A little offtopic. I just saw the three reviews of the prequel films by Red Letter Media. Holy shit, now I love the OT even more, despite starting loving them since just a few years ago (I always liked them, but I didn't LOVE them).

It is funny that a 21 years old person like myself, who never saw the original films in their unaltered state on cinemas, can love three old movies for the same reasons why people loved then in '77, '80 and '83: character interaction, good pacing, smart use of elements for film development like lightsaber duels and combats and real-looking special effects. When I see a jedi using a lightsaber in a prequel film for the nth time and fake looking, glossy spaceships a little part of myself dies. I guess the original films are atemporal: everytime I see the rebel ship and the imperial stardestroyer at the start of Star Wars my mind blows.

Thank you guys. You are my heroes.

I joined these forums after seeing the Despecialized Editions. I apologize if my questions have already been answered but this thread is very long and it's kind of hard to get through everything that was posted. First off, I want to give a huge thanks to Harmy for the Despecialized editions. They look excellent and it's great to be able to watch the movies in HD the way I remember them without all the distracting changes. I did wonder about a few things though. In the remastered version, during the scenes where the Jawas are watching R2-D2 in the canyon, is the color correct? The first version seems more accurate to what I remember when I first saw the movie in the theater. I say this because I clearly remember wondering why the Jawas seemed to have red eyes in the theater but the toys and even home video release they had yellow eyes. The change in tint would explain this. Also, R2 looks a little greenish in the remaster during that scene. Also was the Biggs scene that was added to the SE version originally deleted before or after the initial theatrical release? I've heard both ways citing that it was removed from the home video release due to early limitations of the VHS format. Finally, you mentioned a blu-ray release of the despecialized edition. Will this be in 1080p or 720p?

Thanks for the answers. The 720p looks great so I was just asking out of personal curiosity. For films as old as 1977, we're reaching a point where anything above start to only provide further definition to the film grain itself, if that.

As far as the colors, I did see the disclaimer on the first page but I didn't know if that referred to the original despecialized edition or the version 2.0 since the color in that specific scene seems to vary between the two.

Hi everyone -

Just wanted to add my voice to the chorus of thanks going out to Harmy and the others who made these recent OT restorations possible!  I found my way here thanks to Simon Pegg's recent Twitter posting, and have since downloaded all three movies and watched the first just a couple of days ago. 

Both the amount of work and the quality of the outcome are extraordinary.  I hope there are a good number of people over at Lucasfilm feeling just touch sheepish that dedicated fans have been able to pull-off what George claimed was impossible.  Although many of us realized that was a ridiculous statement to make, especially for someone with access to the resources George has at his disposal, it's wonderful that you have gone and actually demonstrated just how silly that statement was.

Keep up the great work!

 

Puggo:

As far as the Biggs scene, I never remember seeing it the theater but I knew others that insisted they did see it when the movie was first released.  This could be due to the same reason that I clearly recall seeing an extra scene in Empire that was not part of the official release. Before seeing the movie, I got the comic adaptation which featured a scene after the bacta tank with the medical droid taking a bandage off of Luke's face.  I saw it in the theater and said "that's not what it looked like in the comic book!" Other people who saw the movie at the same theater commented on the scene as well referring to the bandage as a "sheet of ice." According to rumor, there were a handful of prints for both movies that had workprint scenes left in that were supposed to be removed.  I've been hoping that scene in Empire would reappear as a deleted scene or something just so I could see it again but with no luck, of course.

Harmy said:

I'll just add that it will be fixed in v2.1.

And I already answered the first question too - bcause it look like crap in the GOUT and would stand out like a sore thumb.

Thanx for the response. I'll looked forward to seeing v2.1. I haven't checked in here in a while so I have one more question. The shadows on the Falcon in the shot before Han goes 'You're all clear kid...." etc. They look a bit deep. Can you explain that?

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

Harmy said:

And lastly, no, the Biggs scene was conclusively never present in any officially released cut prior to 1997.

Except to those of us rebels who swear we remember it.

Like Luke missing with the grappling hook...

There may be something to this. A friend of mine who I have known since the second grade (more than 30 years) used to insist back when we were kids that you had to see the movies when they first came out because they cut stuff from it later. He seemed to remember things that may or may not have been in the films THEN

Space Kaijuu said:

Puggo:

As far as the Biggs scene, I never remember seeing it the theater but I knew others that insisted they did see it when the movie was first released.  This could be due to the same reason that I clearly recall seeing an extra scene in Empire that was not part of the official release. Before seeing the movie, I got the comic adaptation which featured a scene after the bacta tank with the medical droid taking a bandage off of Luke's face.  I saw it in the theater and said "that's not what it looked like in the comic book!" Other people who saw the movie at the same theater commented on the scene as well referring to the bandage as a "sheet of ice." According to rumor, there were a handful of prints for both movies that had workprint scenes left in that were supposed to be removed.  I've been hoping that scene in Empire would reappear as a deleted scene or something just so I could see it again but with no luck, of course.

Well I grew up in a communistic country, so the only way how I could watch Star Wars in the 80's were many different high generation bootleg VHS tapes. And the Biggs scene (at the end of the movie, NOT the scenes in the beginning) was simply for me ALWAYS an integral part of the movie. I have "lost" the original tape(s) in the early 90's (not sure if my mum has thrown them away or I re-recorded them) and I still remember how surprised I was when I read on the internet that it was added to the 1997 SE - for me the scene was ALWAYS a part of the movie :-) I was actually SHOCKED when I downloaded the EditDroid bootleg and found out that the scene was NOT in the original version :-) Another different scene I remember is a very short "handshake" scene between Luke and the guy sitting at his side in the conference at the end of the movie (after the " wamp rat" conversation) where they simply shake hands and say their names. I remember it because the guy claimed he's Wedge Antilles, but during the battle of Yavin Wedge was played by a different actor :-) So you guys are NOT alone, unfortunately without any EVIDENCE this stays just a rumour

pittrek said:

... (not sure if my mum has thrown them away or I re-recorded them) ...

Hmm... it's very suspicious how all the evidence from these memories just happens to be destroyed.  Maybe George Lucas was traveling around the world buying-up all old VHS copies of Star Wars?  Did your mum ever mention meeting up with a strange, bearded man who offered to buy your old junk for a great price?  ;)

 

 

kaelef said:

pittrek said:

... (not sure if my mum has thrown them away or I re-recorded them) ...

Hmm... it's very suspicious how all the evidence from these memories just happens to be destroyed.  Maybe George Lucas was traveling around the world buying-up all old VHS copies of Star Wars?  Did your mum ever mention meeting up with a strange, bearded man who offered to buy your old junk for a great price?  ;)

 

 

Yes, it is VERY suspicious. To be honest I thought that I was imagining things but then I came to this forum and found out that people from a different part of the planet claim to remember the same scene(s) :-) And my mother didn't mention meeting a bearded guy but she used to throw out my VHS and MC tapes and/or comic books as a way of the most cruel (for me) punishment.

But we're getting REALLY off-topic now :-)