Baronlando

mverta said:

That actually is the word for Star Wars' cinematography: beautiful.  Far moreso than it is given credit for, or thought as.  The lighting is pretty flat, overall, and yet there's really such interest in the color scheme and tonality.  It's also got this really distinct '70's vibe to it, especially in the flesh tones, which read far differently than what we get today. 

Just curious, in an ideal world, who would be the best person/persons to supervise a legit release? Gil Taylor is pushing 100 years old, is there anyone else left from the production with the knowledge and insight necessary?

Yeah what is that thing and why does it look sort of actually...good? If it was just clipped off a print in 1981 it should be beaten to hell. If it's negative it should also really be beat up, since 77-81 was, by far, the period when the movie was getting handled and tossed around the most. Which I would think applies to any other stage that it could be from. (pre-'81 being the period where all the elements were seeing the most action).

kenkraly2007 said:

 the changes don't take away my enjoyment of the films.

Wait, is the entire fucking world your diary? This is the worst Matrix yet.

The numbers are good, but I think they could have been a little higher without the bad press. at least maybe enough for the fabled Star Wars Saga Box, the holy grail of blu-ray, to sell more copies than Bridesmaids.

Yeah that Legacy thing is interesting. I've been hearing that more lately, from people with more legit experience than I. (that the 1997 restoration screwed up a bunch of things visually. I'd always taken for granted that that was the one thing they got right, using the Technicolor as a blueprint, restoring the proper colors and look, etc. Theatrically anyway, I know the home videos had problems)

Wonder if the dates of the copyright depository prints is significant. Maybe the one for Star Wars was actually pretty new when they acquired it, 'early 78 would be when the theaters started really needing new ones, whereas Oct. 80, that could be like, an Empire that played a drive-in all summer. June '83 ought to be pretty good for Jedi, I would hope. Anyway much thanks for this, zombie.

Ugh, what bullshit.

So, wait, the movie was inducted into the registry in 1989. So what did they induct, nothing? A vhs tape? And Lucas stalled them from '89 to '97, and that whole time they actually had nothing? If a movie can be "inducted" with nothing that long then the registry has no credibility, and it's just an excuse to have a little ceremony every year, might as well be the golden raspberry awards. Or am I reading it wrong?

I watched the sample and it certainly seems right to me. You might want to specify in the title "american theatrical version" it's my understanding (people  correct me on this) that other countries always had the blu-ray ending with the princess.

About the idea that finding an IP with no subtitles is somehow the best, "first gen" source or something...I don't get it. I thought the whole point of having the subtitles on their own hi-con roll was so that it just runs "alongside" the negative when it gets printed. Otherwise wouldn't every foreign movie ever just be one long dupey effect shot? That doesn't sound right.

It would be funny if the reason the GOUT source seems so shitty is because it was actually some second tier, "B team" that actually made it, and who knows when. And LFL was so dogmatic about getting a title-less IP (which makes it easier for home video) they actually used the worst possible one.

I like to say it averages out to over one alteration per minute. (I mean, there's well over 120 in the movie...)

Looking at the charts, boy they aren't kidding when they say blu-ray sales are still relatively soft. Not for Star Wars, just in general. (The headline isn't is as great if you say "In it's first week Star Wars sells a fraction as many copies as the dvd of Beverly Hills Chihuahua!")

My understanding is that the negative would have been on A/B rolls, with the subtitles on a C roll. So they have to run it once without the C roll to yield that IP. So whether it's done before or after the one with it, either way isn't it a totally separate event, possibly done by different people, different day, different equipment even?  I remember James Cameron saying that part of the process was so wildly hit and miss he would make the labs sign a contract that the first answer print he was seeing really was first, because labs would fuck it up the first time and do it again without telling the client the negative had been handled more than he was told.

Wouldn't the "clean" prints be made last chronologically? The english language ones were needed much sooner. (Is the gout generational grain or just dirty/ poorly done?)

I would just like to see some evidence that "our" side has really used it in the last 10 years. It seems like they're the only ones keeping it alive.

I think Rocky and Halloween are still plenty beloved and respected. At least as much as they can be with the time that's gone by (and the current extra-douchey attitudes about old styles of filmmaking that the special editions have helped cultivate as far as I'm concerned). That's what's so unfortunate about STAR WARS. The original movie might have been the closest a movie will ever come to being semi-universally liked. (seriously, the appeal was freakishly broad when you think about it).

No John Milius?? What's the point? Most of those guys I'd just say "If you love computers so much why don't you marry one?" Burn.

The WORST fans when it comes to the preservation issue and quasi-religious creepiness, and you can pick 'em right out on TFN and Blu-ray.com, are all in their 30s.

Buying it used down the road is still worth doing since that won't show up in the "units sold" data that first month or during the holiday season, which is something LFL cares a great deal about and pays actual attention to, similar to opening weekend box office.

It's funny, the scene with Vader contacting Luke/building the saber is the one that made it closest to being in the actual  movie but also feels like the most patchy, cobbled together scene out of the bunch to me. (Anybody else think the shot of Vader walking down the hall is actually the beginning of the Jerjerrod scene?)

Apparently netflix has the blu-rays. Has anybody gone that route?

A few shots have been re-arranged. (when the pillar is falling on Anakin and Obi and Yoda stops it, as Dooku escapes) I gave the disc back so I don't have it right now to check, but I think you can even hear the cut in the music. (I'll look around for a better description)

I've been borrowing it a random disc at a time from a coworker. The deleted scenes were great to see. Today I got Attack of the Clones. (yay?) For my own taste it's an extremely fugly movie, but I noticed some of the stuff in the flying car chase looked better. This is the ideal format for the movie, some of the little details come across better. That slight re-editing at the end duel is odd, does anyone know what the purpose of that was supposed to be?

I'd go with 70MM Empire being 1.0. I mean, that's what most saw opening day (and everybody who made a point of going to their town's big theater saw that entire summer.)

She's sadly absent from the blu-ray of TAXI DRIVER, who knows if we'll ever get to hear her insight on that, I'm sure she has some. Feels like a little bit of collateral damage to film knowledge/history there. Put it on the shelf with the rest.

georgec said:

For every fan that boycotts there are probably two or three younger fans who are just coming around to SW.

The boycott and the criticism isn't going to hurt this set financially but hopefully it promotes the idea that there is an audience out there for what amounts to a whole other set of movies. Which can't hurt a studio that has such a thin library. It's like having 9 star wars movies in the catalog instead of 6. I'm sure the Broccolis would like to have 3 extra Bond movies they can sell. Especially when you have no more sure things on the horizon. (To me, 3D Phantom Menace and Red Tails aren't sure things.) Plus I couldn't help notice that Best Buy was a total zoo in 2004 when the dvds came out and it wasn't like that at all this time. (I was there to buy SCARFACE, I swear!)