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(edit) Ah, okay. It would be nice if this news gets around at the big convention in Florida, to counter that weird perception that a "modern audience" just HAS to have the updates.
Thanks for the pictures, that print is really something. Everything looks so "right" and matches the idealized version in my head, collected from vague, semi-accurate memories. The sunset scene, those big solid red lasers against the cell block wells (sorry adywan), the look of that great matte painting of the Falcon (that has since been replaced). Also I can't help wondering: if you're this guy who owns the print and you're going back to Britain, do you just put it in the overhead bin? It wouldn't fit, would it? Or it gets checked with the luggage? Jesus, that sounds nerve wracking. Unless the guy is flying on his own private plane, in which case he's just awesome.
"Lucasfilm's henchmen might come..." I guess that's a big part of LFL's image now. It's funny that they have a whole PR machine constantly chugging away and yet they still can't erase that sentiment. I get that it's just about selling trinkets now, like some Tijuana gift shop, but I have to assume they could have sold even more without alienating anyone.
zombie84 said:
but sadly the rest of the print, while not so red, was very, very pink, on the borderline of watchability.
Did you notice if it had the new sound mix? Because there's some newer Jaws prints with the 2000 sound being shown here and there, and they look pretty great, (colorwise, no pink).
Do we have a rough guess at how many technicolor Star Wars prints were made? (For some reason I thought Lucas had the only one, made special.)
That's pretty cool! It looks good too. makes me wonder 2 things: did the 1981 release make it to Britain? and did they make all entirely new prints for it, or did they just put the new crawl into existing prints? (Or just replace the first reel?)
If you want to goof on prequel boredom at this point, it's so much easier to just let them do all the work. They do a better job than anyone could.
This came up last year, I think it turned out he's talking about his profit points in the 1997 release of Jedi, which I believe is different from residuals? (Do we even know how much money Jedi '97 actually cost to do? Besides the restoration and marketing, there was that shitty musical number and I doubt John Williams wrote that new doctor's office music for free. And it ultimately made a lot less than Star Wars.)
It does add fuel to the idea that the special editions are legally considered a totally different movie and were only done to give Lucas more control over them from then on.
Listened to that part of the podcast. What IS that show? It's like the worst 90s morning zoo.
zombie84 said:
For one performance that late, they would lose money if they made new prints.
That was the only time they did it as a simultaneous thing in 13 places, but they continued to do it sporadically in big cities from '85 to '91-ish. I was told it was for charity and to show off the quality of a THX presentation. It seemed possible they'd go the whole nine.
Wonder if they made any new ones for this event: (only because I guess they'd be the newest and least worn out)
It's a drag because it's not like the 70mm prints that are out there are going to get better with age (and GL has created a situation where only a privileged few can screen it privately, how douchey is that?) And like the guy who saw one in 2008 said, it's an amazing way to see it, better looking than the 1997 version. (I remember thinking the 1997 looked great in theaters, but still not as good as the 70mm. And it wasn't like I was going by hazy, ancient memories, I saw the latter around 1990).
It's weird, all 3 Indy movies are screened all over the place all the time and the world hasn't ended. Can't figure out GLs reasoning for Star Wars showings to be so tightly controlled. And I guess the 1997 prints are harder to come by than the 77. (it's probably worth remembering and envying this:
That's worth a try I guess, but Lucas doesn't really care what any academic film-type says (and vice versa), they all blame him for the death of serious movies anyway. But luckily James Cameron is a billionaire, i.e. a person GL might actually value the opinion of. And he's already put it out there, in Entertainment Weekly no less. Which is the exact type of shallow, mainstream promotional venue LFL actually cares about. (see this year's upcoming G4 Star Wars infomercial)
Wouldn't the IP they used for Blade Runner '82/'91 be from the original anyway, (albeit in 1991)? I can't believe that those Blade Runner/Close Encounters sets are 3 years old and it's still this big looming question mark whether Star Wars can even be bothered to do the same thing. Oh please mighty LFL, give us the privilege of paying money for a new transfer from the best available film elements, like say, oh, season 2 of FUCKING LOVE BOAT.
I'll send one too, for what it's worth. I think The Bits and every site like it should have a banner pic about this all the time, but I guess that's not likely to happen, especially these days. The blu-ray world can't even agree on what a good disc should look like and how it should be done. And when the Star Wars topic comes up, it brings out a lot of these weird assholes who actively DON'T want the old versions and don't even to like to hear about it. At this point it's like taking a controversial stand to lobby for this simple thing, it has come that level of retarded.
Jedi is pretty great. It's no Empire, but I don't want it to be anymore, and I like the distinctiveness of the original 3 movies. The mundane earthy locations are actually kind of refreshing now since I'm burned out on the elaborate phony nintendo environments from I-III.
It's cosmetically sloppy, but in the years since, I've seen enough sequels/trilogy-endings completely disappear up their own ass trying to make a bunch of weird grown men happy (with a lot of poser seriousness and character deaths, bittersweet endings blah blah), that all that minor stuff, like having another death star (as opposed to some other thing that needs to blow up at the end, which still has to happen or we'd feel totally ripped off) and bad ewok costumes, just seems really superficial now. Jedi rules. Seriously, just look at this picture:
vote_for_palpatine said:
LOL yes, I know it's surprising, but I'm a young'un and ANH seemed a little slow for me.
Evidence that Lucas' "Modernize the old films so that young audiences will appreciate them" approach is not working.
The sad part is that if a modern kid got to see the original version in a huge old theater in 70mm, the way many 70s kids got to see it, even today they'd like it better than seeing the 2004 version in a multiplex.
I think that was a screwup at the home video level, it looked great in theaters.
The 1997 IP probably looks great too, it's a shame to just chuck it, I would assume it's just as good to go as any other 1997 theatrical release?. Could they use it as a base for a reconstructed original-ish version? (fit it to the 1977 soundtrack and then drop in the obvious old shots from the best available source). I know that Superman and some other older movies have digitally recomposited bluescreen shots, I'm not even sure what's considered acceptable restoration and what's revisionism these days. What with Clint Eastwood and Eli Wallach voicing scenes 40 years later, a whole new score for Major Dundee, etc.
The most recent Jaws disc includes the original mono track too, thankfully.
Pretty much everything you could possibly think of to make this product great is so easily doable for LFL, which is what makes the whole thing extra frustrating. Just getting correct lightsabers is going to end up being a 7 year hassle! Think about that for a second, there are porno outfits in the valley that wouldn't operate like that. (uh, so I've heard)
Just watched it. Fantastic. Adywan went above and beyond to do this.
That is a really fantastic thing. Much appreciated.
Well, my nephews already think there were CGI dinosaurs in 1977, they might as well be conned into thinking you could make those vast cityscapes in 1970. And with just a tiny budget and youthful hippie enthusiasm! (Now let's have another Young Indiana Jones lecture on the importance of teaching history. )
This whole angle of Star Wars-as-modern myth/Important Movie has been pushed pretty hard the last 20 years. It's easy to picture someone new (like young people or everybody's wives and girlfriends like in the other thread) finally seeing the trilogy now and saying "that's it?"
The prequels go along with this newer angle and have a lot of artificial weightiness and frowning. But it's an awkward fit since the actual goal in 77-83 was this...other thing. A space western/adventure. Even the dagobah scenes in Empire, which are the deepest thing in the original trilogy, are pretty basic. I remember one director, possibly Tarantino, comparing those scenes to the time-honored pulpy tradition of the young cowboy who spends the middle of the movie learning from the older, wiser gunfighter/or Indian, like in Nevada Smith. But these days people generally bust out myth textbooks or the Joseph Campbell chart for anything involving Yoda. It's almost like coming back to Die Hard years later and expecting The Godfather. It's not The Godfather, but it's not even trying to be.
Yeah never underestimate the vast armies of screeching kids in Target and their moms. Prequel-onlies exist. They are among us.
The James Bond blu rays trickled out separately (until MGMs problems) and I wonder why LFL doesn't do the same with Star Wars. They don't exactly have a vast, deeply varied catalog of beloved titles, you'd think they might want to spread it around a little. (And I think even the Indiana Jones trilogy is actually more like only 1.5 movies since he has to split everything with Spielberg.)