CT Special edition - worst and best changes

What people? Generalizing with Star Wars gets you statements like “most people didn’t like the prequels.” Your argument only accounts for your opinion, which is fine but it’s disingenuous to suggest that it’s the status quo, especially on such an obscure change. This thread is all about looking at the SE changes through a critical lens, there’s going to be some opinions you don’t like

 

Okay, fair enough.

So you think Lucas would be okay with that? Really? Come on. No "meh." This isn't a serious argument. His position has always been that there's only one movie and he doesn't want multiple versions in wide circulation competing with each other.

Argue for the choose-your-own-adventure idea if you want, but don't try to support it by appealing to Lucas. We all know he doesn't support that, and would never support that.

Yes, it was noticeable, since as I pointed out it was a well-known blooper listed on many sites and commented upon frequently on message boards. Those are objective facts. Your opinion is just your opinion, and your distortions of my argument are also your own. Thanks for having this discussion with me.

 

As I pointed out: Lucas doesn't want multiple versions in wide circulation competing? Too late. His constant tinkering (which I like) has already created this dynamic. The Blu Rays, The DVDs, and Disney+/4k versions are all in wide circulation to the masses. Each version is different. So again, I ask: Which is the "George Lucas approved" version?

It wasn't my idea. Yet it's a cool concept for this digital age we live in.

 

It's not Lucas stopping it. Fox still has distribution rights on ANH. They're the hold up on an OOT release.

 

Disney owns Fox, too.

 

I believe it’s Lucas that’s preventing the unaltered original trilogy from getting a proper release.

 

If Lucas still holds some contractual thing allowing him to block the release of the OT then Disney needs to get better lawyers. Other than his own personal prints of the movies, the sale of Lucasfilm should have included all material assets and related rights without exception.

 

Yeah, I forgot about them buying up part of Fox.

 

When it comes to the studio, they bought the whole thing

 

Wait, so I'm looking at this: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases

...where it says "The original, unaltered theatrical editions were released (as bonus material) on DVD on September 12, 2006." So does that mean I can go out and get the OOT if I wanted to?

 

Technically there has only been one version on sale at a time. So they aren't competing with each other. Each new version replaced the pervious version.

The 1995 VHS cuts meant the earlier VHS tape versions were no longer in production. The 1995 versions were no longer produced when the the 1997 Special Editions were released. With DVD it meant no more VHS at all. When the BluRay versions were released in 2011, the earlier DVD were retired and and all new DVDs of the 2011 versions released. The digital releases from 2015 are the same 2011version except the fox logo and fanfare are removed from all but A New Hope.

All versions since November 2019 should be the same as the Disney+ release. The fall 2019 BluRays discs are still the 2011 versions, but word is the digital code for those changed after November 2019 and now download the Disney+ versions. Apparently the Disney+ versions are also what is sold on the iTunes store and other digital streaming. The 4K and BluRays in March should also be the Disney+ versions.

Those are out of print. So not in a store. But on eBay or secondary market, yes you could buy them. But the DVDs are the Laser Disc versions on DVD. They're not specially mastered for DVD.

 

So what's the reason for including the OOT for a time, then discontinuing it again? If there was a rationale for including it before (because some people want to watch the OOT) well that rationale still exists, doesn't it?

 

The quality/ratio on those discs was pretty poor unfortunately.

 

Technically, you are correct. However, this doesn't negate the fact that there are multiple versions in wide circulation. Also, there is overlap, as you know, from time to time. The OOT included with the DVD's, the current blu-rays being different than the Disney+ versions.

 

Precisely why I said what I said

 

If ever a deleted scene needed to be restored it was this one. It ties in the OT to the PT, they could've redubbed Garven Dreis into saying "I flew with your father once, when I was a cadet. He was a great pilot, If you've half the skill he had you'll do alright".


Plus it would've given then a great opportunity to have fledgling pilot Garven Dreis appear in a TCW episode.

 

The rationale might just be "Allow demand to build, then when it reaches a critical point bring it out again." In other words, marketing.

 

Marketing and money being spent. The OOT on DVD cost next to nothing to make.

The OOT on DVD is just the Laser Disc versions of the films ported over to DVD. It's the cheapest way possible to release them. Little or nothing new was done to the films. They are presented at 480i resolution in a 4:3 aspect ration with letter boxing at the top and bottom of the 4:3 screen. Watched on a wide screen TV the image would only fill a small rectangle in the middle of the screen.

This is what most bootlegs were in 2006. So Lucasfilm put the 1995 transfers on DVD. In 2006 it was passable on a 4:3 SD TV. They don't look good. And there was zero interest from Lucasfilm in investing money to restore them for an HD release.

 

Before the 2006 DVD, was there ever a home release that included the original Star Wars pre-ANH crawl? Because as much as those DVDs were 99% the Laserdisc transfers, I find it interesting that they did manage to source the original crawl from somewhere.

 

Not to my knowledge. Are you saying Lucasfilm spent the money in 2006 to replace the Laserdisc title crawl with the orignal theatrical title craw? Or was this something that was done earlier?

 

That's the question, isn't it? Where did they source the original title crawl from? I don't think it's publicly known (yet), but the answer would be interesting.

 

I'm not sure when exactly it was done. Some have speculated that they did a new transfer in 2006 of some film source, but I'm not so sure. The theme of that release was "cheap", so I have to think that they probably just found a version in the Lucasfilm archives. For example, in the Empire of Dreams documentary from 2004, we can see a glimpse of the original crawl:

Spoiler

But then again, that documentary version looks even lower quality than what was on the 2006 DVD, so who knows, maybe they did do a new transfer of a film source.

 

The rationale was pretty clearly to just be able to point to that release when people complained about the originals not being available. Little effort was put into transferring/restoring them and they were distinctly subordinate to the main releases. In other words, they weren't really competing with the updated versions.

Lucas obviously had no real interest in doing it. So he put in the bare minimum required to be able to say he released them. He made some money from the people who wanted them, and at the same time kept them from overshadowing the modern versions. It was a win/win for him, not so much for OOT purists.

 

If I recall correctly there were VHS tapes of the pre-79 version available out there.

I once rented a VHS of the original film and it lacked C-3PO's dialogue about the tractor beam. I remember thinking it was an error, and was concerned because I was showing the film to a Star Wars virgin, but actually those lines were added later. I don't know if they were added for the 79 release or afterward. Back in the days of the pre-web internet, newsgroup discussions went into a lot of detail about small differences in the editions available at the time and the theatrical releases.

Incidentally, I think the dialogue free version where Obi-Wan just looks at the flashing screen and puts it together in his mind is pretty cool.