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4K restoration on Star Wars — Page 215

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doubleofive said:

Most people, even self professed Star Wars fans, only watch the movies maybe once a decade. The people who should be leading this charge are film preservationists, because the average fan doesn’t even notice the differences.

While we’re on the subject, it’s also worth noting that Star Wars isn’t the only film not available in its original form.

For the longest time, I thought the huge changes were actually a good thing since it would at least highlight the night-and-day difference from the original version and the entire argument for an official preservation. Now I’m starting to come to terms with maybe even that apparently not being enough of a reason and recognizing the need for communities like this.

Even if Lucasfilm does relent some day, there will still be all those other films out there on blu-ray stuck in a revised form.

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Well, my experience has been the complete opposite of some of you.

I have discussed the OOT with a LOT of friends and acquaintances over the years, ranging from hardcore to casual fans. Not once did I hear anything other than disgust for the SE’s, and everyone expressed their wish for an OOT release.
The last guy I talked to had just shown his kids the trilogy for the first time. They watched the blu-rays, which was his first time to see 2011 versions. His first comment was “I had forgotten how many changes were made to the movies,” and then said he would never watch those versions again. I then told him about Harmy, TN1, Legacy, etc.
(I am 40 years old, BTW, and everyone I’ve talked to about it has been about my age, give or take a few years.)

Now apart from my personal experiences, when they first announced the digital releases a while back I did look at all the social media reactions from fans. When it was first announced on Facebook from the official Star Wars page, I went through the hundreds of comments to see how many people were asking about the original versions. On the first post, the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of all the comments were about the OOT. I would have to go back and look to be sure, but I recall that the number was over 70%, and then it was pretty much the same thing on all subsequent posts regarding the digital releases.

Now let’s forget all that. The fact is SW obviously has the biggest fan base of any movie in history. The original versions started one giant pop culture phenomenon and existed for 20 years before the SE’s with millions of fans growing up watching them at home on VHS.
With all of the other restorations and blu-ray releases of classic movies that have been done over the years, I find it strange that people believe an OOT release would not be profitable enough for a studio to mess with. Star Wars fans will buy just about anything anyway, and have been double-dipping on releases since the VHS days. So you will even see a significant percentage of fans who are content with the current blu-rays, purchasing an OOT release just to have in their collection.

Now, that being said, I’ve pretty much given up hope since the 40th anniversary came and went without any mention of it. I would love to hear from Mverta, but he obviously can’t or won’t share any info from his conversations with people at Disney/Fox.
Personally, I’m completely done with all things Disney at this point. I hated TFA and R1 anyway, so no big loss there…

“In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.” - George Lucas

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What Cobra Kai said.

I’ll only add that next year will be seven years since the blu-rays first debuted, just as that was seven years after the dvd, which was seven years after the '97 SE.

If an official OOT restoration ever happens, I wouldn’t expect it until after Episode IX, which means I’m definitely not expecting it next year. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if we finally start hearing some solid news after seven years of the same old blu-rays.

That theory just popped back into my brain again, about how LFL could always give us what we want on regular blu-ray in the short term (even if that means Fox getting a cut of the sales on all six movies), only for us to go through this all over again with 4k in a few years.

We’ll see.

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I think it has more to do with generational differences than anything else. Since the last VHS release of the OT films was in 1995, many people born after 1990 probably haven’t grown up watching the originals. So the vast majority of people 17 years old or younger have no nostalgic connection with these films, and even most people under 30 have had their memory ‘replaced’ with memories of the Special Editions (I was one of these people for a time).

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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Haarspalter said:
A truly morbid decision would be to present the stripped out scences as officially tagged DELETED SCENES … with introductory commentary from Lucas for each change. That Bonus disc would be some sort of hearing: the trial of the OUT with George Lucas as accused/witness/victim in one person 😉

This is truly horrifying. So that means it’s likely to happen.

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Fang Zei said:

What Cobra Kai said.

I’ll only add that next year will be seven years since the blu-rays first debuted, just as that was seven years after the dvd, which was seven years after the '97 SE.

If an official OOT restoration ever happens, I wouldn’t expect it until after Episode IX, which means I’m definitely not expecting it next year. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if we finally start hearing some solid news after seven years of the same old blu-rays.

That theory just popped back into my brain again, about how LFL could always give us what we want on regular blu-ray in the short term (even if that means Fox getting a cut of the sales on all six movies), only for us to go through this all over again with 4k in a few years.

We’ll see.

Hmmmm…

The Star Wars 7-8 year itch:

BluRay 7 years after DVD.
DVD seven years after 1997 SE’s.
1997se’s Eight years after 1st ever widescreen releases(on laserdisc in USA).
Widescreen Eight years after 1st ever home release on VHS.

I saw Star Wars in 1977. Many, many, many times. For 3 years it was just Star Wars...period. I saw it in good theaters, cheap theaters and drive-ins with those clunky metal speakers you hang on your window. The screen and sound quality never subtracted from the excitement. I can watch the original cut right now, over 30 years later, on some beat up VHS tape and enjoy it. It's the story that makes this movie. Nothing? else.

kurtb8474 1 week ago

http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=SkAZxd-5Hp8


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The DVD’s were released in 2004, two years after AOTC and a year before ROTS. So perhaps a new release will happen between Episodes 8 and 9, and this also almost fulfills the 7 year pattern.

Or something.

The recent pattern has already been somewhat broken by the 2015 digital release, so this means that the OOT will absolutely arrive in 4K in 2022. Yay!

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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NeverarGreat said:

I think it has more to do with generational differences than anything else. Since the last VHS release of the OT films was in 1995, many people born after 1990 probably haven’t grown up watching the originals. So the vast majority of people 17 years old or younger have no nostalgic connection with these films, and even most people under 30 have had their memory ‘replaced’ with memories of the Special Editions (I was one of these people for a time).

I just turned 32 and started watching these movies at 6 or 7 years old, so I can still clearly remember a time before even the Faces vhs.

When the '04 dvd had just been released, I remember watching it with my best friend from high school on the brand new 60" sony widescreen his family had just recently bought. This was over component cables and with a brand new 5.1 system so it was quite an experience.

Each time one of the changed scenes from '97 came up I would just say in an ominous voice “THE SPECIAL EDITION” and if there were multiple changed shots in a row like in Mos Eisley I would say it twice like I was Everett McGill repeating “THE WATER OF LIFE” in the Alan Smithee version of Dune.

My friend laughed and then said “I actually like the Special Edition.” At the time I actually agreed with him, mostly. He’s actually a full year older than me, and I’m pretty sure he would’ve at least seen the original versions prior to '97 (he mentioned once that he’d seen the SE’s in the theater), but we didn’t meet until '99 so I’ll have to ask him about that someday.

I already knew about the aditional changes that had been done for the dvd, but he didn’t…

We only watched ANH, but he obviously watched the Empire and Jedi discs at some point. I know this because one day we were talking about the subject of the original versions and he said “oh, dude, they put Hayden Christensen into the end of Jedi! wtf?”

A friend of mind from college said pretty much the exact same thing.

I bring this up to illustrate how Hayden as Anakin ended up being a kind of “Greedo shoots first” moment for my generation. Even Family Guy referenced it. I actually didn’t even notice Greedo shooting first when I saw the SE in the theater in '97, making it all the more jarring when I did notice it on vhs (and amusing when Ben Affleck mentioned it in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back).

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George Lucas said:

A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality.

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Hayden is definitely the most noticeable change in the long term (so far!) since all it takes to recognize the incongruity is the fact that the Original films are much older than the Prequels. Perhaps going forward with petitions and awareness-raising messages, it would be good to highlight this change above others as an example of pointless revisionism.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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Tobar said:

George Lucas said:

A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality.

That’s obviously not going to be true. A lot of wanting there from George.

More than likely in 100 years nobody will remember the SE, but the originals will still remain.

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NeverarGreat said:

Hayden is definitely the most noticeable change in the long term (so far!) since all it takes to recognize the incongruity is the fact that the Original films are much older than the Prequels. Perhaps going forward with petitions and awareness-raising messages, it would be good to highlight this change above others as an example of pointless revisionism.

yeah, i think that is the only change that stands out to even the most oblivious viewer, and strikes them as both wrong and pointless.

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NeverarGreat said:

The DVD’s were released in 2004, two years after AOTC and a year before ROTS. So perhaps a new release will happen between Episodes 8 and 9, and this also almost fulfills the 7 year pattern.

Or something.

The recent pattern has already been somewhat broken by the 2015 digital release, so this means that the OOT will absolutely arrive in 4K in 2022. Yay!

On the other hand, if we’re going to count the digital release as the saga’s first time on a new format (and we might as well), that means the gap is now only four years and we only have two more years until 4k!

Also, there’s been a reissue of the blu-ray every two years. Theoretically that means we would be due for another physical release of some kind this year, even if it’s just another reissue.

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I can see a triple dip with a 40th anniversary sticker on the cover. Cheap and easy to do, if a bit late in the year.

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Where were you in '77?

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Alderaan said:

Tobar said:

George Lucas said:

A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality.

That’s obviously not going to be true. A lot of wanting there from George.

More than likely in 100 years nobody will remember the SE, but the originals will still remain.

Some people dont even remember the originals now though.

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100 years from now?

I’m positive the entire thing will have been rebooted at least twice by then. I’ll be dead. Until then I’d like to watch the REAL versions.

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Mocata said:

Alderaan said:

Tobar said:

George Lucas said:

A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality.

That’s obviously not going to be true. A lot of wanting there from George.

More than likely in 100 years nobody will remember the SE, but the originals will still remain.

Some people dont even remember the originals now though.

In 100 years, nobody is going to watch these movies and remember what is was like to see them in theaters in 1977, 1980, and 1983. That feeling that some of you olds have, how seeing SW in 1977 changed the way you experienced cinema forever…people 100 years from now are not going to be able to relate to that sensation. The CGI effects are going to look dated and ridiculous. The CGI already looks dated and ridiculous now, but can you imagine what it will look like to people 100 years from now who have seen all kinds of gidgets and gadgets?

The films will be viewed strictly on story. And not through nostalgia goggles either. None of the people in that time are going to have fond memories of watching Star Wars or Hayden’s Ghost or Jedi Rocks when they were little kids. Nobody is going to be a “Star Wars” fan and think the Emperor changes in ESB are awesome because they keep the “continuity” together.

The films and each editing decision will be judged solely on merit.

When those futuristic viewers encounter the SE and OOT versions, they are going to see the same flaws we see with all of these alterations. Exposition repeated in multiple scenes. Ridiculous dodging of laser bolts and stepping on tails. Tonal inconsistencies. Dinosaurs walking in front of the camera. A proud old man replaced by a smirking teenager. And on and on and on.

One hundred years from now, the SEs will either not be remembered or they will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. History will see to it that there is no other way.

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None of the people in that time are going to have fond memories of watching Star Wars or Hayden’s Ghost or Jedi Rocks when they were little kids. Nobody is going to be a “Star Wars” fan and think the Emperor changes in ESB are awesome because they keep the “continuity” together.

No, but they will just think that is how it always was, and how it always will be…

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Just for reference The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 1920 and The Kid 1921 are almost 100 years old. Both are highly regarded movies and both are available on blu ray.

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But if you showed someone an average viewer today a colourised version, or one with sound added would they know what was wrong?

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Mocata said:

But if you showed someone an average viewer today a colourised version, or one with sound added would they know what was wrong?

The average viewer doesn’t know the SE exists, so I don’t get what your point is. Of course they wouldn’t, the average viewer is a moron.

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They may be morons in the fields of film history and preservation%2C but that doesn%27t mean that they%27re complete and total morons.

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That’s a bit harsh. One can be unaware of what version they’re watching without being a moron.

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Where were you in '77?

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SilverWook said:

That’s a bit harsh. One can be unaware of what version they’re watching without being a moron.

Agreed. At some point, Star Wars is new to people–and new people are born every day. Today, the Special Edition Trilogy has been the only commercially available version to watch longer than the Star Wars Trilogy ever was. You can’t blame people for watching the crappy version and thinking it’s the real thing. Yeah, it’s technically ignorance, but it’s not like informed choice was ever part of the equation. Same for colorized films, etc. If it’s the only version on Netflix, it’s effectively the only version.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Handman said:
the average viewer is a moron.

Correct. And so that is my point.

“In a 100 years people will know… etc” is total nonsense. People don’t know anything.