Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today?

[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.

[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.

[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 ?

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.

[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.

[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).

[helen]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

Finally saw The Empire Strikes Back on Saturday.

[Konaguy]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

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

http://tinyurl.com/3urjd

[Konaguy]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

My parents have a 27in TV and I have a 20in TV. Ever since I got really
into DVDs about 3 years ago, I have always gotten full screen versions
of the movies I bought. I can understand your reasons to get wide screen
versions, but for me like I said it is simply too annoying and distracting
the wide screen format.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Half Past Dead are two DVDs I recall
recently having the two differents versions on the same DVD.

[pzarquon]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

I personally find the Widescreen black boxes on the top and bottom a MAJOR distraction when I'm watching a movie.

It's definitely a matter of taste, and I'm glad they often give you a choice, whether it's on one DVD or on separately packaged discs. I personally can't stand "pan-and-scan" - a gorgeous, expanse of moviemaking shoehorned into the TV aspect ratio, often cutting off characters or requiring the transfer camera to move back and forth across what the filmmaker intended to be a single, stationary scene.

Helen also mentions another benefit - non-intrusive closed captioning.

So I'm definitely a widescreen advocate... even though I'll probably never afford one of those giant, flat, plasma TVs you probably need to get the most benefit from it.

Yeah, if you've got a smaller television, "pan-and-scan" is probably the only way to go - having the letterbox would give up way too much space, making the actual movie difficult to see.

And with some recent all-CGI movies - "A Bug's Life," "Monster's Inc.," for example - you don't lose as much as you usually would because they actually re-render scenes to center the action on a TV screen.

[Konaguy]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

It's a matter of choice between the Widescreen and the Full Screen versions. While some DVDs will offer both in one package it's kind of rare (Air Force One comes to mind). With Star Wars Widescreen edition you get to see the extreme left and right side of the image and with black box on the bottom, well that's where the English subtitles go which doesn't block the original image.

Having both the Wide Screen and Full Screen on one disk is becoming more
prevalent though. I recall buying a DVD recently and it gave me a choice
between full screen and wide screen. I believe you see more of it because
of dual sided DVD discs. I personally find the Widescreen black boxes on
the top and bottom a MAJOR distraction when I'm watching a movie.

[helen]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

It's a matter of choice between the Widescreen and the Full Screen versions. While some DVDs will offer both in one package it's kind of rare (Air Force One comes to mind). With Star Wars Widescreen edition you get to see the extreme left and right side of the image and with black box on the bottom, well that's where the English subtitles go which doesn't block the original image.

[Konaguy]

Re: Did you buy the Star Wars Trilogy Today ?

Full Screen does not have that stupid black box on the top and bottom.
Thus thats why I bought the Full Screen version of Star Wars.
Widescreen does have that stupid black box on the top and bottom.

I have watched all three Star Wars Movies annd cannot wait for Episode
Three which will be coming out in summer of 2005. The Episode of Dreams
behind the scenes was very interesting, along with seeing the trailers
from the movies.

Bear in mind the three movies have been tweaked a bit especially Stars
Wars and Return of the Jedi. Additional scenes among other things have
been added to the original versions.

[pzarquon]

Re: Star Wars Trilogy on DVD

For those of you who brought the Star Wars Trilogy did you watch it yet?

We finally picked it up yesterday at Costco, "Widescreen" version, of course. (Good thing I studied both gold and silver boxes carefully... for a moment I couldn't figure out why there was a difference!) With a baby and two other kids in the house, I don't anticipate being able to carve out major chunks of time to watch the DVDs in the near future, but we'll get around to it.

We did pop in the extra, fourth DVD last night, just to see what there was on Episode III. Not much, it turns out, but enough so that we're still looking forward to it (despite Episodes I and II).

[helen]

Star Wars Trilogy on DVD

For those of you who brought the Star Wars Trilogy did you watch it yet?

So far I watched A New Hope and Return of the Jedi with English subtitles on because one of the big mystery is when did they call the fighters used by the empire as TIE fighters. And it never happened in A New Hope. Of course they did manage to not to subtitle a scene when Luke says "Carrie" when he gets off his fighter.

I did watch part of the bonus material DVD. I do want to play these movies again with the audio commentary on one of these days.