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The Empire Strikes Back inducted into the Library of Congress National Film Registry.

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The title says it all.

 

Also: I've been lurking long enough that I might as well post something. So, hello everyone!

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

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I hope they're preserving a proper version of the news. Saw this on the news earlier in the evening.

Also, welcome new guy! Stick around.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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I don't think we have anything to worry about. The LOC would no sooner accept an SE print than they would a colorized movie. ;)

Forum Moderator

Where were you in '77?

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Sluggo said:

Nice avatar, new guy!

Thanks much! It's Jeremy Bulloch in the ESB Fett suit that the guys over at The Dented Helmet made for him. It's really a work of art.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

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Welcome Boba,

 

Speaking of Jeremy Bulloch  I was watching the special editions  over the weelkend on spike  and the new vpice   for boba sounds soooo stupid.  and another example og how much lucas hates these films and  doers not care how much he keeps ruining them.  I cant believe  they added a scene to empire  that was  pretty much cut and pasted  out of return of the jedi.  you can even see commander from jedi standing there.

 

empire was a flawless film in my eyes till  lucas  got his hands on it.I firmly believe lucas  has a deep rooted hate for these films deep inside  and for us fans.

He has changed so much. its like in the 70s  he was elvis or ricky nelson and now he is justine timberlake or  or 50 cent. THe man has become worthless.

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I really hope it's the 1980 original they have inducted into their registry. Wouldnt Lucas be against giving out any versions of the original 1980 release?.

 Welcome onboard Tyrphanax.

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haljordan28 said:

Speaking of Jeremy Bulloch  I was watching the special editions  over the weelkend on spike  and the new vpice   for boba sounds soooo stupid.  and another example og how much lucas hates these films and  doers not care how much he keeps ruining them.  I cant believe  they added a scene to empire  that was  pretty much cut and pasted  out of return of the jedi.  you can even see commander from jedi standing there.

Please, make it stop. It's everywhere...

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haljordan28 said:

He has changed so much. its like in the 70s  he was elvis or ricky nelson and now he is justine timberlake or  or 50 cent. THe man has become worthless.

Who is Justine?  Never heard of her before!!

http://www.facebook.com/DirtyWookie

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haljordan28 said:

Welcome Boba,

 

Speaking of Jeremy Bulloch  I was watching the special editions  over the weelkend on spike  and the new vpice   for boba sounds soooo stupid.  and another example og how much lucas hates these films and  doers not care how much he keeps ruining them.  I cant believe  they added a scene to empire  that was  pretty much cut and pasted  out of return of the jedi.  you can even see commander from jedi standing there.

 

empire was a flawless film in my eyes till  lucas  got his hands on it.I firmly believe lucas  has a deep rooted hate for these films deep inside  and for us fans.

He has changed so much. its like in the 70s  he was elvis or ricky nelson and now he is justine timberlake or  or 50 cent. THe man has become worthless.

Well Tyrphana, this is our community! What a great first impression this quote gives you...

 

But seriously, it's nice to see some one else is new to this site. Welcome aboard!

 

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Yes, when I read that quote, it made me forget to welcome you.

Well, welcome Tyrphanax. Enjoy the show.

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I hope they remembered to check it was the original.

Flashforward 70 years: "Lucas may have destroyed all prints of the originals, but we still have this! Empire Strikes Back Special Edition!...Fuck..."

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zombie84 said:

I hope they remembered to check it was the original.

Flashforward 70 years: "Lucas may have destroyed all prints of the originals, but we still have this! Empire Strikes Back Special Edition!...Fuck..."

    Sounds like Jon Stewart...

The poster also known as, "Tosche-Station"

"This is spurious business!" -  'Anonymous'

"Don't freakin' dissemble!" - Jack Nicholson as the Joker if he were in the movie 'Anger Management'

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This occurred to me: I assume this is a 35mm print of the 1980 original. Right? Right. Okay, so--where did it come from?

Was it one of the existing ones they had laying around? If so, it would pre-date the 1990s, and that means it's printed on the older triacetate stocks and not newer polyester stocks. That means by the time ESB goes public domain in like sixty or seventy years and they open up that vault to use a fucking release print as the base for a new negative because the original negative disintegrated thirty years prior, they will probably find a nice pile of film that turned red decades ago, even with temperature controls.

If it's not a vintage print but a newly printed one...what the hell did they print it from? The 1985 interpositives? I imagine the IPs themselves must be pretty rough looking by now. Even the 1993 DE, with its colour-corrected telecine, you can see how pink its turning and how faded the colours are, and its pretty dirty and grainy too.

Gah. Its incredible how badly preserved these films are. Utterly incredible.

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Thanks for the warm welcomes, folks.

Don't worry about the bad post, I've been lurking here long enough now to get a feel for who to take seriously.

 

So when do we raid the LOC for these prints? =P I know the first thing I thought was "I wonder which version they got..." Can we authenticate which version they have yet at all? I bet Lucas has a pretty, cleaned-up, untouched version of all the films that he keeps all to himself.

Keep Circulating the Tapes.

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It must be the original 1980 workprint version.

Since they're like poetry, what with the rhyming and all, I find that I only need to watch three out of the six films.

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From the official website is a preview clip for media folks:

http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2010/10-273.html

follow the pressroom link:

http://www.loc.gov/pressroom/

You will be asked to create an account, fake it, they'll e-mail you a password (don't laugh at the password...), return to the announcement page:

http://www.loc.gov/pressroom/kits/name/The-2010-National-Film-Registry

Scroll down to:

The Empire Strikes Back
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)   Courtesy of CBS/Fox

Yoda teaches Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) how to be a Jedi knight.
[Preview | Download 31.96 mb]

So first thing to note is 'Courtesy of CBS/Fox' maybe they're keeping the VHS, but this will answer the 'where'd they get this version question'.  I'll leave it to the better color educated, but they don't look DVDish, but the colors could be as they are because of the high compression for this clip, it's weird that it's pan/scan.  But again, this could be a media clip offered from CBS/Fox's press corps not Lucasfilm or a digitization of the actual film going into the archives.

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ray_afraid said:

TheBoost said:

Ricky Nelson?!!?

Whats wrong with Ricky Nelson. I'm a fan.

I was just surprised that a middle-schooler knew who Ricky Nelson was. I'm actually impressed.

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The clip definitely looks like it's from a VHS but the colours definitely are not the 2004 SE. So that leaves us exactly nowhere in finding out which version was archieved; people here seem to assume that it is the original but I wouldn't be so sure about that. They asked Fox for a print, Fox gave it to them, they archieved it. Now, you may have noticed that ever since the 2000 VHS and LD release the butchered versions were never marketed as Special Editions, so there's no reason to assume the situation is different with film prints.

For our cause it would actually be better if it was the SE, because that way we could point out how Lucas is trying to change history. If it is the original, it weakens the whole film-preservation part of our arguments.

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Judging by the artifacting that occurs from 2:08 to the end, this clip is most likely from a 4:3 full screen LaserDisc.  It definitely has nothing to do with what is actually being stored at the LOC.