RE: Dalton Ross' 5/12/06 article, "Greed(o) Kills"
I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Ross' summation of George Lucas' treatment of Star Wars and then some. It is quite frankly outrageous that after all these years we still have not been given the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD. And, after hearing advanced reports on the new DVDs, it appears that these transfers of the original cuts are sub-par, taken from the laserdisc transfers and not even anamorphic! This is not just about stuck up fans getting what we want, this is about preserving film history. These films literally made George Lucas into the millionaire that he is now, and he could not care less about them, as well as the fans that made him so rich as well. There is absolutely no excuse for this treatment of the films. Although Lucas and stock Lucasfilm employees claim they have no copies of the original films (which may very well be true), there are original copies in the hands of many private collectors as well as film institutions that would no doubt be happy to provide Lucas with them if he has "misplaced" them. I hope that there will be enough support to make Lucasfilm see the errors of their ways; after all, after hearing fans reactions, Steven Spielberg was more than obliging to provide the original cut of ET on DVD in addition to his new special edition (in premium quality, no less!). Let us hope that Mr. Lucas will follow suit.