Since 1995, when I read the "One Last Time" sticker, I ran out and grabbed not only the Definitive LDs, but the Faces LDs also. To this day, I have kept the Faces Editions still sealed, because I had a sinking feeling this would not be an easy battle. All of us have been slugging it out with Lucasfilm, trying so very desperately to make it to the beach and move inland. Well, we heard the DVD announcement and, for a moment, thought we had made it to the beach. Well, in a way, we have made it onto the sand. But now we've discovered we didn't land at the right place. Do we retreat and regroup? No. We've come too far and there is no time left to waste. We press forward and move for the seawall. We will not rest until we have Lucasfilm's unconditional surrender. I know I sound dramatic, but after all of this time and all of the waiting and pleading and praying, it's time to follow through. We don't need to sit back after punching Lucasfilm in the stomach and knocking the wind out of them and pat them on the back and give them a chance to recover.
The whole excuse of the OT being a fun bonus feature is a masked way of trying to confess to retail failure. If Lucas was the auteur he has claimed to be, he would still be spitting in our faces to this day and continue to deny releasing the original versions. He's clearly not doing that, but in a hamhanded way he's trying to save face as the narcissistic egomaniac he has become by telling us these are just bonus features and they didn't put any effort into the transfers. Well, as some others have astutely pointed out here, Lucasfilm's official response defecates all over the memory of the OT, but then turns around in a shameless marketing campaign and uses the OT as the selling point. Sickening and horrible.
There is only one course - onwards and upwards. Now that the wind is dying in Lucasfilm's P.R. sails, it's time to press forward, not regroup and think. You eat an elephant one piece at a time. The letters need to flood into Lucasfilm by mail and e-mail - we need to flood the mailboxes and the Inboxes from here on out - This bait and switch BS they're pulling is unacceptable and we need to show them it has serious consequences. If anyone has a spare moment and a phone, rattle that cage too - Force them to shut their switchboard down if need be! Lemme tell you - those kinds of efforts will make headlines - and soon some of us might be sitting in front of Matt Lauer or Mike Wallace talking about this in a deliciously juxtaposed news segment on 20/20 where some crafty journalist gets Lucas in the chair and starts poking holes in all of his canned statements and reveals all of his hypocrisy about film preservation.
MOST IMPORTANTLY - Preservation projects like XO should be supported even more now than ever. If this lousy DVD release is an attempt to curb fan efforts, just like the 2004 DVDs supposedly were for the SE, let's send the signal that their pathetic and insulting leftovers just made their problems worse. I have been a Star Wars fan since I was a preschooler in the very early 1980s and I can't stand the prequels or the SE editions. For me, it truly is the OT or nothing and I don't plan to be left without a chair when the music stops. To the XO Project and the other preservationists out there - I have a PRISTINE set of Faces LDs in mint, wrapped condition - If I can directly help in this effort in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me. It used to be a despondent waiting game for me. No longer. I'm starting my war right here.
Mike