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I like 'em both :)

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Greetings Gents!

I was viewing the original widescreen version (1993 Laserdisc transfer) of Episode IV:ANH earlier today. Over the past few years I've been watching the special editions exclusively and was really struck by the differences in each movie. The 1977 version has a very raw, visceral quality to it...the visuals, special effects and sound have a very rough, in your face kind've quality to them that i'd fogotten about. All it takes is five minutes with the film and you know this is a film from '77. I actually appreciated these qualities during my time watching the film.

On the other hand, it got me to thinking how much speculation there would have been on all the things now possible with advanced CGI, so I'm glad that George Lucas indulged us all by inserting those bits and pieces that he had always envisioned changing. Its nice to watch all three of the classic widescreen movies and compare those scenes that were changed, altered or expanded with their newer counterparts.

Thanks for a fun site too, i'm glad I found you guys.

Cheers!
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Their's a big difference between cleaning up old special effects and putting things in that are obviously going to piss a lot of people off. GL seems to revel in upsetting the fan base as much as he can. Either that or the guy HAS completely lost his marbles.
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Originally posted by: eros
Their's a big difference between cleaning up old special effects and putting things in that are obviously going to piss a lot of people off. GL seems to revel in upsetting the fan base as much as he can. Either that or the guy HAS completely lost his marbles.


With that in mind, I wonder if one of the things fans would like to see is an original theatrical cut to anamorphic widescreen version w/out any enhancements whatsoever (like the one I saw yesterday), OR perhaps an original version with the visuals touched up for clarity (as in the new 2004 DVD's) BUT without any enhanced special effects, scenes, sounds or dialogue. An interesting question, b/c it seems like even within the original trilogy community there may some difference of opinion as to just how to implement the whole thing.

Further complicating (not necessarily, but its fun to speculate) are some issues just as to what constitutes the original films. In the laserdisc transfer (from the 1993 Definitive Collection) I was watching the otherday it was revealed in the production notes that there were three seperate sound effects mixes made by Ben Burt during the film's 1977 premiere. One was for monoaural theaters, another for the select few with multiple speaker placements and a third for the films initial "hurried" release. The production notes state explicitly that fans were watching different sound effect versions in theaters, depending upon where they were watching. In addition, for the laserdisc version Ben Burt and a colleague remastered the sound effects. Which begs the question....

Would fans want a DVD release of the original trilogy with 5.1 surround? 2.1? And just what exactly would constitute original? Hehe, just some more fun speculation.....

Oh and by the way.... (edit).....

For those of you reading this thread: If you had the option of showing a friend or relative who had no prior exposure to star wars the original trilogy or the Special editions which one would you show?
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As far as I'm aware DD 5.1 didn't hit the theatres until Batman Returns in 1992 although I may be wrong on that. either way it didn't exist when Star wars came out in '77 so I'd vote for the mainstream format for sound which was probably the stereo soundtrack. As far as your other questions go these have been covered so many times on this board that you should be able to find your answers without much searching
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My form of what the OOT DVDs should be would be: Proper color correction 9not liek the shit on the 04 DVD's), good clarity, and the original 2.0 PCM stereo track for audio. (Or an option for all the different mixes + a 5.1 version)
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Just some additional thoughts on the changes...


It's interesting....I was thinking about how some of the changes ended up altering my perception of certain scenes. For instance, in the original Ep IV scene, when the stormtroopers are combing the desert for droids, I never really found that stationary dewback prop convincing. I must have watched that scene dozens of times, and it never really occured to me that I ought to infer more dewbacks walking around with stormtroppers riding them.

In hindsight i suspect that I wasn't really meant to, but with the new CGI additions you really get the sense of a search expedition taking place.

I'd love to hear more feedback to my prior question as well: which would you show, the original or the SE? Right now i'm leaning toward the SE, b/c of the extra content.
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I would always show the original version. In fact, I did that last summer when I showed them to my girlfriend's little sister. As for which one, I'd love to see a version that was never released to home format: the original '77 theatrical version without "Episode IV A New Hope" in the title. As for which audio track to use, I'd take any of the three original mixes. I'm not too picky when it comes to that.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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I will always show the original 77 80 and 83 films first, then I will show the Special Edition but a fan created Special Edition eg ADigitalmans Special Edition or what i think is the best one,with stuff like Han shooting first re-editted back into Star Wars and Sebastian Shaw put in back in Jedi, though will probably compromise on Jedi and let the person have the choice if they want to see the Hayden ghost on the official DVD.