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

Until it was posted in this thread, I wasn't even aware that there was a 4-hour version of Dances with Wolves. I would assume that none of the footage from the 3-hour theatrical version was removed or altered. I bring this up, because much has been made of the inserted Jabba scene in Star Wars. In my personal opinion, it is one of the less egregious scenes, because it is not altering or replacing another scene. The scene was never there in the theatrical version. If one so chooses, he or she can just hit the skip button on the remote. The more egregious changes would be those that altered a pre-existing scene, swapping Lapti Nek for Jedi Rocks, swapping Sebastian Shaw for Hayden Christensen or any other number of scenes that were altered. I would have preferred a Special Edition in which the films were extended with deleted footage, and there are plenty of those floating around on Youtube. Some of them are actually pretty good. Some, not so much. I'm even okay with alterations as long as the Special Editions exist side by side with the originals like any number of other classic films out there in which multiple versions exist such as Blade Runner, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Alien tetralogy.

 

As long as the transfer will come through as originally intended and not that awful blue tint that ended up on the 2004 DVD and later the 2011 Bluray, then many fans including Adywan will be happy. And of course, speaking of Adywan, he'll have the transfer he'll want to work with when he gets to work on his HD version of ANH: Revisited. Not long until his ESB: Revisited hits too - until he's finished with his Wampa...

 

What you saw is what the director asked for. Producer Rick McCallum reminded me several times in 2004 that this was the first and only home video release supervised and approved by the director. All the previous versions had only been approved by the original producer, not by Lucas. Color is a very subjective thing, and what people "remember" the theatrical print looking like is subject to a lot of interpretation. I honestly can't remember with precision what work I did a year ago, so I'm skeptical when people say, "well, it doesn't look like the 1977 print." One can make similar arguments with audio masterings, when people gripe about how a later mastering version sounds: the reality may be that the original was not what the artist wanted, and the later ones were.

 

The idea that Lucas could still possibly have some say in the release of the original versions is intriguing, but seems unlikely.

Would Disney pay $5 billion (or whatever it was) and *not* be able to release any version of the films they want (obviously with the cooperation of Fox where needed)? I'd think they'd have *full* control over it now. They should be able to release the original unaltered versions, or re-cut the films and add Jar Jar to every film in the series if they want. I'm speaking purely from a business/asset point of view.

 

Ugh...

"Aren't you a little short for a Gungan?".

 

I doubt very seriously that George Lucas has the ability to veto anything, but even if he did I don't think that he would have any problem with Lucasfilm releasing both versions of the films, especially since he did it himself a while ago.

 

George Lucas was paid "go away" money to... well.... go away. He has no say in what Disney does with what they bought.

 

He was paid for the work of genius he created. He chose to go away himself, with a fistful of dollars, not that he needed it mind you.

 

He chose to sell his product in exchange for going away. My point is that much like The Wicked Witch he has no more power here.

 

Lucas has said when he was asked what he thought of the recent J.J. Abrams film, "they didn't ask for my input. It's not the sort of film I would've made, but clearly the audience wants to see it." Something like that. Nobody has been able to pin Lucas down if he actually likes or hates what Disney is doing with the franchise. My guess is that they did pay him "go away money," but there are some conditions. Look how thick this contract is that they signed when he sold Lucasfilm to Disney:



It looks to me like there's at least 60-70 pages there, maybe as many as 100. Remember this was for all of Lucas' properties, including all characters, merchandising rights, unproduced screenplays, spin-offs, remakes, sequels, TV series, features, music, the works... plus all his businesses like ILM and Skywalker sound. I have been led to believe that Disney agreed to keep the two businesses going for X number of years, but I don't know how long that is... 10 years? 20 years? Lots of unanswered questions. (I think some real estate was kept by Lucas, but most of it went to Disney.)

But I don't think Lucas gets to approve the video releases anymore. He did quit the DGA some years ago, so they're not contractually obligated to do so. However... I have seen many cases after a film came out where -- out of courtesy -- they did bring the director in and have them approve the home video just to appease them.

 

I actually like the 4 hour version. I remember watching, thinking, 'Where's the extra hour'
Usually when they tack on an extra hour the movie drags....and drags. The 4 hour Dances With Wolves doesn't drag. It is the shortest 4 film since Gone With The Wind.


You should be proud of your work on that movie. Great sound. Flawless.

 

HD and UHD released.

 

What I meant was the optical "blue screen" effects that they didn't get to clean up properly. The white around blue screen opticals. 35 mm is 35 mm..and it's $#$&*!@ fantastic. I would never argue that. Not new scenes or new effects. I am talking about some of the high resolution blue screen opticals (equal to 3000 vertical lines, so I hear.) that weren't properly cleaned up. Remember the speeder in Episode. 4 and the Snow Rebel Ships in Episode 5? anyone who has seen Superman and those James Bond Movies from the 60's in HD will know what I mean.

I am sorry... I should have made myself more clear.

 

I thought Disney bought Star Wars: The rights, the keys to the city, everything.

 

They did. For $4 billion you make damn sure you get everything for that price.

 

So we are going to get all three unaltered classic Star Wars movies....Right? If Disney wants it, MR. Lucas can't stop it...Can he? I mean to pay 4 billion (Jesus, 4 billion....) and be screwed over like that is silly. Surely Disney would've thought of that and included it in their 4 billion (4 billion, holy...) deal. I can't believe their lawyers would be that stupid. Wait....4 billion dollars.

 

Fox owns the first film. They financed it.

 

Sorry 720p doesn't cut the mustard for me. And some even go as far to call 720p Pseudo HD. Unless this is a bit for bit, bit-Torent HD movie and not some highly compressed 600mb file I am not impressed. It's better than the DVD I've got and I am sure it looks super swell. What I dont like doing is surfing the Web for thousands of years looking for some bootleg/pirate/ semi-legal copy of "the Original Star Wars Movies." I mean if it's done by FANS for THE FANS there should one site featuring these unaltered beauties like they were the Dead Sea Scrolls.

 

Come on! (In Eric Cartman voice) Come on!!

 

I think you'll get what you want within the next 5 or so years.

 

Why does George look so sad? This was his decision to sell, right?

 

This was a rare case where the color on Wolves was about 90% my decision, and the DP had virtually no changes. I had a lot of help from the staff of Cinesite, who did a Herculean job on the restoration front (grain reduction, fixing some bumps, bad splices, etc.), plus the people doing the negative scanning and the conforming. This is not an easy process, particularly when the same negative is used for two different films.

In the case of Star Wars, 85% of it was what the director wanted, and the rest was me making tactful suggestions.

You'd think when somebody hands you $4 billion for your company, you'd be happy. I think George had a lot of mixed feelings, but even more than selling the company, I suspect his biggest concern was the loss of control on all the future Star Wars and Indiana Jones films, even after his death.

 

​

 

Nope. Sorry. If you want the Blu-Ray HD it's the 4 hour version. At one point years ago when it first appeared on DVD it was a special, "Get-Them-While-They're-Hot" limited edition, "extra hour of footage and stuff" but now it's "2 movies pretending to be the length of one."

Honesty it's great. You won't even notice the extra hour. They got rid of the subtitles and other stuff. I don't mean the close captions. They removed the subtitles translating what the Natives were saying into English. They are gone. Kevin never wanted those subtitles in. He wanted to put the audience in the view of lone solider guy.