My “2 cents” :
Third revision:
Dear Disney and Lucasfilm,
Wouldn’t “Dear Disney, dear Lucasfilm” be better? To me an even better version would be
"Dear Lucasfilm, dear Disney" or maybe even “Dear Mr. Iger, Dear Ms. Kennedy” or something like that.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.
I personally don’t like “Yet, where is that film?”. I would personally recommend it with something like “Yet, why can’t we watch the film at home?” or something similar. The first sentence sounds like you’re curious about the film, it sounds like you’re suggesting they’re not treating their property correctly which is not something a “boss” of a multi million dollar company like to read.
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.
Now this is a bit confusing. In the previous paragraph(s) you talk about the 1977 movie, but now you jump to the original trilogy without any connection.
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We’re limited in our choices to outdated video formats that are increasingly difficult to obtain and inch closer to extinction each year.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.
“Ancient video transfers” sounds very “snobby”. What about something like “dated video transfers”, or “transfers which were already dated”?
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?
I don’t remember who are you targeting it to, but if I can recommend don’t use “FX” or similar “jargon”.
Also “publically” is a word that my spellchecker does not recognize. In American English it is supposed to be “publicly” (at least according to my spellcheck plugin).
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.
Again, not sure who should read this “open letter” but I would avoid nerdy terms like “original original trilogy”. What about something like “The original trilogy deserves to be seen in the original unaltered form and in the absolute best quality afforded by modern cinema and 21st century home video formats…”
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.
I’m not sure if it’s worth to give here some examples of movies with multiple versions on one disc, or not.
Sincerely yours,
The Staff and Members of Originaltrilogy.com
I agree with most of your suggestions, in fact they are implemented in my previous post 😉
The short version is looking better to me all the time. 😉
