Star Wars (1977) original Blu ray. Crappier than ever.

If the last couple of Star Wars films and this season of GoT has taught me anything it’s to keep my expectations low.

I don’t think there has even been confirmation that we’re getting the original cuts, is there?

 

Officially, they haven't said anything, but that's a standard thing these days. I think they're just desperately trying to get The Rise of Skywalker finished and promoted by the end of the year.

 

I'll take the news the transfertrhave been revised to mean the orginal theatrical cuts.

Of course which sound mix we're getting is another story.

 

If it were me, I'd provide a choice between the original mono theatrical mix, the original Dolby Stereo mix, and the original 70mm 6-track mix. And then also provide the final "George Lucas" re-edits on a different disc, and provide the new revised 5.1 and 7.1 mixes there. This would give fans the ability to play whatever version they prefer. Audio streams don't take up that much space on a Blu-ray (especially a 4K Blu-ray disc).

But studios are funny sometimes. I can recall talking to a Miramax exec when they were getting ready to release A Hard Day's Night (or maybe it was Help), and I suggested to them, "hey, be sure to include the original mono mix just for the crazy fans." And they said, "oh, sure, sure, we'll be doing that." And it didn't show up on the finished disc. I have no idea why, because they acted like this was a done deal.

 

Do tell! I actually didn't see the colorized HD version at all, sorry. I've had several copies of the film on VHS, some of which were horribly out of sync, then the Image DVD which had THX mastering and was cleaned up, but way too digitally sharpened.

Wait, what? The mafia was involved with NotLD? Now that's interesting! It is sad that the film was ripped off so badly. The remaster on the Criterion Edition blu-ray is truly great.

Have them vote on the best print. It is subjective, but frankly I would trust your judgment because you're a professional working with this sort of thing every day, you know things to look for. If there's an interest in preserving the original look and feel of the film, I think there will be generally great results. If the idea is to modernize it by steering the colors away from what they were, problems start to happen.

 

My wallet is ready. Seriously, I would pay for these immediately!

 

It would be awesome to play all the different versions of Star Wars and compare like that. They did it for Blade Runner, and that managed to fleece me once again (I owned it on VHS, then the director's cut on laserdisc, then the DVD, then the Blu-Ray...).

 

I'm not an orange-and-teal guy, so I generally go for what I think is a "natural" look. I try to steer things in the direction that the DP actually shot. There are situations with modern film where a harsh overall look is "superimposed" over the natural look, and that's a common technique with contemporary TV shows and films. I was looking at a Game of Thrones episode the other day and laughing, because 99% of the picture was blue/cyan, but they kept the flames in the torches very strong orange (basically as a layer effect). The problem for me with heavily-manipulated images is they start to "break" and look unnatural; you can draw a comparison to music that's been very heavily compressed and EQ'd, to the point where it starts to edge away from having any kind of natural feel to it.

There's valid creative reasons to go either way, but for classic films, I think it's important to stick with what's actually in the celluloid and not try to give it any kind of modern look. One thing I will do is try to clean up whites and blacks in ways that weren't possible 30-40 years ago, but this is actually pretty subtle (most of the time). A lot depends on how banged-up and damaged the film is, and that ties our hands in mastering to a point.

 

The Miramax AHDN DVD had only a fake 5.1 audio track that was processed out of the original mono.

 

If it's similar to the 1980s stereo remix, they dropped in the true stereo music for every song, then panned the mono around as needed for the dialogue/FX scenes. I think some or all of the 3-track DME (dialogue/music/FX) mag track has been missing for many years. It would've been trivial to include the mono, and they should've done it that way. I'm hoping that Disney/Marvel/Lucasfilm will have better sense for the eventual Star Wars releases.

 

Will the original trilogy come out on old fashioned 2K Blu-ray too? I would buy it for sure. I want my sons’ first Star Wars experience to be the non-special editions in the best possible format for our modest home theater setup.

 

According to the Digital Fix article I posted a couple of pages back, yes.

"Disney are apparently hoping to have four discs per film in the 4K set (3 in the standard Blu-ray edition) so we're expecting both 4K and Blu-ray editions of the film plus where possibly two additional discs of extra material. These additional discs will be 1080p at best although some of the material being recovered is going to be upscaled SD."
Exclusive: Disney are working on a 4K Blu-ray box set for Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (updated)

 

Sweeeeeet! The fact that the non-special edition versions were not available is one of the reasons that I held off on Blu-ray for so long.

 

I wouldn't get too excited; not only is this news completely unsubstantiated, even if it's true there's a problem;

* The 4K set will have one 2160p transfer disc, one 1080p transfer disc, and two discs of extras per film.
* The standard 1080p version will have one disc for the film and two for the extras per film.

Where does that leave room for the OT theatrical versions...? They're surely not going to put any potential OT theatrical version reissue on one Blu-ray set and not the other.

Again, this could all be hooey in a handbag, but it sounds about right; Disney/Lucasfilm simply aren't interested in the OT theatrical versions, certainly not while Kennedy is in charge... maybe not even after she departs...

 

Again, I might add. This rumor crops up about every 5 years or so.

 

Yeah, but it’s gotta happen sooner or later.

 

It most certainly does not as far as George is concerned these movies are done, done, done, and he got $4 billion to never have to mess with any of them ever again.

 

No worries - if that's truly the case then I can save my money

 

If they are not releasing the Original Theatrical as the theatrical cuts this makes the supposed Star Wars box set less appealing. First, I'm not interested on the prequels, upscaled with HDR or not, if these were sold separate I wouldn't buy them, second, even at 4K HDR I don't have much interest on the OT on the 1997 Special Edition form, but if these were sold separately I may get them. As for the new trilogy and movies, I already have The Last Jedi and Solo on UHD BD so only The Force Awakens, Rogue One (the movie I like the best since Disney took over) and the new movie are of interest to me.

 

I'll buy them if it's the original trilogy without the special edition stuff added.

 

Two hundred viewings and the "crappier than ever" title still makes me chuckle.

 

Might have been mentioned before but I watched a comparison video the other day of the added effects and scenes that Lucas/ILM added in over the years.

What struck me was how bad and amateur the compositing of the new CGI effects are. They look painted on. The color/shading/shadows/textures/animation look so awful. It's like watching some effects shots from a straight to Amazon Prime Megagator or Enormopython type movie.

Even watching the prequels a lot of the CGI shots look bad. I can watch a lot of older movies and the CGI looks fine still today.

 

Take my money!

 

I absolutely agree with you on this. The CGI on the "Special Edition" look cartoonish and only get older original practical efects to look better.
Regarding the prequels, the only one which FX hold up well is Revenge Of The Sith, the first two look awful.

 

There are always limits as to how far they can go. Note that those VFX were done more than 15 years ago. Even in modern-day VFX blockbusters, there are always several dozen composite shots that fly by that look like absolute crap. My take is that they just ran out of time and there were too many shots and not enough time to get them absolutely perfect. I can tell you there were shots in Episode 4 and Jedi where some of the new VFX went through 100 redos before Lucas was happy with them. (I can say that for a fact because the name of the shot was embedded in the frame I color-corrected back in 2004, and I was flabbergasted that the take and version numbers went so high.)

Hey, be glad they didn't use Take 1. Those really, really, really sucked. The final approved versions sucked a lot less.