I was just teasing you. I was in the middle of typing an actual reply but Windows 10 decided to turn my browser into a beautiful, frozen desktop wallpaper.

I'm going to just refer you back to that other thread which you referenced previously.

You might be interested in torrenting the "despecialized" edition for Blu ray and DVD, Brian. I haven't had time to watch them myself (the files are big, so give it some time to download).

? Maybe I misspoke, I like the movies and think they're good, I wasn't trying to connote something too negative by saying "alright".

Brian doesn't want to torrent copyrighted material.



I have managed to keep a VCR along with three versions of the OT on tape. The "best" version would be the one that was marketed as the last time you could buy the films in their original (non SEized) state. They're letterboxed and each begins with Leonard Maltin interviewing Lucas. I've tried unsuccessfully to digitize them a couple times.



Correct. There is that version which we talked about some months back of Star Wars that was taken from original film stock, I believe.



I think the DVDs were included with the blurays and I've only heard bad things about them. Some more recent reviews suggest the DVDs aren't even packed in anymore.



I like many if not most of the additions. The ones you refer to are problematic, that stupid Jabba palace musical act, and a few others. Other scenes were pretty cool and fit quite well. Speaking of that scene where he walks over Jabba, I always thought that was awkward. They tried to sell it as Han's such a bad ass that he could get away with. Um, this is the same guy that they wanted to make not shoot first because he would look too bad? No, they could have just kept the dialogue rolling and cut away to one of the mercenaries or something. Maybe that simple answer never occurred as they tried to figure a more technological way around it.



I think a big part of the problem is that we grew up with it. Our kids can never experience it the same way and don't care. Star Wars was entirely new in '77. A couple years later we could argue about whether or not Vader was lying to Luke in Empire. Jedi just raised the trilogy to a new level with more monsters, more space battles, and more lightsabers. Watching those old films now just doesn't bring anything new to the table now and they'll never think of the films like we did.

Massassi only exists because some subset of the population was sufficiently infatuated with the possibility that an expanded universe of games, mods, and the comradery surrounding it all might have a shot at persisting the childhood fantasy which had permeated the more exuberant parts of their childhood well into their thirties (and >). Of course you're going to piss off anybody who posts here who remains unjaded about Star Wars when you use anything but superlatives to refer to it.

De mortuis nihil nisi bonum.

Lol.

Have fun waiting until 2072 before you can legally watch something that was ****ed up by the copyright holder.

Remember that one time Lucas destroyed the negatives of the OT in order to make the special edition to make more money?

[QUOTE=George Lucas in 1988]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. The preservation of our cultural heritage may not seem to be as politically sensitive an issue as “when life begins” or “when it should be appropriately terminated,” but it is important because it goes to the heart of what sets mankind apart. Creative expression is at the core of our humanness. Art is a distinctly human endeavor. We must have respect for it if we are to have any respect for the human race.

These current defacements are just the beginning. Today, engineers with their computers can add color to black-and-white movies, change the soundtrack, speed up the pace, and add or subtract material to the philosophical tastes of the copyright holder. Tomorrow, more advanced technology will be able to replace actors with “fresher faces,” or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actor’s lips to match. 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.[/QUOTE]

http://www.slashfilm.com/george-lucas-speaks-altering-films-1988/

You think that was pissed off? The original trilogy is historically groundbreaking and near universally critically praised so to refer to them as "alright" and "overhyped" in any broader context than one's own opinion is at odds with the facts.

Yeah, I know you're right, I basically walked into the lion's den on that one.

I wasn't trying to tell you how you feel about Star Wars, I was definitely talking about my own feelings on the topic.

That's cool. I don't see the issue here.

No issue.

Huge issue.

The information in that mexican leak site is obsolete. You can now view at least the first Star Wars at the LoC.

The funny thing is, I now realize that I've never even seen the original version of Star Wars as screened in theaters in `77. I've seen multiple versions on VHS from the 80's and 90's.

(Somehow, I am skeptical that travelling to Washington D.C. will change that.)

(Edit: Wrong thread.)

It wouldn't be worth going to see. It's a digitized version of the unrestored original film, pre Episode IV, A New Hope, sub-titling. I don't imagine too many people here have seen that version.

Whoa, that's somewhat interesting. I probably wouldn't make too much effort to see it, though, since I admit that I have somewhat moved onto other things, despite the rabid star wars fan I am.

Maybe there is hope for the original version after all: http://4k.com/news/is-a-4k-theatrical-restoration-of-the-true-original-star-wars-coming-in-2017-18040/

But they'll probably find a way to **** it up anyway.

I watched the Despecialized version of ANH last night. It was quite good.

By the way, Latinoreview isn't necessarily a Mexican website, and it's generally considered to be one of the most reliable sources of production scoops on the internet. At this point, it's one of the only sites left that actually breaks scoops with any degree of significance. The staff has a boatload of sources in the business, and their stories are regularly cited by the major trade publications. If they say it's happening, then it's almost definitely happening.