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i just figured it was about time someone connected this thread with the one over at dvd help - the more links to information on how we can all help preserve the original 3 films in the best format possible (i.e. 16x9 widescreen & 2.0 pcm or 5.1 dd soundtrack) the better.
now, an open letter:
(!!warning - heavy rant about to happen!!)
i just joined the forum last week b/c of lucas' news to release the special edition dvds and wanted to give my two cents (not that anyone asked). i'm a film geek and in order to further the stereotype of my kind sounding pretentious, i think it's really important that the original 3 films exist in their original cuts for future generations to learn from. there are numerous examples in the first 30 years of cinema where classic, important films were either lost completely (like some early vampire films), or edited heavily by the studio and most of it lost (like greed - originally a 4 hour film by german director erich von stroheim - now only half exists) or banned by the political parties in power (like a few films by french director jean renoir, the son of the famous painter). so even though i appreciate lucas' right to make the films he originally wanted to, there are going to be people generations from now that will want to see and study these films as they were originally made and try to understand them in their original cultural context of the late seventies/early eighties. not only that, but future filmmakers won't have the ability to see how a great piece of movie magic was made without the ease of cgi if the SE editions are the only available versions. it's like that quote: "necessity is the mother of invention." al ot of the greatness of star wars comes from its ability to create something out of practically nothing and revolutionize the movie industry.
take all this with a grain of salt, but, if you watch some of the quick snipets explaining what changes lucas made on the special edition vhs tapes, its mentions again and again how the way the films were edited originally was because of limitations (like being able to not show the snow beast at the beginning of esb), and how these limitations might be the more artistic choice, but lucas really wanted to flesh these scenes out (which, IMO, ruins their creativity). scenes like han's conversation with jabba in mos eisley just don't have the same punch as they used to, and as much as i enjoy seeing the cities of courescant or mos eisley and more lively creatures, a lot of these extra scenes slow down the pacing of the movies and risks reducing them to empty spectacle (meaning the emphasis is more on showing scene after scene of strange looking creature, strange new world, or crazy cgi shot and less on storytelling). if lucas is serious about keeping the se editions of the films as the only versions, i respect his opinion but i also believe we lose an important part of our cultural history in the OT. so mainly, even though talking about making dvd "backups" of the original films may tick a lot of people off and not further this petition, i think we need to do as much as we can to save these films. (btw - this is where it's going to get really bad) there's going to come a point, maybe 50 or 80 years down the line, after lucas and probably most of us are not going to be around anymore and the only things left are going to be these movies, and i think it's important to have those future generations not think the original movies were just a bunch of weird special effects that don't seem to fit/look right (like han and jaba's conversation or greedo's magic blaster in ANH) and wonder why our generation(s) were so smitten by them. in a small way i think it'll reflect badly on us, not him. whether or not lucas realizes it or not, people are going to want to know what these films were like originally.
on a side note, one of the greatest films of all time (and the visual basis for almost every dracula film to follow), nosferatu, was almost completely lost to the world when bram stoker's widow ordered all negatives and prints to be destroyed because of its unauthorized adaptation of stoker's novel dracula. the only reason the film exists today was because a few people realized its importance and hid the few remaining prints that hadn't been destroyed. at the time no one thought it to be very important, yet today its thought to be one of the greatest horror films ever made. i see a big parallel between that and making sure these films are saved by preserving them on dvd.
this is probably all just hot air since lucas is just waiting to release the original films in some giant box set 5 or 10 years down the line, but as of right now i'm kinda nervous that he's really serious about destroying the OT in favor of the newer, "upgraded" versions.
....whew. okay. i'm done for now. soapbox mode off. sorry about that - i'm really not all bad, i swear. i'll try not to be all that serious from now on. there are other things in life after all...
btw - in case anyone's interested in seeing a cool foreign film, there's a great film out there called the hidden fortress by akira kurosawa which can show you how great storytelling can be without cgi special effects. it's kinda like star wars, but in feudal japan. hint, hint.
very cool. i appreciate that. 
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