C3PX said:
Akwat Kbrana said:
If Leonardo Da Vinci had come back thirty years after the unveiling of the Mona Lisa and crudely added a blue handlebar moustache and goatee, thus indelibly rendering the original inaccessible, it would be a travesty. Perhaps a few art lovers would cry out in infuriated protestation, and perhaps Da Vinci would reply, "Ah, but art it never finished, only abandoned. This is closer to my original vision than the old version." This would do little to allay the fury of those who wish to pay their respects to the original masterpiece, for it is neither an explanation nor an excuse, but a flimsy (and rather conceited) dismissal of the peoples' concern.
Actually, Mona Lisa is a prime example of Da Vinci's "Art is never finished, only abandoned" philosophy. He carried the thing around with him for years, abandoned it for a few, then came back to it and "finished" it shortly before he died, though perhaps he himself would not have considered it finished at the time. I am not even sure if he ever personally unveiled it himself. It also never became popular or even widely known until several hunred years after Da Vinci's death.
But, you have a good point in offering a work of art that, regardless of who legally owns it, very much belongs to the people. It is something we have looked at in awe for years. It has a history behind it. We've learned about it in elementary school, high school, and university, some of us have even seen it up close in person. It is one of the few works of art that has the distinction of being immediately recognizable by anyone with any kind of an education within the western world. Though it has undergone plenty of vandalism and touch ups over the last hundred years, any true alterations to it would be quite unforgivable.
Star Wars, while very different, shares some things in common with the Mona Lisa in that it is a well known popular piece of art. It was unveiled in 1977 and instantly became a favorite. People fell in love with it, grew up with it, came to know it rather intimately. It was in the eye of the public for twenty years. Much like the Mona Lisa, during this time it had become a property of the public, regardless of the fact GL owns full legal rights to it. Is it s bold statement to say it belonged to the public? Absolutely not! Who owns the rights to it is a mere legality. There are some things the law has absolutely no reign over. In twenty years time it has become a part of so many people's lives and childhoods. They watched it over and over, memorized it, reenacted it, through there money into buying likenesses of the characters. Star Wars very much belongs to the public, not in a legal sense, but in a real sense. Twenty years.
It is nothing short of a crime to come along over twenty years later and say that film no longer exists simply because you own the legal rights to it.
Actually, Mona Lisa is a prime example of Da Vinci's "Art is never finished, only abandoned" philosophy. He carried the thing around with him for years, abandoned it for a few, then came back to it and "finished" it shortly before he died, though perhaps he himself would not have considered it finished at the time. I am not even sure if he ever personally unveiled it himself. It also never became popular or even widely known until several hunred years after Da Vinci's death.
If da Vinci came back from the dead now and started fucking with the Mona Lisa, people wouldn't be happy. Unlike the unfinished Mona Lisa, the supposedly unfinished OOT was released to the public as if it was a finished work. Also, the OOT was embraced by the public in the years before Lucas's revision, whereas the Mona Lisa was not embraced by the public before da Vinci finished it. In effect, Lucas gave the OOT to the world. Once given, it cannot rightly be taken back.
But, you have a good point in offering a work of art that, regardless of who legally owns it, very much belongs to the people. It is something we have looked at in awe for years. It has a history behind it. We've learned about it in elementary school, high school, and university, some of us have even seen it up close in person. It is one of the few works of art that has the distinction of being immediately recognizable by anyone with any kind of an education within the western world. Though it has undergone plenty of vandalism and touch ups over the last hundred years, any true alterations to it would be quite unforgivable.
Star Wars, while very different, shares some things in common with the Mona Lisa in that it is a well known popular piece of art. It was unveiled in 1977 and instantly became a favorite. People fell in love with it, grew up with it, came to know it rather intimately. It was in the eye of the public for twenty years. Much like the Mona Lisa, during this time it had become a property of the public, regardless of the fact GL owns full legal rights to it. Is it s bold statement to say it belonged to the public? Absolutely not! Who owns the rights to it is a mere legality. There are some things the law has absolutely no reign over. In twenty years time it has become a part of so many people's lives and childhoods. They watched it over and over, memorized it, reenacted it, through there money into buying likenesses of the characters. Star Wars very much belongs to the public, not in a legal sense, but in a real sense. Twenty years.
It is nothing short of a crime to come along over twenty years later and say that film no longer exists simply because you own the legal rights to it.
Very good argument. I agree all the way.
