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George Lucas to host showing of Star Wars "1977" for AFI's 40th anniversary. — Page 4

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HD-DVD/BlueRay will correct all this nonsense


No it won't; it will be only a medium for Lucas to further seal the death of the OOT. And CO, didn't you say yourself a few months ago the hope for the OOT died with the GOUT, and we will be stuck with the GOUT as our only source of seeing the real SW in 2015, when HD has swamped the market?
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Originally posted by: CO
HD-DVD/BlueRay will correct all this nonsense, cause the Saga is done now, the movies are done, and Lucas doesn't have anything new. Just the fact that the OOT came out on DVD, albeit crappy DVD, shows that Lucas knows there is a market for those movies, as Lucas said in 2005, "People under 25 love the PT, and those over 25 mostly have not liked those movies."


Ah, but he has the TV series.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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Originally posted by: generalfrevious


No it won't; it will be only a medium for Lucas to further seal the death of the OOT. And CO, didn't you say yourself a few months ago the hope for the OOT died with the GOUT, and we will be stuck with the GOUT as our only source of seeing the real SW in 2015, when HD has swamped the market?



The difference is that people are not going to rush out to buy HD-DVD the same way they did with DVD. You have to look at DVD, and how it changed the whole home video market. DVD was such an upgrade over VHS, EVERYONE got into the market, and even started buying movies for the first time in their life.

When the OT finally came out in 2004 on DVD, most people were just happy to get it, and they would take ANY edition. I know cause I was one of those fans. HD-DVD or BlueRay is an upgrade over DVD, but not a huge upgrade to the average consumer the way DVD was to VHS, so I believe the average consumer won't be just buying every title that comes out.

What leads me to my point, SW on HD-DVD/BlueRay has to be done right, or a majority of fans won't buy it. Sure there are fans who will buy anything with SW on it, but not as many as Lucas thinks. I was one of those who had to have anything of SW on DVD, but I am not waiting day-by-day for announcement of a BlueRay SW set the same way I was when the OT was announced in Feb 2004. The difference is I am going to wait, and if it is the SE again, then I will take a pass, cause I am not going to spend 60-70 dollars to make a small upgrade of quality of something I don't love, and I think alot of fans will do the same.

I said 2015 more as an exaggeration because of this format war that just isn't ending, so who knows when there will be one format, maybe 2010, maybe 2015, but it sure won't end in 2008, and sadly people like myself will not get into the market until the war is over.
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Originally posted by: Mike O


Ah, but he has the TV series.



The TV show is a niche market of EU fans, and I guarantee will not even come close to drawing the millions of SW fans who goto see the movies. Look at the PT movies, can you name one movie series that people hated the first 2 movies, yet still saw the 3rd movie in the trilogy? They did that cause they thought it would complete the OT story, nothing more nothing less.

The TV show is just add on to the story, not THE STORY as the PT was suppose to be, so most OT diehards don't really care. They may be curious to see the first few shows, but it won't do huge numbers, it will have a niche base of fans like the EU books, and they are diehards, but in terms of what the audience is for the movies, it won't even come close.

Trust me guys, I have alot of friends who love SW, and they are all done with it, and could care less about the TV show. They have SW, ESB, and ROTJ in their collection and that is it.
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Originally posted by: CO
...but it sure won't end in 2008, and sadly people like myself will not get into the market until the war is over.
+1

Originally posted by: CO
The next change on Lucas's agenda: Raiders of the Lost Ark and having the guy with the sword throw it at Harrison Ford, so Indy can shoot in self defense!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/stonetriple/laf.gif
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So this is really going to be the SE, and not the groundbreaking 1977 original? Darn. That would have been great to have seen the original print again. I love the original version with a great big passion. How disappointing.
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Originally posted by: CO
Originally posted by: Mike O


Ah, but he has the TV series.



The TV show is a niche market of EU fans, and I guarantee will not even come close to drawing the millions of SW fans who goto see the movies. Look at the PT movies, can you name one movie series that people hated the first 2 movies, yet still saw the 3rd movie in the trilogy? They did that cause they thought it would complete the OT story, nothing more nothing less.

The TV show is just add on to the story, not THE STORY as the PT was suppose to be, so most OT diehards don't really care. They may be curious to see the first few shows, but it won't do huge numbers, it will have a niche base of fans like the EU books, and they are diehards, but in terms of what the audience is for the movies, it won't even come close.

Trust me guys, I have alot of friends who love SW, and they are all done with it, and could care less about the TV show. They have SW, ESB, and ROTJ in their collection and that is it.


I sincerely hope that you're right.

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one.”

Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death

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The way I see it, if Lucas does eventually do an SE of the prequels it won't be to go along with the SE of the OT. That's what the original version of the PT was for. So basically it won't be like two totally separate versions of the entire six film saga that follow parallel paths, they will connect in a criss cross pattern. If and when he remasters the OOT, he can do an SE of the PT that goes along better with that. Of course he'll also include his PT and the latest SE of the OT as well. Sorry if I sound like a broken record with my constant suggestion of what the ultimate dvd / high def release should be, I just find it unlikely that GL would give the OT anything more than equal treatment to the PT.
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Originally posted by: Red5
AFI Star Wars

They seem to have updated the webpage, it now says Special edition and they removed the (1977).

No big surprise, it's good though that the message got through.

It's a sad, sad day. Lucas once lamented the colorization of films he originally watched in black and white. Maybe he doesn't see the hypocrisy in allowing only the Special Editions to exist in a beautiful restoration since he, as the artist, changed them, but the effect on movie-goers is the same: the original versions which we came to love are not being preserved.
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Darkhelment, I absolutely agree with you. I agree that it is ironic that he wants all the films he has seen to be preserved, yet refuses to give the same respect to his wonderful trilogy. A sad day for OOT fans indeed.
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And the true crux of all this... the OOT will ultimately be destroyed and supplanted by the SE within a few years. No matter what the other 6 billion people say, George Lucas will absolutely suceed in destroying the OOT for good and making a name for himself as a bane in film history.
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What about Beauty and the Beast? That has a special edition too plus a workprint version. I really think if AFI wants credibility, they should explain why this is not the same film that won 7 academy awards in '77. Not everyone knows what a restored print or anamorphic widescreen really means but they sure do, I hope. I would have been perfectly happy with the Gout included in the '04 set. Because then I wouldn't have gone online in search of the originals and learned about all animorphic video and DVNR smearing in the first place. So I wouldn't have known better.

Take back the trilogy. Execute Order '77

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I actually learned about anamorphic video in Summer of '04 after starting to collect the 2-disc Star Trek movies. Still, throwing any transfer of the OOT in with the '04 set would've been nice if only because every single person on the planet ran out and bought that set and it wouldn't have been a double dip for the many people who also wanted the unaltereds. But that wouldn't have gone over well at all with ROTS yet to be released plus LFL wouldn't have been able to charge 60 dollars for what are 15 dollar transfers at the most. I've said it before and I'll say it again, if he wasn't going to give it the proper treatment all he had to do was not release it. I was fine up until May of '06.

The Graduate is only just now getting an anamorphic region 1 dvd release. The milking of a classic is to be expected because a happy fan is a fan who has everything he or she needs, although you don't see that happening with some of the other films in the AFI's top 15.
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It's going to be the 2004 version digitally projected. I haven't confirmed this with anyone, but that's how you get George Lucas to show up to your Star Wars screening.

This is what I saw at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in April for the film's "30th anniversary" screening.

Neil

Well at least the reversed surround channels have been addressed.

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It's a sad, sad day. Lucas once lamented the colorization of films he originally watched in black and white. Maybe he doesn't see the hypocrisy in allowing only the Special Editions to exist in a beautiful restoration since he, as the artist, changed them, but the effect on movie-goers is the same: the original versions which we came to love are not being preserved.


Allow me to quote the "South Park" episode "Free Hat":

Kyle: Give us the print. There's still some good in you Mr. Lucas, we know there is.
Lucas: It is too late for me, boys.
Kyle: You, yourself lead the campaign against the colorization of films; you understnad why films shouldn't be changed.
Lucas: Well, that's different...these are MY movies. I made them, and I have the right to do whatever I want with them!
Stan: You're wrong Mr. Lucas. They're not your movies, they're ours...all of ours. We paid to go see them, and they're just as much a part of our lives as they are yours.
Kyle: When an artist creates, whatever they create belongs to society.
Lucas: (solemly) Have I...become so old, I forgot what being an artist is all about?

Truly one of the best episodes ever!

--Matt
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I'd just assume they don't screen anything at all.
It's not that I hate the SE's or anything, but this is supposed to be commemorating history.
I can just hear ignorant people in the audience now, "You know, that Jabba the Hutt may look like shoddy CGI by today's standards, but I wonder how they did that back in 1977?"
Urgh...
The SE has no place at the AFI's anniversary. Screen it wherever else, whenever else you'd like to, and I might casually pick up a ticket if I had the night free. Screening it there is flat out offensive. It would be like screening that 30th anniversary version of Night of the Living Dead where a damned co-writer went back and filmed a bunch of crap with a hero priest fighting off the zombies because he was "chosen by God".

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But George Romero is not some tyrannical film mogul who will do anything in his path to absolutely destroy all existing copies, memories, and supporters for the OOT. It's not illegal to watch the original version of dawn of the dead, and in 15 years time Romero would never purue the death penalty for being in favor of the OOT. The OOT is now more or less equal to the SW Holiday special to George Lucas. So you might as well shave your head, put on a sackcloth, cover your body in ashes, and flog youself in bottomless grief for the horrible, slow death of the SW saga. THERE IS NO HOPE now that Lucas controls AFI. They were are only hope.
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Originally posted by: generalfrevious
But George Romero is not some tyrannical film mogul who will do anything in his path to absolutely destroy all existing copies, memories, and supporters for the OOT. It's not illegal to watch the original version of dawn of the dead, and in 15 years time Romero would never purue the death penalty for being in favor of the OOT. The OOT is now more or less equal to the SW Holiday special to George Lucas. So you might as well shave your head, put on a sackcloth, cover your body in ashes, and flog youself in bottomless grief for the horrible, slow death of the SW saga. THERE IS NO HOPE now that Lucas controls AFI. They were are only hope.


lol

That seems a tad dramatic...
With the picture you paint, I imagine Kareem Abdul-Jabar walking the streets, ringing a bell.
"Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!"

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Originally posted by: generalfrevious
THERE IS NO HOPE now that Lucas controls AFI. They were are only hope.


I don't even know if they were any hope in the first place. It's afi.com, not afi.org. As has been brought up already, the original version of Star Wars was the one to win 7 academy awards and - not that academy awards are everything, especially not to GL apparently - the academy is the premiere film preservation authority in this country (correct me if I'm wrong). Has a single Oscar ceremony gone by without that organization's president talking about all the efforts they're taking towards that end?
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I completely agree with what Magnolia fan said. The SE has no place in an AFI anniversary showing. Lucas is really crossing the line on erasing the originals. How shameful. If the AFI won't stand up for the importance of the original version, then matters are worse. Something has to be done soon, or the OOT will just fade into history, or live in disrespect forever.
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I doubt it will fade into history.
Right now there is the (admittedly subpar) GOUT, to confirm its existence.
If the fans aren't appeased in some way, piracy will start up again like it was pre-GOUT, when every bootleg site on the net and ebay were flooded with them.
Greed will give way, inspiring another re-issue, which will likely be of better quality (if only marginal).

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I was dead fucking serious with that whole "pit of despair and loathing" monolouge. And the relaese of the GOUT proved that Lucas isnt controlled by money, he's rather comitted to proving to everybody they don't want the OOT so he can destroy them (or already has destroyed them) guilt free
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Originally posted by: generalfrevious
I was dead fucking serious with that whole "pit of despair and loathing" monolouge. And the relaese of the GOUT proved that Lucas isnt controlled by money, he's rather comitted to proving to everybody they don't want the OOT so he can destroy them (or already has destroyed them) guilt free


Generalfrevious, I respectfully disagree with ya, cause the fact that Lucas released the OOT last year, signifies its not dead.

I understand all of us here understand the Anamorphic Issue, and many of us here have an HDTV, including myself, but the majority of people out there don't have one, nor really care about watching a movie the way we do. Most people have 32" TV's and are still annoyed by those black bars!

I will give you an example, my twin nephews are 7 years old, and love SW, and have only seen the SE. I bought them the OOT last year, and they were in shock when there was a different Anakin at the end of ROTJ! The same way I was in shock when there was a different Anakin in 2004! They have at my brothers house a 32" TV, and don't notice a difference in either the SE which is Anamorphic or the OOT which isn't.

My whole point is that I was able to expose them to the OOT, that I would have never been able to do if it was just on VHS, cause they are growing up in a DVD-only generation. If the OOT never came out last year, they would still think that Hayden was in the damn movie in 1983! So by the OOT being out there to the average consumer, it may suck for us who have HDTV's, but a whole generation of kids who have a 32" TV have a choice now, are atleast being exposed to the OOT just so they know what all the debate is.

I am not saying the OOT will replace every SE in all homes, but I have always taken the stance that an inferior OOT is better then nothing, cause most people can't tell the difference anyway! Lucas never wanted these versions out, and I believe he gave into pressure, and I honestly think he just didn't want to invest the money in remastering a product that he felt may not sell, but for the crap they put out last year, it did sell well if you check the numbers, so there is a market for it. Just remember, there is the '97 versions that have never been put out on DVD, and why not? Because nobody wants them, so I still stand by the OOT will make to HD-DVD/Blue Ray someday. It sucks we may have to wait, but there is too much demand for it.