At this point, with 4K77 (and more specifically the Skywalker Edition that SkyDude is working on) and Poita’s projects in the pipeline, an official release of the OUT isn’t life or death for me. What does bum me out immensely, though, is the continuing resilience of the Lowry transfer. The fact is, I’m too young to feel that I’ve been personally robbed of something with the OUT being unavailable. I came to the understanding that the theatrical versions are the superior cuts a little later on when I could think about movies in a way that was more sophisticated, but the fact is that for basically my entire childhood I just watched whichever version was available. I had some friends who had the Faces set and we watched those whenever I was over their houses, but more often than not it was the 97 tapes, because those were the ones I got for my eighth birthday and my parents weren’t about to buy me another set (and let’s be real, I didn’t give a shit, I was eight). This is all to say that I’m not someone who’s going to refuse to see Star Wars in a theater because it’s the SE; it wouldn’t be ideal, but I do think I would still be capable of tapping into that eight-year-old who-cares-what-version mindset if they end up carting them out next month for the anniversary. What is inexcusable for me, though, is how piss poor the current master is. I popped in the blu-ray a few weeks ago to watch the Battle of Yavin after watching Rogue One, and the image quality is just such a goddamn bummer. So yeah. Certainly hoping for the OUT, but failing that, I’m in the camp that wouldn’t sneeze at a remastered SE with proper colors like the 97 version.
