Baronlando

How does everything end up being about Revisited? Fanedits are not the issue dude!

vote_for_palpatine said: what do you say to those who would say "But you've got the GOUT."?

Well, besides being a glorified bootleg, the gout's existence doesn't really address the fact that the original version includes unstable film elements that are now physically rotting somewhere. All while there's still no archival-quality presentation of what this thing actually is (or was).

(backing away slowly) Jesus Christ, I'll be more respectful of the ewok cartoon in the future.

Here's a weird thing (and I know only a deep-seated Star Wars OCD would notice this): there's a shot in '83 Return of the Jedi where the Falcon flies through a wave of tie fighters, and it fires green lasers instead of the correct red (according to the "what has changed" article on the official site). And sure enough on the GOUT it's green. But...on my 1990 laserdisc it's red like it's supposed to be. And you can watch the Jedi TV spot on your official dvds and it's red there too. So this was actually changed but not in 97 or 04, it was done in 83, (maybe for a second wave of prints that summer? Or after it was too late for 70mm?)

Lucas has always been going after the preschool/kindergarten market, the funny thing is that it never really works but he keeps trying. There was the wookie holiday special, two ewok movies, droids cartoon, ewoks cartoon, and an ocean of unsold, red-tagged Jar Jar Binks merchandise: none of it was exactly a Smurfs-type phenomenon with little kids. More trinkets is fine I guess. (Lucas doesn't mind that his high-fallutin' NoCal artists' sanctuary is often basically like a Tijuana company that makes paddle-balls).

This 15th anniversary poster looked plain unnatural I tell ya!

It was the 81, (since that was the first post-episode V release) but yeah it's old and yet for a long time it never seemed to stick, even the 1997 version didn't have it in any of the advertising. Only now have I started hearing it out loud, from present-day kids (which is perfectly understandable) and adult weirdos (which is less so.)

Maybe they want to coordinate better with the big nostalgic Empire 30th promotional push. There's that big convention and apparently they're re-launching the toy line with the old school packaging, all that stuff is later in the year. (of course, just like in 2007, it's all meaningless when they try to sell you every possible anniversary-related thing except the actual thing that is turning 30)

I just hope it's not because any of the content is being edited.

I got inspired to have a look at the other 2 movies and was surprised to find I kinda like the 1990 laserdisc of Jedi better than the GOUT. Seemed less drab (and the stars are white).

Looking at a 20 year old laserdisc for the first time in a long while, (the only version I have without the special ed. changes or that weird smearing the GOUT has), it's amazing how the movie can look so much shittier and so much better at the same time. It's like a Doc Brown Paradox.

for what it's worth, here it is on my 1997 laserdisc:

and my 1989 laserdisc:

Wasn't he kinda swimming in DePalma's wake there with the split screens? (like in Sisters and Carrie)? More American Graffiti is an interesting movie. Without Dreyfuss it's like it has no rudder, but maybe that was the idea. The style is cool but the actual 4 stories are kind of boring. The pattern of Lucas' "producer projects" (the ones without Spielberg that is) is starting to emerge, like with Willow, Ewok movies, Young Indiana Jones, Radioland and now even this Clone Wars cartoon to take neat visuals and an interesting setting and characters to tell these really really generic stories.

CO said:

The reason I say this is if you watch the Jon Stewart interview with Lucas last month, Lucas made a point of saying there are 2 SW fanbases, the OT fans and the PT fans, so he is aware that many fans prefer one trilogy over the other.

 

Yeah that was interesting. We know LFL market-researches the shit out of everything, he's probably looking at data we aren't privy to. That plus the Clone War kids who are all about the cartoon makes it a real mess if he insists on releasing it only as a definitive "tragedy of anakin saga box".  The sales pitch essentially becomes: Hey everyone! Spend 180 bucks on this! You'll only hate some of it!

I'd still love to know the exact way it breaks down among the decision makers at  LFL. Not between doing the cool thing and the dick move because obviously that went out the window long ago, but between the two ways of milking the situation. (the Star Trek/Lord of the Rings method of original version now, specials later OR the weirdo cult thing where there's only one true gospel version at any given time that comes down from the mountain at an anointed time with great fanfare) Is it just Lucas on one side, with everyone else grumbling about it, or is it like Mr. Burns and a room full of Smithers'?

You know I vaguely remember a friend saying his faces tapes were more "colorful" than he'd ever seen the movies. Did they just...jack up the color when they were making the pan and scan version of the '93 source? (Since VHS was 99% of the thrust of that faces campaign and all the other tapes from '85 on were just repackagings? And the 93 definitive collection laserdisc has the THX logo on it if that means anything?) Plus, I feel like laserdiscs are just aging weird when looking at them now.

I always thought they should replace that bad Jabba with a hologram of Jabba being projected by an R2 unit. We've seen other characters have a walk-and-talk with various sized holograms before and they can paint out the original actor without needing something big enough to just cover over him. The scene is still lame though. Han would never be standing that close to Jabba's mouth for one thing.

But they used the same 1985 Interpositive right? Which I am still  confused about. That IP was created and used once in 1985 for home video, once again in 1993, and scanned for the special edition. So what is the big deal using it again for a decent dvd? Why would it be any more difficult than any other catalog title from 1985? If Star Wars was a minor 70s cult film wouldn't there be a press release like "Good news fans! We have located an IP from 1985 that was only used 3 times! Throw away your bootlegs!!"

It's a pretty weird situation. Would this documentary (and the sentiment behind it) even exist if it wasn't for this dumb policy about the old versions? A policy that really has only fully existed since 2004? (before that you could still get either version only on tape or laser so they were basically still on equal footing).

The prequels and the special editions would still have their fans and non-fans but I don't think Lucas would be catching this level of controversy. People may not even know why they find the guy as off-putting as they do, he's not the only guy who's made lesser sequels. Maybe it's because you really have to be a billionaire to have the power to deprive so many people of a simple pleasure (like watching an old movie). The simple shit is really important to the rest of us slobs, george.

I hope this doc gives some heat to the cause of getting the original versions some respect. Ideally for me the whole thing would just be clips of people showing CGI creatures and landscapes from THX1138 and the star wars special editions to a bunch of schoolkids and telling them this is what movies looked like in the 70s. I bet the lucas policy would seem extra scummy in action.

Phew, finally I know what some jagoff feels about Harry Potter and digital copy. It was so...hard...the not knowing.

I don't think I'll ever be able to accept the basic tomatoes concept. For example, does the score acknowledge that Rex Reed was always more of a schticky "personality"? No, but he was very prominent, so his reviews can't really be distinguished from the real 70s heavyweights. Which would be just nuts to anyone who followed film criticism back then.

Yeah, I don't think the tomatometer reflects that so many of Revenge of the Sith's positive reviews were on the level of "I was surprised to find that this movie is un-horrible!"  Yeah, that's positive, but...

Dark horse is about to start reprinting all the marvel stuff in the omnibus series, including obscure stuff that didn't get reprinted the first time, like marvel UK stories.