Originally posted by: Mike O
If it doesn't exist, then how do you explain this September release? To Lucas the updated versions are his way of making the end result of all those artisian's contributions as good as he can (in his opinion). Should he have left the bad matte lines in from the optical compositing? After all that was the blood and sweat of real aritistic professionals. Say what you want about his movies, but most of them have done extremely well, which would indicate that not everyone thought they were complete crap. Which does not mean that they are good movies. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are bad ones either, but the fact that something makes money does not automatically indicate quality. Well it means it was quality to more people than most movies can claim.
The people who worked on that film were employed by Lucas to realize his vision for these films. They produced a ton of stuff that never even made it to the original theatrical version, should they feel slighted by that too? What about the actress who played Beru in ANH? Her voice wasn't dubbed over in the initial theatrical run, and was later. What about the people who put together the "man in suit" version of the rancor they never used in the end? What about Luke's friends on Tatooine that now aren't in the movie at all? Is it -ever- okay for Lucas to make an executive creative decision? Or does he lose that right only when you have seen his movie? And Lucas didn't get rid of it, he merely made it better (to him).
They knew that their work would not be included in the first place. The OOT was a complete work. All of the work that they did in the service of Lucas's so-called "vision" was to create the films which were ultimately made. 20 years later, suddenly their work doesn't exist to serve Lucas's ego? He made it better. Great. That doesn't mean that he should deny the existance of the OOT. He doesn't lose the right after I've seen the movie. He "loses the right," so to speak, after the films have been released. Director's Cuts are fine. What is the problem is Lucas's continual insistance that the OOT doesn't exist anmore. If the OOT was not a complete product, why did so many people spend money on it over the years? Originally posted by: Mike O I'd trade any number of hours of new Lucasfilm stuff for one high-quality release of the OOT. You can start holding your breath.... NOW!
Well again, have fun holding your breath.Originally posted by: Mike OOriginally posted by: Go-Mer-TonicOriginally posted by: Mike O
If he wants. I really don't care. I want the highest quality OOT DVD release possible. Goodbye. The end. After that, I don't care. He can do whatever he wants. More power to him. May he live a long, happy, healthy life. His home video releases have -always- set the industry standard for quality. Not anymore. Only for the sake of people who kept asking him to. He didn't want to release it at all.
He cares about other opinions, just not the ridiculously negative ones from a certain portion of his fanbase. And I ask you, why should he give a crap about people most of whom have made it a priority to demonize him every chance they get since he released ROTJ? Do you see some sort of inequity here than I cannot?Originally posted by: Mike OWhat should he buy you flowers and take you out to dinner too? Originally posted by: Mike O
He doesn't care about the opinions of anyone anymore. That's the problem. The only reason he released a non anamorphic bonus feature was because -we- asked him to. No. We asked for a DVD release. Not a bonus material release. And there are standards one expects from DVDs. A lot of people asked him for a laserdisc transfer at the very least.
People who only wanted one or two of the movies, and people who didn't get the box sets when those run out of stock. It's not like there will ever be a point where Star Wars on home video -isn't- selling.Originally posted by: Mike OIn the end he did this mainly for people who have soundly rejected anything he's done since ROTJ (some since ESB or even ANH for that matter). I'm sure he doesn't care a whole lot about a group of people who don't seem to give a rat's ass about his opinion of how these movies should be. Originally posted by: Mike O
No, he put them out to make money. How many people would have bought the 06 release without the OOT? Not many. So all of us here can take the credit for soiling his good name. He fought us for a long time on the idea, but then finally relented. At our request. He relented because he wanted more money, not because of the fans. He didn't need to release the O-OT at all to sell Star Wars DVD's. He didn't want to release it at all, and changed his mind because of pettitions like this. It's not like he just now realized he could make more money by releasing 2 versions of each of his movies. He fought this for a long time.
Well have fun holding your breath for that anamorphic release of the O-OT is all I'm saying.Originally posted by: Mike OThe original versions are discarded rough drafts to him at this point, and the only reason he put this out was because everyone seemed to want it so much. Originally posted by: Mike O
Exactly. If Lucas really didn't want to release this, he wouldn't have. The end. He did it to make money, not please anyone, least of all the fans. Yeah well I never heard anyone ask for Anamorphic until we found out it wouldn't be. It certainly wasn't part of the main message contained in this pettition. Well it should have been automatically. That's DVD industry standard. People wanted a DVD release. There are standards for DVD releases. Yeah and sometimes they use a laserdisc transfer for a DVD release. Lucas isn't the first one to do it.
Has it ever occured to you that the people who buy into the SW label might actually think his productions are worth their money?Originally posted by: Mike OLuca$hFilm wouldn't release anything they didn't want to. Neither would they release anything they weren't damn sure would make money. Luca$hFilm released the OOT on DVD because they knew it would sell well and they will release it many more times for that same reason. Originally posted by: Mike O
People will buy anyhting with the SW logo, and with T.V. he can put the SW logo on more things. I think most people would agree that it's better to get it non anamorphic than to not get it at all. If I haven't eaten for days, I'll eat moldy spam. That doesn't make it good food. Then you don't have to buy it now do you? I'm sure Lucas won't mind if only the people who think this is good buy it.
I'm not saying to "shut up" in any way. I'm just saying that equating Lucas donating money to USC and talking about where he sees the future of entertainment doesn't really equate to "Lucas would sell his dead cat for $5". It's sensless negativity like this that makes me wonder why Lucas should give more of a crap about us (people who want an anamorphic transfer of the O-OT) than he already has. Why even worry about Lucas if your resotration project is all you need?Originally posted by: Mike O"Since no one would pay to see anything I make that doesn't have the Star Wars label on it, and I'm not making anymore of those, I'm going to get into TV, where I can make shows with a far smaller budget, but are still just as crappy." Originally posted by: Mike O
So, what, we should just shut up? No. Yes, it's better than nothing, but its not all that good either. The X0 project will probably look better and that being made by fans who evidently love the films far more than Lucas does. And while many of you didn't want a laserdisc transfer, I remember huge threads over at TFN where people were saying that if Lucas doesn't have any quality prints laying around anymore then the least he could do was give us one of the laserdisc transfers. This isn't TFN. Gee really? I hadn't noticed. I'm sorry, I didn't know that the Star Wars fanbase was really only made up of the people who post here.
They don't restore films after each theatrical showing. I'm not talking about a home video release here, I'm talking about film presentation in theaters.Originally posted by: Mike OAgain, I think most of the people who really wanted the O-OT on DVD will agree that this is better than not getting it at all. Originally posted by: Mike O
Not if its restored like it should be. I know that it's the industry standard, but at the same time, he isn't willing to spend the kind of money it would take to restore one of his weathered prints, so he instead took the best home video master he had on hand to re-create the original movies. He didn't want to re-release the O-OT AT ALL. I see. So the millions of artisans and craftsmen who worked on the films, including two other directors, as well as the millions of fans who have made the entire franchise possible because these versions don't mean squat? Terry Gilliam despises the "Love Conquers All Version" of Brazil and James Cameron prefers the extended version of The Abyss, and they both allowed them to be released. Lucas doesn't want to release the OOT becasue he knows that people prefer it.
And yet he did release it. Just because it's not up to your standards doesn't mean he didn't.Originally posted by: Mike OAlso, when I was talking about "crappy presentation" I wasn't tring to even get into the quality of any given movie in it's own right, merely the crappy presnetation a film based presentation provides. Unless you see it the first time it was unspooled (and usually only theater employees see the first unspooling) it will have dirt, scratches, and image instability. The people who worked on that film were employed by Lucas to realize his vision for these films. They produced a ton of stuff that never even made it to the original theatrical version, should they feel slighted by that too? What about the actress who played Beru in ANH? Her voice wasn't dubbed over in the initial theatrical run, and was later. What about the people who put together the "man in suit" version of the rancor they never used in the end? What about Luke's friends on Tatooine that now aren't in the movie at all? Is it -ever- okay for Lucas to make an executive creative decision? Or does he lose that right only when you have seen his movie? And Lucas didn't get rid of it, he merely made it better (to him).