Mike O said:
I just think the GOUT was half-assed. If Lucas did believe that he would never release the OOT again, then he should've stuck to his guns. If he did, then it should've been done properly or not at all. I just think the OOT is too big a stumbling block for most people to get over, good bad or indifferent. On the other hand, I also think its entirely true that many fans have been whiney and immature. I don't personally feel like I should be grateful for anything that I don't like, but the sheer amount of crap Lucas has faced from his fans is pretty staggering and many have been immature, disrespectful, downright rude, and even threatening. I can hardly blame Lucas for not liking this kind of childish bashing. I think there's a place for real constructive criticism here, but unfortunately George's attitude towards the OOT and the fans' attitude in turn has created a whirlpool that caused problem on both ends. It's now an impossible impasse. I don't see the GOUT as something sort being grateful for and I do see Lucas as the big figurehead of why the OOT isn't out. I also see lots of fans behaving like assholes and I understand why Lucas doesn't take to it. He has quite the right to be upset.
nightstalkerpoet said:
I'd really encourage faneditors not to remove George's name from edits... despite being able to read his comments that way, it is better to assume that is not what he meant. Lucasfilm has (in their own way) been very supportive of the fanediting community, and I think any direct attempts to slight them or George is unnecessary and liable to cause issues.
... As fans of the OUT, there needs to be a change. Even if we feel that George shouldn't take offense to internet complaints, he obviously does. For once, why not acknowledge what George is looking for from the fanbase, and make an effort on our end, to give him what he wants, and to get what we want. Stop all of the George bashing, and switch to a constructively critical tone.
- We asked for a release of the OUT, and got one. It was non-anamorphic, but it was an attempt to do something for the fans that George didn't want to do anyways - a small sacrifice, but one none the less. (also, keep in mind that in 2006, your average person had not converted to HDTV or widescreen, and didn't suffer the same issues with that format that videophiles did)
How many people thanked him for doing that? vs How many people complained about it? Had people even attempted to be content with it, I think we might have seen a Bluray release of the OUT... but obviously that's not how things went. George proved he doesn't react well to negative fan pressure. He expected it on the PT, but not on this.
Years later, after people continued to push and say "The non-anamorphic version isn't good enough", it's time for the Bluray release.... but rather than say "Cool, Star Wars on Bluray" or "I'd prefer not to get this, because I prefer the original releases I got in 2006"... there is an organized boycott generating bad publicity... Not an organized, polite request that the films be included, but a hatred filled boycott.
This left us (not surprisingly) without the OUT on Bluray...
Has anyone realized it's time for a new approach. Maybe an apology for the boycott and negative press? Maybe some attempt to stop the constant attacks on George? He is the mastermind behind Star Wars and Indiana Jones people... You may disagree with his decisions now, but at the very least the respect we owe him for giving us the OT and Indy 1-3 should keep us civil towards him.
With as many times as George has stated that he doesn't want to release the OUT, to do so would make him look bad, going back on his word, unsure of what he wants... the press jumps all over you for that. Why would he do that for "fans" that are ungrateful for what they're given, and attack him any chance they get.
I read that interview and see one thing - that he is perfectly happy to allow his films to be fanedited, and for those edits to be shared. It's a pretty rare person in any corporation that will allow those kind of freedoms to be taken without persuing legal action. But rather than revel in that... everyone would rather tear him limb from limb.
Just my two cents...
The obvious thinking error here is the idea that there is some kind of direct A-to-B communication between "George" and "the fans". The latter is, of course, problematic because "the fans" is an incredibly wide body of people with different opinions. A petition signed by a large amount of "the fans" at least puts a number to the amount of people that support restoring the OT properly, but if not for that, sites like this would simply be fringe sites, and Lucas would not have to deal with their opinions at all. As it is, however, the call for the OUT simply becomes too loud to ignore, and that's why it exists far beyond the declining memories of the declining group of people who once saw the films in cinema originally.
So anyway, the thinking error consists of the idea that "the fans", being in direct contact with "George", need to communicate with George in a certain way, and this will cause George to do what the fans want. We do X, and George will do Y. Quite frankly, I fail to see the evidence of this. It seems much more likely that George and the fans exist in such different surroundings that there is a total disconnect between them. There is a total disconnect between, on one hand, fans who have the idea that it should be possible to see the movies that once won Oscars, and the filmmaker who has, judging by the interview, somehow concluded that these fans are actually reincarnations of the evil studio bosses trying to stifle his creativity (I just want to be a cool indie filmmaker, but those corporate sons-of-bitches are telling me not to let Darth Vader go "NOOOOO!!!!", this hurts my artistic pride :( :( :( :( ).
I think it's incredibly disingenuous to say that people who just want to see the OUT are somehow "acting entitled" or being rude pricks. It seems to me that these entitled jerks did shell out a lot of money for a new release of the godawful 2004 DVD versions, just because it had the poor-quality GOUT as an "extra". "Lucas-bashing" is just a reaction to frankly puzzling decisions by the one and only true entitled and rude person, Mr Lucas himself. Of course people who send hatemail and threats are idiots, but you always get them when you're famous, even if you're perfect. Everyone with a high profile gets these, it has nothing to do with the OUT.
We all know that if the OUT proper was ever released, people would once again go out to buy it, no matter how much they bitch about Lucas now. Even if Lucas released the OUT on a disc with a picture of a giant turd on it, as part of a box set including the prequels costing $1,000 because it has a trailer of a new video game, and you couldn't watch it without listening to George rant about it for hours:
"You are about to watch an utter piece of crap. I cannot for the life of me understand why this trash won me Oscars and made me a billionaire. Are you petition-signing pricks happy now? What, you actually went without any kind of social or sexual life for two decades just to make some paltry 'fan-restorations'? Ha! Hey, you know something? I'll probably be dead in a few years or so, so I figured I'd finally give you your damn movies. Happy now? Hey, I think I'm going for a swim in my lake on my $100 MILLION RANCH. Enjoy my crappy first drafts!"
People would still line up for it, sleep outside of the stores, even if the above "feature" was pre-announced on the internet, believe you me. Seriously, just read every discussion about this, all the petitions. Most of them are quite respectful, really: "Dear George, we respect that it's your movie and you can keep it hostage for as long as you want, but we started worshipping you because of it. Can we have it in a watchable format, pretty please???" If there is any kind of direct relationship between Lucas and fanboys, it's the abused spouse who keeps coming back for more beatings (in b4: "ZOMG you can't accuse Lucas of abuse!!111!").
This really goes very far. Even the most prejudiced haters of the prequels and special editions will still buy or watch them whenever Lucas decides that his "original artistic vision" now also includes Vader going "NOOOO!!!" (the evil corporate execs and entitled Lucas-bashers must have blocked that in 1997, 2004 and 2006). Not only that, they will dress up in Vader and Stormtrooper costumes, they will line up in front of the cinema, they will run inside yelling once they're allowed in, they will kiss the other side of the threshold, and they will hoot and holler (well, American audiences will, but that's just because they're noisy Americans) as soon as they see the Lucasfilm logo on the screen. They will also do that when they see "20th Century Fox", "A long long time ago...", "Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace", "Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic", etc. etc., even if they actually hate every minute of it and have said that they will hate it on a forum just before that.
So yeah, I'm pretty sure that OUT supporters are generally not bitter, entitled jerks and they certainly don't owe George Lucas anything. What a ridiculous suggestion, by the way, that "I decided not to make sequels because of fan backlash". Whatever.