Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today?

[Konaguy]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

I know this O/T but I posted this elsewhere :

http://tinyurl.com/3urjd

[helen]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

Finally saw The Empire Strikes Back on Saturday.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

I don't know...I saw the movies years ago, even sat in the gold circle $50 seats at Cinerama at the Return of the Jedi episode and did a radio review without spoiling it. Maybe Star Wars has become a cult movie like Rocky Horror Picture show (didn't know what I walked into when I went to see that one one Halloween night), but I've seen the original three episodes too many times when they first came out and like those lyrics, "like a worn out recording of a favorite song" (Escape-the Pina Colada song) I just can't bear to watch it anymore.

I was 17 when the first Star Wars movie came out and was blown away. But I'd rather watch HGTV now whenever some movie channel decides to run SW. I know I'm such a spoiler but there's better ways to spend $50 and I wouldn't buy a hamburger either for that price (see Kaukau Korner best hamburger).

[Konaguy]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

I was only 1 year old when Star Wars came out. The first Star Wars Trilogy
movie saw was Return of the Jedi in 1983. I saw Star Wars and Empire
Strikes Back when they were later released on VHS.

[pzarquon]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

One thing this release does that disappoints me is that it puts the final nail in the coffin for those who were hoping for a "definitive" trilogy DVD that included the original original movies. You know, the actual release seen on screens in 1977, 1980, and 1983... not the "new and improved" re-releases wherein Lucas added extra effects, extra scenes, and made various other changes. Your only chance to catch those now are second-hand laserdiscs or decaying videotapes.

I know it's Lucas' story, and he's said emphatically that the changes he made were ones he would have made had the technology existed at the time the films were first filmed... but to me the redone versions lose some of the character of those first efforts at filmmaking. So the effects and the muppets were a little cheesy... it was state of the art at the time, and we were properly awed.

I particularly miss the original Death Star explosion, which was pure mechanical/physical pyrotechnics. By today's standards it looked like an overgrown firecracker, but that image is still burned in my memory. The new explosion, which took a page out of the Star Trek "Planet Explosion Handbook," is stylish, to be sure... but no longer anything special.

[Linkmeister]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

The problem with the originals, as I understand it, is that the original film was so worn out that it couldn't be transferred to disc without major surgery. That's what forced Lucas to make "new" versions. I'll believe it. For about two months long ago I worked part-time as a projectionist, and the quality of some of those films (physical, not artistic) was absolutely horrid, and most of them were not nearly as frequently run as Star Wars was.

[pzarquon]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

Here's a quick interview with him on CNN, saying what he's been saying elsewhere. It wasn't that he couldn't bring out the original theatrical release... it's that he simply won't do it. He notes that what we saw in the 70s and 80s is barely half of what he wanted to accomplish... the "special editions" are closer to what he considers the real movies.

Like I said, they're his movies and he can do what he likes. But I'll miss the originals, warts and all.

[Konaguy]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

I read in a article that George Lucas said the orignal Star Wars movies
he was able to do only 25-30% of what he really wanted to do. Thus
his reasoning why he did not release the original cut of the films is
because the modified ones were the ones he really wanted to make.
But the technology at the time limited him.