I doubt they will fade away like many of us would like, but while they made money when they were released, I think that Jackson's Lord of the Rings and especially the Harry Potter movies will have a much more lasting influence on pop culture.
As I don't have a BluRay player, I haven't been following what will and will not be on that set.
Like many of my generation, I fell in love with the OT in the 70's and 80's. I went to see the SE's on the big screen when they came out, and am particularly glad I saw Empire at an IMAX theater. I am more than willing to admit there are features of the OT that could be improved, especially with regards to effects, but somehow the new shots seemed too "cute" and many of them seemed distracting to the story.
The fact of the matter is that GL is NOT a gifted writer, and as a director has certain limitations as well. He is GREAT speaking visually. And when he had serious time and money limitations, he created some classic films of american cinema, like the OT.
The thing is that he forgot when to stop and has a tendency to over elaborate, and his money and independence lets him do this, to our dismay.
On the other hand, I purchased the VHS tapes when LFL said that it was the "last time" to get the originals. Ten years later I purchased the "Limited Edition" that had GOUT on DVD. GOUT may not be the release we want, but it was more than I expected. Admittedly it is a color mess and so I was torn between watching Pan and Scan VHS tapes that kinda looked like Star Wars, or GOUT that looked like a washed out old film, but was full screen, showing off the cinematography, or SE which had its own transfer issues as well as cringe moments at some "improvements" which to me are distracting at best.
From a preliminary viewing of Dark Jedi's work, it looks like I will not have to make that choice anymore.
I once saw GOUT described as just being good enough to be better than the older Laser Disc transfers which were going around. If that is the case, then the work many of you all are doing should shame them into a better official release.
The OT is important enough that many of us fans from the 70's and 80's will still have an emotional attachment to want to buy it as an "extra" even if GL wants it to go away. It is also important enough that film geeks will want to see the originals, but that is less of a market. Some time, some day the simple finances of this will make a release come. I hope it doesn't take the death of GL for this to happen...
I'm just a fan and haven't done any of this type of recovery work, but I fail to see what the PAL/NTSC difference is at this point in the project. Isn't all film at 24 frames a second, and aren't you color correcting THOSE images?
Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:
I am also a big fan of Darth Editous' version.
I have heard about it, but can't find it.
doubleofive said:
I would say Harmy has surpassed Ady's theatrical cuts, and they're in 720p!kermit said:
Also check out the work by Adywan. A year ago he released his "Theatrical Version" for ESB's 30th anniversary. Before that he released a greatly acclaimed versions of ANH that are more like what it seems most of us WISH the SE had been. Of course, this doesn't meet the need for a strictly ORIGINAL version for ANH, but you should check them out sooner or later.
That may very well be. I'm still new to this and haven't seen them, although Harmy's ANH DVD5 is on the way. Don't have a way to play the 720p versions yet, although I'm sure I could figure a way to do it on my computer if I wanted to.
I would say that the Adywan ESB is a good supplement to GOUT, and repeat that purchasing GOUT, for all its weaknesses, is to the good. I am not at all sorry I bought it myself. The only version I question was worth the money I spent was the 97 SE VHS tape set. <g>
I would want to echo what has been said before. Get the 2006 "Limited" edition. It is the official DVD release of these from LFL, and after paying LFL for those, I feel a lot better morally (even if Legally it almost certainly doesn't matter) with looking for other options.
Speaking of options, Puggo forgot to mention his Puggo Grande. It is a preservation of a few 16 mm Star Wars prints, and Puggo did a good job. It does have a bit of dirt and only the Mono sound track, but many of us first saw Star Wars in Mono theaters with dirtier (35mm) prints than this.
Also check out the work by Adywan. A year ago he released his "Theatrical Version" for ESB's 30th anniversary. Before that he released a greatly acclaimed versions of ANH that are more like what it seems most of us WISH the SE had been. Of course, this doesn't meet the need for a strictly ORIGINAL version for ANH, but you should check them out sooner or later.
Star Wars was the first movie I remember seeing as a kid back in 1977, and I remember the rest of the originals from my childhood as well. Oddly enough, my experience of them goes way beyond the movies. Since I didn't have a VCR until the 1990's, I probably read the novels more than saw the movies. I also eagerly listened to the radio dramas as well, and all of those sources are kinda combined in my head.
And then in 1999 came TPM. Yippee! A Star Wars Movie! But like many of us, it wasn't the Star Wars Movie I was hoping for. I even got the books for the first couple, like I did as a kid. And if you think Jar-jar was bad on screen, try reading a page of him...
But on to what I liked.
John Williams's Score - even if there was that issue of the soundtrack for TPM having a track called the death of Qui-Jon, which got out before the movie. Still, it was great to have that type of music again.
Eye candy a plenty. This lead to problems in pacing, but it in certain moods, it is great.
Acting wise, I liked Ewan McGregor's Obi-wan, with the major exception of how dense he was with the mystery in AOTC. Ian McDiarmid was great as well, especially as the tempter in ROTS.
I think there is a quite interesting story in Anakin's tragic fall - namely his warped love. As a rather traditional Christian, I want to see it more along the lines of the way Augustine talked about the death of a loved friend in his Confessions than the probably more Buddhist conception probably behind the story here, the twin stories of Anakin's fall because of desire to save the ones he loved and his redemption through discovering his son's love is an interesting idea. The problem is that GL did so bad with the Love story that it gets in the way of this.