TheBoost said:

ChainsawAsh said:

The garbage mattes should not be fixed - they were there in 1977, so "fixing" them is just another alteration. A film is a snapshot of the time in which it was made, and effects flaws are a part of that. I really wish the Raiders of the Lost Ark DVD had kept the cobra reflection, too.

So I guess the crux of a lot of this discussion is WERE the 'garbage mattes' part of the original Star Wars in '77?

I wouldn't know, growing up with a VHS dubbed copy of Star Wars recorded off TV. Not only did I not see garbage mattes, I didn't know 3PO had a silver leg until the SEs came out on the big screen.

If the mattes were a visible part of the original film, I think they should stay.

If they are a result of careless DVD transfer, then I think there's nothing wrong with doing something about them.

Yes the garbage mattes were visible in cinemas in 1977. I was only 10 at the time but me and my mates at school use to think they were the ships shields. They were even more noticeable in the VHS transfers but they were definitely there in the cinemas. Same goes for the Emperors slugs too in 1983. I was disappointed when the SE came out and i sat in the cinemas only to see they hadn't bothered removing the slugs and that the garbage mates were more noticeable in ROTJ than the other two films. They looked even worse than in my VHS copy of OUT:ROTJ for some reason