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Anyone want to comment on new DVD release for magazine article?

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(I don't mean to spam the forum with an inappropriate request...forum mod, please delete this post if it's not appropriate for this area.)

I'm writing an article for a national magazine and was hoping to talk to a few fans regarding the Original Trilogy and the new versions on DVDs that are coming out in the fall, and to include your comments in the article.

If anyone is interested in being quoted, please e-mail me in the next couple days at danwall88@aol.com. Thanks in advance!

Dan
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You can get the general opnion in the Theatrical Vs Special Edition thread. Might I ask what exactly are you looking for and for what magazine?


Made for IE Forum's Episode III theme month - May 2005.

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Don't get me wrong, I'm a long time Star Wars fan. That is why I don't want the DVDs. The Special Editions are not Star Wars that came out in the seventies and eighties. And it isn't completing a vision. He changed his vision. While there's nothing wrong with that, trying to erase what has been out for twenty fives years and replacing it with something new, in my opinion, is. Would it kill you to release both? Everybody wins!

My stance on revising fan edits.

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Someone once asked Steven King if he was upset with the way a film adaptation of one of his novels destroyed the book. He replied, "They haven't ruined my book. It's still right there on the shelf."
Basically the way I see it, George can screw with the films and make as many changes as he wants... Make the whole thing one story arc surrounding the fall and redemption of Jar Jar for all I care... So long as the original films are still available...
Lots of dvd releases have seamless branching for multiple versions of 1 film. It's not hard to do. There's no reason not to include the original versions, really.
Basically, it seems like George has gone back, second guessed, and screwed up the adaptation to make it "cool", and now has decided he doesn't want the original one allowed on the shelves.

It's really sad that he's gone from such a visionary in the 80's to someone who with $150 million dollars (TPM), got his film out done in every department (story, acting, and effects) by a film student with a mac and a lot of resilience (BotF).

http://twitter.com/TheMagnoliaFan

http://www.youtube.com/user/magnoliafan78

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I'm not purchasing the DVD either. Restoration or not, my videos look just fine. I've been a Star Wars fan for as long as I can remember. I've seen them several times, can qoute them, and have read most of the novels. In 1997, I saw the SEs the day each came out, and was thrilled to see them on the big screen for the first time. Afterwards however, I started to think about what I liked about the films. Part of it is the work that went into the special effects. This was now replaced with half-assed CGI. Windows in Cloud City reverting back to normal come an angle change, CGI X-Wings captured from the same model, so that now every one of them looked the same in paintjob, droid, and rust. A Massassi temple outpost now right next to the hanger, which is now giving the impression that its the same day the Falcon arraived, instead of the next morning, as the novels state. Even a pan shot gives the impression that the Death Star is right in front of Yavin 4. All the poorly done special effects like the new Jabba the Hutt and cartoonish Sy Snootles give the films an unfinished feel. Its like ILM was only testing some software, not truly trying to improve on something that only needed restoration. What's worse is the things left unchanged: the inaccurate Death Star plans, Luke getting into an X-wing with a solid red stripe, then seen flying one with a broken stripe, the matt line on the Rancor, Luke's saber being near colorless on the Falcon. Nitpicking to be sure, but valid points on something that was supposed to fix the broken.

There's also changes in the feel of some scenes and characters. Greedo shots first, making Han seems like someone who couldn't see a simple blaster shot coming. Jabba in ANH is almost completely out of character, the scene does nothing to advance the plot, nor does it add to the relationship of the two. Mos Eisley itself is made to feel like a bustling spaceport, like the small hub on a backwater planet it should be. It's like having a city like New York located in the middle of no-where. Cloud City's expansion led only to more useless establishing shot and unfinished special effects. The new Wampa not only removes some of the tension in the scene, but adds a plot hole due to the fact that lightsabers cautuarize wounds, yet it now has a bloody stump. Worse is Vader leaving Bespin. the fast paced music over his old line that fits the scene weel is replaced with a slower version. Vader doesn't seem as angered as he was before. To add insult to injury there is then a series of scenes of him returning to his ship which break the suspense of the Falcon's escape. Finally, you have a children's dance number at the start of RotJ, a Sarlaac that looks like it was ripped off from Little Shop of Horrors, and a celebration scene featuring planets which neither cared for the war nor would they celebrate the Emperor's death. This goes doubly so for Coruscant, an Imperial hotbed, and unrecognizable at the time of the SE's release to anyone unfamilar with the novels.

What's worse is the rift between fans. Fans like myself, who love the trilogy as is, often find ourselves the subject of disgust with our SE brethren. Often we'll called "Lucas haters" and are told we can't let go of the past. We are often likened as "Prequel haters" as well, and that Lucas "can't do anything right" in our eyes. This is untrue, as I, and others like me, enjoy the prequels as well, and see them as having nothing to do with liking the SE. Granted, we ourselves can make fun of the SE fans, calling them "sheep" and "lap dogs", and both sides are wrong for their transgretions. On sites like TheForce.net, SE fan forum goers can't understand why we don't see what we believe to be an inferior product, for whatever reason, as the same movie. Others liken CGI as automatically superior, hence they think us odd that we disagree. No one is open to the ideal of letting by-gones be by-gones. None can offer an excuse as to why Lucas withholds the O-OT. Often they will say, "It's his movies" and "he doesn't see the O-OT as Star Wars". We sure do. This is perhaps the biggest difference between O-OT fan and SE fan. While the O-OT fan often has no problem with Lucas adding and "improving" his trilogy, the average SE fan seems to take perverse delight in the absence of an O-OT release. We, the O-OT fans have no problem of the continued existence of the Special Edition, where the SE fan seems to celebrate every new change as another nail for the coffin of the old. Granted, I'm speaking in extremes and this most certainly doesn't apply to all. But this is the impression one gets on a board such as TheForce.net's.


There's really nothing wrong with liking the changes, but to rub it in to a fan of the O-OT then ridicule them is downright childish and reminds me why I'm here. One only need make a comment that they prefer Sabastian Shaw as Anakin's ghost, and they are immediately chewed out as a whiner. Some consider the SE and O-OT as different films altogether. Some even enjoy both. Yet it continues, with O-OT supporters being labeled "Lucas hating whiners" and SE supporters being jerks that act like because they "support Lucas" and party with every change they must be the only "True Fans". The door swings both ways, and there's no such thing as a "true fan". There may be different levels of devotion, but accepting the change make you no more of a fan than rejecting them makes you any less. Lucas has literally driven a wedge between the fandom, one not easily repaired.


Made for IE Forum's Episode III theme month - May 2005.