Which version/release of the Star Wars movies do you watch and why? — Page 3

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

If I'm going to watch a train wreck, there better be lots of shrapnel and twisted wreckage... otherwise, what's the point of watching it?

You should definitely check mine out...nothing but nonsense.

I want the original versions restored and available as much as anyone else, but I can watch and enjoy immensely the 04 editions. Whatever tweaks Lucas adds, these films are excellent and I enjoy them. I do want the original versions in great quality, but their lack of existence won't stop me from enjoying Star Wars.

TV's Frink wrote:

ray_afraid said:

The Phantom Menace- none

Attack Of The Clones- none

Revenge Of The Sith- none

I didn't know none made edits of these movies. ;-)

Oh my 'Senile Edition' has been done for years.  Just never knew I released it!!!

hey all, just signed up to the forums...

Always find myself going to the "limited edition" bonus discs to watch any of the films - for non-anamorphic laser disc masters the quality, I find, is pretty good when played through a good upscaling DVD player. I actually quite like the grit and grain too - and at least the colour and contrast look natural unlike the bizarre dayglo flesh tones and aggressively crushed blacks of the 2004 DVD masters/hi def broadcasts.

Of course the *main* issue is I just found that for every change done to the films a bit more of the atmosphere was removed. A case in point is the scene in Empire where Ian McDiarmid was inserted to improve the continuity of the films. But the price of improved continuity was a high one - the eerie mood of the original scene was destroyed. The dialogue was changed to that verbose, stilted style of the Prequels and it takes you straight out of the film. And for some reason the emperor *still* looks wrong - the makeup or the lighting or something was just - off somehow. Magical things can happen by accident in filmmaking - redoing things almost always ruins whatever creative spark had been present first time around.

Another point I feel detracts from the films in their revised incarnations is that they payed most of their attention to inserting or changing scenes that, technically, had nothing wrong with them. And of course I feel that the now-dated CGI creatures and environments that were added in the mid-90's simply draw more attention to their shortcomings than any glitches or shortfalls in the original optical effects ever did.

I feel that the Star Wars trilogy got it right the first time. There are many "happy accidents" in them and many concepts and plot points turned out for the better *because* of the technical limitations that forced the filmmakers to be more creative than they might otherwise have been. Lucas claims that he was frustrated by technical limitations of the period and did the special editions as a way to make his trilogy more cohesive - the result was the complete opposite.

Welcome, S_Matt!

Excellent post, I completely agree on the ways that the SE's detract from the movie experience that used to be just right.  Changing the originals to 'fit' with the prequels was a very bad idea, and with all his retconning the story loses even more coherence every time.  As you say, the CGI inserts are very distracting and unnecessary and call attention to themselves and their own shortcomings far more than any of the limitations present originally.

If you get a chance, I recommend checking out dark_jedi's version 3 dvd releases.  These are the result of a collaborative effort from many forum members and present a significant improvement on the official retail versions, most notably by resizing the image to 16:9, stabilising the image shake, smoothing out jagged edges, giving reasonable strengthening to the gamma and saturation, recreating the original subtitles; and perhaps most significantly, providing many audio options, including the theatrical stereo and mono mixes, 5.1 mixes approximating the 70mm versions, and isolated score tracks.  If you find the retail dvd's satisfactory, you'll love these, because they are similar and yet so much better.  :)

I usually watch the TR47. But I also like the Edit Droid versions for their isolated movie score.

kilik64 said:

right now, the only ones ive watched in the past few years have been:

ANH:Revisited which is just pure awesomeness. Its the definitive version for me.

TPM: L8wters edit. Very well done. Decent movie now.

ROTS : Stankpac's edit, thought it was decent.

I own all 3 prequels on DVD, have never purchased a star wars OT version after the VHS "faces" version I had which was what I watched when i was a kid (prolly in the 10-12 range maybe?)

I just downloaded DJ's V3 of of the OT thanks to myspleen and plan to watch them on my ATV 2g using XBMC in the next few days since I dont care to burn them right now. Will be the first time ive watched star wars pre SE since i was a kid and wore out my VHS copies :-(

 Just updated post with some thoughts on other versions ive watched.

Dj v3 is pretty damn good. All three movies look and sound great, its really cool watching the movie with just the score for audio. Great job on that set. For now I'll turn to that version of ROTJ.

ESB: Harmy Despec HD AVCHD deal is simply AWESOME. You have to get a hold of this version of ESB, its the best ive ever seen. Im really anxious to see ESB:R by Adywan, but for now this is the best version of ESB there is, period.

Lastly Puggo did a fantastic job with his Puggo Grande version of Star Wars. Even though I was no where near being born in 77, makes me get an idea of what it was like to be there watching it then. The addition of the 3PO PSA was awesome too and the little bit about making the capture was awesome too, cant wait to see your ESB.

So now for the OT:

SW: ANH:R by Ady

ESB: Harmy Despecialized HD AVCHD

ROTJ: DJ V3

Harmy does the same thing he did for empire to jedi and im sure that would replace dj v3 for it. I dont think anything will replace ady on SW, but you never know...

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

kilik64 said:

Lastly Puggo did a fantastic job with his Puggo Grande version of Star Wars. Even though I was no where near being born in 77, makes me get an idea of what it was like to be there watching it then.

Thanks for the kind words.  To clarify, watching the PG, in my opinion, is not at all like watching it in 1977.  Because, in 1977, the prints were still pristine.  Watching Harmy's HD versions is more like what it was like in 1977.  The PG is what it was like watching SW revivals in theaters in the mid-80s, after the prints had gotten all scratched up and were still being shown at midnight matinees.

 Ok well cool, either way its pretty neat to watch. Showed it a friend the other day, he thought the psa was the greatest thing ever. :-)

fffffff said:

Even throw

Thoughts arrive like butterflies!

Star Wars: What I watched the most was a cruddy old VHS recording off one of the first network broadcasts. Some stuff was cut, and also my dad was slow on resuming the recording after commercials. My bro and I watched that tape a ton, maybe not 100 times but close. I wish I could find it again for nostalgia.

Empire Strikes Back: Never recorded this one from TV, so didn't watch this too much until the 1992 VHS. More recently been going with the 2004 DVD.

Return of the Jedi: Mostly an old VHS recording of the network broadcast premiere. One cool thing from that was the trailer they put together before the movie started. Short Star Wars theme with some neat clips, especially when they had Han giving Lando a salute before getting on the shuttle, then Lando returning the salute, then Luke giving R2 a salute on Jabba's barge. Cool little montage. :) I wish I could find that tape too. Anyhow, later I got the laserdisc which was a nice upgrade from the 1992 VHS.

Since there's been quite more releases since my initial post, here's my new favorite versions.

1. Star Wars- Dark Jedi's Project Blu SW;

This one's my favorite since it's the original, grand Star Wars in stunning HD! Dark Jedi really did an amazing job on this one. The opening crawl looks ridiculously sharp and good, reminiscent of that jaw-dropping 4K screen capt from the Legacy Project. Sure, it's got some DVNR smearing but the colors are utterly fantastic. Because none of it is '04 sourced, it maintains a nice filmic and vibrant quality, which the '04 releases somehow removed. If you really want to be dazzled, simply watch the lightsaber battle. You'll never see a redder, more warmly hand-animated lightsaber anywhere. Of course, the LPCM audio is the absolute best that Star Wars has ever sounded. The menu is also a great touch and has a nice official feel. The 2011 Blu-Ray no longer serves any purpose.

2. Empire Strikes Back- Tie Between Adywan's '97 AVCHD and theatrical reconstruction;

To start, the '97 ESB didn't bother me that much as it wasn't as bad as the 2004 changes of ANH and ESB. In fact, because I grew up with it, I can now chuckle at Luke's scream. :) As for the 1980 reconstruction, it's great and, like Harmy's despecialized editions, I can't see any SE changes. However, the main draw of these for me is the color timing. Though the 1980 bootleg and Puggo's 16mm show a distinct blue cast in the film, I find a white Hoth and grey Cloud City (during the Luie/Vader battle) more pleasing to my eyes. Perhaps this is because I grew up watching VHSes with a white Hoth, using the same master as the JSC. I daresay that these will be my definitive editions until a release with similar color-timing is done.

3. Return of the Jedi- Dark Jedi's Project Blu ROTJ;

For some reason, this is the best of the Project Blu releases. I could notice no DVNR-smearing. It surpasses Lowry's sterile restoration in every way imaginable, complete with far more vibrant colors and no crushed blacks... Scenes are made more majestic with spot on lightsabers and no sickly blue tint. In this way, I could finally get wrapped up in the story of ROTJ and enjoy it for the simply fun sci-fi movie it is. The audio is also amazing, no doubt the best. I always thought ROTJ lacked grandeur; somehow this release bestows it upon it.

4. The Phantom Menace- L8wtr's Shadow of the Sith fan edit;

I admit that I did grow up during the era when TPM merchandise was abound, so I do have some fascination with it in general. However, L8wtr turns a slow and boring movie into a much faster and stream-lined movie. Clocking in at about 90 minutes, the movie is quite a ride with characters you seem to care about.

5. Attack of the Clones- L8wtr's The Republic Divided Fan Edit;

By no means does this make AOTC enjoyable but the fan edit does make it decidedly watchable. It, of course, surpasses the Attack of the Phantom in leaps and bounds in terms of video quality. The editing is flawless technically and narratively. We've now got a faster love story that seems to work out more. Anakin no longer seems stalker-ish.Lots of little changes sell this edit too; Anakin is now the hero in the Droid Factory rather than R2D2. We find the protagonists more believable in a still-ridiculous world.

6. Revenge of the Sith- Kerr's Dark Force Rising fan edit;

Somehow Kerr has crafted a majestic fall from grace and I LOVE it. His version seems so much OT/ESB-esque and we end up with sympathetic characters. Can't believe there was actually a great story hidden in the Theatrical Cut!

Honorable Mentions: Harmy's Despecialized Editions, Star Wars Revisited, Puggo's Telecines, the 1997 Laserdiscs, and Spence's ROTJ Final Cut...

I've thought the idea of fan-editing would be amazing for a while now, but am just discovering their reality! Anybody able to direct me towards a source for some of the good ones? From what I've read Harmy's and Adywan's would be good starters. I haven't done much downloading of late, so I'm a bit rusty on finding something so specific. Reply or email if you can tell me where to find please, jpeters1138@gmail.com.

The only versions I actually watch in my living room are Harmy's Despecialized versions. They are the only versions that replicate the OUT while looking good on my HDTV screen.

I also like Dark_Jedi and LeeThorogood's Technicolor Gout sourced versions, but I simply cannot watch them on my HDTV without shaking my head.  They're great for normal CRT's though.

Moth3r said:

Out of interest, what is it about the GOUT-sourced versions that you find objectionable?

Although Harmy's versions are probably my preferred option too at the moment, they are not without their own problems.

The Low-rez mostly. That and all the smearing and aliasing. It doesn't look good on an HDTV in the living room since the LCD HDTV brings out all the problems that come with a low-rez source.

If I had a CRT, it wouldn't look as bad. CRT's have a way of making harsh sources look better than they actually are. Unfortunately, nobody sells new CRT HDTV's anymore.

People have already mentioned many versions that I like. But all in all I watch movies in different versions and there is no specific favorite. Star Wars has always been entertaining and continues to be so.