Originally posted by: ricarleite
A question. Let's say I have a movie theater and I want to show Star Wars on it. So I get in touch with my local 20th century fox distributor and request a copy. What will they give me? 1997 or 2004?
Also: I am not sure if some of you remember, but there was this movie festival somewhere in the US and they were showing one film for each decade, and the 70s were to be represented by Star Wars, and they HAD an O-OT film to show, but Lucasfilm denied permission to show anything else bu the 1997 version (this was before 2004). So if the O-OT is out there in celluloid, it can be transfered properly into DVD.
A question. Let's say I have a movie theater and I want to show Star Wars on it. So I get in touch with my local 20th century fox distributor and request a copy. What will they give me? 1997 or 2004?
Also: I am not sure if some of you remember, but there was this movie festival somewhere in the US and they were showing one film for each decade, and the 70s were to be represented by Star Wars, and they HAD an O-OT film to show, but Lucasfilm denied permission to show anything else bu the 1997 version (this was before 2004). So if the O-OT is out there in celluloid, it can be transfered properly into DVD.
If you owned a movie theater- you would get the 1997 version (I think), because the 2004 changes were for the DVD, and whatever available prints there are for movie theaters are probably the '97 versions.
How ridiculous- wanting people to show a film that used CGI from 1997 in a 1970s film festival. That perfectly encapsulates the silliness of wanting to foist a new version of a classic film on people who don't want to see it.
If I ever have children, I will show them the OOT when they are the right age. I will tell them that the films were released in 1977, 1980 and 1983, and explain to them how groundbreaking the special effects were at the time. I will tell them how a special computer had to be invented to precisely control the movements of the camera, so that they could shoot the miniature spaceships in a such a way to create the illusion of flight, and how all the backgrounds were painted by hand, on glass. They will NOT be watching the Special Editions under my roof. Imagine trying to explain how these films changed your life when you saw them as a kid, but having to explain to your child "well, not this part- this part wasn't in the 1977 version.....and that part.....and that thing flying around- that was added in 1997". It's ludicrous.
I'm sure many prints of the OT still exist, it's just that GL doesn't want anyone to see them. Even when they show clips of the films in TV shows, they use the '97 versions (like when they show the death star exploding, it's ALWAYS the version with the stupid ring around it).