Rebel1one1 said:

SilverWook said:

The only way to do that to the non-anamoprphic 1993 masters would be to blow up the letterboxed image, which would only make things worse.

Maybe... but I think the best we can hope for here would be a messy print up-scaled to 1080i... That's right we won't even get 1080p for the OOT because Lucas will want his latest special editions to look better than any other versions. I cannot understand why Lucas competed with himself when he released the GOUT? I mean simply giving us a copy in anamorphic widescreen would have satisfied just about everybody. On top of that a lot of people here would have had renewed faith in George Lucas. It's like George just doesn't want to let this fight go. What is he gaining by sticking it to everybody who grew up on his original creation? I'm starting to think he hates Star Wars and no matter what it will never be good enough.

He goes around saying "Oh every director wants to go back and fix things", but when I am done with something I am glad to be done. I don't like going back and fixing shit I did years ago. I have no problem with him "fixing" the movies, but he should show a little appreciation of the peeps who love the originals.

I don't think it's that.  I think it's more of him wanting to hold on to the glory that is Star Wars for as long as he can make it last, especially considering it's a his biggest property.  Updating the old movies, in his mind, keeps them relevant and fresh and able to continue to sell constantly.

zombie84 said:

skyjedi2005 said:

Remember when zombie84 reported on his site that the 2004 versions were only done in a resolution of 1080P.  Not exactly blu ray reference quality. 

 This doesn't cut it for a theatrical release, but it shouldn't make a difference on Blu Ray.

Problem is, Lucas has basically made the Blu Ray resolution the negative, which is downright retarded. Even if he re-scanned the footage in 4k or 8k, all the additions done for the 2004 SE would be in 1080 because they were done on a 1080 negative and you will never change that. I realize the additions are few, but this means that even if they re-scanned the film in 8K for a theatrical showing, the prison cell shootout scene, the binary sunset shots, certain Mos Eisley shots, the Jabba scene, the Greedo shooting scene, certain shots from Ben's duel, the scene where Darth Vader meets the Emperor, the scene of Vader's unmasking, and the shots of the three Jedi ghosts--these will always be 1080 lines of resolution. Plus, every SE enhancement from 1997 will be in 2000 lines of resolution. How much footage does that amount for in ANH? Like 25% of the movie? So unless Lucas completely redoes the SE--which will never happen--the "definitive" version of the movie will always have a quarter of it in 1K/2K, even if being projected at 8K. Which is a little sad. 2K I could handle, because that's sort of the same degradation as optical compositing, but 1080? Ugh. Going to be interesting to see how theatrical screenings hold up.

That's probably why there haven't been any screenings since 97. Wonder what that Empire charity screening will look like.

The AFI showed the '04 edition at one point, don't remember why. As did the Academy for its "Great to be Nominated" series. Star Wars, of course.

Guess those are all digital screenings.

It was part of a 20th Century retrospective, and Star Wars was selected to represent the 1970's. Lucas denied them permission to show an original print, thus missing the whole point of the festival. The '97 was shown in it's place.

Lucas has prevented several other screenings since then. I'm surprised he hasn't tried to take back the prints the Library of Congress and the British Film institute have in their collections.

There were limited showings of the trilogy timed to when the AFI sucked up to give Lucas an award in 2005. They were the '97 versions again.

I thought it was 2010 but it seems to be 1984.

On the doubleplus side choco rations are up.

Why did SW deserve this?

No matter what we do, Lucas will always be stacked against us. He has more money, more yesmen, more sympathy in the media than we do. It's checkmate, so let's stop huffing the gasoline.

He has comitted The greatest atrocity in film history. This is so grevious a crime that I feel that the whole medium of film should be destroyed if it should come to pass that SW, ESB, and ROTJ are allowed to be remorselessly destroyed by it's own creator.

Makes me cynical about life.

PS I know this is hyperbolic

I love Blu Ray, and SW is my favorite movie.  But I can't see myself buying this, unless it includes the OT in some sort of reasonably improved quality, which of course is highly unlikely.

Still, no one has answered my question:

Why did SW deserve to be treated so badly by Lucas?

But still, no director has treated his films as atrociously as Lucas.

You mark my words, in 2022 Jim will re-issue Avatar in 9D and end it with the Titanic falling out of the sky just full of alien queens.