Third revision:
Dear Disney and Lucasfilm,
Today is the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, the film that started it all. Yet, where is that film? No, not the special editon, the original 1977 film. The one we grew up with. The one we saw more times than any other film before or since. The film that changed our lives forever.
Whether young or old, whether we saw it in a theater or on home video, it prompted a desire in some of us to make movies or tell stories of our own. George Lucas lit a spark that remains within us today.
One thing we all share are the memories of where and with whom we saw Star Wars, and even of shooting down imaginary TIE fighters out the back window of the car on the way home. For others, it was a brightly shining light in the middle of a turbulent childhood. If Luke and his friends could triumph over their trials, maybe we could too.
All these years later, we would love to revisit the Original Trilogy that we remember, to recapture those memories of a long time ago, in a movie theater or living room far far away. Those of us with families want to be able to show our kids exactly what we saw when we were their age and relive it with them. It should be such a simple thing to do.
Only it isn’t.
We’re limited in our choices to outdated video formats that are increasingly difficult to obtain and inch closer to extinction each year. And the now out of print bonus DVDs from 2006, which utilize ancient video transfers from 1993, are hardly better, if one can find them at all.
None of us ever imagined as kids that these historic versions might fade from memory, ultimately, disappearing from the collective consciousness altogether. To the point where CGI scenes created in 1997 are now mistaken for the innovative groundbreaking FX technology of the 1970’s. Film history is being obscured, if not rewritten. We live in an era in which even “bad” movies are respected enough to be meticulously restored and made publically available. Shouldn’t a movie as loved and as culturally significant as Star Wars deserve the same treatment in it’s original form?
We don’t bemoan the Special Edition’s existence. It simply isn’t the version of the trilogy we fell in love with. The Original Original Trilogy, or OOT, deserves to be seen in the absolute best quality afforded by modern cinema and 21st-century home video formats so that it can be loved again by all.
There is room for all versions of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of The Jedi to coexist. And we want to give you our money for them; we really do! Please give us that opportunity. At least give us hope that we will be able to do so soon. Some of us aren’t getting any younger! That is all we ask.
Sincerely yours,
The Staff and Members of Originaltrilogy.com
I like it! I think it’s almost there.
Here’s my take:
Dear Disney and Lucasfilm,
Today is the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, the film that started it all. Yet, where is that film? No, not the Special Edition, the original 1977 film. The one that the world fell in love with; the film that changed movies, and our lives, forever.
Whether young or old, whether we saw it in a theater or on home video, it prompted a desire in some of us to make movies or tell stories of our own. George Lucas lit a spark that remains within us today.
One thing we all share are the memories of where and with whom we saw Star Wars, whether it was shooting down imaginary TIE fighters out the back window of the car on the way home, or whether it was a bright light in the middle of a turbulent childhood. If Luke and his friends could triumph over their trials, maybe we could too.
All these years later, we would love to revisit the Original Trilogy that we remember, to recapture those memories of a long time ago, in a movie theater or living room far far away. Those of us with families want to be able to show our kids exactly what we saw when we were their age and relive it with them. It should be such a simple thing to do.
Only it isn’t.
We’re limited in our choices to outdated video formats that are increasingly difficult to obtain and inch closer to extinction each year. The last time the originals were available for purchase was on the now out-of-print bonus DVDs from 2006, which themselves were a product of video transfers from 1993!
None of us could have imagined that these historic versions might fade from memory. It has gotten to the point where digital effects created in 1997 are frequently mistaken for the groundbreaking model work of the 1970’s. In a very real sense, film history is being erased. We live in an era in which even “bad” movies are respected enough to be meticulously restored and made publicly available. Shouldn’t a movie as beloved and as culturally significant as Star Wars get the same treatment?
We believe that both the Original Unaltered Trilogy and George Lucas’s Special Editions deserve to be seen in the absolute best quality afforded by modern cinema and 21st-century home video formats, so that both versions can be loved again by all.
There is room for all versions of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of The Jedi to coexist. And we want to give you our money for them! Please give us that opportunity. At least give us hope that we will be able to do so soon. Some of us aren’t getting any younger! That is all we ask.
Sincerely yours,
The Staff and Members of Originaltrilogy.com