Greetings from a usually silent Star Wars fan. Read on, if you dare.

Greetings folks!

My name is Charles and I've been skulk...uh, I mean, perusing around this site for maybe a couple years now. I've been a Star Wars fan since I was a kid, before I'd even seen the movies (I fell in love with the vintage poster facsimiles I saw in puzzle and game catalogs to which my parents were subscribed). After fantasizing about the movies for a good while, I actually saw them, in all their 1997 Special Edition, full-screen, VHS glory, on a 20-inch, one-speaker, Sony Trinitron.

I was thirteen and Blockbuster was still the rage. It was the late 90s and Star Wars was back. The Phantom Menace trailer came out around that time. I was in heaven.

Several years, three prequels, and three special editions later, I developed into a “moderate purist.” As oxymoronic as that may sound, it makes a sort of sense. Let me explain. I like the restoration work and subtle touchups (e.g., matte line clean-up) of the SPs. Also, frankly, I like the 97 editions’ updates, with two exceptions; Jabba’s cameo in Star Wars (okay, fine, A New Hope) and, sin of sins, Greedo shooting first.

However, I completely agree that the original theatrical versions should receive the same pure restoration that Lawrence of Arabia, Gone with the Wind, and The Wizard of Oz (to name just a few) received. Warner Brothers, in particular, have been fabulous with their restorations.

So, my favorite fan restorations and preservations are (predictably) the GOUT DVD restoration for A New Hope (forgot authors’ name, forgive me) and Lee Thorogood’s preservation of the 97 editions of ESB and RotJ.

Those have actually become my favorite versions of the OT.

So, moderate in what I enjoy, and purist in what I demand for others. Disney, restore the theatricals!

Now, for the prequels. Call me a blasphemer, but I like them. Granted, the Phantom Editor is my hero. But I still enjoy watching the entire six movies chronologically (I-VI). And yes, I’m still in the Stone Age as my only fanedits of the prequels are the Phantom Editor’s, which means I don’t have an edited version of Revenge of the Sith.

(Disclaimer: I own, legally, all the retail versions on DVD. To boot, I have the OT 95 and 97 on VHS. All are widescreen.)

If you’ve read this far, I commend you. I just wanted to introduce myself, say ‘hi,’ and officially join the Restoration/Preservation/Editing community as an observing, consuming layman. By the way, you folks who actually do the projects are, in my opinion, artists. Thank you so much for your hard work!

Plug: GOUT folks and Lee Thorogood are true Jedi.

Now, on to Star Wars books and video games. Haha, just kidding. But, yeah, love those too.

Cheers!

Bingowings said:

Hi.

Oh god I couldn't dare to read it. How was it?

But seriously, hi!

Bingowings and timidggerm, hello and thank you. :)

Fang Zei, thank you!

I truly appreciate your sharing those memories. I always enjoy hearing of others Star Wars experiences. Unfortunately, I do not know personally as many people who love Star Wars as those of us on this site and others like it. I'm truly glad to be here.

I too remember fondly those early days of the official web site, the pictures and articles. That plus the weapon replicas and X-wing and Tie-fighter models on the Sharper Image catalog and the pictures of jigsaw puzzles of the old posters were all a sort of Bible for me. What I knew of Star Wars, for a while was from blurbs. I ended up creating my own fantasy of what the movies were in my head. What surprises me to this day, is that the movies were so good, they didn't disappoint my expectations.

I cannot disagree with what you said about restoring vs. tampering. Although there is no law that says directors can't "improve" on their work, those same people have, in my opinion, a moral obligation to give their customers what they want. Also, there is a historical obligation. It is good to preserve the past to see where we came from.

I was not aware of the last Wizard of Oz release being tampered with. That's disappointing. I have the earlier DVD release, I better hang on to it. It's Warner Brother's 2005 two-disc release. Is that a purer version?

I've recently found myself reselling and returning Blu-ray releases of older movies due to digital noise reduction. It can be tastefully done, but when people's skin starts looking like wax, I'm out.

I agree with what you said about Blade Runner. And it fits that Warner Brothers was involved. They've been pretty good about this stuff. Their Outlaw Josey Wales Blu-ray is fantastic and grainy and the skin looks great!

The crown jewel of my movie collection are my Criterion Blu-rays. Those folks know how to restore. They even include restored original mono tracks.

Some movies, I refuse to get on Blu-ray. I go to Bluraydotcom for my research and have decided to stick with my 2005 Star Trek movie collection on DVD until Paramount eases off on the DNR. The Star Trek Original TV Series on Blu-ray was a thankfully different story.

I've recently gotten L8twr's prequel edits and am watching them. They may replace Phantom Editor's. They're that good plus L8twr doesn't use the opening scrawl to get cute. ;) I'm trying out Q2's next. Sadly, my Blu-ray player (unlike my old DVD player) won't play Thorogood's 97s. It's because they're PAL. That leaves me to rely on the entire GOUT restoration. I can't complain. It's just that my introduction to Star Wars was with the 97s and it was all I knew for a good while. :)

Hi.

I may say I belong to the same generation. I too was introduced to Star Wars through 1997 SE.

On the other hand, I am not really fond of the prequels (you may find the reason in my signature). I wouldn't care whether the prequels exist or not but Lucas put PT related parasites into OT (Hayden, NOOO, Boba voice etc) in the 2004 and 2011 versions which I just can't stand.

And yes I am having the same problem. The 1997 SE are not on a decent video format (I am quite sensitive to video quality).