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How do you feel about Star Wars being re-titled A New Hope in 1981? — Page 3

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yotsuya said:

ray_afraid said:

MASTER260 said:

it kinda obligated Lucasfilm to make the prequels because you couldn’t have episodes 4, 5, and 6 without 1, 2, and 3, otherwise it looks stupid.

Totally disagree. Not having the beginning of the story was cool & interesting. As if those stories were lost to time with this all happening “A Long Time Ago.”

Z6PO said:

ray_afraid said:

ChainsawAsh said:

The Princess of Alderaan would have been such a better title…

I’ve seen that passed around, & I disagree.
If Leia was the main character, maybe. But it’s clearly Luke’s story.
(Also, the aping of Edgar Rice Burroughs is right on the nose. Dunno If I hate that or love it.)

Leia may not be the main character, but she sets things in motion, and keep them in motion. She’s basically giving (direct and indirect) orders to the male characters throughout the movie!

Sure, but she isn’t the movies focus enough to title the film after her.
If we’re gonna change the title, I’d rather it be one that references the overarching events than any one character.

How is that different from A Princess of Mars? That princess wasn’t the main protagonist either.
How is that different from A Princess of Mars? That princess wasn’t the main protagonist either.
How is that different from A Princess of Mars? That princess wasn’t the main protagonist either.

I can’t speak for that. Only how it works as a title for this Star Wars film. And I don’t think it works.
She’s more Rebel Traitor than Princess in the film. The Princess thing is mostly a ruse.
Just an opinion.

Also, this discussion belongs in the SW Random thoughts thread.
Maybe the whole thread does, but we’re off topic here.

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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The topic is “How do you feel about Star Wars being re-titled A New Hope in 1981”. I feel that discussing alternate titles we feel might be better is very on topic. As I asked above, what would an appropriate 1977 sub-title for the movie have been. If the crawl had started with a title, what should it have been in 1977? I have yet to think of something that even sounds good. But there has to be something better than A New Hope.

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Well, my feeling is that it should have had a better title so I see it as the same. I hate topics that are catch all and aren’t allowed to migrate to other topics that come up in regular conversation. Some topics are so broad you can’t keep up and others become so narrow that they die a quick death. Topics that are interesting stray around the original topic and occasionally come back to it.

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It’s a bad title, but I get why they changed it. Wish they changed it to something better, though.

Reading R + L ≠ J theories

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SparkySywer said:

It’s a bad title, but I get why they changed it. Wish they changed it to something better, though.

I’m curious if anyone has any ideas that would have been better.

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The 77 differences between sources from the original release are fascinating. Why do I get the feeling as usual we do more comparative research than any officials?? 😉

As for ANH and alternate subtitles, I think the Radio Drama does it best with each episode having a custom title.

VADER!? WHERE THE HELL IS MY MOCHA LATTE? -Palpy on a very bad day.
“George didn’t think there was any future in dead Han toys.”-Harrison Ford
YT channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/DamnFoolIdealisticCrusader

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Touching the picture was like a revelation. What is it? An abundance of practical special effects? A universe breathing with all the fibers of the soul, in which hope is still alive? Pure adventures? Yes, yes and yes. After watching, I fell asleep with some special feeling, which I did not so often experience. The feeling of discovering something new for yourself. Great, grandiose, which will definitely affect my future life.

The very next day, I watched New Hope again, now with a friend. And it was still a wonderful, goosebump experience. Needless to say, now I have become a fan of not just a beautiful and pompous space saga, as I thought before, but one of the most striking phenomena of modern pop culture. At the moment, I have not read a single Star Wars book, have not played Knights of the Old Republic, and so on, it’s hard to call me a hardcore fan. Nevertheless, I at least know about these things, and my acquaintance with the world of a distant, distant galaxy is not limited to purely cinema. So at least I just became a fan of these things. And first of all, it is a merit precisely that the first two views of the fourth episode.

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captainsolo said:

As for ANH and alternate subtitles, I think the Radio Drama does it best with each episode having a custom title.

  1. A Wind To Shake The Stars
  2. Points Of Origin
  3. Black Knight, White Princess, And Pawns
  4. While Giants Mark Time
  5. Jedi That Was, Jedi To Be
  6. The Millennium Falcon Deal
  7. The Han Solo Solution
  8. Death Star’s Transit
  9. Rogues, Rebels And Robots
  10. The Luke Skywalker Initiative
  11. The Jedi Nexus
  12. The Case For Rebellion
  13. Force And Counter Force

Han: Hey Lando! You kept your promise, right? Not a scratch?
Lando: Well, what’s left of her isn’t scratched. All the scratched parts got knocked off along the way.
Han (exasperated): Knocked off?!

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Fated-Dualist said:

‘Star Wars: Maclunkey!’

A film before its time 😉

“Star Wars but random elements of the mix are replaced by Maclunkey” is an edit I would give my lefty to see.

Crank the volume and compress the audio so it peaks/gets really distorted. REALLY go at it with adding DNR and over-saturating the colors of the 2004 version to create all the visual artifacts you can to really add to the experience.

Luke astro-projects himself to Salt Lake Planet, gets shot at by gorilla walkers, has a non-lightsaber duel with Darth Millennial, then dies of a broken heart, inspiring broom boys throughout the galaxy to get creative with their sweeping. - DuracellEnergizer

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I’ve always called it Star Wars from the beginning and I just can’t break from it. A New Hope just sounds strange to me. I don’t even think about it. It’s just Star Wars to me.

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Maybe it’s just because I don’t have the nostalgia from seeing the original movie in theaters, but I’ve never had a problem with the “A New Hope” subtitle. Sometimes I call the theatrical version “Star Wars '77”, but most of the time I just call it by the episode name, just like every other Star Wars movie.

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

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I guess it’s partly because it goes into the pile of revisionism that this site is against but I was kind of surprised how few people here like A New Hope, it’s actually one of my favorite titles out of all of them, so humble for a space epic, if it was a generic sci-fi b movie they would have called it something dumb like Death Star, I like how whimsical and fairy-tale ANH sounds, just very clean to me.

“The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.” - DV

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It’s not that I dislike the title itself, but since you now have to say SW77 or SE97 or whatever I’ve grown to be annoyed by the whole mess.

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Mocata said:

It’s not that I dislike the title itself, but since you now have to say SW77 or SE97 or whatever I’ve grown to be annoyed by the whole mess.

Fan editors should start inserting SW77, SE97, and GOUT into places like our own THX 1138. 😃

“The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.” - DV

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Dek Rollins said:

The DC of Star Trek II isn’t a different movie, it’s just a better version of the same movie.

No.

My feelings on this issue are pretty standard for a Star Wars purist. Dumb title and it messes up the timing of the music to the crawl. I call it Star Wars when I can. “The original Star Wars” when people get confused.

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Even though the movie had a new crawl and subtitle the box art just said Star Wars. and so did the rental stand at the video store.
I’m speaking of the original laserdisc and VHS and Beta releases and they did not say a New Hope on the box art or dustjacket. Even though the movie says so.

Even the one last time release just referred to the film as Star Wars, and so did Leonard Maltin on the tape.
I could be wrong but i think it only started being called a New Hope on the box art in the year 2000.

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I don’t hate the change nor do I like it, it’s inconsequential. The change from “Star Wars” to “A New Hope” marks the point where Star Wars transitioned from being the title of a movie to the name of a franchise. I just hate Star Wars as a franchise.

Luke astro-projects himself to Salt Lake Planet, gets shot at by gorilla walkers, has a non-lightsaber duel with Darth Millennial, then dies of a broken heart, inspiring broom boys throughout the galaxy to get creative with their sweeping. - DuracellEnergizer