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Surprise! DVDs preserve original version after all!

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Sort of.

One of the bigger surprises to me is that, spread throughout the documentaries and trailers of Disc 4, there are substantial clips of the original versions of almost every scene that was significantly changed in the SE. I'm reminded of the Director's Edition DVD of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, on which the orginal versions of updated scenes are archived on the bonus disc, except on Star Trek the scenes are simply thrown together in an incoherent clip reel, while on Star Wars they're incorporated into the documentaries.

In terms of preserving film history, these DVDs do a better job than I expected. No, you don't get to see the version of the movie that Lucas now considers incomplete, but you DO get to see almost all the stuff you remember, treated as historical material. Give credit where credit is due -- since 1997 most of the TV specials about Star Wars have used clips from the SE as if no other version ever existed, but the documentaries on these DVDs acknowledge and show the true original material quite thoroughly.
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That's probably more Burn's doing than Lucas. It's great to know, but having them in a documentry that slanders them isn't my ideal of preserving film history.


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

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ALTHOUGH i DON'T REMEMBER SEEING THE ORIGNAL HAN SHOOTING GREEDO FIRST OR ORIGINAL REBO BAND SCENE, , AND WHILST THE OTHER SCENES APPEARED CLEANED UP i BELEIVE THEY ARE FROM THE 97 RESTORATION AND NOT THE 2004 RESTORATION. SO i'M NOT SURE HOW USEFUL THEY WILL BE FOR FAN EDITS OF THE NEW DVDS
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Greedo scene's easy. They just added a shot between "Yes, I bet you have" and Greedo blowing up. Cut that shot out and voila! Han shoots first.
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It would be easier for one to edit that shot out in the 97 version, since they fire at the same time in the DVDs.

4

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you DO get to see almost all the stuff you remember, treated as historical material. Give credit where credit is due


Did you ever think that the original footage was put in there as a marketing tool? Remember, the documentry was aired on A&E over a week before the DVD release. It showed all this "original footage" and said NOTHING about any changes being on the DVD's. I'm sure the TV rights were bought months in advance, and this was a definite marketing desision.
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A&E's broadcast is an advertisement for the documentary on the DVDs, not for the movies on the DVDs.
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But it represents the OT - or it thinks it does - thats what Mr. Coffee is saying. People are all excited about the release, then they watch this special on A&E and its all footage from the OTR, which leads them to believe that is what they are getting with the DVDs. It may not be black and white, but I can definitely see Coffee's point, and I agree. It seems very likely that this is a ploy, just as much as the little sticker on the box set saying "the classic trilogy" like, classic since '97, or what?

Its all part of the snow-job that Lucas is doing on the world.

"You don't own space, so stop actin' like you do."
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Funny thing happened last night while waiting for the bus as I was returning my unopened boxed set. I overheard a couple of guys talking as they walked past.

"...and if they don't exchange or refund them, tell them to flock off. These things are repulsing."

I'm sure they were talking about the SW movies. It might be a sign that Fox and Lucasfilm will have some returned items in the future for not being straight with the public.
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I'm going right to the source. Foxvideo! I am trying to write a good letter, but I'm not very good at it. Any ideas?