Star Wars coming to Blu Ray (UPDATE: August 30 2011, No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!) — Page 26

Lucas dying will be like when Michael Jackson died. Everyone, including many of his admirers, had a problem with his professional and personal endeavours but once the media circus that was his life ended and his music was no longer tied to all that, suddenly everyone realized why they appreciated him and his work in the first place. When Lucas dies, people will forgive and forget about Jar Jar and Howard the Duck because they'll be too busy crying over all his technological and philanthropic contributions to the world, and all the films he made that we love.

Except if there's no original Star Wars. Then people will say, I wish I could appreciate him for the work he did, but all he'll let me have is this crappy tape from the early '90s.

Here's something I'll grant Lucas:

LFL doesn't exactly have as many films in its library as any of the major Hollywood studios. In fact, it really only has a handful of titles people would regard as classic. Take away all the royalties LFL receives from all those hundreds of other companies and you're left with only a handful of products they can make a direct profit off of.

Had Star Wars remained the property of 20th Century Fox, right now we'd likely be reading a press release for a Blade Runner treatment and not the PT+SE box set. From a totally realistic, business-minded perspective, I can't really say I blame Lucas for milking the OT the way he has. It would be nice if he'd stop lying about it, "ohhh, they don't exist anymore .... well, I'll put them out, but won't spend a dime remastering them .... it would be way too expensive to remaster the OOT for blu-ray," but I get it, 3 of the few dozen films he owns the rights to just happen to be the most popular movies ever made and he's gotta keep milking them because not only does he know he can, he kinda needs to.

It's a cruel irony, but it's the truth.

zombie84 said:

Lucas dying will be like when Michael Jackson died. Everyone, including many of his admirers, had a problem with his professional and personal endeavours but once the media circus that was his life ended and his music was no longer tied to all that, suddenly everyone realized why they appreciated him and his work in the first place. When Lucas dies, people will forgive and forget about Jar Jar and Howard the Duck because they'll be too busy crying over all his technological and philanthropic contributions to the world, and all the films he made that we love.

Except if there's no original Star Wars. Then people will say, I wish I could appreciate him for the work he did, but all he'll let me have is this crappy tape from the early '90s.

I would say not really... MJ was more of a public figure, while Lucas is more of a media recluse. His late 1970's and 1980's popular culture contributions to cinema will always be greatly appreciated though; his later stuff not so much. But Jar Jar will always be hated throughout time :)

I duno. MJ was definitely a recluse. He pretty much never gave an interview until the early 1990s, and then it was only to clear his reputaion. Lucas is definitely NOT a recluse, though he was in the 70s and 80s. He seems unable to escape that reputation. GL and MJ have a lot more in common than people realize:

-Despite being regarded as reclusive, both are public figures

-Both are ridiculously wealthy

-MJ built Neverland Ranch, GL built Skywalker Ranch

-Both had their heyday in the 1980s

-Both are protective of their private life, and have a mysterious aura to them

-Both are among the most influential and successful artists in their fields, and both got famous at a young age, with scandal following them in the 1990s

-MJ in his recluse went a bit crazy and re-constructed his face. GL in his recluse went a bit crazy and re-constructed his films.

-Both have fans that either hate or have mixed feelings about them for their personal decisions, despite admiration for their early artistic efforts

-Both see themselves as, and to some degree actually are, misunderstood by the media

-Both of them had/have their contributions overshadowed by their failures at the end of their lifetimes

Of course, there are many huge differences. But while GL does indeed have a lot to be proud of in his life, ever since 1999, his reputation definitely has been mixed, much like Jackson since the early 1990s.

You could still show the clip of the daily being shown in the flat-bed editor.

Lucas' current rep is so tied into this kooky revisionism policy of his own movies. Even Jacko never said "Hey! Turns out you were stupid to like that thing I made!"which is what this current shit amounts to. 

IIRC, only Spielberg has tried this same revisionist cinema with E.T., on the 2002 DVD, and at the last minute he relented to fan protests and put the original version in there -- decent DVD quality, anamorphic. But even so, seven years after that release, I had to track down that 2002 release and order it from overseas; the only version being sold now is the re-release.

Don't know why these two guys feel so embarrassed now about their masterpieces.

The 2-disk original E.T. was a deluxe edition for cinephiles, so it was only made for a limited time as it was a "special" release, and thats the only reason the single-disk revised edition is in stores now. You can still find it if you really want it. When the film comes out on Blu Ray, I don't doubt it will be the same format as the Close Encounters, which had all the versions in equal quality.

zombie84 said:

The 2-disk original E.T. was a deluxe edition for cinephiles, so it was only made for a limited time as it was a "special" release, and thats the only reason the single-disk revised edition is in stores now. You can still find it if you really want it. When the film comes out on Blu Ray, I don't doubt it will be the same format as the Close Encounters, which had all the versions in equal quality.

For the 20th anniversary, yes. It would be good to see the same thing done for the Blu-ray version of E.T. too (maybe in 2012) — although I don't care for the "Special Edition" version at all. The CG went to these guys' heads...

The original version of E.T. is the ONLY version run on HD HBO/CINEMAX the last 2 years.

Baronlando said:

Lucas' current rep is so tied into this kooky revisionism policy of his own movies. Even Jacko never said "Hey! Turns out you were stupid to like that thing I made!"which is what this current shit amounts to. 

 

Actually, MJ is guilty of revisionism as well. He has actually made quite a few changes to some of his albums well after they were originally released, it's just that they were never really noticed or documented nearly as heavily as GL's revisionism. The following are the most notable alterations to his albums.

MJ's Off the Wall album had 2 tracks replaced with remixes of the same tracks on later pressings of the album, the original mixes are only available on Vinyl.

The altered tracks are:

1. Rock with You, which was replaced with the 7' Remix of the song.

2. Get on the Floor, which was replaced with the Remix included as the B-Side of the RWY single.

Also, In the early 90's The cover to this album was changed from the original, presumably due to MJ's drastically different appearance at the time.

MJ's Bad album is the most drastically changed from it's original release, with nearly every track having been replaced by a different (and sometimes vastly inferior) mix on subsequent pressings.

The most notable alterations to this album include:

1. "Bad" having a modified horn arrangement.
2. "The Way You Make Me Feel" has the vocals turned up higher in the mix.
3. "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" deletes the spoken intro at the beginning of the song.
4. "Dirty Diana" is replaced with a shortened version of the song.
5. "Smooth Criminal" has the heavy breathing in the intro removed and has an overall different sounding mix.

MJ's HIStory album, in addition to having some of the lyrics edited from "They Don't Care About Us" after being accused of antisemitism, also has the beginning intro to the track "HIStory" completely re-recorded.

I just thought I'd point out yet another similarity between MJ and GL.

Interesting. I've only ever heard MJs music from the 1 or 2 original vinyls I have (other than the radio singles), so never realized the music had been re-arranged so much.

It looks like were never going to get the Star Wars Saga Box set with all six films on dvd but instead LTD is going to release another set thats what ive always wanted as a Star Wars fan but im sure there will be new scenes added to this set which is why i will not buy this set.

Mielr said:

Also, GL adopted 3 children, and MJ adopted 3 children.

(And no, I don't buy the story that MJ's 3 kids were his biologically).
 

 Well at least one of MJ's children has vitiligo, so it's not entirely impossible.

If the kid has vitiligo, its for sure his. The odds of that happening by fluke are pretty astronomical.

Well, anyone hoping that the Blu-Rays will improve on the fucked-uppedness of ANH's 2004 5.1 mix will be disappointed:

http://themoviebit.blogspot.com/2010/09/star-wars-blu-ray-audio-news.html

Sounds to me like they're using the same mix for the Blu-Ray.  Bummer.