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To Lucasfilm, bringing back the original versions would be like bringing back a discontinued product. Never releasing the movies makes sense only to the people running Lucasfilm, as those people probably don’t behave like the rest of humanity.
IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer said:
The general public knows that films were altered. Han Shot First and all that. Hayden in Jedi is still being booed at showings of the film.
It seems the PT generation is always trying to discredit the OOT.
Then why has Disney not released the original version?
Also most PT fans don’t like the special edition either!
The PT fans here don’t like any version of the OT.
Why is that? They were altered a second time in 2004 solely to pander to them.
Doesn’t matter; in 2026 we’ll still be in the same rut as we were in 2006, in terms of the OT being unavailable.
IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer said:
I look at it the same way young George Lucas looked at it:
A copyright is held in trust by its owner until it ultimately reverts to public domain. American works of art belong to the American public; they are part of our cultural history.
People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of
power are barbarians, and if the laws of the United States continue to condone this behavior, history will surely classify us as a barbaric society.…
It will soon be possible to create a new “original” negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires. The copyright holders, so far, have not been completely diligent in preserving the original negatives of films they control. In order to reconstruct old negatives, many archivists have had to go to Eastern bloc countries where American films have been better preserved.
In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.
…
The public’s interest is ultimately dominant over all other interests. And the proof of that is that even a copyright law only permits the creators and their estate a limited amount of time to enjoy the economic fruits of that work.
…
Attention should be paid to this question of our soul, and not simply to accounting procedures. Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself.The original Star Wars trilogy is an incredibly important part of cinematic history and it most certainly deserves to be preserved in its original form. To alter the films and then intentionally suppress them in their original form is not only selfish but an insult to the many, many craftsman that all worked hard to create these treasured pieces of history. They’re what won all of those Academy Awards, not the Special Editions. The SEs have their place but even more so do the original theatrical versions.
And yet, the SE will be the only versions the public will be allowed to see for decades to come.
What an unjust and cruel world. No other film is treated like this. Nor is any other film more important to cinema.
Which REALLY confused me! Until I realized that perhaps Disney was never pandering to original OT fanboys(the type that built this site for instance) but rather the general public who did not care for the PT.
After all most people don’t care for the PT and therefor Disney tried to be as retro as possible(with the exception of Kylo Rens crossguard lightsaber and the brief mentions of clones). However while OT fanboys share similar opinions about the PT as the general public, the general public is probably not so concerned with the original version of SW as the hardcore SW fans are.
The SE has existed for decades now. There are people who were too young or weren’t even born when they came out, who are now late teens/ adults. We are seeing a whole generation that is unfamiliar with the REAL versions of the OT, and the trend is irreversible.
All thanks to a mentally insane human being who didn’t even create most of the things that made SW and Empire great.
I know. It’s a completely sensible thing to ask for the original versions. But George Lucas is not a rational person, and Disney has chosen the SE as the official version, therefore continuing the miserable rut we are in. Do you think Disney is going to backpedal and give us the originals like we have asked for nearly three decades? They still haven’t even released the uncensored version of Fantasia after 75 years, so chances are nil.
I look at it the same way young George Lucas looked at it:
A copyright is held in trust by its owner until it ultimately reverts to public domain. American works of art belong to the American public; they are part of our cultural history.
People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians, and if the laws of the United States continue to condone this behavior, history will surely classify us as a barbaric society.
…
It will soon be possible to create a new “original” negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires. The copyright holders, so far, have not been completely diligent in preserving the original negatives of films they control. In order to reconstruct old negatives, many archivists have had to go to Eastern bloc countries where American films have been better preserved.
In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.
…
The public’s interest is ultimately dominant over all other interests. And the proof of that is that even a copyright law only permits the creators and their estate a limited amount of time to enjoy the economic fruits of that work.
…
Attention should be paid to this question of our soul, and not simply to accounting procedures. Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself.The original Star Wars trilogy is an incredibly important part of cinematic history and it most certainly deserves to be preserved in its original form. To alter the films and then intentionally suppress them in their original form is not only selfish but an insult to the many, many craftsman that all worked hard to create these treasured pieces of history. They’re what won all of those Academy Awards, not the Special Editions. The SEs have their place but even more so do the original theatrical versions.
And yet, the SE will be the only versions the public will be allowed to see for decades to come.
What an unjust and cruel world. No other film is treated like this. Nor is any other film more important to cinema.
I refuse to give Snyder money by paying to see the film; it’s not ethical.
Nolan is an extremely overrated director (I have seen his three batman films) who is now in creative decline.
If Heath Ledger was still alive, the Dark Knight would not be #4 on the imdb top 250. It the millennial version of The Crow. The batman movies are on the same level as the fantastic four adaptations.
BTW Dunkirk is going to suck hard. If you think otherwise, let direct you to Anne Hathaway’s monologue on love from Interstellar.
Why do people like Zack Snyder exist? I’d like to talk to the moron at Warmer Brothers who hired that clown to kickstart the DC cinematic universe.
The Schumacher batman movies are the only ones we admit are bad. There never has been a good live action Batman movie ever. In hindsight, Nolan doubled our suffering.
There hasn’t ben a good Superman movie in nearly 40 years; and it could be another 40 years before Hollywood gets it right. The Snyder/Cavill interpretation of Superman is the absolute worst butchering of the character inits 78 year history; this version is not a hero, but a serial killer given superpowers.
FUCK ZACK SNYDER FUCK ZACK SNYDER
I have not seen this movie, but I can safely say this is one of the worst films of the last twenty years. No one should see this movie, period. If you pay money you are supporting this atrocity and incentivizing Warner Bros to make more depressing Holocaust dramas disguised as superhero films. Zack Snyder is a terrible person and should be locked up in the Hague for crimes against humanity, let alone be allowed with fifty feet of a film camera. Why this fucking psychopath chose filmmaking in the first place is beyond me; he seems like a person who waterboards suspected terrorists for the CIA. This movie is so awful I’d rather have Joel Schumacher direct it.
Didn’t Snyder lobotomize a teenage girl at the end of Sucker Punch?
Fight the real enemy: Zack Snyder
I have refused to see any of his films after Watchmen, and I knew the Superman films he made were going to suck right away. He is such an awful director that he is one of the few people that deserves to die for making a bad film. Why did Warner Bros hire this jackass to helm Man of Steel/ Dawn of Justice? They’re Holocaust dramas disguised as superhero films.
Worst to Best:
Batman V Superman
Man of Steel
Superman IV
Superman III
Superman Returns
Superman II
Superman: The Movie
From worst to best:
Batman & Robin
Batman Vs Superman
The Dark Knight Rises
Batman Forever
Batman Returns
Batman 89
Batman Begins
The Dark Knight
I think I’m okay with Jedi now. But still, it won’t be critically rehabilitated in the near future, and we still won’t have a SW film like Empire.
Yes, SW is a mediocre franchise. Thankfully, I can take that which I like and ignore the rest, as I do with all franchises I enjoy but have issues with.
I suggest you finally do the same and stop crying over a falling sky.
But it’s everywhere, and there will never be a Star Wars film like ESB again. No one has said to me it’s okay to love ROTJ and not be seen as a terrible person. No one seems to be addressing the decades-long contempt Lucas has had toward the people who made him rich and famous. No one said it’s going to be all right when you read about how Kurtz would have made the franchise better and you see how reality fell short. We still can’t enjoy the original films without resorting to extralegal measures or resorting to VHS/Laserdisc copies.
We deserved better than this, and it’s why I wish this franchise never existed.
Everyone else is ignoring the fact that the franchise went downhill after 1980. Star Wars is just another Marvel-type franchise Disney can fall back on now.
THIS THREAD WOULD NOT EXIST IF YOU PAID ATTENTION TO WHAT I WAS SAYING EVERY FILM AFTER EMPIRE IS DEEPLY FLAWED AND NOW I HAVE TO STOP THE MOVIES ON A CLIFFHANGER BECAUSE I AM FORCED TO REJECT THE THIRD FILM THAT MEANS THE OT IS BROKEN BECAUSE LUCAS PURGED KURTZ AND PLUNGED US ALL INTO THE TENTH LEVEL OF HELL AND THIS HAPPENED BEFORE I WAS ALIVE LUCAS MAY HAVE WALKED AWAY FOR GOOD BUT THE ABUSE STILL HAPPENED AND I WILL KEEP SCREAMING UNTIL I GET THE ANSWERS I NEED.
In hindsight, I wish these films never existed. Most fans just like the first two films, and judging the opinions on these forums, we’re not particularly gushing over TFA. Let’s be honest, Gary Kurtz made these films great, and George Lucas always the most left-field irrational decisions possible. This franchise peaked in 1980, and it’s doubtful it will ever recover under Disney’s wing.
To be blunt, Star Wars is cursed. It is the cinematic equivalent of heroin.
generalfrevious said:
I want to actually know what distinguishes ROTJ from the later prequel films in comprehensive detail and not be casually dismissed every time I post something here.To begin with, the title is different. To conclude, everything else is different.
That’s too vague. I need a lot more detail, now that we have known for years that the Kurtz version would have been the greatest thing ever.
No one has answered me why most of the characters in Jedi are not the same as the characters in the prequels. Somebody help me bring balance back to the OT, and prove me wrong.
The only way to deal with you when you are like this is to not answer you.
I came here for solace, and I am ignored? I want to actually know what distinguishes ROTJ from the later prequel films in comprehensive detail and not be casually dismissed every time I post something here. It’s very disheartening to hear of a film (that I never had a problem with before) that could have been better. How does anyone take comfort in the franchise knowing that it peaked after a meager two films out of eight and counting? I genuinely want answers.
But I don’t hate Jedi. I have never really hated or even disliked it, and don’t want to.
For a movie you don’t hate or dislike, you sure piss and moan over it a lot.
Most OT fans complain about it; I’m just copying what everyone has been saying on online forums for a decade. I didn’t have a problem with the film until I started lurking on this forum back in 2004, when I heard about the bullshit DVD changes.
Thank You. That’s the explanation I needed.
He did, for one day after seeing TFA. Then it was back to frevious-as-usual.
The reason I act this way is that Lucas has treated us (the fans) with contempt for thirty years. Our dollars were used to build his mansion, and he gives us bread stuffed with nails (a la Salo) as a token of gratitude. We have gone nearly twenty years without an official release of the real cuts of the OT, and if it wasn’t for the despecialized editions we would never see them again. All because the man has spent most of his life detached from any logical reality, and so he gives an endless parade of bizarre events that just leave me in a state of contant frustration.
Why not watch what you like, ignore what you don’t, and move on?
The bad stuff is still canon. Yes you could ignore it, but it’s still part of the franchise, and in the collective pop culture imagination. You see commercials, people on the street, pop culture references on Star Wars, and no one realizes that most of it is subpar, and has been since the early 1980s.
But with the new movies coming out from Disney, this could be a course correction towards being good again, as long as no one messes it up.Doesn’t mean you’re forced into taking it into your own personal “canon”, or even having to watch the stuff for that matter. I absolutely hate the prequals, but I don’t own them, watch them, or spend my days thinking about them.
I don’t dwell on the Prequels, it’s Jedi I’m focusing on. I can never reject that film, because it would be an incomplete story without it. Most of the problems people have with that film actually never bothered me that much. I wouldn’t know how bad it really was until I encountered these forums and other online review sites. The message is the same as in the PT: absolutely everything is done wrong, and it makes me hypocritical to ignore the prequels and pass Jedi at the same time.
The prequals wasn’t really the point, the point is why dwell on something that you obviously don’t like and it’s driving you nuts? I wouldn’t punish myself into continuing to experience something I have an obvious distaste for. And you can ignore any movie, book, game, or whatever you want. They’re just movies, they aren’t entire philosophies to live your life by.
But I don’t hate Jedi. I have never really hated or even disliked it, and don’t want to.