see the inevitable fall towards the dark side and see the tragedy. With Episode III you see the inevitable flaw and think "Boy, that was stupid."

Exar Kun Fatal Flaw: Pride and the quest to seek out knowledge in all manner of the force. Dark or light, all should be explored.

Anakin Skywalker Fatal Flaw: Gotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save Padme(Damn Obi Wan!)Gotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save PadmeGotta save Padme

More indepth exposure of the sith would have made it darker and more fulfilling.

The one thing facing me in complaining about the prequels. Lucas started from scratch on this and made it into a new thing. How many people on /. have created a complete Space Opera? Or even an outline story arc? He did it once with the Star Wars trilogy and got it right because it was the right series at the right time. We weren't as complex an audience in the 70's as we are now. Hell, even Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the Shining were pretty damn cool at the time. It's difficult to create something new these days with every shrub and zuul complaining about the nitpicks. Let alone doing the armchair critic equivalent of proof reading an already finished work. I know my afore mentioned statements about the sith make me a hypocrite, but I guess that's the duality of this arguement. Sure see the crap, but see the nitpicker in yourself and know that writing is difficult.

Look at a blank page and then create a full story arc. Try it.

Now create something that no one else has done. Make an original story. Begin now.

After you pour a great deal of time into it and you think it's finished. Try having someone read it as a finished work.

I'm not saying scriptwriters are these awesome colossal beings, but it is hard to make something even slightly original from your mind. (I know Lucas wasn't original since he used traditional archtypes and he copied from all his fav directors anyway, but you get my drift.)

I'll Bite

[blueZhift]

Meh. I've read the complaints, but I'm tired of waiting. Getting 2-DVD sets for $20USD a pop is a good deal, and I put my VCR (original trilogy on VHS) away a long time ago. So I'm going to go ahead and pick them up. If a remastered version of the original ever comes out, I'll probably pick it up. But life is too short to wait around for perfection.

I've got a bad feeling about this...

[cyber1kenobi]

I still have my original VHS tapes which were recorded off of regular TV way back when. I remember using our VCR that had a wired remote control! lol At this point they've been viewed so many times you can barely see ANYTHING in ESB because everything is so dark. I was extremely pumped that they were releasing the "originals" on DVD, only to be crushed by this mess with a bad transfer. Didn't they digitally remaster the originals before making all of those changes?! Can't they use that to make these new DVDs?! They took away the orignal Ewok song / celebration at the end of ROTJ. That part always gave me the shivers. Now we've got that awful multi-world celebration and that horrible music - what were they thinking! And that f'n' animated creature singing in Jabba's palace - hold on, I have to wipe the puke off my shoes.

I like the new DVDs

[arcticstoat]

I bit the bullet and bought the DVDs. Much as I'm loathe to give bullfrog-face Lucas any more of my money (having seen that he spends it on making rubbish like Jar Jar Binks), I decided that the Special Editions just irritated me too much, and I wanted to watch Star Wars without shouting at the TV. Quality-wise, I think they're actually pretty good. They're not the digitally remastered versions, but they still look very clean, and they're also in widescreen. These DVDs offer a much clearer picture than any old VHS tape will, although the compression is a little more obvious than on the Special Editions. The quality isn't anywhere near as bad as some whingers would have you believe anyway. At the end of the day, I'm glad I bought them. They might not be cleaned up, but if they'd never been digitally remastered before then you wouldn't be complaining about that anyway. I think of them as a piece of history i.e. the way the films looked originally, and should really look now. Now that I have the originals, I'm going to blissfully pretend that George Lucas died in 1984, and that the Special Editions and Episodes I, II and III never happened. This makes me happy.

Enough already

[Mayhem178]

You people will always find something to complain about when it comes to George Lucas, won't you? If he discovered perfectly preserved original prints of the first trilogy, decided to release them in theatres again, got John Williams to play the Star Wars soundtrack live at each theatre with the London Symphony Orchestra, AND paid for everyone's first ticket to see them, you'd blame him for your popcorn being stale.

I applaud Lucas in his devotion to his creation that millions love. It's an icon of our time.

If you don't like the movies or the editing that has been done to them, that's fine. Don't buy them. It's that simple.

Woah, hold on there buddy!

[isecore]

So basically, they look terrible.

Now, I'm no expert but wasn't that the whole point with releasing the originals on DVD?

*ducks and waits for a +flamebait to hit him*

Re:Will we ever get what we really want?

[Sancho]

I gotta call bullshit.

This is freaking ILM we're talking about. If they can't undo the changes they made from the Special Edition 'masters' (whether they're in digital form or actually some type of celluloid, I don't know) then I'll eat my non-SE VHS tapes. These people are masters at digital manipulation and restoration. There is simply no way that they are incapable of recreating the originals using the SE versions as a base + laserdisc (for reference).

Originals destroyed? I don't think so....

[JakiChan]

They make it sound like it was unavoidable to destroy the original footage. Somehow I doubt that.

Wouldn't the first step in making the "special editions" be to digitize and clean up the original film? And who in their right mind would destroy that data? It can't take up too many drives.

So to me it means one of two things:

1. In his hatred of his original work, Lucas ordered the data deleted, which is pretty stupid (since keeping it around would be cheap).

2. He *has* a very nice cleaned up original version sitting on the Lucas SAN somewhere but refused to allow that to be released.

Either way it blows....

Re:Will we ever get what we really want?

[Prof.Phreak]

No responsible studio or FX house would EVER destroy the material they began with.

You're making an assumption about someone else's competence. A dangerous thing to do.

Laserdisc Interpolation...

[QJimbo]

Here's an idea.... rather than say capturing from one laserdisc master, how about they collect 50 or so laserdiscs, capture all of them and then maybe some of the data lost in the analog process could be interpolated from all the copies to produce a clearer picture? I don't know how well that'd work.

Lucas cannot win. I have Karma to burn.

[dswensen]

The release of these DVDs firmly establishes that you cannot please Star Wars fanboys.

Demand for the release of the original, unaltered trilogy on DVD has come up in the form of a great and plaintive whine in every single Star Wars-related story on Slashdot since probably around 1999. Now, here they are, and what are the "fans" doing? Complaining.

Sure, Lucas could have remastered the OT's picture and sound, made it anamorphic, and left out all the Special Edition changes. But then you would just have fanboys complaining that that constitutes an alteration. I know, you think that sounds outlandish, but I guarantee you it's not. Star Wars has become less about enjoying the films than complaining about the films, at least around here.

I think the only way the whiny fans will ever be pleased is when the technology finally emerges to Choose Your Own Star Wars Edition, where you pick from a digital menu which alterations you want. "OK, I want the non-Special Edition, with remastered picture and sound, Han shoots first, lightsabers are colored, old sandcrawler but new dewbacks, I want the new space battles... hmm, the Death Star explosion: ring or no ring?"

I'm kidding, of course. That won't actually solve anything, the whiners will just complain that they're once again being "forced" to buy another edition. George Lucas wants me to pay for entertainment. I have no free will and have to pay for every edition whether I like it or not. Boo hoo. :(

The unaltered OT is out on DVD. You got your wish. Now, for Christ's sake, quit your bitching. Instead of continuing to moan about what you didn't get, count your lucky stars that we live in an economy that can support your having so many choices in your entertainment. And recognize that it is a choice. You great big giant babies.

Ahh, okay, I feel better. Have a great day.

Re:Will we ever get what we really want?

[skam240]

I think it is safe to assume that in a request for the original theatrical version of the movie on DVD it is implied that people would like a full remastering effort, like what is done with pretty much every other classic movie brought to DVD. It's sort of like some one asking for a hamburger and getting a patty of cooked meat placed in their hand. The bun is sort of implied in the request.

Basically, this is not what people screamed for and whether he "stuck it to us or not" is not debatable.

Can't you feel the love? sheesh

[sorphin]

I for one, am going to buy the new 'release', because it's better than VHS, and saves me from having to convert it myself.. I thought the whole point of watching a movie was to enjoy it, not sit and analyze it's post production, but after reading an ongoing thread on 'originaltrilogy.com', several posts by someone who apparently 'works in production and has done work for lucasfilm', insists things like CGI grain has been added to the movies, etc.. Why can't you just enjoy the damn movies? Instead, it has become, I want super higher than high def video and ultra surround sound of a 30 year old movie.. criminey. I'd hate to be around some people when they see a movie in the theater... Just my $.02.

I wish...

[Trogre]

I bought the OT DVD set when it came out in 2004, and would have considered buying these ones too if:

1) They fixed the plethora of problems introduced by doing a rushed DVD transfer by Lowry Digital. Examples that stand out include forgetting to take lightsabre colours into account when colour-correcting scenes and flipping music channels. From what I gather Lowry had 30 days per movie.

2) They included the classic trilogy, obtained from film material from the 1997 film restoration of the OT for the DVD transfer. It seems they underwent a major film restoration process to get the best possible source material for the Special Edition. Surely they preserved that before Lucas started scribbling on it with new effects.

So as it stands I won't be buying these. They've done nothing to fix the Special Edition, and the Classic Edition looks no better than on Laserdisc.

Re:Will we ever get what we really want?

[SamTheButcher]

That's not even close to the truth.

It's exactly the truth. For you to claim otherwise is your own opinion, colored by what you feel you're owed, or entitled to, from George Lucas. Which, IIRC, is...let's see here... *nothing*.

First of all, you can't just buy the originals. You must buy the re-edits to get the originals as a "bonus" feature.

Oh, so *that's* what a split hair looks like!

Secondly, the Theatrical release of the original trilogy was on superb 70mm film prints. It pushes current DVD technology to the very limit to represent anything close to how good those films looked on the big screen.

Right...because it was 70mm on a BIG SCREEN. And, as we've been told, the prints have been destroyed. So we've been told.

Furthermore, "THX Sound" was invented as a way of insuring that theaters would have the kind of audio quality Lucas believed his films demanded. Every film the guy has ever released has always been put out with the very best media presentation available at the time... until now.

Wrong. THX was invented in 1983, so the first two films made use of what was available at the time.

I'm going to get my hands on bootleg LD rips, and be content with that as the best format the original movies will probably ever again exist in.

You could've done that for a long time now. But it's a choice. You choose not to buy, I choose to, well, I'll probably rent them from Netflix first to see if I want to buy them. Then there's this tidbit from Wikipedia: "It is said that this edition will be released in a "Grand Saga" box set. Lucasfilm Vice President of Marketing Jim Ward confirmed that in this final release, Lucasfilm is likely to return to John Lowry to do even more work on the films (possibly digital contemporization of the original trilogy). He says, "As the technology evolves and we get into a high-definition platform that is easily consumable by our customers, the situation is much better, but there will always be work to be done.""

Who knows. But is it really worth getting all bunged out about?