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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.
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.
My work here is dung.
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.
Its Deluxe, son. Deluxe!
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.
My work here is dung.
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.
To the making of books there is no end, so let's get started
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.
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*
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
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).
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....
"Where quality is like a dead stinking rat - you just can't miss it."
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.
"If anything can go wrong, it will." - Murphy
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.
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.
I ignore Anonymous Coward posts. If you want to discuss something, that's awesome. Log in.
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?