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Quick question about 1982/4 and 1995 "faces" editions on VHS

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I have a quick question about the video releases of Star Wars on VHS in the 80s vs the 1995 versions, I have the “faces” version and I was wondering if there’s any differences between the 80s releases and the 1995 release other than the opening crawl? Are the original 80s releases of Star Wars on VHS worth buying even if I already have a decent unaltered VHS from '95?

I’m new to posting here btw, I discovered this site from Harmy’s Despecialized videos on Youtube.

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 (Edited)

I think there are some significant differences in the way things are cropped. And it’s a different audio mix. There’s actually no difference between the crawls as far as I know; “Episode IV: A New Hope” was added in 1981 and I don’t believe any home video releases predate that.

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Some video releases between 1985 and 1992 have C-3PO’s tractor beam line that was present in the films original mono track. The ‘Faces’ version for whatever reason removes the line much like the film’s original stereo mix.

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All releases before 1985 have the theatrical stereo mix (or its mono version, NOT the different mono mix). All releases between 1985-1993 have the Ben Burrt 1985 mix, which has the tractor beam line. All releases after 1993 (all 2) and the GOUT DVD have the 1993 mix (the last created before the SE, again no tractor beam line).

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Faces has some digital sound effects that weren’t present in the theatrical releases and the binary sunset close-up has a purple sky instead of a red sky.

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Hard to remember for me but my 80s lifetime rental copy of Star Wars was pretty much the same. My 80’s tape of Empire had the Showtime logo pop on screen a couple of times. And my 80’s copy of Return of the Jedi was completely worn out and missing the last ten minutes of the movie.

Faces much better. Still have them to this day although I have not watched them in 10 years.

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Alderaan said:

Hard to remember for me but my 80s lifetime rental copy of Star Wars was pretty much the same. My 80’s tape of Empire had the Showtime logo pop on screen a couple of times. And my 80’s copy of Return of the Jedi was completely worn out and missing the last ten minutes of the movie.

Faces much better. Still have them to this day although I have not watched them in 10 years.

I have my VCR in my tech shelf. I still use the faces editions and the vcr itself.

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Weren’t the 1995 VHS faces release the first time it was available in wide-screen/letterbox?

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MrGeekBoi420 said:

Weren’t the 1995 VHS faces release the first time it was available in wide-screen/letterbox?

No I think the Japanese LDs were which came out in 1986 IIRC.