Does anyone know WHY Lucas stubbornly clings to his decision? Is he embarrassed about the original release or is he just being that controlling of his creation? or is it something else?
I find his decision to date quite puzzling on the surface of it.
Spite. He’s pissed the fans didn’t take to his prequels the way they did the original films. So he denies them the originals they hold dear. That’s my take.
He also believes the original versions came up short (for whatever reasons) and wants to improve them, but that’s no excuse for trying to bury them. All versions can coexist as other box sets (CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER, etc) have demonstrated.
I cannot think of another director that has treated one of their films in this manner…does anyone know of one?
Many Directors Can’t treat their films or have another go at the film they wanted to make either the material is not available; sometimes like audio or footage lost but if they could, not many of them would start shoving loads of CGI in to restore their intentions.
This is the main point. If you are going to do something you restore something from what was planned that you could not do or cut for time constraints or censorship. Lucus has all the material Archived.
George’s edits do not really fit the normal condition of what one would wish for entirely when thinking restoration or directors cut or even extended cut it is basically revisionism and anything goes, it does not purport to any notion of “Ideas at the time” or loosely expanding upon original source material in a very radical sense.
Many Directors will just want to move on to their next project it’s water under the bridge.