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

I haven’t heard about that, can you post a source?

If your talking about the OT, yes.

Disney has released 4K blurays (although they are still the heavily altered special editions)

Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope 4K Blu-ray Release Date March 31, 2020
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back 4K Blu-ray Release Date March 31, 2020
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi 4K Blu-ray Release Date March 31, 2020

And a group of fans called Team Negative One have released 4K77, and 4K83 (and are working of 4K80). Which are 4K restorations of 35mm theatrical prints.

Project 4K77 | The Star Wars Trilogy
Project 4K80 | The Star Wars Trilogy
Project 4K83 | The Star Wars Trilogy

 

Yes, a early release version before wider distribution was made. With these 4 changes.

• When the Millennium Falcon is being chased after taking off from Mos Eisley, the effects shot where the Star Destroyer is shooting at the Falcon was changed. The early version has different explosions and different flashes and looks less finished.
• When the heroes arrive on Yavin 4, the outdoor composited shot with the matte painting of the temple is recomposited and is not synced the same. It also has an artifact in the image.
• When the fighters take off from Yavin 4, there is an extra cloud and the shot is not synced the same. It also has an artifact in the image.
• The scrolling end credits are completely redone with the spacing, both vertical and horizontal, altered, and a glitch in composition at the beginning has been removed.

 

Wow, that’s a fascinating read. I may contact them, donate, but request some way of getting it in a physical format. I will not download. I support physical media in every way that I possibly can. But that’s another discussion.

I appreciate all the detailed information about the earlier releases of new Hope, but nobody is commenting on the reason I asked? I know what I saw, I remember that scene with Mark Hamill and Biggs discussing him signing up and leaving.

Star Wars made such a massive impression on me as a little boy. It was truly life altering and changing and no movie since has done that. I suppose it’s possible in a six year olds mind that the scene became vivid to me because of the talk about it. But it’s so memorable and vivid to me in every detail.

I even remember that six maybe seven months later when it came back around the second time and we went to see it, that the scene was missing. My mom and dad even remember me talking about it and saying that they changed it.

 

First, you’re not alone in “remembering” the Biggs on Tatooine scene in the movie. Others do too... but there are also people out there who “remember” other scenes that they first encountered in the novelization, the Marvel comic book, or the Star Wars Storybook, including scenes that weren’t completed, or some that weren’t even filmed. But no evidence has ever surfaced that that scene was ever in any release print of the film, and indeed, all evidence indicates exactly the contrary.

Did you have the Star Wars Storybook?



..or the Marvel comic book?



...or maybe the novelization?

 

THATS IT!

I know I saw that scene with Biggs. I saw it at the theater. Never seen the storybook.. I grew up on a farm in the middle of nowhere. No stores or anything.

 

So I just went to YouTube and low and behold those missing scenes are there.. I think the portion I saw was from about when Biggs said “I’ve missed you kid” I think the last part in that screening I saw was when Biggs says “your the best friend Ive ever had” I know I saw that. I wonder if they’ll ever uncover an expanded list of edits that got out in the beginning? Did they send different versions for Drive-Ins compared to theaters?

After talking to my mom on the phone today another clue.. it was late September because it was the weekend before a surgery she had the first week of October 77.

 

You seem like one smart cookie my friend.

Why not put your knowledge and efforts toward something new? Make the next “Star War”. Many of the techniques used in the film are phenomenally less expensive, less time consuming, and easier to do with the aid of modern technology.

Get cracking on a new epic movie!

 

I saw Star Wars the first weekend it debuted in theaters and the "Biggs scene" was not in the print I saw. I remember getting the Marvel Comic a few weeks before the movie came out and later wondering where they came up with that scene.

 

Star Wars was released at the end of May, 1977.

I was 12, and had read the novelization and the comic numerous times before I went (by myself) to see it in the theater.

My reaction was one of sheer wonderment (in other words it met all my expectations)!

I also wondered what happened to the early scenes with Biggs, Luke's friends (Hey Wormie!) and Jabba the Hutt.

So, in the print I saw when it first came out I have no recollection of those scenes appearing on screen. In fact, I'm certain they weren't there because I remember thinking about what could have happened to them. I also saw it again at the drive-ins with the family during the summer and those scenes were not in the film either.

Now the brief Biggs scene (later expanded in the Lucas re-dos) before they attack the Death Star was there - but it didn't make much sense without the early set-up that Luke and Biggs were old friends on Tatooine.

It was years later that I had acquired a CD Rom that came with one of the video games that had some of those missing scenes.

 

The first issue came out around 6-weeks before the movie.

I read the damn thing dozens of times before the movie came out. I remember putting scotch tape on the cover to try to keep it intact.

In fact, I think I even had the second issue before the movie hit too. It was monthly and I was a big comic fan who would scour the spin racks all over town just to snag the latest issues.

 

If you don't mind me asking, what state did you live in during the time? I've got a list of 1977 engagements and maybe we can find your specific showing.

 

I had just turned 6 in March. My reading skills alone (severe Dyslexic) assure me I hadn’t read or been exposed to anything yet. Before seeing it, I was captivated by C3PO, I was into robots at 5-6... this dude with the sword and a chick all hanging on him wasn’t my reason to go see it.. even Vader’s big head looked like a giant robot to me.. Once I saw the movie and realized Cp3O was not the main character and the hero lol.. I was hooked on Luke. The Biggs scene I’m convinced was there.

 

Awesome, we think it was late September at the Johnny Appleseed Mall in Mansfield Ohio.
It is possible it was Early May... for one thing we waited in line for hours. We almost didn’t see it because my sister wanted to see Raggedy Anne & Andy the movie. I googled that movie and it came out in April... but would have still been at the theater competing with Star Wars for my parents to choose.

Course in our hick town area we didn’t get the latest and greatest releases.. we may have waited some for it to come through town.

 

Is it possible you were out on a day trip at the time? I found a showing on September 21st, 1977 at Oxford, OH. There are no other recorded Ohio showings during September 1977.

 

Thanks for looking, but it was defiantly Johnny Appleseed Mall in Mansfield on Park Ave. We only got to see maybe 3 movies a year at the theater and Mansfield was a 45 min drive and the closest theater. Oxford is way way far away from where I grew up and I doubt I had ever been there.

 

That wasn’t there until the Special Edition in 1997. Until that came out, he’s just seen piloting an X-wing.

 

It really wasn’t. The scene was only finished in rough form. Watch it again, but this time, listen to it closely—not the dialogue, but the sound. The audio is wild, the edits are rough, and there’s no score—even at the dissolve in and the outro. It lacks the polish that a scene in the finished film would have.

Did you listen to the 1981 radio drama, perhaps?

Try about 21 minutes in...

 

I know I'll never convince you otherwise but I was as wrong as I could be over a similar issue involving The Wizard of Oz.

Back in the early 1980s, as the home video market was heating up, I got The Wizard of Oz on Laserdisc. After I watched it, I went, "Wait, where was the reprise of "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead?" It should have been there after our heroes killed the Wicked Witch of the West. It was sung by everyone including the grenadiers, marching and dancing around the castle's ramparts. I remembered it from the annual Christmas broadcasts of the movie, a tradition in the 1960s and '70s.

When I'd mention to people the scene had been cut, they would nod in agreement. Others remember that reprise scene being in there.

It got to the point that I called MGM customer service. A woman agreed with me that there had been a reprise of the song during the missing scene in the movie but was adamant that they would never cut The Wizard of Oz. She said she'd get back to me.

A couple of weeks later, I got a letter from her on company stationary. She said all of our memories were wrong. One, there was a dissolve between the last view of the castle and the next scene in the wizard's throne room. That would be tough to do if a scene had been cut out. To make absolutely sure, she'd gone into the company's archives and dug out the sheet music for original score. There was no reprise of "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" in the musical score. It didn't exist.

So not only was I wrong, through the power of suggestion, I had convinced others to join me (I bet a few forum members, just reading the above story, have gone, "Yeah, I remember a reprise of "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" at that point in the movie."). I know of the Biggs scene from the radio broadcast version. The movie starts at episode 3 of the radio serial so there is a lot of Luke and Biggs on Tatooine before that in the radio episodes 1 and 2.

Be careful about insisting your memory is absolutely right. You could be as wrong as I was.

 

Here’s a blog about false Star Wars memories.

Lucas or False Memories: What Are These 'Star Wars' Scenes? - GeekDad

 

The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural. Including the Mandela effect, apparently.

 

No I didn’t hear the radio. My practical side wants to reason that it just must be a powerful imagination and the suggestions of those conversations from the end and the statement “That’s what you said when Biggs was in town”. I’m reasonable enough to know I can get confused and get down right dingy ideas.. But dag-gum my gut is drawing a line and screaming “NO YOU SAW IT.” I do really remember it. Not exactly like the YouTube clip but really really close. Maybe I’m just nuts.

 

Yup. My bad. That's what threw me then (at 12) - Biggs showing up in the X-wing, but without those earlier scenes.

What didn't work for me with the Special Editions was where Biggs does show up - old buds meeting up again, Luke being a great pilot - and when he gets blown up, just a slight grimace by Luke.

At the same time when R2 (a robot he literally just met a few days ago) gets zapped he's all torn up.

Hey Luke, your old friend just got killed. Meh.

Hey Luke, your new droid got damaged. Wah!

 

According to How a 'Star Wars' Deleted Scene Created One of the Movie's Most Iconic Lines , Mark Hamill says Luke was supposed to be so distraught over Biggs’ death that he switched off his targeting computer to focus on finishing the Death Star, and after deleting the Biggs scenes, that didn’t make sense anymore, so they added Obi-Wan telling him to use the Force.

The shooting script ( http://screenplaysandscripts.com/script_files/S/STAR WARS - EP IV - A NEW HOPE (1977) George Lucas [1976-03-15][4th].pdf ) kind of corroborates that and kind of doesn’t, though—it still has the Biggs scenes (and Biggs is a lot more present in the Death Star assault), and it does explicitly give Luke a stronger reaction to Biggs’ death, and it does lack Obi-Wan telling Luke to use the Force at the crucial moment, but it does have Obi-Wan saying “Trust me” at that point instead, and Luke’s switching off the targeting computer is pretty clearly a direct response to that rather than to Biggs’ death. So while “Use the Force” was added after that, and the Biggs scenes were removed after that, I’m not so sure one was the result of the other.

Also, I agree that adding back Biggs on Yavin without adding him back on Tatooine didn’t make a ton of sense.

 

Thanks, but I barely know what day it is.

They had written a great Ep 7 - HEIR TO THE EMPIRE. But Disney decided to make crap up.
After Star Wars 7, 8 and 9 I am Star Wared out. Sad. I can only hope Mr. Lucas will right the next one.

Most movies are not even shot in 4k. Why? The new 4k movie releases are being uprezzed. My Sony Bravia 75 inch UHD OLED TV already does that. O.k....I don't have a 75 UHD OLED TV, but all the 4k players up convert the picture anyway. Of course a professional uprezz I assume is better. Is it?

Most movies are shot on 2k video. Many directors hate HD video because (wait for it) too much depth of field. People who think we are going to 8k should do a little research.

I grew up with crappy 250 lines on a 20 inch black and white TV. If you got a picture without snow and ghosts you thanked the gods. Even a plain 480 line DVD picture on a CRT TV (still 250) would have knocked us over back in 1977. The kids today are spoiled with their 4k. No wish to back to those 250 line days. Jesus?

I digress....

Does the 4k Star Wars look better than the 2k version?

 

I have backed up what I have said with a known film test. Apparently....You didn't see it or refuse to believe it.

It was 1997. Irrelevant, even if they were done in 1080 p you can't get 4k out of a 2k GCI character. Looks like YOUR THE ONE THAT DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT.

Oh, the Blu-ray pic looks better than the 4k77.
But regardless, only a fool is going to judge the quality of a movie on a single frame.


Listen up. Only the colour negative is capable of 4k. The fact that you claim that an answer film print could be more than 2k shows your lack of film knowledge. It is 4 stages from the negative. Look it up.

Pay attention. I am talking about the 1997 version can not be true 4k. Weather they were done in 1080p or 1200 p or whatever it would not matter. All the 1080p effects would be stuck in that resoution. This is math you cannot get around. All movies are now scanned at 4k for restoration reasons. If I make a 24/192 PCM transfer of a 1920 wire recording, does it mean that it is high definition? No. Scanning it at 4k doesn't mean it is 4k.

FYI: When they say film is 4k they mean the colour negative. Not some 4th stage answer print. It does appear to be 2k. But I am not going to judge a movie on one frame. That is a fallacy.

Calling me arrogant is a ad hominem attack. Stick to the facts and refrain from rude comments. We are taking about Star Wars and not me. Stick to the thread topic.



I have posted this already. Please read.


Taken from a known 35 mm film resolution test:

"...The best 35 mm release print was also projected in six selected movie theaters in various countries, and an international panel of experts assessed the resolution of the projected images, using a well-defined formal assessment procedure. The MTF measurements performed on the films have shown that the MTF on the negative film drops to 10% of its peak value at about 2100 lines/PH (lines per picture height). It gradually continues to drop along the film chain from negative to interpositive to internegative and to release print, and it reaches 10% of its peak value at about 1000 lines/PH when measured on the release print. When measured on the answer print, it reaches 10 % of its peak value at about 1400 lines/PH. The MTF measured on the 35 mm answer print film quite closely matches the one measured on the 35 mm interpositive film. This is not surprising, since a 35 mm interpositive is a positive film printed from the original 35 mm negative, as a 35 mm answer print is. Obviously, it must be expected that the resolution measured on the 35 mm release print (or on the answer print) will suffer some reduction when the print is projected in a movie theater, due to the passage of the image through the projector mechanism and lens Indeed, this was confirmed by the subjective assessment tests. They have shown the following. • There was quite a spread in the resolution performance of the six selected movie theaters where the assessment tests were performed. • There was also some spread in the resolution performance of each selected movie theater, when measured at various points of the screen. • The highest resolution that the expert assessors could still discern in the sharpest part of the screen (not necessarily in its center) in the most performing movie theater was about 875 lines/PH. • The average resolution in the sharpest part of their screen of the six movie theaters was about 750 lines/PH. • The highest resolution averaged over the eight multiburst groups measured on the screens of the six selected movie theaters was about 685 lines/PH. • A wide range of resolution values will be obtained, depending on the stocks, the laboratory, the type of printer, etc. Note: The matters covered in this report are more fully treated in the following ITU-R documents. 6/149 9.20.01 35mm Cinema Film Resolution Test Report. 6-9/3Rev.13.5.02 35mm Cinema Film Resolution Test Report. Update of Part 4 of 6-9/3. 6-9/47 (Rev.2) 9.20.02. Revised Report on the status of the 35mm Answer Print Resolution Test....."