S_Matt said:

xhonzi said:

Judge me how you will:

This whole conversation has made me realize that while I feel and understand the need to preserve these films as they were, I care MORE about my being able to enjoy them.

I say, in a restoration, the goal is, improve whatever you can but stay true to the spirit of the piece.

That's not a restoration. If you are "improving" on the film then what are you restoring? You're adding aspects that were never there in the first place. Restoration means it had to exist in film in the first place.

The goal of an ideal enhancement is to improve on things where necessary while staying true to the spirit of the piece. You're still in denial about what you are actually wanting--a tasteful Special Edition.

Star Wars reduced to a sterile technical excercise - that makes me feel even more ill than Lucas's over the top revisionism.

Sterile technical exercise? All I'm suggesting is presenting the original film. No changes, no enhancement, no de-graining, no nothing. Just clean the dirt and put it on a disc. What you are suggesting is re-doing many special effects shots, digitally filtering things, and changing stuff to look "better." That's the technical exercise. It's not in the preservation and restoration--it's in the enhancement.

I would prefer the films to be full of life and entertainment, not become the cinematic equivalent of Lenin's corpse.

So you are saying the original versions is not full of life and entertainment, and is the cinematic equivalent of Lenin's corpse? I fail to see how presenting the original version as it was meets this criteria. The population of the year 1977 A.D. would disagree with you.