Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda

Here's the review I posted on Amazon:

In 1978, Star Wars was nominated for 10 academy awards (including best picture, best screenplay, best supporting actor, etc.) ultimately winning 7 including awards for editing, sound mixing, and special effects. The AFI lists "Star Wars" as #15 on its list of all time greatest films. Make no mistake, this isn't just a fun romp, it is a very significant and important film.

Understand that the version in this box set is NOT that version, but a version that has been largely painted over with 21st century computer graphics, does NOT include the academy-award-winning sound mix, and with many different and more recent editing decisions. On this version, the effects and edits you see may be from 1977, or they might be from 1997, or maybe 2004, or maybe 2011... they might be the original academy-award-winning animatronics of Stears Dykstra, Edlund, and McCune that have never been equaled, or they might have been replaced by dated-looking 1990s computer-graphics, or they might be new things that were thrown in a couple of months ago. The choice of scenes and editing of those scenes might be the academy-awarding winning ones made by Paul Hirsch and Marcia Lucas, or they might be newer ones made by people who are preparing the movie for future 3D-a-rama. The glorious academy-award-winning sound mix by MacDougall, West, Minkler and Ballhas remains unavailable and has been replaced here by a completely different, over-compressed one that is unlikely to have won an academy award in 1978, let alone today, and wherein the young remixer even inserted his own voice.

In short, this release not only fails utterly to preserve a major artifact of our cinematic heritage, it goes further in that its producer has made it clear that he will never allow that seminal work to be accurately preserved. This is not simply a bad product, it is a serious blow to art history and to our popular cultural heritage.

SpenceEdit said:

I think you've convinced me. I don't have a preorder so I'm going to wait for a used copy. I will have my week old cake and eat it too.

This has been my plan.  I can definitely wait to own this one, so someday when a cheap copy pops up in the goodwill bin I may buy it then.  That's what I did with the DVD versions.

Thanks a lot for posting those.  Is this the complete film or selected scenes?  If it's the complete film, the soundtrack might be interesting.

You might want to browse some of the earlier threads from a year or so ago.

Asaki said:

I don't know why the 80s crawl bothers so many people. I know it's about preservation, but every time I see it without the "New Hope", it always looks so naked to me (and both crawls are proper theatrical crawls, anyway).  Different strokes, I suppose.

 

The 1977 movie that changed everything was called "Star Wars".  That's the movie and the original theatrical concept.  It wasn't until 3 years later that "episode 4" got tacked on and we were told that the movie was really just a piece of a saga. I remember the first time I saw that Ep.IV and I thought, wtf? To many of us that spent those 3 years immersed in "Star Wars" and were so changed by it, it wasn't just episode 4 of a series... it was and will always be "Star Wars", the event of its decade! (Watergate notwithstanding)

SpenceEdit said:

I'm already pre-emptively hiding from this, but are any of these changes really THAT bad?

There is nothing wrong with any of the changes.... EXCEPT that he is doing them in the context of there being no decent release of the theatrical versions. The academy-award-winning editing and special effects are being replaced by CGI 30+ years later, which is a travesty of destruction of a major artistic/cultural and historical icon.  If he would also restore the theatrical version, I'd have no complaints if he wants to make a "better" version too.

georgec said:

 interesting to wonder what is truly going on in Georgie boy's head (other than wads of cash).

Quite simple, actually:  huge ego without capacity for introspection.

R2D2 said:

How can this release be of excellent A/V quality if the video is not a bit different than the 2004 hd master?

Because for most people it will be a bump in video quality...it's the first official release in HD that people can go out and buy.  So even though the master is the same, the BD encoding will be noticeably sharper on large screens.  We're spoiled here at OT.com because we are used to seeing the OT in hi-def, so to us it's no improvement. That's probably why a lot of people will buy it anyways... they simply don't know there is an HD version floating out there that doesn't have crap in it.

Unfortunately, I think most people will get this because they think it's the only HD version of Star Wars out there.  Most just don't know about Harmy's.

How exactly do we know that this is what will be on the blu rays?  Aren't there still a couple of weeks before they land in the stores?

The whole scene with the emperor/Luke/Vader was very strong as it was BECAUSE Vader was silent.  Just the way he was standing there looking at what was happening was extremely powerful - there was more expression in his silent sadness than by adding juvenile dialogue.  George simply doesn't understand the less-is-more concept; he believes that more is always better. Notice that he has never removed anything from his movies, he always adds more and more doo-dads.

Gaffer Tape said:

I hate to say it, but, in all seriousness, I think LucasFilm does know its consumer base.  Granted, it's also responsible for creating this consumer base, so it's a vicious circle... but in the home video industry, the goal is to persuade consumers to buy what they've already bought before.  And for a fanbase that's largely as crazy as George, they actually get off on buying the movies repeatedly just to see what batshit insane, completely pointless changes have happened this time!  I mean, I can just imagine the nerds sitting around now, scruitinizing pictures going, "Ooooooh, look at those rocks around R2 now!  That's new!"

Yeah, you're probably right.  Sure, we here are laughing (and crying) at the changes, but I dare not visit TFN, BR.com or SW.com, because I imagine in more populous places like those, everyone is rebounding off the walls with glee over all the "improvements".  Next they'll be scoffing at us for not appreciating all the great work that went into these disks.  I really don't care to witness that, and am just grateful to be here and that this tiny den of sanity exists.

Our best hope is that some of GL's peers in the movie industry will start openly criticizing what he's doing... then the throngs of sheep might start bending back in the right direction.  Until then, I agree that there is no point in carrying any illusions that the general public will have the slightest appreciation of what is going on.

Like I said, LFL clearly views SW not as a classic movie, but as a little sandbox they get to play in once every few years.

Maybe as the Death Star explodes, Michael can add an echo-y "noooo!!!" in the background (in both SW and ROTJ).  And the CGI folks could add an angry-looking giant CGI force ghost of Hayden's face filling the screen, leering right at us.  That would be cool.

You left off the Holiday Special!  To me it's more canon than the PT.  I just can't imagine a universe without Itchy!!!

LexX said:

Could you post some pics?? LOL

See post #305... they wouldn't be any different than those.  I just have the whole first reel now.

SilverWook said:

That's really disturbing if they've banned your IP for no apparent reason. Have you tried looking at it from another location, like a starbucks?

Just tried it from work... I'm not banned from there.

doubleofive said:

That "No" isn't true. It's impossible. You'd think if Lucas always intended Vader to say "no" HE WOULD HAVE HAD HIM DO IT BEFORE NOW.

Indeed, the other changes have allegedly been about George not having the technology previously to realize his vision.  Getting Vader to say "nooo" doesn't require any technology that wasn't available in 1977.  Or 1927 for that matter.

For the dragon yell, they might as well have just used the Howard Dean yell.

adywan said:

If you think that is bad, just wait until you hear this:

http://bayfiles.com/file/RTz/P45etn/NooooNoooo.mp3

And we'll get to hear how this helps tie the saga together.

Krycek87 said:

Someone posted a sample of the new Krayyt Dragon sound.

http://bayfiles.com/file/RQD/3axPN7/KrayytDragon.mp3

Is this one of those instances where Matthew Wood got all tingly just knowing what's "right" for SW?  If it's real, it's a pretty hilarious change.  I mean, if it's going to sound like a person, it should at least sound like a 65-year-old British man rather than a 25-year-old sound tech.

Just received Adywan's compete color adjustments for reel 1 and I'm very happy with them.  So, now on to reel 2 (there are three reels).

Uncanny Antman said:

My only point was that people seemed quick to jump on the new Wicket eyes, but when Ady does it (or Yoda gets replaced wholesale) it's mostly embraced.

This discussion came up a couple of months ago, and led to the "preservations" thread being placed higher up in the forum, above the "fan edits" thread:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Preservation-should-be-listed-first-in-group/topic/12554/

TV's Frink said:

Are you almost done with this mouse gag?

Ah, so now I know the source of all the mouse droppings!

I'm amazed at how much work a few people there are putting into the site, only to ban everyone.  I'm involved in an NSF-funded project, part of which is attempting to get a forum going, and it's not easy to catch that critical mass (kudos to OT.com!)... the last thing we'd consider doing is ban someone just because they also like something else.