Has anyone been able to test these on a Samsung BD-P3600?
Thanks
Interesting idea. I figured nothing could really be done for this movie, other than editing out some of the cheesier jokes, or removing some of the racier scenes to restore the "PG-13 theatrical" cut.
Good luck!
I too thought of The Bard when listening to those Backstroke Dubbed clips.
Too awesome. How cool would it be to watch the entire film with that "dubbed" track? Even if they just released it as an audio file... and then somebody could cobble together a custom DVD from the official with the subtitle track as an option. ;)
Half the problem with the EU these days is trying to fit in "everything before it" including retconning the previous retcons to satisfy a presumably ever shrinking minority of fans who actually care about that stuff.
Another problem is Lucas' meddling. It seems like he shows up at the last minute to screw around with the story and everyone just bows to him because he owns Star Wars. I guess this is asking the man to show a little restraint and allow others to be creative around him, and maybe that's too tall an order, but I think it could be done. He's not planning to make any new movies (right?) so it could work. Trouble is he's making that TV show.
A reboot would only work well if they just jettisoned the previous EU in the process. Once you start this new series, you'd have to stick to some kind of consistent storyline if you're going to go that route. A starting point would either be looking at the six film saga alone, or the original trilogy alone (before Lucas screwed his own continuity way worse than anyone could have imagined in the early 80's).
How do you maintain a consistent story line, you ask? Get together and create a "Writer's Bible." Make everyone contributing to this new EU stick to it. Plan stuff out in advance, too, that helps. In short, do things the opposite of how Lucas does them.
That, or as someone suggested, DON'T BOTHER WITH CONSISTENCY and just make each book/comic/game/etc (or "series" by an author) a self-contained story set in the basic Star Wars universe, and don't even pretend you're not doing it.
And finally, I know it's the human thing to do, to have every two bit hack writer make it their "dream" to write Star Wars stuff to try to make a name for themselves or revitalize a flagging career... but really, don't bring in people as favors or whatnot, stick to people who really want to contribute quality stories to the universe, not self aggrandize. It has got to be possible to do these stories that are actually written well and planned well. "Fanservice" only belongs in the games, period.
How this could be done realistically is that the regular EU would continue its life-support downward spiral as normal, but you'd have a seperate "continuity" of EU, say the New Expanded Universe or something, with either the stand alone stories set in the same universe (a bit like "infinities" but without the self-sabotaging suckage like it's a "magical reset button/mirror universe" crapfest) or else the pre-planned, stick-to-the-writers-bible universe.
I believe Marvel comics had a secondary continuity with their "Ultimate" series, and before that DC had their "alternate Earths." These universes don't have to intersect (and probably shouldn't) nor should they try to "resolve" them into one continuity with some absurd plot device, just put them aside and take away all pretension that you're going to try to keep all those now conflicting stories straight from the old series. You have to start somewhere, so only the six "Episode" movies (or just the OT) would count.
Let the concept of "canon" rot, or just redefine it. Series 1 (old stuff), Series 2 (new continuity).
JediTray said:
TIE's don't have hyperdrives, and it doesn't make sense to have them appear from behind the Star Destroyers.
He's back again? Yep, guess so.;) There was work to be procrastinated, so I come here...
Says who? All this based on one throw away line from Obi-Wan in ANH (you know, the guy everybody considers a liar thanks to the next movie, and senile thanks to the Prequels).
The same Expanded Universe that says TIE Fighters are unshielded, cheaply mass produced ships with no life support systems and no hyperdrives also say that Vader's TIE (which is smaller) has all those features.
Of course the original scripts argue otherwise (Leigh Brackett's ESB script for example has Vader drifting in space for a long time before his craft is picked up... though I suppose you could argue his hyperdrive, if he had one, was damaged or something... though a non-functioning hyperdrive in the Star Wars universe doesn't seem to be much of a hindrance, considering the Falcon's Trek from the asteroid field to Bespin).
The fact that the TIE Fighters in ANH were white/gray compared to the blue ones in the rest of the movies, made me think they were a different kind of model anyway.
If we thought TIE Fighters were just simple spaceships (only slightly smaller than the hyperdrive equipped X-Wings) that were launched from Star Destroyer "carriers" (or from a "base" like the Death Star) that would be one thing, but that need not be the case (again, unless we take certain interpretations from the EU).
The only benefit to having "pan 'n' scan" for me would be that the image is bigger (though you lose the sides of it). If your screen is sufficient size though, that's not a big loss. Until some day (in the far flung future) when I can afford a widescreen TV (and have a place to put it) I'm going to stick with letterbox.
The writer of Kingdom of Heaven self-proclaimed the magnificent directors cut to be the most historically accurate movie ever made. I think i might agree with him.
I guess considering Hollywood, that may not be saying much! (I've only seen the Theatrical version, and there are a lot of serious errors and anachronisms there). The whole thing comes off as a modern political allegory.
Good luck with your fan edit though! I haven't seen "Troy" (or "Alexander" or a lot of these modern historical epics). I saw the theatrical versions of Gladiator and KOH, though.
I remember hearing sometime in the 1990's how they had locked James Earl Jones in a room with a microphone to record all the possible Vader dialog for the prequels and that they had five full minutes of tape.
Thing is though, most of that dialog (assuming I heard right) wasn't used.
I figure they could have recorded the "alert my star destroyer" line, though I have little trouble believing it was original.
They obviously recorded a few lines for Episode III and a couple lines here occurred.
One could start a whole thread on possible JEJ lines that didn't make it into the movies recorded in that session...
"Where is Jar Jar? Is he safe, is he all right?"
"I can't breath in this helmet!"
etc.
I can only compare it to the LFN Pwnage (what's the G-force, sorry?). Thus far, despite lacking the (vintage) Stereo mix option, it looks very similar. So in much the same way that the LP looked sharper, clearer, etc. than the GOUT, this does too.
I will have to do some in depth comparisons of my own (haven't watched it straight through yet, just skipped around).
The Greedo subtitles look very natural (even on our old school TV).
The picture looks less grainy than the GOUT. The four eyed stormtrooper thing is still there.
The one complaint I had about the LFN Pwnage was the "horizontal shaking" that sometimes happened (noticeable in the Obi-Wan vs. Vader sequence especially). Check that scene and compare (and I will too later today). My sound setup isn't cool enough to do any sort of real comparison there (and I'm not an audiophile anyhow).
Haven't seen the whole thing, but I'd just like to verify that it's working. Ya did good kid, ya did good. ;)
I'd also like to see removal of the "electricity effect" from the interrogation droid needle. That always looked a little silly to me, too much like a mini-lightsaber. Better to keep a wicked looking needle with some truth serum or unknown pain enhancing drug in it.
If there were some way to restore the "deleted scenes" from the original Star Wars to some semblance of quality, those getting inserted (Tosche station, treadwell, etc) would be awesome. But EVEN IF they can only be restored so so, I think having the option to watch them interspersed back into the film (the way they would have been in the shooting script) would just be too cool.
I wouldn't mind even seeing the color corrected Jabba scene if it removed the "tail stepping" and modified his face to look more like ROTJ (the above pic is awesome!)... Boba Fett doesn't have to be removed, but cutting his "mugging for the camera" (just keep his head straight forward as he walks past) would improve the scene.
So anybody working on further restoration of these scenes? (Yes, I'm working on getting Deleted Magic:R).
Incidentally, I have now seen the (dialog-less) additional droid scene (with Luke & Biggs in the background). Could this one be added to a future version of the "The Lost Scenes"? The quality looks excellent.
When I tested a recent burn of the DVD5 version in my Playstation 2 ("fat" model) it came up with green dots all over the menus... but the video played fine (the "green dot madness" distortion also appeared on Adywan's "Empire Strikes Back Theatrical Restoration" disc).
Get well soon, David
Sorry if this has been covered, but out of curiosity, what does the sample show? (I don't have any bd equipment, but I may know someone who does)
Well for years, ROTJ (the first one I ever saw, in theaters, of course), WAS Star Wars for me. It was a simple story about some a group of friends looked out for each other during this galactic civil war. Luke is this thoughtful young Jedi coming to terms with the fact that his father is an evil Lord, and having courage to face the Emperor even though everybody else is giving him different advice (kill Vader, he's past saving). Leia is his sister. Han Solo got himself in trouble and doesn't understand what's going on... he's the eternal skeptic until the end. Lando isn't much good on the ground, but he's a great pilot. Luke is mad at Obi-Wan for saying Vader killed his father instead of telling him the truth. Anakin was once a good man. The Ewoks are primitive but their superstition is turned to the good of the rebels.
The Emperor STEALS THE FRICKING SHOW every time he's on screen. He's either sinister and slow like some creepy old man, or he's cackling like a maniac with those weird reptilian eyes. He's got the force too, whoa! So many quotable lines from this guy... it's no wonder Lucas decided to make the Prequels about him. Too bad he wasn't quite so entertaining there (especially since everyone around him acted like an idiot).
It seemed like a pretty self contained story to me back then. I knew there were other movies, but I hasn't seen them. I saw Star Wars next and Empire last. For me, it was all about the monsters and aliens back then.
I never heard that people hated the ewoks until I was a teenager. For me, I thought Yoda was more annoying in ESB (seriously), and C3PO was annoying in ESB. Though as I got older I saw the Yoda stuff as funny. The Gungan stuff in Episode I was far, far worse (at least people told him to shut up!).
To me as a kid what struck me about the Ewoks was not "boy these Imperial troops suck, it's so unfair that they go out this lame way," rather it was "boy the Ewoks have weak weapons but they're really smart and creative, which makes up for it." I remember how they tried all those tricks to take down a walker (ropes, rocks, glider, etc) which didn't work, so they had to resort to the giant logs, and then Chewie helped them steal a walker. Then you see an Ewok with a blaster. It's like they're adapting and learning. That was cool to me as a kid. I never thought of them as teddys, ironically. When I first saw the Jawas I wondered if they were related (I still maintain this theory... just listen, they have the same battle cry!).
The saber battle is shorter than in ESB, but man... you can sense the rage in Luke as he just WAILS away at Vader, no finesse, just sheer hatred... like how dare you say that about my sister, bam. Vader was so evil and suddenly even he is taken by surprise. Though when Vader puts up one hand at the end it's so pathetic, like he's using his last ounce of strength just to put up a token effort. Was that him or just his robotic hand obeying its programming? Anyway. I also love the solid WHAM sounds the sabers make when they hit, they sound so HEAVY and powerful. In the other movies they don't sound so amazing. The prequel sabers sounded like whiffle bats in comparison. You feel like getting hit by one of these things would utterly destroy you (too bad earlier in the movie it just seems to burn right through you with no dismemberment). Was Luke's saber too sharp or not sharp enough?
LOVED the space battle. Yes, ANH has the suspense and individual dog fighting. ROTJ has the sheer spectacle... and yet you can follow it (unlike say the Prequel fights, which are just a mess of images, or else they have to stop everything to focus on one pilot, usually leaving his ship to do something else). I liked the sense that the Empire knew they were just toying with the Rebels. I loved Jabba, his booming voice especially. He and his crew were just scum, they didn't care as long as they could have a drink and a smoke while watching somebody get killed by some big monster. I was always shocked as a kid that even the Gammorean guard who falls into the pit with Luke gets jeered at, like they don't care about even their own guys. Despite all that, I was sad when Jabba died. Blowing up the sail barge seemed like overkill. Wasn't everybody dead by then? I guess that's how you finish off gangsters, leave no trace!
So I think it depends upon how you first experienced them. I wasn't born early enough to have seen the other two in theaters, though I do remember a few minutes of ANH (my dad reading me the Greedo subtitles in the theater) so I'm thinking I probably saw it at some triple bill or something (and missed ESB completely for dinner or something). I didn't see ESB until I was in grade school on video (wow, this new fangled VHS!).
Over time I came to appreciate the others, especially ANH, which for me as a kid was the "most boring" because it took forever to get started.
By the time the Special Editions rolled around, I still didn't know ANH well enough yet to notice all the changes (I blinked and missed it when Greedo shot first, noticing the crowd gasping more than anything). It was really the special editions and all the analysis that got me to really "know" the films more. So ironically, it was the ruination of the films that made me really appreciate the minor details. But ROTJ is still my favorite, even if the characters are "enriched" now. Still, not knowing the other movies erased some of the conflicts in the storyline for me. Vader was always Luke's father, and Leia was always his sister. Luke was always a Jedi, and Obi-Wan always lied to Luke to try to achieve the greater purpose for the galaxy (Luke would never have tried to kill his own father). There was enough suggested by this movie that I could fill in the blanks in my mind. Yoda was old and dying now, but he trained up Luke before that (the student was returning to his old teacher), and so forth. Obi-Wan was a ghost, so I presumed he'd died already, like Yoda (until I eventually saw the scene of Vader killing him and figured out the rest).
ROTJ was a big part of my childhood, now that I think about it. I view it differently than I did then, but I can still recall a lot of what I felt in those days watching it, over and over and over...
Someone apologized to me on the internet... wow.
I'm speechless.
No prob. ;)
Hope that helps a little... 'n' stuff
bkev said:
Ric Olie voice: Kurgan is making his usual demands for a torrent, is all.
Demand... DEMAND?!!!!??!!!
Usual? ME???? THAT'S CRAZY!!!
That's ALL??? I'll show you what's all, Mister...
Time to send you to the funny farm, sir, because there's no demand HERE. If other people gently imply that they might like to see it someplace someday, that's cool, right? :P
Ric Ollie: Kurgan is being sarcastic!
The torrent has been up for awhile, it just needs seeders. That's how it works.
You're only allowed to make fun of me if you have already downloaded, watched, and thrown the disc out your window already. ;)
I hope a lot of people will be seeding this... there's already a lot of interest!
I'm interested in seeing some color corrected AVCHD's of the classic trilogy and Prequels...
Can someone send me a PM with the links? (rs/mu or t0rrents only please)
Looks as if I have run out of options... I don't think any libraries are offering the 2001 TV recording of the audio described Episode I.
The two copies of the 1995 audio described Star Wars labeled "DVS Audio" (pan 'n' scan, US) would be no different than a recording I already have. I'd like to see it, but it's checked out currently, and I have a feeling that unless they put the audio on a seperate SAP track (I have one vcr capable of producing SAP), it's been mislabeled and is just the regular tape.
So if anyone else can help... if anyone knows of somebody who recorded it back when it was shown on TV... Episode I and possibly Episode II may be the last "holy grails" of the star wars audio description universe.
So, Episode I (and probably II) are broadcasts and we'll need somebody's private recording of it.
Here is the info on the VHS tape if anyone is curious about it (though we already have the audio from it):
Star wars [videorecording] [Audio described ed.]1 videocassette (124 min.) : sd., col. ; 1/2 in.[New York, NY] : CBS Fox Video : [Boston, MA : DVS Home Video, c1995].
A false Star Wars movie memory from me:
I always recalled in RoTJ since I was a kid that after the Ewok glider gets shot down that you see a shot of the Ewoks watching from the trees and then you see the AT-ST stomp on and smashing (walking over) the fallen glider.
Once I got the DVD I realized we never actually see this happen, though its pretty clearly implied by the editing. Glider falls... we see the ewok reaction shot and a close up of the fallen glider and then we see the walking legs. No actual smashing going on (and no, as a kid I didn't cover my eyes!). Obviously my imagination filled it in, though!
Less of a false memory and just forgetting, my younger brother and I listened to the ROTJ storybook & record so much (before we had a recording of the actual movie), we forgot that many of the lines in it are different from the film.
Mielr said:
Since I first saw the film in '82, I've always remembered seeing a string of spit between Han and Leia's lips as they are pulled away from each other in the carbon freeze kissing scene. I've looked for it in every video incarnation I've ever owned, and have not seen it since!
The only time I've ever seen such a thing in a movie is when Connor MacLeod is kissing his wife in the original "Highlander."
Trust me, it is possible to make such confusions (even when you're not a little kid). I saw "Far and Away" once and for some reason remembered the main character being played by Mel Gibson. It was actually Tom Cruise.
A (not much younger than me) friend of mine confused Sam Neil with Liam Neeson.
Regarding "enhancement" suggestions to Yoda:
Yoda blinking isn't a new thing... he actually blinks in the original versions of ESB and ROTJ.
Adding extra blinking to Yoda might also backfire... I think his not blinking excessively adds to his character's charisma (and I don't blink!) and zaniness.
Besides, a little woodland creature staring up at you and blinking while mugging for the camera is such a cliche.
Frankly, Yoda is probably the Muppet that needs the least amount of enhancements.
If you were going to attempt to "fix" anything about him it would be his motion when he's "walking" with his cane upon his first meeting with Luke. That looks really muppet-ish and fake. And maybe for a second while he's doing the "mine mine" thing it breaks the illusion slightly.
ROTJ Specifically:
I haven't looked at it frame by frame, but I'm told the shot of Luke flipping in the Death Star is an obvious stunt double with different colored hair than Mark Hamill.
When Vader has his hand cut off, at a certain point (I forget where) I remember thinking it looks really obvious that he's got a longer arm to create the illusion of a "stump." Perhaps that could be fixed somehow.
If you're going to kill off some major character in ROTJ, please let it be Jar Jar Binks. ;)
