SilverWook

Third revision:

Dear Disney and Lucasfilm,

Today is the 40th anniversary of Star Wars, the film that started it all. Yet, where is that film? No, not the special editon, the original 1977 film. The one we grew up with. The one we saw more times than any other film before or since. The film that changed our lives forever.

Whether young or old, whether we saw it in a theater or on home video, it prompted a desire in some of us to make movies or tell stories of our own. George Lucas lit a spark that remains within us today.

One thing we all share are the memories of where and with whom we saw Star Wars, and even of shooting down imaginary TIE fighters out the back window of the car on the way home. For others, it was a brightly shining light in the middle of a turbulent childhood. If Luke and his friends could triumph over their trials, maybe we could too.

All these years later, we would love to revisit the Original Trilogy that we remember, to recapture those memories of a long time ago, in a movie theater or living room far far away. Those of us with families want to be able to show our kids exactly what we saw when we were their age and relive it with them. It should be such a simple thing to do.

Only it isn’t.

We’re limited in our choices to outdated video formats that are increasingly difficult to obtain and inch closer to extinction each year. And the now out of print bonus DVDs from 2006, which utilize ancient video transfers from 1993, are hardly better, if one can find them at all.

None of us ever imagined as kids that these historic versions might fade from memory, ultimately, disappearing from the collective consciousness altogether. To the point where CGI scenes created in 1997 are now mistaken for the innovative groundbreaking FX technology of the 1970’s. Film history is being obscured, if not rewritten. We live in an era in which even “bad” movies are respected enough to be meticulously restored and made publically available. Shouldn’t a movie as loved and as culturally significant as Star Wars deserve the same treatment in it’s original form?

We don’t bemoan the Special Edition’s existence. It simply isn’t the version of the trilogy we fell in love with. The Original Original Trilogy, or OOT, deserves to be seen in the absolute best quality afforded by modern cinema and 21st-century home video formats so that it can be loved again by all.

There is room for all versions of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of The Jedi to coexist. And we want to give you our money for them; we really do! Please give us that opportunity. At least give us hope that we will be able to do so soon. Some of us aren’t getting any younger! That is all we ask.

Sincerely yours,
The Staff and Members of Originaltrilogy.com

It’s has been previously stated by Robert Harris that any work needed to be done would be peanuts. Disney puts out obscure titles via their movie club, and other studios put out similar titles via Made On Demand. OOT sales would eclipse sales figures of any of those films by a mile.
Something like Manos got nearly $50k put up by fans. Can you imagine what an OOT kickstarter would do?

Someone has to make a fake poster for that.

Seems like some senators are more interested in grilling Sally Yates over her opposition to Trumpy’s travel ban order than the stuff they’re supposed to be talking about today. A–holes.

Please tell me they didn’t take some roadkill deer and glue eyes and teeth to it’s rump.

Even Mark’s expression is like “What the hell is that?”

One wonders why Fox simply didn’t put the GOUT version in there. That 75th anniversary set was so horrifyingly expensive, I doubt it sold very well. To make matters worse, the 1933 Fox musical Cavalcade (which won best picture) was only available in that set at the time. Many an old movie buff was ticked off at that decision.

JohnStewart said:

ahughes03 said:

GhormleyPablo said:

I need an invite to myspleen (?). Is there anything special I need to do to get an invite?

There’s a separate forum post for invite requests. Since you’re new, here’s a link to the invite request post.

Good luck!

Better off just buying them on the usual auction site. Especially for those of us that no longer have optical drives in our systems to burn things.

Oh the hell no.
http://originaltrilogy.com/announcement/Fan-edit-preservation-forum-rules-and-FAQ/id/5950

captainsolo said:

I finally finished TOS. At first the overbearing color was weird but I got used to it. Now I quite like it-particularly since eitnlooks amazing on my hdcrt. But every female crew member always having to wear miniskirts is really silly.

So I now get all the season three hate. No one episode is really bad but s3 is endless great or decent ideas that are either never developed fully or developed at all. However I will say that at time I did have this sense in later season 2 episodes.

But I did an actual spit take when I came across SPACE HIPPIES. That was hysterical.

My thoughts are that season 1 is the best overall with some episodes from season 2 roped in. I’ve now started the animated series which is far better than I expected for a 70’s filmation show.

Is the alternate Where No Man Has Gone Before a completely different edit or just slightly different?

Space hippies were everywhere in the late 60’s. Even Lost In Space had to deal with them. 😉

The alternate WNMHGB is different in there’s some additional footage, and what is commonly referred to as A Quinn/Martin Production style presentation, which was very common for one hour dramatic shows well into the 70’s.
https://youtu.be/Z68ixSPjoTo

Anything is possible. Would 4 track have been mentioned in newspaper ads the way 6 track Dolby was?

What the heck is a PCI standard host CPU bridge, and why would Windows 7 suddenly install it when I booted up this morning?

You’re insulting a close personal friend of mine! You don’t want to rile a bunny with a blaster! 😉

SwissArmyTin did a quick mockup. This is still the un-revised text.

Wazzles said:

One thing I would change about the letter would be to call it the Original Unaltered Trilogy, as Original Original Trilogy sounds slightly condescending.

Good point.
Release the OUT! 😉

I think you can argue THX had a cult film status. At least two music videos have been inspired by it. Queen did one in the 80’s and a Hip Hop duo did their own homage in the 90’s.
The angry letters I saw printed in Cinefantastique magazine from readers who didn’t like Star Wars when it came out, wondered how such a film could even be made by the same man who made THX. 😉

dahmage said:

Mocata said:

It might be worth updating your front page to show that the letter isn’t from a “dead” site. The old news from 2006 is also pretty disheartening at this stage.

Very much. Yes. This.

Jay is currently the only one with the power to do that. The plan was to put the new open letter up there though.

Fang Zei said:

Z6PO said:

Fang Zei said:

The exploitation of our nostalgia to sell the new movies and shows is a valid criticism. Touché, SilverWook.

But for me it goes even deeper. The Exorcist and Apocalypse Now were both revised and yet we can still view all versions in modern quality. Neither “Episode IV: A New Hope” nor its 1997 special edition won six academy awards in 1978, Star Wars did.

All versions of Close encounters of the third kind, all versions of Blade Runner… (and what about THX1138? I know it’s not Lucasfilm, but still…)

I’ve brought up CE3K/BR ad nauseum and those other examples just popped into my head.

I’d love it if Warner restored the '71 and '77 versions of THX-1138. Back when the dvd came out in 2004 my roommate picked up the single-disc sku out of curiosity (y’know, the one that had much crazier cover art for some reason?) and was watching it on his computer with headphones. I remember him saying that the cgi wasn’t nearly as jarring in this as it was in Star Wars. So yeah, anecdotal evidence and all, but the cgi being “not as jarring” kinda hurts the chances that anyone would care to see the original version. Not being nearly as well known a movie as American Graffiti is another thing going against it. Graffiti, meanwhile, hasn’t been extensively altered with cgi, so most people probably don’t know it’s not the same version that came out in '73.

Star Wars fulfills both criteria. It’s insanely well known and has been extensively/obviously altered.

Has your friend ever seen the original version of THX? The CGI is jarring as hell to me. 😉

As was pointing out prequel generated plot holes. 😉

Don’t spam the boards.

See my post above. 😉

How did they get Frink’s version before it’s even finished? 😉

Whoosh!

The TIE fighter bit is something I actually did the night I first saw the movie. 😃

Since Disney is often accused of mining nostalgia with the new films, we can’t do the same? 😉

“These original versions were celebrated and enjoyed around the world for 20 years, and not a prematurely firing Greedo or scene blocking Ronto in sight.”

Sorry I was alive back then. However, I take no responsibility for the 70’s as a whole. Even I thought Pet Rocks and Mood Rings were silly. 😉

If you look several posts back, we are going to try and include the new kids.