George Lucas Announces Star Wars on Blu-ray at Celebration V

George comments at length on the forthcoming 2011 Blu-ray set and why the original versions aren't coming out at this link in the NY Times.

The Times reports: Mr. Lucas said that to release the original versions of these films on Blu-ray was “kind of an oxymoron because the quality of the original is not very good.”

“You have to go through and do a whole restoration on it, and you have to do that digitally,” he added. “It’s a very, very expensive process to do it. So when we did the transfer to digital, we only transferred really the upgraded version.”

 

NY Times chopped up the quotes. George also says:

They're coming, not right away, but they are coming.

 

I have nothing against the technical advances GL has helped pioneer, however he rarely makes a good movie. I will concede that he has been involved in a few gems but on the whole.... meh. I think his best work exists outside of Star Wars. I still appreciate Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Indy was a collaboration as was Empire. I guess what I was alluding to was the complaints people have with his butchering of the Star Wars Saga. Stop paying to see it instead of complaining. He won't stop unless the fans do.

 

I personally haven't spent one nickel on any Lucas film product since Raiders.

 

Well then, here you are:

 

Thank You I would like to thank the academy, my mother....

 

I agree with this also. Lucas seems to be the only person who doesn't realize how cherished the first three original films were to many people.

 

I loved the 'first' three films in my younger years, saw SW in theaters when it first came out.
Unfortunately, they have not aged well at all for me, I had a heck of a time making it through them when I watched recently - borderline painful. YMMV, of course.

 

I don't agree. I think the remakes would outsell the originals by far. I am factoring in the marketing that would be involved. The originals would be presented as an obscure collector thing, and the remakes would be marketed as the "real thing". Which, of course, is fine with me. If Lucas prefers the remakes and wants those to be "official", that's fine with me. I just want the original.

I think it's kind of like the Beatles stereo versus mono CDs. The mono version are clearly considered the weird collector's cousin to the "real thing" (as far as the modern marketing departments are concerned). It didn't stop all of us from buying and appreciating the mono box. It also doesn't mean the mono box is out-selling the stereo box.

If they release the original Star Wars, would everybody want the original analog sound mix? (I would.) New question: What's the most authentic original soundtrack? Had Pro Logic been invented yet?

 

Nonsense.

 

Well, actually, I think the 6-track 70mm mag mix went out first for Star Wars, and that sounds better than any version of Dolby Matrix Surround. But the mix has been changed for every single home video release. It's also slightly different than the 1977 Dolby Stereo version.

I do agre with your point that if the public was confronted with both the original theatrical releases and the revised versions, the revised ones would probably sell better -- very much like the Beatles stereo mixes.

 

EGO (no one knows what they're talking about but me)

 

Saw this linked at Daring Fireball:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/her...lmmakers-george-lucas-and-gary-kurtz-wer.html

Being at best a casual fan, I find this article fascinating in terms of what could have been.

Brian

 

Good article thanks for posting that BG.

I understand how Lucas feels about the original films--he's too close to them to really be making that decision because all he sees are the imperfections of the films, the difficulties and what he wanted to do vs. what he COULD do.

Sometimes, though, compromise is the filmmakers friend resulting in a better finished product.

I have to admit prior to reading some of the stuff on Gary Kurtz I had no idea why he had fallen out with Lucas and interestingly he sounds like the "Luke" of the films while Lucas is the "Darth Vader" of them in terms of wanting to create a synergy of art and entertainment.

It's pretty obvious watching the films that Lucas made it up as he want along but he and Kurtz did a good job of doing that. It's a pity that Lucas feels he has to cover that up.

 

same here. the empire strikes back was on the tube today and i could barely make it past 2 minutes of watching it. i'm pretty sure the upgrade to blu ray still won't hide all the flaws that these flicks have:

cardboard characters
the worst shooting bad guys in cinematic history
blips, beeps and blurts that just sound plain irritating now
yoda comes across as just plain creepy and ugly now
plot holes that only ed wood could appreciate
that damn wookie moan just makes wanna go postal

...and when the creative siphoning finally dries up - make the bad guy the daddy of the good guy...and the princess too.

 

To me, there are only the originals ones. Special Editions? Bluff.

 

It desperately needed editing for style, and he repeats himself quite a bit, but the research is good and his thesis is sound. The key moment when Lucas lost his way is when he began seeing the Star Wars movies as a way of financing his independent filmmaking complex and took on the attitude of "it's good enough." He became the executive telling the director how to make the movies -- this didn't work on Empire because Kershner, Kurtz and Kasdan were in agreement on the tone of of the story, but he essentially co-directed Jedi to maintain control and was bent on a happy ending. The first two films are the result of having talented people surrounding him and nudging him in the right direction. When he no longer had that, and began calling all the shots himself, things went downhill fast.

 

Very hard to argue with that, Solaris. I absolutely think that Empire was the best of all the Star Wars films, and I think Lucas is at his best when he works with strong writers and directors whom he has to treat as equals (like Kasdan and Spielberg). Even George has admitted that writing is his least enjoyable part of the process, and the Secret History book makes that case very well.

 

So in the vein of best pressing for music, does anyone know the closest way to own these films as they were originally released in the theaters? Is that even possible?

 

You need to read this extremely-detailed review:

Recording the Star Wars Saga

 

I have a question. STAR WARS was the first movie I ever saw in a theatre, it was released when I was 7 years old. I don't recall every detail perfectly, but I've read here and other places that the original SW opening crawl did not have "Episode IV" or "A New Hope".

But I DO clearly recall being a kid and knowing that SW was episode 4, and that Lucas was going to make 5 and 6, and then the first 3. When did that become common knowledge? It was at least before EMPIRE came out, wasn't it?

 

The short story is that Lucas was quoted in several places as stating that the story was going to have multi-parts, that his original treatment was too long and the best place to start was in the middle.

So before Empire came out, I remember knowing that Empire was going to be part 5 and that eventually he'd do 1-3 and 7-9.

Incredibly, Lucas later went on to deny that he ever planned on doing anything more than 1-6.

For much, much more detail, go here: http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/loststarwarsstories.html

 

When the movie first came out it was just Star Wars. Then when it was re released a few years later it said Episode IV A New Hope.

I probably still have the old fan magazines somewhere that told about the plans to make a total of 9 movies. I do believe that it was before Empire. Remember that adding the special effects took a few years back in those days since things were done with models. So there was plenty of time for Fangoria and other magazines to speculate about what was going to happen.

Chad