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Post #35546

Author
sweyland
Parent topic
Why doesn't Lucus just release both versions?
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/35546/action/topic#35546
Date created
28-Feb-2004, 4:13 PM
This isn't some mathematical formula, where the SE has x amount of good changes and y amount of bad changes and therefore if the x was more than y then somehow the SE is a better movie.

By that logic if there were equal amounts of both good x and bad y in the SE then the SE would somehow be equivalent to the original OT. Taking it further perhaps Lucas could insanely fugger up the OT even more with adding more Jar Jar, or changing Luke and Leia never kissing (they're brother and sister!) or Luke never losing his hand and gets a good spanking from his dad instead or just whatever, and as long as he added way more super-duper improved CGI to every frame of film and that such 'improvements' outnumbered the 'bad' changes than would the newer SE/AE/UE versions be better?

Of course not. Films, movies, whatever are art. When it comes to art it simply either works or it doesn't. It is in fact the littlest, or subtlest changes or nuances that makes something from simply okay or good, to great. Not all changes are equal. Just compare the two different versions of Brazil from a thought-provoking cynical ending to a 180 happy ending. No different than cutting/missing the last minute of Night of the Living Dead or 12 Monkeys where one might assume a happing ending when it is clearly not. Hitchcock removed that last minute of Vertigo that would have utterly transformed the dark despair to a simple whodunnit.

You may argue that the changes in the SE are not as signficant as adding a happy ending to Casablanca, or the original sad break-up endings to When Harry Met Sally or Pretty Woman. And perhaps they are not, it's certainly arguable. I however argue that are changes are significant and greatly alter the mood, flow, and most importantly character of the films. Adding Jabba isn't just bad CGI and acting (which it is) but it also takes away from the first time Luke (and the audience) even sees the immense and impressive full scale Falcon. It's just breathtaking. And that's why it's funny when Luke calls it a pile of junk, unlike the audience as a character in the Star Wars universe he of course would be used to space ships. The Luke scream in TESB is just a tiny audio change and yet it utterly alters Lukes character. From a poor and rash Jedi student who wouldn't listen to Yoda or Obi-Wan, to being defeated by Darth Vader and given the ultimate choice, Luke finally does the right thing and chooses against the darkside (something his father clearly failed to do) even at the cost of possibly his own life. But his tragic, honourable, yet deeply calm and thoughtful choice becomes a comical scream for survival, and what was a great dramatic moment in TESB, something that really elevated the film becomes a blah pointless annoyance, Luke might as well have slipped and fell off.

These are just a few examples. Maybe they are small changes, but they are SIGNIFICANT changes. As it is there a few small, but fatally significant changes that make the SE poorer films in comparison. Different, interesting in their own way even, but poorer. And the fact is, if they weren't significant, then Lucas himself wouldn't have done them. That's why George should release both versions.