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I'll never understand the attitude of people who oppose the release of the unaltered original trilogy.

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I’ve had to restrain myself in the comments sections lately on Facebook and whatever other articles I read about the SEs vs the original cuts because some people just seem hell bent on opposing causes like restoring the OT and allowing both versions to coexist without any real merit other than to make it look like we are overreacting. I’ve learned that arguing with these kinds of people gets you nowhere and just leads to endless back and forth bickering over the internet.

I have always had an appreciation for classic cinema since I was a child, and have always advocated for the closest approximation of any film’s original release version to be available on the market, so I understand that not everyone has that same appreciation but at the same time I cannot see how anyone can argue against it other than just to kiss George’s ass. If something doesn’t phase me or I am indifferent to it, I wouldn’t go out of my way to push my views on the matter down someone else’s throat, which is why it baffles me that people go out of their way to hackle people like us online for advocating and pushing for an official release of the unaltered original trilogy.

It is completely ridiculous at this point in time that practically any other film which has ever received this kind of a large scale revisionist treatment is allowed to co-exist with multiple other versions being available on the market in the same quality at the same time, but somehow no matter what Star Wars is always the exception to that rule, and people constantly go out of their way online to try and tell us how it is somehow acceptable just because it is their personal belief that the SEs are better.

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I’ve been putting up with that mindset since at least the early 2000’s. Gave up on a Trek forum, (one with a general SF discussion board) and the Home Theater Forum because I was just plain weary of the Groundhog Day/temporal loop those discussions always seemed to end up in. Thank goodness I found OT, and for the life of me, I don’t even recall how I found it.

I don’t even want to imagine the pro Maclunkey arguments now. 😉

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SilverWook said:

I don’t even want to imagine the pro Maclunkey arguments now. 😉

I personally have a soft spot for the arguments supporting Luke’s scream in Cloud City. One of us! One of us!

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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CatBus said:

SilverWook said:

I don’t even want to imagine the pro Maclunkey arguments now. 😉

I personally have a soft spot for the arguments supporting Luke’s scream in Cloud City. One of us! One of us!

Ruining a silent sacrifice befitting a Jedi aside, it’s that it’s so obviously not Mark screaming. What thought process ended with Hey, let’s use an Emperor’s scream outtake and take an early lunch. Nobody will know!

Seriously though, how hard would it have been to get Mark Hamill in front of a mic and yell?

And they took it out for the next version anyway, how do the Flannelheads™ rationalize that reversion?

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SilverWook said:

And they took it out for the next version anyway, how do the Flannelheads™ rationalize that reversion?

I suspect it’s because we’ve always been at war with Eastasia.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)

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Yup, Blade Runner is a shining example of how the OT (and even PT) should be treated. Heck, even deleted scenes. Everything was cleaned up and polished and presented in a format that you can truly enjoy each of the 5 version of the film or the deleted scenes. Everything in 1080p, everything in a state that fan editors salivate over. That is what I want from an OT release. If you can do branching that would be awesome, but there are so many changes from the OT to the SE that isn’t very practical. So, like in 2006, a bonus disk with the OT. each version. There are 4 version of ANH and 2 of TESB and then the various soundtracks. And the SE PT done the same way with the different versions and soundtracks. And then a disc for the deleted scenes. A real set of deleted and alternate scenes… in color, cleaned and timed properly. But you’d have to have someone at Disney and Lucasfilm who cares enough to do this. I’d partner with Criterion for the release because they would love a project like this and wouldn’t be put off by the low profit margin that Disney cares about (and face it, we know they do).

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Whoever is actively against release of original version is obviously kissing George ass. There is no other reasonable explanation, besides trolling.

If one is to be fair, they should support the release of ALL official versions in the best quality format, not just the original version. For example, when they released 1997 version, a whole new generation grew up with those versions and many may be as fond of 1997 just as the older generation is fond of original version.

There are also many original version fans who actively dismiss other versions. Whenever I express that all version should be released, you have a bunch of original version fans saying “it is pointless because there is no real difference between SE versions anyway”, or even “no one cares about SE versions”, or something similar. In my opinion, those fans are the very same kind of inconsiderate a-holes like the ones who do not care about release of original version, whom they despise so much.

真実

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Welcome to my life. The people who insist that Disney signed a contract that said “you can’t release the original versions” are crazy to me. Disney is a business, they wouldn’t let an old man tell them what they can’t do with their IP.

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yotsuya said:

I’d partner with Criterion for the release because they would love a project like this and wouldn’t be put off by the low profit margin that Disney cares about (and face it, we know they do).

I would vote for Criterion too. They do things very well.

As for Disney, they certainly do not care for quality and they do not seem to care for profit either, since they prioritised political agendas of their incompetent producers and directors over the story, characters and eventually even profit of ST.

真実

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See also: the people who say “well, I’ve got Despecialized/4Kxx, so I don’t need the originals”.

looks around shiftily

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imperialscum said:

since they prioritised political agendas of their incompetent producers and directors over the story, characters and eventually even profit of ST.

Oh God, you’re one of those people.

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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Let’s play nice in the thread, kids.

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Where were you in '77?

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Star Wars conversation with a friend a few months ago…

Me: “If you want to watch the original trilogy the way we saw it as kids I have the “Despecialized” versions without the cgi in HD…”

Friend: “Naw, man. When I want to watch the originals I’ve got my old VHS tapes, and they still work fine.”

(He points over at a shelf, I notice they’re the fullscreen Special Edition tapes, I scream internally.)

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darth-gary said:

Star Wars conversation with a friend a few months ago…

Me: “If you want to watch the original trilogy the way we saw it as kids I have the “Despecialized” versions without the cgi in HD…”

Friend: “Naw, man. When I want to watch the originals I’ve got my old VHS tapes, and they still work fine.”

(He points over at a shelf, I notice they’re the fullscreen Special Edition tapes, I scream internally.)

This right here begins and ends the argument for why all versions should be officially preserved in a future release.

For some people, the “original version” still ain’t the original.

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darth-gary said:

Star Wars conversation with a friend a few months ago…

Me: “If you want to watch the original trilogy the way we saw it as kids I have the “Despecialized” versions without the cgi in HD…”

Friend: “Naw, man. When I want to watch the originals I’ve got my old VHS tapes, and they still work fine.”

(He points over at a shelf, I notice they’re the fullscreen Special Edition tapes, I scream internally.)

That’s some god-tier existential terror right there.

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I remember telling one of my high school teachers about Despecialized because he was a Star Wars fan, and after questioning the existence of such a thing he said “I still have the originals on VHS.” He wasn’t referring to SE tapes of course, but the fact that someone would just be okay with having nothing but VHS copies baffles me.

Army of Darkness: The Medieval Deadit | The Terminator - Color Regrade | The Wrong Trousers - Audio Preservation
SONIC RACES THROUGH THE GREEN FIELDS.
THE SUN RACES THROUGH A BLUE SKY FILLED WITH WHITE CLOUDS.
THE WAYS OF HIS HEART ARE MUCH LIKE THE SUN. SONIC RUNS AND RESTS; THE SUN RISES AND SETS.
DON’T GIVE UP ON THE SUN. DON’T MAKE THE SUN LAUGH AT YOU.

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Nostalgia for VHS can be as warm & fuzzy as the image quality of VHS itself.

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But he also said he watches the Blu-rays, so it isn’t like he only watches VHS tapes.

Army of Darkness: The Medieval Deadit | The Terminator - Color Regrade | The Wrong Trousers - Audio Preservation
SONIC RACES THROUGH THE GREEN FIELDS.
THE SUN RACES THROUGH A BLUE SKY FILLED WITH WHITE CLOUDS.
THE WAYS OF HIS HEART ARE MUCH LIKE THE SUN. SONIC RUNS AND RESTS; THE SUN RISES AND SETS.
DON’T GIVE UP ON THE SUN. DON’T MAKE THE SUN LAUGH AT YOU.

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Maybe it goes hand in hand with the erroneous mindset that old movies don’t look good in HD?

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Where were you in '77?

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It is a weird phenomena.

It’s not like people don’t bring up issues with other films and their releases. For instances, I saw a lot of complaining about the color timing for the recent blu-ray release of Terminator. I never see anyone attacked for that kind of stuff, but if you bring up the original release of Star Wars you’re being an obsessive and pedantic nerd.

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I remember a comment from a few years ago on a video about DeSpecialized and the comment was basically along the lines of “I don’t understand why you would want to undo the new effects and reinsert those older cheesier effects” or whatever.
Just a few months ago a guy on Blu-ray.com was talking how the updated versions are better than with the outdated effects or whatever. I had to reiterate that he was stating an opinion. His response was “It’s not an opinion though. The original versions have dated special effects and are dated over all, the new versions look far superior, even though they have some admittedly already dated CGI. I do wish Lucas would have waited until CGI was as good as it is now“. I once again reiterated to him that this was his opinion, not fact.

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Criterion tried to get their hands on THX-1138 but could only get the special edition version of that too. Also with the whole thing about JJ Abrams wanting the unaltered OT, they told him “its just not possible”. But c’mon JJ, you just directed 2 star wars films directly tied to the OT. He should’ve done more investigation and put more effort into changing things. He was just acting so nonchalant about the whole thing. I’m pissed, this is probably Fox’s fault where the rights are being held hostage, or its something as simple as Kathleen Kennedy wanting to respect George’s wishes by only showing the films the way he “wants people to remember them.” But we can argue about that for days. I saw this interview with Kathleen Kennedy on YouTube by some fan who asked her about the Unaltered OT, and she literally had no idea what he was talking about. I’ll see if I can find the link. I pray to god doubleofive’s article comes up at a board meeting in Lucasfilm.

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We know the interview you are referring to and technically the subject of the OUT wasn’t addressed. The interviewer asked about George changing his movies and said something like “you’re not gonna make more changes are you??” KK laughed and said “those will always be his”. I mean people can interpret this any way they choose but technically the future of the OUT was never addressed.

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crissrudd4554 said:

I remember a comment from a few years ago on a video about DeSpecialized and the comment was basically along the lines of “I don’t understand why you would want to undo the new effects and reinsert those older cheesier effects” or whatever.
Just a few months ago a guy on Blu-ray.com was talking how the updated versions are better than with the outdated effects or whatever. I had to reiterate that he was stating an opinion. His response was “It’s not an opinion though. The original versions have dated special effects and are dated over all, the new versions look far superior, even though they have some admittedly already dated CGI. I do wish Lucas would have waited until CGI was as good as it is now“. I once again reiterated to him that this was his opinion, not fact.

I wish he had waited too! We might have gotten a decent OOT release in the meantime. That forum has had a long history of people who don’t get movie preservation. I wonder how good the CGI in the prequels looks to them now?

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