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How to Watch Star Wars, Part Two: The Special Editions Are the Movies, Get Over It

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Another excellent video from Rick Worley:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaeTOMvf67c

The Cliff’s Notes version is that all the caterwauling about the “original” version of Star Wars is misplaced -not just on the grounds of the rights of the artist or owner trumping those of the consumer, but that there never really was an “original” version.

Oh, and the part at 3:26:17 where the Red Letter Moron and others show that they knows almost as little about paintings as they do about movies. Great show all around. In the words of Joe Bob Briggs: “Check it out!”

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“Y’know, a guy named William Shakesman once said, “brevity is the soul of wit.” This just means don’t waste my time. You keep it nice and simple.”

Sorry champ but a 3:41 video is a tough ask for anyone to sit through. Also I think Mike makes a pretty good allegory for what George did, comedic and light heartedly.

Also, I mean there was an original version of the films, watched for 20 years really. Maybe a few technically different versions if you want to say new crawls and 70mm changes, mono mixes, etc.

EDIT: yikes this is also the Woody Allen is innocent guy too

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Wow. You got us. Let’s call it quits, everybody. I guess we’ve been lying to ourselves this whole time.

I’ve watched this video before. Wasn’t impressed. Made me lose what little respect I had left for Worley.

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Bobson Dugnutt said:

EDIT: yikes this is also the Woody Allen is innocent guy too

EDIT: I take back my faint praise of Polanski.

Woody Allen truly is scum and the more people who dismiss him and his work the better. Also, Worley is a TERF.

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BedeHistory731 said:

Bobson Dugnutt said:

EDIT: yikes this is also the Woody Allen is innocent guy too

EDIT: I take back my faint praise of Polanski.

Woody Allen truly is scum and the more people who dismiss him and his work the better. Also, Worley is a TERF.

So no response to the points made in the video?

Concession accepted.

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Bobson Dugnutt said:

“Y’know, a guy named William Shakesman once said, “brevity is the soul of wit.” This just means don’t waste my time. You keep it nice and simple.”

Sorry champ but a 3:41 video is a tough ask for anyone to sit through. Also I think Mike makes a pretty good allegory for what George did, comedic and light heartedly.

Also, I mean there was an original version of the films, watched for 20 years really. Maybe a few technically different versions if you want to say new crawls and 70mm changes, mono mixes, etc.

EDIT: yikes this is also the Woody Allen is innocent guy too

Explain how changes in the sound mix are trivial, but changes in special effects are not.

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I take issue with Worley’s blanket vilification of every fan who criticized the prequels or the Special Edition. He insists in the video that it would take a lot of money and effort to restore the original cuts, and that it wouldn’t be financially worthwhile because the only people who want the old cuts are just a small vocal group of butthurt fanboys who can’t accept change. And that’s just blatantly false. The demand for the original cuts, or at least for cuts that delete all the added CGI from 97 and restore the old practical effects, is very significant. Even execs at Lucasfilm have admitted that there’s a huge amount of fan interest in it, and you need only look at the huge bootleg industry on eBay for Despecialized and 4K77. Even the GOUTs still sell high and are sought after.

All of this adds up to that if Lucasfilm ever actually went through with it, it would be massively profitable move that would win them a lot of fan goodwill. So purely from a profit-seeking perspective, as well as a film preservation perspective, it’s overwhelmingly the right thing to do.

Creators have the right to revise their work, and there are plenty of well done director’s cuts of movies out there, but there’s a good reason the Special Editions are often held up as precisely how not to do a director’s cut. People may like specific changes made, but many changes take you out of the film, and ultimately, the theatrical cuts are a more cohesive, authentic experience of watching classic movies made in 77, 80, and 83. That’s why we’re here.

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Jelperman said:

Bobson Dugnutt said:

“Y’know, a guy named William Shakesman once said, “brevity is the soul of wit.” This just means don’t waste my time. You keep it nice and simple.”

Sorry champ but a 3:41 video is a tough ask for anyone to sit through. Also I think Mike makes a pretty good allegory for what George did, comedic and light heartedly.

Also, I mean there was an original version of the films, watched for 20 years really. Maybe a few technically different versions if you want to say new crawls and 70mm changes, mono mixes, etc.

EDIT: yikes this is also the Woody Allen is innocent guy too

Explain how changes in the sound mix are trivial, but changes in special effects are not.

The difference is that Despecialized and 4k77 give you the option of which audio track you want to listen to. With the Special Editions, there is no option. And added CGI is far more intrusive into the film than a few sound mix differences. A few audio tracks that can be easily switched between don’t constitute different versions of the movie, since it’s still the same cut of the movie. Everything from 1997 onward are distinctive versions.

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Jelperman said:

BedeHistory731 said:

Bobson Dugnutt said:

EDIT: yikes this is also the Woody Allen is innocent guy too

EDIT: I take back my faint praise of Polanski.

Woody Allen truly is scum and the more people who dismiss him and his work the better. Also, Worley is a TERF.

So no response to the points made in the video?

Concession accepted.

Some points aren’t worth engaging, especially coming from the mouth of somebody who defends the reprehensible, like Allen and Rowling.

Also, if you’re so against the preservation of the OT, why the hell are you even here? Are you simply a troll? Well, given that your join date was 2007 and you waited 15 years to post something, I’m not entirely sure.

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I saw this video and didn’t even bother to leave a comment, it is so idiotic. A bad faith argument. And probably the worst take i’ve ever seen.

Nearly every other director with exceptions and studios for that matter do catalog releases of their films. Star Wars not being available to own is ridiculous.

The worst argument is the money, technology has advanced where if fans can restore 35mm prints for significantly less than what FOX spent on the Special Editions, Disney could easily restore the originals and it won’t cost millions. And they don’t even need to touch the negative if they restore from another source. Obviously not a release print. Fans resorted to that because they have nothing else.

Nobody is throwing rocks at George and saying he can’t have the 2020 Special Edition locked in as his final cut, what fans want is the movies they fell in love with and as they originally were released.

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BedeHistory731 said:

Also, if you’re so against the preservation of the OT, why the hell are you even here? Are you simply a troll? Well, given that your join date was 2007 and you waited 15 years to post something, I’m not entirely sure.

Like shingles, trolls can stay dormant in the body for decades before activating.

Gods for some, miniature libertarian socialist flags for others.

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Superweapon VII said:

BedeHistory731 said:

Also, if you’re so against the preservation of the OT, why the hell are you even here? Are you simply a troll? Well, given that your join date was 2007 and you waited 15 years to post something, I’m not entirely sure.

Like shingles, trolls can stay dormant in the body for decades before activating.

😃

The whole thread is trolling. The intent of it, the content. the attitude. Even the mention of “Red Letter Morons”! The “no responses about the video I posted? Then I win” attempt at baiting.

A 4 hour video from Rick Worley, promoted by George worshipers, and lecturing others on how to watch Star Wars. Like JadedSkywalker said, a bad faith argument.

He is here to troll. More will be here soon, like that new Ejn troll who is also from the same narrow and angry mindset.

 

For Jelperman and other Lucas acolytes who want to control which versions of the Original Trilogy that fans want to watch:

The 'Naysayer Guide’ by people who DON’T want an unaltered theatrical release of the Original Trilogy

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At least they only have 1/3 of the word count that Stardust1138 had.

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BedeHistory731 said:

At least they only have 1/3 of the word count that Stardust1138 had.

Oh God, don’t remind me. 😉

But it’s interesting you brought him up, because I remember he was a massive Rick Worley fan too. Why does that guy have so many loyal followers? Why do 4 hour apologia sessions for some of the most hated creators in history seem appealing to anyone?

My preferred Skywalker Saga experience:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX

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Speaking as a prequel fan, guys like Rick Worley were the worst thing to happen to the prequel fandom. They’re full of resentment.

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StarkillerAG said:

BedeHistory731 said:

At least they only have 1/3 of the word count that Stardust1138 had.

Oh God, don’t remind me. 😉

But it’s interesting you brought him up, because I remember he was a massive Rick Worley fan too. Why does that guy have so many loyal followers? Why do 4 hour apologia sessions for some of the most hated creators in history seem appealing to anyone?

They’re natural contrarians, no matter the morality involved. A lot of prequel fans feel resentment for years of abuse those movies took in pop culture, so it’s natural that it sometimes comes out in bitter ways. Worley takes it a step further by adding in Woody Allen and JKR.

Similarly, I do remember Stardust giving the “but she (the victim) forgave him” excuse when talking about Polanski. But that’s a whole separate can of worms.

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Okay, so let’s say it’s the 1980s and Paul McCartney has decided to remix and re-release the entire Beatles catalogue. To make it a big event he modernises the tracks to make them contemporary and closer to his ‘original vision’. He replaces Ringo with modern drum machines, remixes the guitar sounds to something more like Boston or Def Leppard, replaces some of the guitar solos with Eddie Van Halen and Mark Knopfler, and gets Thomas Dolby to add a bunch of Fairlight sound/samples to bring the whole thing ‘into the 80s’. He ditches some of the weirder tracks from the White Album and puts some of his solo material in their place (see ‘Wings’).

Then, when CDs take over as the modern format, only the ‘special edition’ versions of the albums are made available. “I’m sorry you fell in love with the unfinished versions” says Sir Paul “but you have them on cassette and vinyl. Eventually only the special editions will be what’s available…”.

Yes, that would be stupid. And Paul would be lynched.

The original Star Wars trilogy should be available on modern formats. To suggest otherwise is moronic.

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Funny you say that when Paul did re-record several Beatles tracks in his Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), which got pretty bad reviews and even amongst Beatles and Paul fans is seen as a pretty bad entry in his canon.

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Omni said:

Funny you say that when Paul did re-record several Beatles tracks in his Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), which got pretty bad reviews and even amongst Beatles and Paul fans is seen as a pretty bad entry in his canon.

Ringo (who was in the movie) refused to play on the re-recordings, because:

  1. If they were worse than the originals, he’d feel upset with himself.
  2. If they were better than the originals, then he’d never be able to listen to the original recordings.

Elliot Roberts did a good video on the project.

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Omni said:

Funny you say that when Paul did re-record several Beatles tracks in his Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), which got pretty bad reviews and even amongst Beatles and Paul fans is seen as a pretty bad entry in his canon.

It can go the other way too. I’m a huge fan of a Finnish rock band called Hanoi Rocks. Their second album (released in '82) had a really bad mix (something I noticed even back in the day, although I still love the album) and they’ve recently unearthed the original tapes and done a remix that they’re calling 'the ‘real’ mix. I heard one track the other day, and it sounds technically better of course, but it’s not the track I grew up with. Ultimately I’m going to stick with the original because that’s where the feeling lies (or ‘nostalgia’ if you will). it’s a moment in time.
Of course, unlike Star Wars, both versions will always be available, so the band gets to exorcise this particular demon and the fans get the option of either version.

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JadedSkywalker said:

I saw this video and didn’t even bother to leave a comment, it is so idiotic. A bad faith argument. And probably the worst take i’ve ever seen.

Nearly every other director with exceptions and studios for that matter do catalog releases of their films. Star Wars not being available to own is ridiculous.

The worst argument is the money, technology has advanced where if fans can restore 35mm prints for significantly less than what FOX spent on the Special Editions, Disney could easily restore the originals and it won’t cost millions. And they don’t even need to touch the negative if they restore from another source. Obviously not a release print. Fans resorted to that because they have nothing else.

Nobody is throwing rocks at George and saying he can’t have the 2020 Special Edition locked in as his final cut, what fans want is the movies they fell in love with and as they originally were released.

It becomes even more trivial when you consider that a restoration/remastering of the unaltered versions would be a token investment. We’re only talking three movies totaling six hours of film here, not something crazy like the grand hd re-build Paramount did for all seven seasons of TNG.

Technology has indeed come so far that if the OT were to get a proper preservation now it probably wouldn’t ever need it again.

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I watched the video a while ago, and thought is was pretty moronic, and clearly created with an agenda. In other words it is biased as hell. Anyone that can’t distuinguish between altering a sound mix around the time of release, and adding in CGI effects decades after the fact, I’m not going to take too seriously. I personally believe it is actually not that cheap to recreate the OOT. The negative is conformed to the SE, and the original pieces of negative as well as the original elements that were replaced are likely in pretty bad shape. So, I would say restoring the OOT would likely be similar to the Coppola restorations of the Godfather trilogy. It would be a restoration based on many different sources of varying quality and would require a wealth of expertise including the people involved with the creation of the originals to get it right. I also don’t believe releasing the OOT would be hugely profitable. The market for physical releases has shrunk considerably, becoming a niche market for videophiles, and the group of people that grew up on the OOT are going the way of the dodo. So, the main motivation of restoring the OOT is to preserve the original 70s and 80s film experience for posterity. These films in their original form were hugely influential, and it’s a shame, that it can no longer be seen in the best quality warts and all.

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I watched the whole video and it is clearly biased but it’s also kind of an interesting video about just difference in other films not just star wars, I feel like the star wars parts of the video are kinda just eh.

Jar Jar’s Jar Jar Jar

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I’d probably be more accepting of the Special Editions if it weren’t for the fact that all the modern home video transfers of the OT have been so poorly done.