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Post #909699

Author
Density
Parent topic
How did you first see the Star Wars films?
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/909699/action/topic#909699
Date created
19-Feb-2016, 9:33 PM

I’m gonna revive this thread to say that my first exposure to Star Wars was the fullscreen 1992 VHS tapes. To this day, only the colors of the pre-Definitive Collection/Faces VHS tapes and laserdiscs look 100% right to me for this reason. And even the full widescreen image, though obviously superior, seems a bit off on some subconscious level to someone who was weaned on pan & scan. Especially the first time I saw it in widescreen, which would have been the 2004 DVDs. At the time, though I disliked most of the changes I was pretty impressed by the picture and sound quality. Of course now I realize that it could and should have been much better, but back then I was just happy to have widescreen digital Star Wars with surround sound, and I assumed George would get around to remastering the original versions soon afterwards. Oh I miss those days of blissful ignorance.

As for the prequels and TFA, I saw them all in theaters when they first came out. Three disappointments (though I admittedly at first enjoyed ROTS for at least attempting to actually give relevant backstory to the originals and I was impressed by the visuals of all three, though they look painfully dated now) followed by one very satisfying film that I think will hold up much better with time. Especially if its follow-ups take advantage of the possibilities it unlocks.

Above all though, I really hope Disney re-releases the originals in theaters so I can say I saw them all, and particularly the best ones, on the big screen. No 3D crap, no Special Edition crap (for whatever reason I didn’t see the SEs in theaters in '97, I honestly don’t even remember their release at all and I didn’t bother with the '97 VHS tapes either). My dream would be restored unaltered films on 35mm or 70mm. Now I know that’s highly unlikely (though maybe a limited 70mm IMAX conversion is possible), but digital would still be fine. And considering it looks like they’re finally planning an imminent official restoration of the OOT, I really hope they do show it off in theaters. Quite possibly to commemorate the 40th anniversary next year. I think that’s my best hope.