I would never have known about this if I hadn’t read this thread. Wild how much these movies have been tinkered with over the years.
I don’t remember being confused by the original at all, at 10 years old. You don’t need to show every last bit of exposition if it’s obvious that Vader got to his Star Destroyer using his shuttle that was brought to him.
The new dialogue really feels like a studio note to explain to the audience what is happening. It’s weird that it came from Lucas and 17 years after-the-fact.
Seven years is plenty of time for a first-time viewer to become a devoted fan, so yes. Also interesting that it’s the one version never to be released on DVD.
That was me. Saw the movies for the first time when I was 7 in 1997 and grew up with the SEs. Most of the 2004 changes rubbed me the wrong way.
I bought those 2006 DVDs but it was depressing how little effort was put into the release.
TROS is just such a bummer. it’s such a depressing end to the Skywalker family.
This was a great-looking boxset and I still own it.
Not sure if I’m the right to person to answer this question because I saw the 1997 Special Editions way before I ever saw the original cuts but I do prefer many of the VFX touch-ups and Victory Celebration at the end of ROTJ does more for me than yub-nub.
Hi everyone!
As the title suggests this is an HD reconstruction of the 1997 version of ROTJ. This is a project I’ve been intending to do for a while now and I finally have something that I can call watchable. Since there are two very well made reconstructions of the 97 versions of ANH and ESB (thanks to Harmy, Team Blu, and Adywan) I figured ROTJ needed a reconstruction done in some capacity!
**V3 update: V3 is now live, and is finally exactly how I like it, thanks to me switching to Davinci Resolve. Regrained, better color, and video synced up to the audio down to the last frame (v2 seemed to always be slightly out of sync). The “Return of the Jedi Visual Comparison” was used, so there are no post-97 changes in this version at all!
I used 5 sources for this project (updated for v3):
- 2019 Special Edition Blu Ray
- Max DNR version of 4k83 (to undo post 1997 changes)
- ROTJ LD upscale and multi-capture merge (thanks ZigZig and Rancor022/DarthPyro!)
- 2004 HDTV broadcast provided by schorman (for opening logos)
- althor’s LD capture (for reference and DTS audio, LD audio, subtitles, and chapters)
Extra things done:
*added a 35mm grain palette over 2019 BD, 2004 HDTV, and LD footage to blend in better with 4k83 footage
*color corrected a handful of 4k83 clips to blend in with surrounding scenes
*I did leave the color of the 2019 BD alone since it appears that they did use the 1997 versions as a color reference.Video dimensions: 1920x1080p (cropped to Disney’s 2.39 aspect ratio), 23.976fps
File Size: 19.53gb mkvPM me for a link and share some feedback here if you’d like. Thanks!
I highly doubt this person gives links anymore but if you want to see this film’s 1997 Special Edition like it was in theatres in 1997, check my preservation of that. The films are all available.
Links are available to both of ImBateman’s ‘1997 Special Edition HD Reconstructions’ - ESB and ROTJ in here:-
📍 250+ available Original Trilogy Preservations - some from a long time ago . . . . 📍
^ along with a number of other 1997 Special Edition preservation and reconstruction projects.
Also, it is poor form to come into someone else’s project thread - then incorrectly claim that it is no longer available - and then promote your own project.
Sorry about that mate. I’m new to these editions and just came across them. Not trying to take away credit from the original creator at all.
Are there any instructions to how to download it? I’m looking through the link you provided but I only see it looping back to the thread where he says you can PM him for the link.
No worries, mate.
As you are new around here - welcome to the OT 👍 - and you may want to give these a read through…
^ Note: New members cannot start PMs in their first 7 days here - though can view & reply to PMs they receive from other members.
Also: ATTENTION NEW MEMBERS: “Link begging” posts will be deleted without notice - in Announcements
Along with…
❕ Welcome to the OriginalTrilogy.com | Introduce yourself in here | Useful info within ❕ | About | Help | Announcements
❕ ‘How Do I Do This?’ on the OriginalTrilogy.com; some info & answers + member FAQs ❕ | Site Rules | Fan Project Rules
Re acquiring any of the projects in the ‘250+ preservation projects’ thread linked above…
If anyone would like links to any of the available Original Trilogy preservations listed in here… send me a PM - thank you. 👍
Note: You must be an active/contributing member of the site; someone with 30+ posts - without including any ‘link request’ posts. Good luck with it. 👍
Thank you for this. I actually registered like 10 years ago but remained a lurker because it seemed like MySpleen was the only place to acquire any of these preservations/restorations and I never had much to add to the discussion as a result.
So I take it it’s worth upgrading from 2.5 to 3.0 (or is it 3.1 already?)?
So I tried out watching Rogue One immediately after the show. I know I said it improves it before and it does, but it had strange results.
The first half of Rogue One, which I think is weak, is greatly improved. Knowing Cassian, K2, Saw, Krennic, etc. helps it flow very naturally and helps you to care a lot more about what’s going on. Same with the rebels generally. Since the pace of the show is so slow, Rogue One, which normally feels slow early on, feels much faster by comparison. Almost too fast. Cassian almost rises to the level of secondary protagonist because you know him so well by this point. When he decides not to snipe Galen Erso it’s much more meaningful. You know his modus operandi under Luthen was to gun down anyone who could potentially be a problem, and you see that at the beginning of the movie with his contact on Kafrene. The theme toward the end of the show where he starts to embrace the Force a little bit carries through pretty well.
The part where he tells Chirrut that “this is a first for me” when he’s in Saw’s jail is hilarious because they either forgot about it or he’s lying, given that there’s an entire arc in the show about him escaping a hell prison.
There’s also an interesting dynamic with Krennic’s character. We saw him as the intimidating upper manager figure in the show, but when we see him next to Tarkin and Vader he’s in the junior leagues. There’s a feeling that everything has gone up a level and there’s a natural progression from spies running around to open conventional war.
Then the other half of the movie, which people generally see as much stronger because it has most of the action and the big battle, actually gets weaker. The idea that Jyn steps up and becomes a leader figure right away looks even more absurd because we’ve just seen how paranoid and distrustful the rebel command is and how long it’s taken them to trust Cassian. There’s some of that discussion in the council with some of the worst senators ever but it’s still odd. Then they naturally defer to her to give an inspirational speech to the soldiers on the landing craft, when Melshi is clearly their real leader. The way she suddenly becomes the most important figure in the universe with the ability to single-handedly take out a dozen stormtroopers in melee comes across as more Mary Sue-ish next to the more grounded feeling of the show where everyone receives a lot more development. Baze and Chirrut similarly feel a little more out of place.
The ending feels even more abrupt. There’s no real breather where you take in that everyone died, it just slams right into CGI Leia and credits with little explanation. This was more understandable when this was just a fan film prequel for the original movie but now it feels almost insulting, for lack of a better word.
I have yet to re-watch Rogue One now that Andor is over but you bring up some points that will probably ring true for me as well.
One of the most hilarious scenes to me is when the inquisitors chastise Reva for harshly interrogating the citizens of Tatooine. Did they forget that they’re evil? For Vader, their boss, that’s a Tuesday when he’s in a good mood (though obviously without the yelling and overly wordy speech).
Haha. Did not even think of that.
I honestly don’t understand how it looked as low budget as it did at times. The first fight between Obi-Wan and Vader in that quarry literally looked like a fan film. Like, how do you get Ewan McGregor back and not give this project all you’ve got? If they could do it for Andor they could have done it for this.
Also, while we all know that the prequels and the OT don’t line up perfectly, the events of this show take it way too far. Leia having a whole adventure with Obi-Wan as a kid is ridiculous. In ANH she only knows Obi-Wan by name and reputation. She’s really not upset at his death in ANH because she never knew him.
And Obi-Wan fighting Vader between the PT and OT makes Vader’s line about only having been a pupil when they last saw each other even more ridiculous. I guess you could say that it never made sense in light of the fact that in the PT Anakin already saw himself as a master, and in many ways, superior to Obi-Wan but still.
This show needed to have way smaller stakes. Obi-Wan having to find his faith again was a good angle to take and it humanized him a lot. Throwing Vader in there was a total overkill. If they had to have a big villain then it should have been Maul but Rebels prevented them from doing that. And if anybody had to have a duel with Vader then it should have been Ahsoka but again, Rebels already did that as well.
I’m not convinced this movie is ever coming out.
This goes for basically every Star Wars project nowadays. It’s amazing how they go on stage with stars and directors to announce these films and even that doesn’t mean anything.
This is almost as specific as this haha:
To answer the question in the OP, I think I still haven’t fully come to terms with how the ST turned out. I was so excited before TFA and it didn’t disappoint. It was the movie I never thought I would see and I couldn’t wait for more. But TLJ and Carrie Fisher’s death pretty much wrecked me and TROS may very well be the biggest film-going disappointment of my life. I’m not going to regurgitate points that have already been brought up a million times but the sequel trilogy kind of turns the whole saga into one giant tragedy. It all ends up feeling so nihilistic and pointless and that’s not what I want Star Wars to be but it is impossible to undo it now. Thinking about the ST mostly just makes me sad. I haven’t re-watched any of the ST since 2019. Maybe a fanny and sad comment coming from a 35-year-old-man but that’s how I feel about it.
Oh man, this brings back some memories. Watching this on YT as a teenage was an experience onto itself.
I thought that too except about Phantom Menace until i saw the awful redone colors and DNR on Attack of the Clones, a digitally shot movie. The 4K is a mess. The 2011 blu has more detail in places. Lucasfilm keeps making these ridiculous mistakes with releases going back to 2004.
The 4K of Phantom Menace looks waxy and smeary in places like a 1080P HDCam and not a movie shot on 35mm motion picture film.
Wow. So the 2011 Blu-ray release is actually preferable to the ¤k release when it comes TPM and AOTC?
Wow, the TESB and RoTJ special editions look amazing.
Finally joined. Haven't been to these parts for a while but I decided to once again google for the 1997 special editions and it seems that they're being worked on over here. I must say that I'm excited because those are the versions I grew up with (I also enjoy the theatrical versions, the 2004 special editions and the Blu-ray versions I don't really care about).