Originally posted by: DeathTongue
To post slightly on topic, a friend asked me why I dislike the Special Editions of the Star Wars films. I answered her with: "Suppose you go to an art gallery. You see a painting that you absolutely love. You buy it. You hang it on your wall. You speak of its brilliance to all who will listen. Twenty years later there is a knock at your door. The artist is standing there. He barges past you, goes to your basement where the painting is hung. While you stand there speechless, he drops trou and wipes his butt on the painting. He crumples the canvas up and re-hangs it. As he leaves, he says to you 'That's how I wanted the painting to look originally'. You say 'But that's not the picture I bought and loved! Now it's like unto toilet paper!' The artist shrugs and heads out."
To post slightly on topic, a friend asked me why I dislike the Special Editions of the Star Wars films. I answered her with: "Suppose you go to an art gallery. You see a painting that you absolutely love. You buy it. You hang it on your wall. You speak of its brilliance to all who will listen. Twenty years later there is a knock at your door. The artist is standing there. He barges past you, goes to your basement where the painting is hung. While you stand there speechless, he drops trou and wipes his butt on the painting. He crumples the canvas up and re-hangs it. As he leaves, he says to you 'That's how I wanted the painting to look originally'. You say 'But that's not the picture I bought and loved! Now it's like unto toilet paper!' The artist shrugs and heads out."
Gosh, I've never seen a better explanation of why the special editions suck. You really nailed it man. Of course, Go Mer didn' care. Whatever way he can defend Lucas and his precious "saga" is good to him, even if it is ignoring what is right in front of you.
And about the "changing films" aspect, I agree with Gaffer about the BTTF trilogy. The filmmakers really kept the integrity by talknig about things they disliked and then didn't fix it. That's really cool I think.
Someone said something about the extended cuts of LOTR being for book fans. That might be true, but that's not why I think they're better than the theatrical cuts. The extended cuts not only add more from the book, but overall make the film flow better Sticking to the book really works with that trilogy because the books really "breathed" well and when you add more from the books, they do too. The films just feel more natural in thier extended form, and when watching the theatrical cuts after the extended, it feels like a botched edit job on the theatrical version. Of course, last time I saw the theatrical versions of the films was in catching them on TV. I have long since rid myself of the thetrical disc one. (Disc two has too many cool features to throw away.)
And that "car in the background" thing really dosn't bother me. I don't know if I ever noticed it in the first place. I think changes like that, that you can't define as intrusive, are fine by me. Like the little changes on the Raiders of the Lost Ark DVD. They just don't bother me because they don't improve upon or decrease the quality of the film.
Once more on the subject of BTTF: (little off topic) If anyone lives in Denver, the first film is playing on the giant screen at the UA Continental theater tonight at nine. It's part of a series of old movies they're doing. I've also seen the entire Indiana Jones trilogy, Spaceballs, the Goonies, and Grease in the last few weeks, and it's a lot of fun.