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Alternate 1997 Special Editions (What if...?)

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 (Edited)

Hey folks,

I am new to this so please bare with me if this topic has been covered before.
I know this is random but first I wanted to give a big shout out and thank you to Harmy and Team Negative One for their incredible work.
I Still haven’t been able to see the Grindhouse Editions but Despecialized and 4KXX are awesome.

So here is my question, what if in 1997 George Lucas just cleaned up the deleted scenes, added them back into the original films, and nothing else? No Han shooting at same time, no wampa, no Jedi rocks, and the Jabba scene’s dialogue would be changed to where it was Jabba’s righthand man(or something) coming to confront Solo, not a CGI Jabba.
Would the films be better? Would we still want an official release of the original films?
Which deleted scenes are completely unusable? Which ones do you really think would make the films better?

I Appreciate you taking the time to read this.

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ncskye said:
and the Jabba scene’s dialogue would be changed to where it was Jabba’s righthand man(or something) coming to confront Solo, not a CGI Jabba.

That’s what the Greedo scene is.

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Yeah thats true, I guess the Jabba deleted scene wouldn’t work

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Lucas original intention was just to fix the Landspeeder shot, remove matte lines. Restore the picture and prepare a multi track audio mix for modern digital 5.1 systems.

If he had done only those things along with recomped effects and redone wipes and dissolves would fans still have been bothered? I mean if he had not used it as a testing ground for cartoon cgi to prep the prequels.
Added Dinosaurs and silly slapstick like the falling Jawa, or didn’t have Greedo shoot first.
I don’t think the new cgi X-wings scene works at all, much worse than the original model shots. The worst part the same pilot is in all the X-wings, and i think it was Jon Knoll inserting himself into the movie.

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JadedSkywalker said:

Lucas original intention was just to fix the Landspeeder shot, remove matte lines. Restore the picture and prepare a multi track audio mix for modern digital 5.1 systems.

If he had done only those things along with recomped effects and redone wipes and dissolves would fans still have been bothered?

Beyond an infinitesimal niche of hardcore cinephiles, doubtful.

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Right. And it would’ve been far better at erasing the originals.

“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”

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But would we still consider the originals “erased” if the only changes were recomped effects? That’s the approach the D+XX project takes, and I don’t see anyone kicking up a big fuss about how it’s not “really” original.

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

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JadedSkywalker said:

Lucas original intention was just to fix the Landspeeder shot, remove matte lines. Restore the picture and prepare a multi track audio mix for modern digital 5.1 systems.

If he had done only those things along with recomped effects and redone wipes and dissolves would fans still have been bothered? I mean if he had not used it as a testing ground for cartoon cgi to prep the prequels.
Added Dinosaurs and silly slapstick like the falling Jawa, or didn’t have Greedo shoot first.
I don’t think the new cgi X-wings scene works at all, much worse than the original model shots. The worst part the same pilot is in all the X-wings, and i think it was Jon Knoll inserting himself into the movie.

Yeah I really think we all would be a lot happier with the official releases if he had just cleaned up the film and stuck with his original intention for the special editions. I feel like if he had to add things to the content of the film, If it would have been deleted scenes(which were filmed at the same time as the films), it would have fit nicely compared to the CGI shots that in some cases stick out or didn’t age well.

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StarkillerAG said:

But would we still consider the originals “erased” if the only changes were recomped effects? That’s the approach the D+XX project takes, and I don’t see anyone kicking up a big fuss about how it’s not “really” original.

Maybe so, but it still would be getting rid of the groundbreaking effects that won the film an Academy Award.

“That Darth Vader, man. Sure does love eating Jedi.”

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ATMachine said:

StarkillerAG said:

But would we still consider the originals “erased” if the only changes were recomped effects? That’s the approach the D+XX project takes, and I don’t see anyone kicking up a big fuss about how it’s not “really” original.

Maybe so, but it still would be getting rid of the groundbreaking effects that won the film an Academy Award.

Those efforts would still be there. All the original models would be preserved, just recomped for better quality. If anything, that would only emphasize how good the models were by presenting them in the best quality possible. And the other categories that Star Wars won, like creature design, editing, and music, would still be preserved in their original form.

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

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StarkillerAG said:

ATMachine said:

StarkillerAG said:

But would we still consider the originals “erased” if the only changes were recomped effects? That’s the approach the D+XX project takes, and I don’t see anyone kicking up a big fuss about how it’s not “really” original.

Maybe so, but it still would be getting rid of the groundbreaking effects that won the film an Academy Award.

Those efforts would still be there. All the original models would be preserved, just recomped for better quality. If anything, that would only emphasize how good the models were by presenting them in the best quality possible. And the other categories that Star Wars won, like creature design, editing, and music, would still be preserved in their original form.

Agreed. I’ve never minded removing matte lines or recomposites, since the old composites had unfortunate artifacts of the optical printing process. Heck, redoing the optical on finer-grain film (like the wipes) would’ve been welcome too.

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Almost none of the original deleted material belongs in the films … the CGI junk, even less so.

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I remember being excited for the special editions to hut theaters. I think the suppression of the unaltered versions causes more distaste for the changes. People like having a choice. They may even be receptive of even greater changes if given the ability to still easily choose the unaltered versions.

Blade Runner: the Final Cut is my preferred version, but if the theatrical version with the narration was impossible to find, you better believe I wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about it.

This is probably blasphemy in these parts, but I’d be up for special edition versions of the entire Star Wars catalog, including the made for TV Ewok movies, if only the original versions were also released, in comparable quality. Imagine if the special effects in the prequels were updated to current standards?

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Interesting from that perspective people who grew up with the 1997 trilogy cannot even watch the Star Wars Trilogy the way they remember. As it is only available on VHS and Laserdisc. It was never released on DVD, never on Blu-Ray or 4K UHD disc.

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Anyone saying we would have still been upset, is just lying to themselves. If all he had done was restored the footage and added one deleted scene, everyone would be satisfied with that. That kind of restoration work happens with movies all the time.

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ncskye said:

Hey folks,

So here is my question, what if in 1997 George Lucas just cleaned up the deleted scenes, added them back into the original films, and nothing else?

I have been looking at this for quite some time perhaps 2 years on and off and it’s not as straight forward as you might think.

Adding the deleted scenes back in radically changes the opening of the film amongst other cut’s and splices when you start to deep dive it is not only deleted material but even in existing material within the film is in the incorrect order especially gun battles or repeated sections of film and audio synch issues.

To say the deleted scenes do not belong in the film I would agree that with Jabba the scene is totally obsolete. Luke and Biggs are not however and I think that this is something worth trying to achieve.

To understand how these scenes work was and still is a long process. It is a slightly different film but not that different, but different enough to make it a different experience,