I want a beautiful new 16x9 transfer of the original edit of Star Wars with all of the original mixes available at the touch of a button. Not a 13 year old D2 master designed for obsolete formats, dusted off and thrown to us as a bone, because that's all this is going to be unless things change soon. They won't change with complacency.
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co reply:
I am going to defend you here Neil, and I sort of agree with you. Now for the record, I have a high definition TV, and DD 5.1 and DTS Surround Sound, and though I don't know the history of sound remixes of the OT as many do here, I still think we should get top quality in a release. And yes, if it is less than stellar, call me a sucker, I will still buy it, but I probably won't be satsfied, but I will write to Lucasfilm NEXT WEEK on how I want a top quality release, and that I am confident they are going to oblige.
I look at it this way for anyone who says you want the original, you got it. For me, the original means, before all the dumb SE changes. I loved the OT films in the form they were from 1977-96, because that was before Lucas really started tampering with them. Now sure he changed the crawl in 1981 to Episode IV, and changed Beru's voice, and very minor things over the years, but the reason we want these versions is all the crap Lucas through in the 1997 release, and more crap in the 2004 release. 99% of here do not like that crap, and don't want to Hayden in ROTJ, don't want to see Greedo shooting first, or Jabba appear in the original SW. That is the reason I want these versions, and if Lucas can give me a DVD without Episode IV in it, then that is a bonus! I have so many different versions over the years, I am sure they have changed the sound mixes and picture quality, but each new version always seemed better quality, and that is why I bought them.
I look at this release like every other older movie I buy on DVD, I want the best quality they can reproduce. I bought Indiana Jones Trilogy on DVD in 2003, and sure the original was from 1981, but that doesn't mean it has to look like that on DVD! It was remastered from whatever negative to Anamorphic Widescreen in 5.1 DD, with an other sound options if you don't want a new mix. Nobody said when that trilogy came out, "You are not watching Raiders of the Lost Ark in its original form!" Of course I am not, but that is the point of DVD, I want DVD quality. If I want the original SW VHS or Laserdisk quality, I will find in my attic my VHS tapes, or I will continue to play my bootlegs that are fair quality at best.
I just want the same quality that every DVD that comes on the market today, the best it can bring. If we want the original version quality, then it shouldn't be anamorphic, so who wants that? I think Lucas should give the option of 5.1 DD or the original Stereo sound like Spielberg did with the Jaws DVD that came out last year. I for one love a new mix, but others love the original mixes, Spielberg did it, I am sure Lucasfilm can do it.
I am so happy this set is coming out and of course I am going to buy it, just like I knew I would buy the Indiana Jones Trilogy before knowing the specs in 2003, but again, there wasn't a debate there on how those films should be presented. Why is there have to be a debate on how the SW films should be presented, they should be of DVD quality, that we can toss away our VHS, Laserdisk, and bootlegs, isn't that the point of this all these years, I know I always felt this way.