However, the other day, I was looking at my 1999 VHS copy of Raiders. On the back it states “The trendsetting movie that put adventure on the map now comes your way in a new, remastered version that enhances the final scenes with dazzling state-of-the-art special effects.” When I saw “enhances,” I became afraid that they added CGI and carried it on to the DVD release. Did this happen?
This was because work was started on special editions of Raiders and E.T. soon after the 1997 special editions of Star Wars were so successful. The exact history is unclear, but the special edition of E.T. came out in 2002 (the one with a CGI ET and the controversial and silly change of guns to walkie talkies). At the time, they said “We’re doing Raiders next.” I don’t know how far work progressed, but it was ultimately cancelled after the uproar over E.T. and a scathing South Park episode that mocked the proposed Raiders special edition. If you haven’t seen that episode it’s called “Free Hat” and well worth watching.
I always wondered if it was the intention to release it on home video at some point, hence the description on the VHS box, but then the plan was changed. If work on the updated special effects was done as far back as 1999 and possibly in 2002, it would certainly be very interesting to see the results. I’m not opposed to special editions as long as the original is also available in the same quality. To date, only the one updated effects shot during the truck chase has surfaced and that was short lived and limited to a few HDTV broadcasts.