From the editor that brought you Star Wars Deleted Magic and The Thief and the Cobbler Recobbled Cut …
Star Wars: Classic Edition 2.0.
The brand new revised edition, for 2006.
It’s the original version of Star Wars, not the way it was, but the way you remember it.
And now, better than ever.
If you saw my original Star Wars Classic Edition last year (June 2005 to be exact - it’s now November 2006), you saw a lovingly-restored, DVD quality version of the original Star Wars. I wanted to create the best version of the original 1977 Star Wars that I could.
Now, I’ve redone my edit to have much, MUCH improved picture quality. It’s like night and day … people loved the original Classic Edition, but you can throw it out. As I used to say, “throw out your other Star Wars DVDs … this is the only version of Star Wars you need.”
My sources were both from Lucasfilm – the 2004 Special Edition DVD with all its crisp DVD clarity, and the 2006 “original trilogy” non-anamorphic DVD.
I wanted to create an Original Trilogy Star Wars disc that would look as good as the 2004 DVD, but be the original version of Star Wars that you remember … with a new 1977-style sound mix taken from the 93 laserdisc mix, with elements of the mono mix mixed in.
In short, my own ideal version of the original Star Wars - the only version I need. I think some of you might agree with that.
The disc is presented in 16:9 anamorphic widescreen, with Dolby Digital sound.
The 2004 DVD image has been slightly color corrected to be brighter overall.
All Special Edition elements have been removed, even Biggs. If you want to see Biggs or Jabba, you’d best pop in our supplemental disc - I think it’s called Deleted Magic.
The opening shot has been restored to its former pre-2004 glory by Shadowman.
Original Trilogy shots have been edited in from the 2006 Lucasfilm disc, which is itself from the 1993 Definitive Collection laserdisc.
In many cases, the shot has simply been dropped in in the appropriate place, and is not jarring.
In other cases, Special Edition material has been literally painted out of the frame, combining the laserdisc image and the 2004 DVD image in the same frame. This results in a sharper image overall. Rontos and CGI Dewbacks were removed in Mos Eisley, Luke’s Binary Sunset was restored to its original shape, and wipes/dissolves were carefully created so that 1977 elements could wipe to 2004 ones. Using a tiny dissolve to add some extra footage of Han talking, the Greedo scene was restored to its original timing.
The 1993 laserdisc mix is the source of the soundtrack, apart from several lines of dialogue which have been taken instead from the 1977 mono mix … a 1985 (?) PAL TV airing of the film in the UK was used for these.
From mono mix:
- All Beru lines
- Stormtrooper: “It’s secure, move on to the next one.”
- C3PO: “The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations …”
- Stormtrooper: “Close the blast doors!”
- Luke: “Blast it, Wedge, where are you?”
The mono mix was considered definitive at the time, so I thought it was appropriate to include the most notable changes from it, the final mix ever done back in 1977.
Menus and opening animations were created originally for the first Star Wars Classic Edition release - they lead into slightly altered versions of some of the the menus from the official DVDs, which I thought was appropriate for this disc considering.
The edit is now done.
Enjoy, folks.
My email remains: *****.
Menus from the original version, reused here …
I say it’s “not as it was, but as you remember it” because this version is not based on any one version of the film that has ever existed before. I find that a lot of people remember the movie as being in stereo, with the original crawl and with the lines from the mono mix, etc … so I’ve blended a few versions together to make the perfect version of Star Wars.
I DO recommend getting the Dual Layer version, and I’ve never said that before in my life. (My previous edits have shrunk down to a single layer without any trouble.) The single layer version is nice, but I can see the compression that was done to get it down to 1 layer.
I’ve used the old original menus from the first Classic Edition, and they look particularly compressed in the single layer.
Since I’m using the same menu system from the original Classic Edition, I’ve inherited the same little problems present in the menus there. I will report that the second chapters menu and the last chapters menu are the ones which don’t work right … If you’re using a computer they work fine, but on a DVD player you won’t be able to see what you’re doing.
As before, I’m not too concerned because they’re just chapter menus.
The special features are identical to the original release also.
– Play with Isolated Score by John Williams
– Fanmade “THX” Intro (Death Star Trench Run)
– A really wonderful commentary track created for the Classic Edition, featuring dozens of members of the cast and crew.
– Animated menus taken from the 2004 release by Van Ling.
The Classic Edition commentary, if you didn’t hear it on my original Classic Edition release, is a wonderful thing … edited together from interviews, and is definitely the best ANH commentary yet assembled.
Here is the list of participants:
George Lucas
Anthony Daniels - C3PO
David Prowse - Darth Vader
Peter Mayhew - Chewbacca
Kenny Baker - R2D2
Mark Hamill - Luke Skywalker
Carrie Fisher - Princess Leia
Harrison Ford - Han Solo
Garrick Hagon - Biggs Darklighter
Ken Ralston - ILM
Dennis Muren - ILM
Ralph McQuarrie - Production Paintings
Charles Lippincott - Former VP, Lucasfilm
James Earl Jones - Voice of Darth Vader
John Williams - Composer
Irvin Kerschner - Director, The Empire Strikes Back
Frank Oz - Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back
Jeremy Bulloch - Boba Fett, The Empire Strikes Back
Matthew Carter - Bib Fortuna, Return of the Jedi
Subtitles pop up to identify the speaker.
A comparison between my 2005 edit, and this edit:
A comparison between my edit and the official Lucasfilm dvds:
Lucasfilm 2004 DVD
Lucasfilm 2006 DVD
Star Wars Classic Edition 2.0