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Originally posted by: The Bizzle
You don't pay too much attention to film and film history if you think this is a "trend" much less one started by Lucas.
Sure, it's fun to create a bunch of "The sky is falling" scenarios just for shits n' giggles, but that's about all this is good for--artistic revisions are not a Lucas innovation, nor did he really popularize it. If anything, he DEMONIZED it
Yes, it's a trend. Wouldn't something occurring many times consistently over a span of time be considered a "trend"? (answer: yes, since that's a very definition of the word) Come on-- of course, GL didn't "invent" this trend, but what he's done with the SW flicks is pretty unprecedented, no? These aren't just simple "Director's Cuts" or "Alternate Versions" (which often amount to a few mins. of slight differences), or even mere "artistic revisions"-- he went back into widely known, "classic", beloved films and performed numerous alterations, removals, and insertions. IMDB might note alt. versions (which again, often amount to fairly insignificant changes), and that's why there are websites devoted to the sheer amount of SW changes. It's not the same as The Exorcist restoring a couple mins, or just slapping deleted scenes back into a film and calling it a Special Limited Extreme Edition. Or the newer trend of putting out every other movie in an Unrated Edition.
Lucas may not have invented this notion, and his work (and undoing of said work) on the OT isn't unique per se, but the sheer number and scope of changes (i.e. digitally replacing one actor with another one? softening already PG-rated "violence"?) is an extreme example of the film-altering trend. And while he didn't invent or start such a thing, there sure seems to be a LOT more of such things happening with films since the SW SE. And the DVD format has helped boost those numbers as well (1, 2, 3-disc versions, etc). I'm not arguing, I'm just saying that there's something to the suggestion of Lucas playing a pretty big role in this kind of growing activity.
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Back to the Future Trilogy
-Elizabeth Shue would be inserted in the first film, since a different actress played her character in the first film
I wish you could do the reverse, and put the first Jennifer (Claudia Wells) into II & III. Shue is a good actress, but she was *awful* in the BTTF flicks.
It's only a matter of time before digital "enhancements" and changes happen to more classics.
I'm waiting for a new cut of the Nightmare on Elm Street series, sort of in reverse-- called Bad Afternoon on Elm Street-- in which this guy named Freddy is disfigured and after haunting people while they sleep, he then exits their dreams, has his face fixed, and becomes a beloved Mr. Rogers-type character, with a striped sweater.