I might be considered an improvement if it was not pretending to be the cut shown to audiences in theaters, with a couple added scenes which i find are better left in the movie because they were intended by Lucas back then and excised by the studios control.
If it was a special edition not pretending to be the original american graffiti nowhere does it mention on the dvd case the film has been altered in any way.
This is the kind of dishonesty on the 2004 star wars trilogy set which removed the title special edition and included the original dates from 1977, 1980. and 1983 on the box.
At least with THX 1138 they admited right on the box with big words "george lucas director's cut". And it probably would have cost them nothing to include the original version. It was cleaned up by lowry before the new effects were put into the film.
To watch the original version it took me years before the advent of ebay to find a vhs copy and its frickin pan and scan. The laserdisc in the usa is hard to find and considered rare. And the digital audio issue in japan has burnt in subtitles and from what i have heard the sex scene is either cut or censored.
I also believe and this is my opinion and i hope its not reflected once the HD lucasfilm releases come along, that the entire Lucas film catalog on dvd has had way too much digital noise reduction and degraining done. THX 1138 and American Graffiti and star wars were each shot on a specific film stock to give them a documentary flavor. removing the grain destroys that.
Though it is really nothing new because they started the whole DNR crap back in the THX laserdisc program days and only now the resolution is showing how much damage has been done. The Gout looks indeed sharper on dvd but the dnr is way more apparent then on the softer looking definitive collection laserdisc. Making the laserdisc preferable, not just for that but for the full pcm audio.
Could you imagine how bad it would look if there was an HD source for the gout in non anamorphic with the fine detail and grain completely removed,lol.
Not a huge surprise that lowry was involved in the fiasco that are the bond remasters, the star wars trilogy. or the recent star trek blu rays. Seriously whenever i hear they worked on a film i will consider the reviews before buying the dvd to see if the colors and grain structure were compromised.
Somehow they were able to do the indiana jones trilogy right. Under specific instructions from Steven Spielberg to limit the dnr and grain removal. These days the digital movie maker Lucas who has tried to kill film is all for the degraining movement. When he used to be in his college days a respected cameraman who understood film as a chemical process.
Films shot in techniscope are supposed to be grainy. Its a 16mm anamorphic format that is then blown up to 35mm. Removing the grain with computers the grain that is supposed to be there versus the dupe grain is a joke of epic proportions. Just like destroying Gil Taylors cinematographic brilliance on star wars be redoing the colors and limiting the grain.
From screenshots in have seen even Kingdom of the Crystal Skull's blu ray is too clean and almost without grain. When i saw the film in theaters the cinematographer Kaminski had chosen a very nice grain structure on the movie. I want the degraining movement on Blu RAY and on DVD to end, just as much as the stupid loudness wars is ruining music.
Also Haskel Wexler's graffiti shooting deserved better than to be stripped off its character by dnr. Never seen the HD broadcast but the dvd the contrast is set too high and the image is too clean and not filmlike.