Yet again, Lucas is spouting off about preserving cinematic heritage, despite his consistent record of rewriting his own.
The quote below is from his May 2011 introductory letter for the _Profiles in History _catalogue featuring Debbie Reynold’s collection of Hollywood memorabilia (PDF link):
As a filmmaker and a lover of cinema, I have always appreciated the many disciplines that go into making a film – the props, the costumes, all the aspects that come together to make the whole as great as the sum of its parts. I have archived all the important pieces from my own films, and I am a staunch believer it’s important that we all make an effort to preserve our cinematic heritage – before it’s too late.
…
George Lucas
This is the second such quote the I can recall, the first being his attack on the colorisation of The Three Stooges. Interestingly, the studio that released those colorised revisions offered the viewer the choice to see the original black and white versions instead. Meanwhile, Lucas’ new BluRay editions of the classic trilogy limit the viewer to his 1997 digitally altered special editions.
Mod Edit: a working link to the ‘attack on the colorization of The Three Stooges’ article, can be found here:-