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Just Saw The Unaltered Trilogy For The First Time... — Page 2

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Now I have a question for all of YOU who grew up with the OOT. What was it like seeing the special editions for the first time after growing up with the OOT? Were you excited to see them, only to be slapped in the face by the changes? What was it like?
Watch DarthEvil's Who Framed Darth Vader? video on YouTube!

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Well, I'd only actually been a fan of Star Wars for about a year before the Special Editions came out, but I was already fairly entrenched by that point into the Star Wars mythos. I admit I was very excited, especially to be able to see the movies on the big screen. That overshadowed the point that things were changed. I never thought of them, though, as recreations or replacements of the Star Wars films, just this nice little bonus thing. And I assumed that, after 1997, they'd go away. I remember my friend had just gotten into Star Wars, and he was buying up the action figures. I tried to persuade him not to, because, in response to the SE release, they had changed the packaging from the blue/silver Star Wars logo on orange to this nasty-looking green on green thing. So I tried to convince him to wait until 1998 to buy figures, because I assumed that, once the year had passed, they'd revert to the old style again. I was wrong. I was eleven, give me a break. But I never stopped watching my Faces set. Like I said, I considered the SE an alternate "special" version of Star Wars. It didn't take the place of it. So while my friends threw away their old movies, I held onto them for dear life. I remember I did get excited when I realized that the "One Last Time..." tagline of the Faces set must mean that the SEs would come to video, so I could add them to my collection. This was before I knew anything about aspect ratios or the fact that VHS tape could wear out and wasn't nearly the quality of film.

For all the horrible things that have come out of the SE, I do feel grateful for the experience to get to watch them on the big screen, having been too young to catch them the first time. I'll never forget it.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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The crack on the ice for me was when AOTC was released and they said how bad TPM was. I did not watch the OOT until after seeing the SE, and have seen the SE only twice and the 04 DVDs only once.
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Originally posted by: Darth_Evil
Now I have a question for all of YOU who grew up with the OOT. What was it like seeing the special editions for the first time after growing up with the OOT? Were you excited to see them, only to be slapped in the face by the changes? What was it like?


Like others, I thought they were in fact "special" editions that would exist alongside but apart from the regular editions. And I was very excited about them. I downloaded a 20MB trailer for the first one over dialup -- during the day, with my mom wanting to use the phone -- and I got this little matchbox-sized thing made up mainly of original footage. But I watched it again and again just to see a brief clip of Jabba.

And Jabba wasn't the only exciting thing, no! One of the early shots of the new effects footage showed a Sentinel-class landing craft, and rumors quickly spread about a YT-2400 in Mos Eisley. They were incorporating EU material into the Trilogy, which was really promising for the prequels -- maybe we'd see Victory-class Star Destroyers, Z-95 Headhunters, Dreadnaughts, etc. I'm kind of a sci-fi tech geek, and I was a gamer, and the idea that I could see fully-rendered versions of EU ships was really exciting. Besides, this would be my first time seeing them on the big screen. I had only even seen them in widescreen once, I think.

The changes ... most of them I didn't mind. In ANH, I hated Greedo Shooting First from the beginning. I hated Boba Fett mugging for the camera. Mos Eisley got kind of goofy, but I thought that was okay. Except for that awful model of the speeder at the beginning of the extended shot. The rest ranged from okay to good -- I liked the new Sandcrawler shot, and the Battle of Yavin (even though I felt the new and old footage didn't mesh at all). In fact, every disagreeable change was balanced out by good changes or the sheer weight of the unaltered footage. Besides, it was a "special" edition -- extraordinary, irregular -- and the "real" edition was still on the shelves.

Around this time some really funny "rumors" and "news stories" starting circulating on Usenet. Search rec.arts.starwars.misc from '97 if you feel like reading any. People more clueful than I picked up on Lucas's intentions and posted stories about dozens of worms writhing about in the asteroid field, and something about bagels, and good times were had.

ESB:SE was mostly just ESB on the big screen. I liked it quite a bit. But ... "Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival." Gah. What a ghastly line. And how odd to see Moff Jerjerrod so early.

Return of the Jedi ended my delusion that the films and the EU would be stitched together nicely. We've got Boba Fett flirting with dancers in Jabba's Palace, we've got Imperial citizens in the most unlikely places celebrating the death of their leader -- meh. See Tales from Jabba's Palace for a much more compelling Boba Fett and just about anything from that era for much more realistic looks at Imperial society. As for the other changes, I hated Jedi Rocks, and thought they changed the Sarlacc from an anus to a fierce, nipping glans penis. The sarlacc change, in particular, I thought was unnecessary -- they've already explained the thousand years of pain, and it's already got tentacles, and there's already people with guns running around and shooting -- does the mouth really add that much more jeopardy?

Was it all a slap in the face? Not at all; it was my first chance to see them in the theaters -- an opportunity I took advantage of many times -- and it showed some neat new special effects and unseen footage. It was indeed "special." The slap came when Lucas took away the "special," I guess.
"It's the stoned movie you don't have to be stoned for." -- Tom Shales on Star Wars
Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived.
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Yeah, i LOVED the SE when it came out. I read all about it in Star Wars Insider, memorized all the screenshots that they previewed--and when the first trailer debuted in late 1996--WOW! You have no idea how powerful that was--seeing the first snippets of Star Wars on the big screen, such as the jump to hyperspace, and the new jabba footage--it was just incredible. I remember it was attached to the beginning of that Stallone film Daylight.

When the SE came out it wasn't supposed to replace the films. As Scruffy pointed out, it was a "special" edition. In fact, rumour was that it wouldn't even be available on home video! I saw Star Wars i think five times and loved most of the changes. Greedo was always a bad WTF moment but I quickly forgot about it, and the Jabba scene was great to finally see, and it was very surprising to see extra Biggs footage and I remember finding Han's run-in with the extra Stormtroopers hilarious. Anyway, it was a fun way to celebrate the original--you got some new and improved footage and got to see it all in theaters. Great!

Then it came out on video. I thought "great, now i can watch them again!". But then after the prequels started coming out this whole "the OOT doesn't exist" stuff started coming out...and then everything went downhill. Honestly, the Special Edition is fine as a "Special Edition", existing alongside the originals--the backlash didn't even exist until Lucas began suppressing the originals around 1999 or 2000 or whenever.
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Yeah, the first time I noticed it was in 2000 when the Special Edition was released again, only without the words "Special Edition" anywhere on them. It was then that I realized what he was trying to do, and that's when I started to resent them.

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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I was so ready to see the SEs when they came to theaters. I was almost 20 at the time. So, I kinda missed out on Star Wars when it first came out, but had been fortunate enough to be taken to see Empire (very little recall on this one) and Jedi when I was young. I think the effect the SEs had on me were almost like seeing the PT. Except the SEs didn't seem quite so bad at the time. Who knew Lucas was going to shortly seal the fate of the OT? But basically me and my friends nearly pissed ourselves with excitement at seeing the SEs since we'd missed Star Wars the first time around. I watched each one at least 5 times in the theater. It was a great time.
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Originally posted by: Darth_Evil
So I looked into getting the September DVD releases, thinking it would be cool to have a better transfer and an anamporphic version. (I don't know if my bootlegs are anamorphic or not) Then I saw the news. No remastering. No anamorphic.

I'll stick with my bootlegs, thank you.
I own the 1995 vhs with a sticker that says "last time available" on it. I snagged myself some bootlegs too, you know - but I always said to myself I would buy the movie when it's released, and that's what I'll do. I've been thinking about downloading another version bootleg, but now I reckon I can just hold out to September... maybe i'll print me some nice DVD covers since the official ones are little... lame. I don't mean to burn you, but the official release will be of better quality, and best of all, it will be a LEGAL release. Why not sell your 2004 DVD's now, get what you can for them and then buy the LE's later this year? You'll still get the 2004 movies with them. You might want to try selling each episode separately on ebay now, you might get more for them like that. I also think it's a little hard right now to make judgements on the quality of the september unaltered trilogy since we've not actually got to see it yet.

But I mean some movies are better when they are "changed" like Alien 3 - I don't think I ever want to watch the theatrical version again after seeing the special edition that was truer to the way that Fincher wanted it. I couldn't believe how different the movie was! When I was a kid I loved Terminator 2: Special Edition, but now I've had a chance to grow up I hate it compared to the theatrical cut. I don't know why I ever liked having so much extra crap in the movie! I don't know why Lucas didn't just start again and film the O.T. from scratch if he thinks he has to make so many changes to the movie. DAMN.

What strikes me as odd is how Lucas can like say about Empire Strikes Back that he always wanted the audience to see more of the ice monster - when he wasn't even the director! he must be a perfectionist/control freak.

Anyhow I'll destroy my bootlegs, or better still post them to LucasFilm with a "thankyou" note attached... or maybe I'll just use them as coasters. You can never have too many coasters.
Some were not blessed with brains.
<blockquote>Originally posted by: BadAssKeith

You are passing up on a great opportunity to makes lots of money,
make Lucas lose a lot of his money
and make him look bad to the entire world
and you could be well known and liked

None of us here like Lucas or Lucasfilm.
I have death wishes on Lucas and Macullum.
we could all probably get 10s of thousands of dollars!
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Ok...my Dr. M set arrived yesterday. I watched the original last night. I loved it. I knew about most of the changes (but it was still exciting to actually see Han shoot first), but one change that I didn't know about was the final battle at the end of the movie with the death star...I hadn't realized they replaced so much of that footage with new CGi stuff...I guess I had never looked at it that closely. All I can say is...I LOVED the 1977 version, with the retro-looking effects and models being moved around the screen. (And I loved seeing Darth Vader have a RED lightsaber again since he had a PINK one in the 2004 DVDs.)

Overall, it was worth it. Thanks Rikter! Can't wait to watch Empire and Jedi soon!
Forever a Star Wars fan!
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That Yavin battle was an incredible feat of special effects wizardry and should be remembered and respected in cinema history forever. Why George wants to erase it is beyond me. I mean, the Special Editions were cool when they were just that - special editions, what ifs.

War does not make one great.

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And here I am. Consider the torch passed.


its late at night, and i've been under a lot of stress lately, so forgive me... but.. i cried. seriously. =]

i joined these forums just to reply in this thread. you guys are awesome.

i'm 34 now, i was 5 when star wars first came out in theaters.. and it was possibly one of the biggest influences on my life, period. a 5 year old kid in 1977 can get pretty overwhelmed by something like star wars. luke skywalker was a role model to me. i can think of a lot of worse role models a kid can have.

my parents didnt like movies with 'war' in the title, so i had to beg friends and relatives to take me to see the original star wars movies. i saw each of them once. when the special editions hit theaters in 97, i lined up for hours to see the first shows. i 'lined up' (it wasnt really a line, in the traditional sense) for DAYS for each of the prequels, at the chinese theater in hollywood. i even LIKED the prequels. .. kinda. till the end.

when i first heard news of the special editions, of course i was ecstatic. star wars on the big screen again! i was hyped for the changes, because, like many here have said already, i didnt expect that it would mean the originals would get swept under the rug like they never existed. my first impressions of the SEs were the same as i feel about them now. some things in ANH were for the better, some for the worse, overall it came out even. the one thing i remeber from the first theatrical viewing was during the battle of yavin, i was looking forward to the bit where wedge comes out of nowhere to shoot a tie fighter off luke's tail... it was always one of my favorite moments, and i was hoping they hadnt messed it up.. but my heart skipped a beat when the new version was AWESOME and i was thrilled. ESB was an even better SE, it was almost exactly what the SEs were 'supposed to' be, an effects update. by the time RotJ came around, i was so happy about the SEs, i merely rolled my eyes a little and managed not to care.

i never expected the prequels to live up to the originals. it was impossible. ... so i went into them with blank (lowered) expectations. i enjoyed what i could, and didnt worry about the rest. unfortunately theres no getting around the fact that the entire starwars universe hinged on RotS, both trilogies had been building to that moment, and it was a letdown. that was what finally got me down on star wars, in any way. i was nothing but a happy fan till then, with some complaints, but i could live with it. the final straw was the 2004 DVD changes. some of the things lucas decided to insert into those abominations were too much. particularly anakin's ghost, and the extra dialog with the emperor in ESB - which amounts to a continuity error as far as i'm concerned, since ESB starts by LITERALLY SPELLING OUT 'obsessed with young skywalker' and then 15 minutes in, vader says 'skywalker is with them' and then a while later the emperor says 'skywalker' and vader acts like this is news. bah. idiots.

anyway... i always liked the idea of the SEs... and i wouldnt mind if george wanted to endlessly muck around with 'his' movies... but they're not just his anymore. they belong to all of us, now. and he's annoyed me enough that i'm just gonna stick with the original, unmolested trilogy.

as a defense mechanism, i've decided that the whole thing isnt really about anakin... its about obi-wan. both trilogies are really about obi-wan, and the mistake he made, and how he redeems it. ... he's consistently the best actor. =]
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Someone should stealthily sneak into George's office, point a frickin' wookie Bowcaster at him and
have them make a frickin' HD version of the OOT... DANG-IT!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v463/Lord_Phillock/starwarssig.png

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It's Good to see that there are still younger people that can watch the original trilogy and prefer it over the new 2004
versions, after all the advancements in special effects over the last 30 years i must say that the original trilogy does look a little dated at times,BUT! as with the New Horrid 1,2,3 trilogy george lucas has sacrificed a story of in favour of showing off these advancements,
i myself did not mind the SE's for the updates,except for the obvious changes Greedo Shooting first, Jabba appearing in 4 And the Change of the Ewok Song in 6. But the 2004 versions were absolutely sickening! has george lucas not heard the outcry of fans(alot of them) since the SE's?! Now I Am Looking to buy the OT on Dvd off ebay as i would not want any of my money going towards the ego that is George Lucas! If Anyone knows of the best version to get please contact me
thanks
would picasso change his much loved original works in favour of new art styles, i think not!
Episode I, II and III ? Never Heard Of them! :-P
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Originally posted by: Darth_Evil
I'd heard the unaltered trilogy was coming to DVD, and I looked into it, and began to wonder what all the fuss was about. I thought my 2004 editions were great, but I read all about the unaltered versions and decided to check it out. I scoured eBay and found a set of DVD's that were the laserdisc transfers. I bought them and watched them.

They were so much better without all that crap added in in the special editions! I was instantly transformed into an original fan. I doubt if I'll ever watch the special editions again. ANH was so much better without crappy CGI Jabba, Greedo shooting first, and other various changes. ROTJ was so much better with the original Ewok song in the end, and no CGI dancers at Jabba's hut. The Saarlac finally made sense to me without a mouth....

So I looked into getting the September DVD releases, thinking it would be cool to have a better transfer and an anamporphic version. (I don't know if my bootlegs are anamorphic or not) Then I saw the news. No remastering. No anamorphic.

I'll stick with my bootlegs, thank you.

I think anyone who sees the original versinos on DVD will like them better than the special editions. Why does George Lucas remain so adament against them? It's just silly! I don't get it.....

Anyway, in short, I just joined this site, and wanted to show that I too am now an orginal fan...
That's great to hear!

The only thing I disagree with you about is your not buying the new DVDs. BUY THEM! Yes, it will be more $$$ in Darth Lucas' pocket- but the quality will be better than your bootleg DVDs, and you'll enjoy them more that way (even if they're non-anamorphic).

In 1977 or 1978 a friend of mine said "wanna watch Star Wars?" I said "OK" not really knowing much about it. His Father had a VCR which was pretty rare back then, and also (apparently) had a bootleg video of Star Wars. I remember watching the first part of Artoo and Threepio in the corridor, and about that time my Mom came in and said it was time to go home. My love for Star Wars would have to wait.... I also had the opportunity to see Empire in a drive-in movie theater in 1980. My sister asked me to go with her but since I wasn't a Star Wars fan yet I said no (stupid!)

Then, I finally saw Star Wars and Empire in the theater in 1982- it was a pre-Jedi re-release for both of them. I was hooked.

When Star Wars first aired on TV (on HBO) in February 1983(?) I took a tape recorder and hung the microphone over my TV's speaker and recorded the audio for the whole film on 2 or 3 tapes (LOL- that's what we did before we had VCRs, people!). Back then, when HBO had the rights to a movie, they would show it at least 2 or 3 times a day. I'm not exaggerating when I say I think I watched nearly EVERY HBO airing of Star Wars that month. I would even sneak downstairs in the middle of the night if it was on. My Mom wanted to kill me.

You cannot imagine how exciting is was, waiting for ROTJ to come out. The anticipation was unbearable. I saw Mark Hamill in an interview shortly before the release, and he said something like "when you see what happens in the film, you'll understand why it has to be the last one." I was convinced that meant Luke was going to die. I remember seeing the movie trailers in the theater, teasing us with little bits and pieces. I vividly recall seeing one trailer with the shot of Luke with his hands on the bars of the Rancor pit, straining to get out (I don't think I've seen that trailer since...) My Mom let me skip school on May 25th 1983, and took me to see Jedi. The audience was completely full. I thought it was a fantastic movie and I can't tell you how happy I was that Luke didn't die. LOL!

Originally posted by: Darth_Evil
Now I have a question for all of YOU who grew up with the OOT. What was it like seeing the special editions for the first time after growing up with the OOT? Were you excited to see them, only to be slapped in the face by the changes? What was it like?


I felt (and still feel) betrayed by the Special Editions, especially when I found out they were meant to "replace" the originals. Initially, I was glad to see them in the movie theater again. I sort of tolerated the changes....until Jedi. The "jedi rocks" scene made me sick to my stomach, as well as the removal of the ewok song. I left the theater disgusted and depressed. A few days later, I had a discussion with a friend of mine at a coffee house, where he was working at the time. He had also seen the SE of Jedi, and he said the "jedi rocks" scene made him feel like he was watching a Disney cartoon. He said "thank God I've still got my THX laserdiscs." My sentiments exactly.

I plan on buying the DVDs in September. Some may see that as allowing George Lucas to win- but he'll never truly win. He'll NEVER win the hearts and minds of those who love the ORIGINAL trilogy!!!



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Originally posted by: zombie84
Haha this is great, if George Lucas read this he would cry!


Before throwing a tantrum and sending out his goons to arrest Darth_Evil and confiscate his illegal copy of the OOT.
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It's not illegal on MY end. I didn't make them. And I own the 2004 versions as well, so its all perfectly legal I think.

And if Lucas ever cracked down on people having bootleg copies of the OOt, he'd become the world's biggest hypocrite. Saying that they don't deserve to be films and that they were just an early, unfinished version. He's disowned them. So if he cracks down on bootlegging of the OOT, he'd be showing an amount of care for the films, which he has repeadedly stated he doesn't have.
Watch DarthEvil's Who Framed Darth Vader? video on YouTube!

You can also access the entire Horriffic Violence Theater Series from my Channel Page.
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Darth Evil, your my kind of scum. I was beginning to think that my enjoyment of the OOT was largely rooted in being an impressionable kid at the time, so it was good to hear that they converted you. Now, if we can only change Lucasfilm's DVD plans...

To that end, I just emailed Lucasfilm and Fox again after having done it only once before. Maybe it's not too late to save Star Wars from Darth Lucas (to borrow the witty moniker from InvaderJenny).