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Will your interest in the Star Wars universe be affected...

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...if Star Wars ever ends up being properly released on DVD?

We touched on this briefly in another thread. I found the remarks interesting, so I thought I’d give it a separate discussion.

When I was reading the few comments in the other topic, I thought of how my own interest in the Star Wars universe had already settled into only five things. The original film, the original soundtrack, the NPR version of Star Wars, the published script of the NPR version, and Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye. My interest in anything film-related after 1977 had already waned in 1980 and it ended in 1983. That’s where it has remained ever since. It was my joining this forum in 2005 – originally looking for a way to transfer my laserdisc to DVD – that eventually expanded my Star Wars Universe to include the NPR version and SOTME. I had long since forgotten about them, nor had I ever heard or read either.

After the LD transfer of Star Wars was released on DVD, the Lucas insanity & lying that have long surrounded the it was again brought into focus and ended up pushing the original film from being my main interest. Instead, I found myself attracted to the depth, quality, and dedication-to-story that the NPR version offered.

Decades of Lucas’ blatant lying, constant changes (none of which I’ve seen), his disregard for the original film, and his smug attitude toward the fanbase have been the reasons I’ve “fallen from the pure faith”. I’ve not watched the original Star Wars since May of 2006. Once I listened to the NPR version, there was no turning back – it became my preferred way to experience Star Wars. I listen to it start-to-finish two or three times a year.

In answer to my own question, the release of a proper DVD version of Star Wars would not affect my interest in the Star Wars universe. It’s already settled into where it will forever remain; firmly rooted in the NPR version, the 1977 release, the original soundtrack, the NPR script, & SOTME - in that order. Oddly enough, four of the five things that comprise my Star Wars universe have little or no input from Lucas. An aspect that makes them that much better.

Truth is, I’m not even sure I would purchase a proper DVD version of Star Wars. I’m very content with my Star Wars universe. It will remain unchanged from now on. It will remain uncontaminated.

In a strange twist of fate, coming to this board to find a way to preserve the only Star Wars entity I had any interest in (1977 film), actually ended up introducing me to the very thing that would replace it (NPR version). For that, I’m very grateful.
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Yes, I think it would. I am also a very big fan of the NPR version. The extras and expansion are welcome, however I don't think it could ever replace my love of the original (SE too, only the '04 DVDs do I despise) trilogy.

I didn't grow up in a house of star-wars obsessed, it's of my own desire that I'm totally crazy for it. So, my dad never complained/was happy in particular about the special editions. It is my own curiosity/inner preservationalist (is that a word?) that makes me want to see a competent release of it.

I would be very happy, very. Maybe I'd lose some interest, maybe I'd gain some.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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I'd want the original Star Wars in HD on Blu-ray, and then Empire Strikes Back+Return of the Jedi, but other than that I've never had much interest beyond those movies. I don't ever see that changing.

The only thing that's changed for me, is how I no longer have nearly the same level of respect for George Lucas that I once had. The way he disrespects the incredibly special nature of the original films really bugs me. After that, the way he acts like he's such a genius, when he actually relied on many talented people for the original movies' success, is also pathetic.

"Now all Lucas has to do is make a cgi version of himself.  It will be better than the original and fit his original vision." - skyjedi2005

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My feelings are the same as Tiptup's.

Don't know how accurate this is- but in "Empire Building", the author stated that Lucas' IQ is somewhere in the 90s range, so......not a genius. ;-)

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Anchorhead, i know i've mentioned it in the other thread, but if you really enjoyed SOTME that much, you should really look into the Han Solo adventures by Brian Daley. All three books (which are collected into one nowadays) came out before ESB & have very much the same feeling as SOTME, & IMO are actually much better. Aslo, Han & Chewie are the ONLY characters from the movies you'll meet.

Back on topic:

I think my interest would increase, if only a little bit. I love the OT & watch the 2006 GOUT several times a year. I've enjoyed collecting STAR WARS items (mostly toys, but anything i like really) for many years, but i'm very choosy about what i buy. I only buy toys & other things from the OOT (new or vintage) & i only get what i really like. If you like to collect, there ARE some really great things out there (2007's action figures based on ralph mcquarries original concept art being a shining example), but i do feel that my enjoyment of all these things are marred a bit by the whole OT/SE situation. It sucks picking through countless clonetroopers, PT characters & ghost anakin with hayden heads on the action figure pegs just to find a cool new han or lando.... Not to mention it's saddening to get used to watching all this great new HD content, then decide to watch star wars & pop in the GOUT.... It almost feels like your eyes can't focus properly at first.

I think if george would just give the original films the respect & restoration they deserve (based both on historical significance & fan demand) then i would be much happier & be able to more readily enjoy the aspects of Star Wars that i like & ignore those which i don't. As it is the aspects i dislike so far overshadow what i do (mostly b/c of George's emphasis on "his" versions being the only important ones) that it's difficult to fully enjoy Star Wars any more. I also think if they'd give equal acknowledgement (& a QUALITY home video release) to the originals then i'd be more free with my star wars purchases. As it is, i'm VERY choosy & only buy a small portion of what i'm interested in potentially buying. I also collect Godzilla & find i spend more time on that than Star Wars these days, but that could easily change if George would....
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Anchorhead said:


It was my joining this forum in 2005 – originally looking for a way to transfer my laserdisc to DVD.....



You really need to stop demonising Lucas, after all he saved you the trouble of doing the transfer yourself. ;)

As for myself, my interest is in SW is in only 3 things; SW/ TESB/ ROTJ and nothing outside of that. I don't think them being released on dvd will change things as like yourself my interests have already settled.

Though if they are released on dvd I will then be content and watch them to the day I die (Even when new formats emerge those dvds will always be able to be ripped to hard drives etc). My interest won't wain due to the lack of new product or new stimulus from SW.

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt

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I will actually enjoy SW more if the OOT is released, fully remasted in BluRay in the near future.

The OOT is canon to me, as they are the only SW-material that I truly love, and the rest of the stuff: PT, EU cartoons, EU books, etc is just guilty pleasure stuff that picks my interest, mainly because I am a such a SW nut.

If I know I can pop in ROTJ on DVD on my 51" HDTV and fully enjoy it in great quality and see Shaw at the end of the movie, then nothing will bother me anymore that Lucas says or does, because what makes me happy is there for me to enjoy, and the rest is just stuff I can choose to watch or not.
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CO said:

...then nothing will bother me anymore that Lucas says or does, because what makes me happy is there for me to enjoy....


That's exactly how it is for me now with the NPR version. It's actually a very liberating feeling. No more concerns, headaches, disappointment, etc - just Star Wars the way I want to experience it from now on.
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canofhumdingers said:

Anchorhead....you should really look into the Han Solo adventures by Brian Daley. All three books (which are collected into one nowadays) came out before ESB & have very much the same feeling as SOTME


There's no doubt I'll make that happen soon. After all, Brian Daley wrote the script for the NPR version of Star Wars - my Star Wars canon. I'd be shocked if I didn't dig the Han Solo adventures.
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see you auntie said:


You really need to stop demonising Lucas, after all he saved you the trouble of doing the transfer yourself. ;)


;-)

True, he did save me the headache.
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I really don't have a lot of interest in SW anymore any way. It was a fun part of my childhood, and I kind of got hyped up about it again as a teenager back in 1999 when Episode I was coming out, but all it took was one movie ticket to dull that excitment. If the OT got released on a proper blu-ray, I would probably buy them if their introductory price was outstanding, otherwise I would wait it out and pick them up inexpensively whenever the chance presented itself to me.

So no, my interest would not be affected in the slightest.

I came to these boards around the time I first started buying DVDs and read someplace that George did not intend to release them on DVD until he could release them in a six episode saga. I had heard about bootlegs, thought to check and I stumbled across this site. I stuck around not because of any interest in Star Wars, but the whole idea of film preservation and the knowledge of film and video editing, though alot of those types are gone now, I had always enjoyed reading their discussions and debates.

"Every time Warb sighs, an angel falls into a vat of mapel syrup." - Gaffer Tape

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C3PX said:

I stuck around not because of any interest in Star Wars, but the whole idea of film preservation and the knowledge of film and video editing


Man, that's another area where this board improved my world (film audio technology) - and not just my Star Wars world.

When I was a kid, I used to make audio cassettes of films so I could listen to them. It was easy. My laserdisc player was hooked into my amplifier just as my Teac cassette deck was. Put on the laserdisc, put in the Maxell tape - 60 min UDXL II (nothing but the best back then http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f20/stonetriple/smileage/wink.gif ) and push play & rec.

I would listen to films on long motorcycle trips(Walkman) or in my car on long commutes. After I made the switch to digital media, all that old technology was eventually lost. Decades passed before I was able to do that same thing with modern technology and it was members of this board that helped me with that - by putting me on to DVD Audio Extractor. Now I once again have a large library of film audio for long trips - and in multiple formats (CD, MP3, WAV) depending on where I'll be listening to them.

So, even though my Star Wars world is in its final state, my ability to listen to it probably isn't. And it will most likely be members of this board that know about the latest technological developments before I do. I'll be sticking around.
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At the end of the day, no, I guess it won't really. My cowclops v.2 transfers still serve me pretty well. Star Wars hasn't gotten a blu-ray release yet, but then again neither have 99.9 percent of the other movies out there. An actual new telecine from the old IP's would mean the possibility of watching an anamorphic dvd in A-grade quality instead of a 16:9-ized fan-made laserdisc-to-dvd transfer in C/B-grade quality. Lucas almost had me ready to give him some money back on May 3rd of '06.

I think an irony of Star Wars is that if it didn't have such a huge and active fandom, all of us here would probably have our coveted anamorphic transfers by now. Hell, we would've gotten them long ago. What has me worried in regards to this whole OOT on blu-ray matter is that I could easily see Lucas opting to only include the SE simply to keep everything "nice and neat." On the other hand, if he was that hardcore about keeping to his "vision," we wouldn't have gotten so much as a laserdisc transfer. I would hope that the money made off of that release has spoken adequately to LFL of the desire fans have for the original versions. I also hope that we would've gotten that "market saturation" comment either way, and that it doesn't have anything to do with how LFL is looking at the sales numbers. If they honestly expected it to do better than it did, their egos are even bigger than I imagined.

One thing is for sure, though. It isn't likely that we'll see these movies regarded just as movies and not the "little engine that could" story that we got on the Empire of Dreams doc. Don't get me wrong, I like watching that documentary, but that's still what it is. Anything is possible, though. That comment from McCallum about a hundred hours of documentaries has me fascinated, but even then he would still need to finally cave and give us what we all want in the form of a remastered OOT in order for it to sell a lot of copies (or am I just being naive?).
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Yes. I would have a lot more respect for Lucas again and I wouldn't have to depend on fan preservations in order to see a hi-def version of Star Wars. But unless it's the OOT remastered PROPERLY (I can't believe we actually have to say properly), then nothing will change.
F Scale score - 3.3333333333333335

You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American.

Pissing off Rob since August 2007.
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lordjedi said:

But unless it's the OOT remastered PROPERLY (I can't believe we actually have to say properly), then nothing will change.


Well, technically it wasn't remastered at all. So no, we don't really have to say properly.
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canofhumdingers said:

Anchorhead, ....you should really look into the Han Solo adventures by Brian Daley.


Ordered and awaiting delivery. Reviews as I read them. ;-)
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Y'know what? If I had the theatrical versions of all six movies in 1080p24, yea, I probably would just move on forever with the possible of exception of Episode VII and onward (if those were ever to get made).

But that's the whole point of what I've brought up time after time. They're going to wait to give us all what we want for that very reason. "Buy other stuff in the meantime!"

I'm just trying to remain optimistic that based on certain comments ("it'll all come out in the end; we're focusing on television now; etc") we're going to be getting it sooner rather than later.
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I think my interest now is where it will stay. That is, my interest has somewhat diminished in these last 10 years. Really, the hyper expansion of the EU through videogames and books, the release of special and special-special edition OT's, and the release of brand new SW-branded movies made by a once-brave and innovative filmmaker have all combined to make my love for SW kind of a "strong like". Lucas, in retrospect, should have done one of the following two things:

1) Keep SW off the big screen after Jedi. Sure, this option keeps huge dollars out of his coffers. Still, he was never going to leave this earth anywhere close to poor. There's still residuals from merchandise and EU novels. My guess is that if there were no SE or PT in the works, the EU explosion would not have been what it became.

2) Let somebody else write and direct the PT. Obviously, GL was too close to SW to let that happen - it gave him everything one could ever get - but perhaps he should have thought it through a bit more: If the new PT was crap, it's not his fault. If the new PT was good, that crew is simply standing on GL's shoulders. Either way, GL would have made a killing without personally butchering the product, as it happened in real life.

I guess what I mean by all of this babbling is to say that SW was at it best when so much was left to the imagination. Until recently, we didn't know who Luke's mother was, what the Clone Wars were, how the Empire came to be, what the person behind the Boba Fett mask looked like, and so on. GL shoehorning a bunch of explanations for every unfilled gap in the OT just made the SW universe poorer. Legends should always be left alone.

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I would still be involved with Star Wars because I love the story beyond the movie itself. I was online long before the issue of "getting Star Wars properly treated" was ever in existance--its a pretty modern issue really, it didn't come into focus until Star Wars was on DVD at all, which was 2004. Having a high-def OOT would properly temper my enthusiasm a bit because I would have what I wanted but its not like I'm only interested in the Star Wars universe to make up for the void of an HD OOT. Thats just silly. I just watched my VHS of the trilogy this week and in some ways I enjoy that more than DVD!
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Hey, the fact that there's now a better format around than vhs is kind of what puts a damper on being enthusiastic about the movies themselves isn't it? I'm being serious, by the way. There was no 4:3 and 16:9 with vhs, everything was just 4:3. Hence the glory of the 90's. One last time in '95, SE in '97, both on the same format, equal treatment.

The funny thing is that (as if it needs to be said) the discrepancy in quality between the two versions on dvd is, well, pretty much all I keep coming back to these Star Wars message boards over. I say pretty much because I am into other things like the comics. I'm still reading Dark Times because of the upcoming live action series, which is another thing that holds my interest. But again, it all comes down to that hope that we'll all finally get what we want.

The problem is that if Lucas doesn't follow through with actually remastering the OOT, we'll really wish that he just hadn't bothered with the laserdisc ports. A friend of mine makes this sort of comparison from time to time, but I think it's particularly apt here: that's like getting half a handjob. Star Wars will have gone from a piece of history to a piece of mere nostalgia.
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Fang Zei said:

Hey, the fact that there's now a better format around than vhs is kind of what puts a damper on being enthusiastic about the movies themselves isn't it? I'm being serious, by the way. There was no 4:3 and 16:9 with vhs, everything was just 4:3. Hence the glory of the 90's. One last time in '95, SE in '97, both on the same format, equal treatment.


Actually, the Trilogy was available in widescreen on VHS as early as 1993 in the states (not sure about foreign markets) so the pan & scan issue was there. Ah, unless you're talking about the whole 4:3 letterboxed vs anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 tv issue & not aspect ratios of the video content itself.... i see.... nevermind
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zombie84 said:

...its not like I'm only interested in the Star Wars universe to make up for the void of an HD OOT. Thats just silly.


My question isn't about the actual medium or level of restoration. It's a question on the emotional side. So many people have mentioned losing interest in Star Wars because of their feelings on how Lucas treats the movies & the fans - the constant altering, the repackaging of the same material for cash-grabs, the dismissal of the original film, etc.

It's with that in mind that I wondered if they would feel some sort of forgiveness or at least a feeling of peace to the point that they could go back to watching the movies without them being contaminated with their dislike of Lucas, which in turn has ruined their enjoyment.
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canofhumdingers said:

Fang Zei said:

Hey, the fact that there's now a better format around than vhs is kind of what puts a damper on being enthusiastic about the movies themselves isn't it? I'm being serious, by the way. There was no 4:3 and 16:9 with vhs, everything was just 4:3. Hence the glory of the 90's. One last time in '95, SE in '97, both on the same format, equal treatment.


Actually, the Trilogy was available in widescreen on VHS as early as 1993 in the states (not sure about foreign markets) so the pan & scan issue was there. Ah, unless you're talking about the whole 4:3 letterboxed vs anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 tv issue & not aspect ratios of the video content itself.... i see.... nevermind


Since there was no such thing as widescreen sets the "letterbox" VHS was really enhanced for every possible type of television since there was only 4x3.
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^^^which is what i realized mid-reply... hence the "nevermind" :)
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I don't plan on having anything to do with future Star Wars releases or merchandise. I'm saving my money for other things, and that's all there is to it. Like you Anchorhead, I have sufficient possessions to give me my "Star Wars fix" whenever I like... which, despite my disdain for the franchise in general... is a regular thing.

"Fuck you. All the star wars movies were excellent. none of them sucked. Also, revenge of the sith is the best."

- DarthZorgon (YouTube)