Original/Unaltered "Star Wars" Trilogy on Blu-Ray in 2017

I will always take the original version of the Trilogy over Lucas' revisions. The new Jedi Rocks is a crime against not only cinema but humanity.

 

I loved the scene and so did millions of other people.

 

Why is it a crime against cinema? The original Dances With Wolves is gone..On BD is only the SUPER LONG 4 hour version and I don't hear anyone complaining. Since Disney (bless them) is bringing the originals out what's the problem? When you couldn't see the originals on BD HD that was the issue. If the press release is correct, then where's the crime?

 

That's fine. I am not trying to change your opinion.

I think if there was a way to do it with the puppet, it would have been cool, but the CGI takes me out of the scene.

 

No worries. I saw the original Return of the Jedi, but I was only 5, so I don't remember much. I have always liked the Sarlac Pits and the Rancor.

 

That was yet another completely unnecessary, unwanted, and ridiculous alteration:
Star Wars: What are the changes Lucas has made since the original film ??

 

Never cared for them, but I'm happy for you guys!

 

But, it is the original movie and your point is valid. This is what came out in 1977, 1979, 1981?? Could we please see an HD version of the damn movies. I agree sir it is not a lot to ask.

As you know the puppet is a lot of trouble. But yes Jabba puppet in Episode VI 1997 would've been worth the price of admission.

 

It would be interesting to see how much hate there would have been if the theatrical and special editions had been to coexist all along.

I know there were people who were upset with the changes made to ET, but the theatrical version was still available, so it wasn't a big deal.

 

I am old....I remember when Nixon was in office. I started school the same year America pulled it troops out of Vietnam (March 23, 1973.)

Yes...back to Star Wars. I was there in 1977 and no one had seen anything like it. You would think the original movie would be in a time capsule or in the Smithsonian or something.

 

Wooo...Wait..They made changes to E.T.? What?!
No way.

 

Wait...What? They added a mouth to the sand creature...

 

They changed the guns to mobile phones I believe. I traded my DVDs in when I got the BD, which only has the original version.

 

Yea that South Park episode was funny.

 

It isn't the same. It actually looks a lot worse than what the original versions would look like in HD because it's full of low-resolution footage. I don't understand the argument that somehow Star Wars, more so than any other old movie that's on blu ray, is unwatchable because it has old effects. The Special Edition changes are old now too, and the CGI looks very dated so it isn't even like the updated versions are up to date.

 

UHD is new and only a handful of movies. Why would they bring it out on UHD? And the disks aren't cheap. Or do you mean why not wait 2 years and then release in UHD? Do you really want to wait until the UHD format has a foothold in the market? I don't even know why they bothered with UHD. Most kids 25 and under watch crappy super-compressed -pseudo HD stream movies off of the web on a 14 inch laptop using unrealible Wi-Fi (it goes on...it goes off..it goes on...it goes off) Wow, what a movie experience!

 

I think Pablo Hidalgo shut down this rumor on twitter.

 

His tweets are very ambiguous. "As far as I know, there's only one person who could make this happen and he hasn't seemed all that interested." Very ambiguous. He seems to be suggesting that Lucas is still calling the shots regarding which version is released.

 

Yeah true, he is also a troll, so I take it with a grain of salt.

 

I don't consider anything other than an official statement from Lucasfilm to be an answer to this either way. I don't count the guy in charge of deciding which Expanded Universe materials are canon to be the official bearer of bad news.

 

The digital bits claims this isn't happening:

A last (definitive) original Star Wars update for a while, plus Rogue One pre-orders & release news

Here's what that link says:

We’ve essentially confirmed that Disney’s current 4K scan of the film is the most recent revised version (essentially the latest “special edition”), not the original theatrical edition. What’s more, Disney’s director of Library Restoration and Preservation, Theo Gluck, held a special event at Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts last night, a presentation called Animation Restoration at Walt Disney Studios. Gluck was asked there about Star Wars and reported that the original cut negative for the film currently exists in its “SE” configuration only.

In addition, 20th Century Fox’s Senior Vice President of Library and Technical Services, Shawn Belston, was also on hand at the Wexner event last night. He confirmed that all of the “trims” removed from the original cut negative (in the mid-1990s, to create the SEs) still exist as well. (Thanks to Bits reader Chuck P., who attended this event, for his firsthand report.) So what does all that mean to you?

In summary: While it is essentially technically true that the ‘77 cut negative “no longer exists” in its original state, it is also technically true that it could be re-built if so desired. All of the needed film elements still survive and have been preserved. Nevertheless, if one takes Gluck and Belston at their word (and knowing them as we do, we certainly do) this would seem to be fairly official word that no such reconstruction work has been done to date. Thus, it appears that there is little chance of the original 1977 Star Wars being released on any home video format in 2017.

Meanwhile, however, we also know (from checking in again with our sources yesterday) that original high-quality prints of the theatrical editions continue to exist in various film archives around the world, as well as in the hands of private collectors. So… the Saga continues. In the meantime, as we said yesterday, Harmy’s Star Wars Despecialized Editions are out there in the digital ether of the Interwebs in 720p HD and are well worth the effort needed to track them down.

 

Actually, you'd be pretty surprised at how good they look. Especially if you've seen the despecialized or the silver screen editions.

The film looks like a seventies film. Like any other new Hollywood film of the time.

They need to present the film in its most original form, restored in high definition. For historical preservation. Just like The French Connection should be preserved and presented. Planet Of The Apes. 2001. The Searchers.

The film is a piece of history. Especially such a fantastic popular culture phenomena.

They need to stop messing with it.

 

I think that the Digital Bits, with all due respect, was very out of the loop on this and their conclusion misses the mark in my opinion. I thought that the negatives being conformed to the Special Edition was common knowledge and officially stated for at least ten years, and just because that's true, it doesn't necessarily mean that Lucasfilm won't release the original versions. As far as I know, they wouldn't even need to use the negative if they didn't want to. There seems to be the idea among a lot of people that these employees of these major companies would openly tell some random internet column that Lucasfilm is or isn't definitively releasing the original versions of the Star Wars trilogy. If it's happening, that's an announcement that will be planned to the T like all other corporate announcements. Whether it's the Twitter guy who is in charge of the Expanded Universe or the person who manages the film library for the studio, they aren't going to tell all and blow some marketing secret just because they're asked.

 

Or the monkeys in THX1138.

 

I mastered both the 3-hour version and the 4-hour version of Wolves (the latter was called "The Lieutenant Dunbar Version" by the editor), and had to live with the film day-in and day-out for almost four months. After seeing both dozens of times, my conclusion was that the 4-hour version was actually a better film because they cut back in all of the Lakota Indian reactions and subtitles. In the 3-hour version, they basically observe from far away, and you never really understand their motivations.

I totally agree that they should release both on Blu-ray, and then you'd have the original theatrical version and the director's cut. I can tell you that Costner was very happy with how it turned out. All of the mastering was done from the original camera negatives, and the conform was very difficult and arduous. Both versions exist and are ready to go for streaming or downloads or Blu-ray or anything in HD, but it's up to Touchstone to release them.

In the case of Star Wars, I'm also in favor of giving the audience the choice between the original and the later version(s). Unfortunately, we technicians are rarely asked for our opinions.