George Lucas Ruins Star Wars Again, by Kyle Anderson
by
·
The recent news about the further changes George Lucas has made to his Star Wars saga for the Blu-ray release has troubled most fans. This is a case of someone not being able to leave well-enough alone. Every time he’s re-released the original trilogy, several times at this point, he’s tinkered with or added things that frankly don’t need to be there. In 1997, Lucas released the Special Editions of the original trilogy with huge amounts of CGI and music added or changed, in some cases entire scenes that didn’t make it into the initial release. Among the most storied and egregious of these changes are putting a computer-generated Jabba the Hutt in a scene where Han Solo has to walk around the originally humanoid character (isn’t it so funny that he steps on Jabba’s tail and nobody cares?) and the hideous inclusion of Greedo shooting first, which completely undercuts the coolness of Han Solo. It’s one thing to smooth out effects that initially were shoddy, but to clutter up the frame with a lot of out-of-place computer graphics is just showing off.But that’s not even the whole of it. When the original trilogy was released on DVD some years ago, Lucas again updated the added CGI from the Special Editions as well as changing a number of elements to make them more in line with his God-awful prequel trilogy, including changing Boba Fett’s voice to that of actor Temeura Morrison and replacing the older Anakin ghost in Return of the Jedi with young Anakin from Revenge of the Sith. In some ways, these versions were superior to the Special Editions, but that sort of isn’t the point. Now, the Blu-rays have been announced for all six films and yet again there are a slew of changes, to everything this time. Most of the changes are minor, like sound effects changes, but there’s also the complete changing of The Phantom Menace’s horrible puppet Yoda to a CGI one like we saw in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. This change specifically doesn’t bother me all that much, given that the Yoda puppet did look terrible and he doesn’t do a whole lot in the first film anyway.A large number of fans are upset that the changes are happening, and while I don’t think any of them were strictly necessary, I don’t really have a problem with Lucas changing anything. They’re his films and if he wants to ruin them, he should have the right to do so. Not every filmmaker has the opportunity to continually “fix” (read: screw up) their work, so if they feel it’s necessary, have at it. My objection is to making these versions the only versions available. This goes for every filmmaker who puts out a director’s cut at the cost of having the theatrical cut available as well. If the fear is that no one will buy the new version if the originals are available, I can tell you that’s both untrue and ridiculous. If people are fans of the films or the director, they’ll probably want to get both or all versions. We’re nerds for shit’s sake; we want nothing more than to have everything.A few years ago, Lucas released the original trilogy with both the updated DVD versions and the original theatrical cuts, however those releases were not digitally remastered in any way and were essentially the VHS versions but on DVD. That smacked of someone saying “Fine, you want these? Well here they are. They look and sound like shit on your big awesome TVs, but if you want them, here they are.” They were inferior releases of the film, but people still bought them because people like to have everything. There still has never been a proper DVD release of the theatrical versions of the original trilogy.It’s not as though there hasn’t been precedent set for this type of thing. The Lord of the Rings films were given both theatrical and extended releases and both can stand on their own. Fans will undoubtedly prefer one to the other, but that’s not for Peter Jackson or anyone else to dictate. Most films now will come out with a theatrical version first and then a few months later come out with a director’s or unrated cut. The release of classic “Doctor Who” stories is also a good example of the right way to do it. Some stories have what have been regarded as really awful special effects, even for the 70s or 80s when they were made. What 2 Entertain, the DVD releasing arm of the BBC, has done is offer both cleaned-up broadcast versions as well as a version with improved special effects or sound or what have you as a second viewing option. It has been left to the viewer to decide which version they would like to watch.The best example is Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Since its initial release in 1982, there have been several versions of the film, as Scott likes to recut it every few years just for the shit of it. When he came out with “The Final Cut” in 2007 (though I think an even finaler cut now exists somewhere), it was released in a huge set along with the theatrical release, the initial work print, and the first director’s cut. Four completely separate versions of the film to compare, contrast, and enjoy. Obviously, the “Final Cut” is Scott’s preferred version, as it’s the closest to what he would have liked the film to be in 1982, but he isn’t forcing that version upon us and if people would rather watch the theatrical cut, they have the opportunity to do so, and everything is hunky dory.George Lucas has created a world unlike any other, one that we’re still talking about nearly 35 years later, but future generations are not going to get to experience the same film that we adult fans grew up watching. Personally, I’d like to see a version of the prequel trilogy that tries to adhere to the original trilogy and not vice-versa. Maybe with stories that mean something and characters that make relatable choices. I realize this is a pipe dream, but still. This is a plea to all filmmakers who were unhappy with the initial releases of their films and want to change it: Don’t deny us the ability to experience everything. Once something is out in the ether, it exists and should be up to us to embrace or discard. You can make as many versions of your film as you’d like, but let us decide which we’d like to watch.
Agreed… George Lucas’ tinkering seems less of a case of, hey, “lets add some new material as a bonus for the fans” (I actually think that the deleted scene with han and jabba, though a bit silly, is a perfectly fun little piece of fan-bonus which doesn’t detract from the films), and more of a case of some deep rooted insecurity in his own abilities as a film-maker. Since he seems to HATE everything he’s done except Star Wars and Indiana Jones, since audiences seemed to as well. Even though THX-1138 is a FAR superior science fiction film to any of the Star Wars films, and American Graffiti is more human than anything he’s ever done (and a success in its own right).
Part of the problem is that Star Wars came out in an age before home video. The concept of ‘owning’ a film on some home format was a foreign notion. You could ‘watch’ it many times in a theatre, but it wasn’t designed for viewing and pausing and re-viewing. I don’t think George (or his ego or self-esteem) was ready for his work to fall under such close scrutiny.
In about thirty years time, when we’re buying films on illuminated micro-fibre information sticks for projection in a fully immersive 5-d home holo-deck environment, I suspect he’ll recut ALL of the Star Wars films again, prequels included, and overhaul ALL of the effects from the ground up. And it’ll still look fake.
It kills me that he won’t release the original trilogy in it’s original form. I’m dying to see how beautiful the Blu’s will look but I absolutely refuse to give him any more of my money.
Are the original, non-childhood-rapey version of Episodes IV-VI available on DVD anywhere? I have dim memories of having them in a VHS box set when I was a kid, which was the last time I think I watched any of them. Hopefully, the answer isn’t “Noooooooooooooooo!”
@Mattallica – The dvds which came out around 2004, with badly photoshopped covers, have a ‘bonus’ disc which includes each of the original films, though they’re letterboxed and not anamorphic, and the quality is actually worse than the laserdisc version. Also worth noting that the “A New Hope” ‘original’ one isn’t the original 1977 film, its the SLIGHTLY different 1981 version, so it has a few different vocal takes, a couple of other minor edits, the addition of “episode IV: a new Hope” in the crawl, and a different voice for Aunt Beru among other things)
I think they should let him keep tinkering. It’s always a good laugh to hear people shouting about how outraged they are about his actions.
The only problem is that instead of pitchforks and torches, the angry mob brings cash and credit cards to drown the monster in money.
George Lucas created these chracters and he should be able to do whatever he wants with them. If the first attempt at tweaking the films ended in disaster, he might have stopped, but it didn’t.
I’m hoping for a restoration of the X-Mas special in 3-D with a special appearance by Boba Fett.
The recent news about the further changes George Lucas has made to his Star Wars saga for the Blu-ray release has troubled most fans. This is a case of someone not being able to leave well-enough alone. Every time he’s re-released the original trilogy, several times at this point, he’s tinkered with or added things that frankly don’t need to be there. In 1997, Lucas released the Special Editions of the original trilogy with huge amounts of CGI and music added or changed, in some cases entire scenes that didn’t make it into the initial release. Among the most storied and egregious of these changes are putting a computer-generated Jabba the Hutt in a scene where Han Solo has to walk around the originally humanoid character (isn’t it so funny that he steps on Jabba’s tail and nobody cares?) and the hideous inclusion of Greedo shooting first, which completely undercuts the coolness of Han Solo. It’s one thing to smooth out effects that initially were shoddy, but to clutter up the frame with a lot of out-of-place computer graphics is just showing off.But that’s not even the whole of it. When the original trilogy was released on DVD some years ago, Lucas again updated the added CGI from the Special Editions as well as changing a number of elements to make them more in line with his God-awful prequel trilogy, including changing Boba Fett’s voice to that of actor Temeura Morrison and replacing the older Anakin ghost in Return of the Jedi with young Anakin from Revenge of the Sith. In some ways, these versions were superior to the Special Editions, but that sort of isn’t the point. Now, the Blu-rays have been announced for all six films and yet again there are a slew of changes, to everything this time. Most of the changes are minor, like sound effects changes, but there’s also the complete changing of The Phantom Menace’s horrible puppet Yoda to a CGI one like we saw in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. This change specifically doesn’t bother me all that much, given that the Yoda puppet did look terrible and he doesn’t do a whole lot in the first film anyway.A large number of fans are upset that the changes are happening, and while I don’t think any of them were strictly necessary, I don’t really have a problem with Lucas changing anything. They’re his films and if he wants to ruin them, he should have the right to do so. Not every filmmaker has the opportunity to continually “fix” (read: screw up) their work, so if they feel it’s necessary, have at it. My objection is to making these versions the only versions available. This goes for every filmmaker who puts out a director’s cut at the cost of having the theatrical cut available as well. If the fear is that no one will buy the new version if the originals are available, I can tell you that’s both untrue and ridiculous. If people are fans of the films or the director, they’ll probably want to get both or all versions. We’re nerds for shit’s sake; we want nothing more than to have everything.A few years ago, Lucas released the original trilogy with both the updated DVD versions and the original theatrical cuts, however those releases were not digitally remastered in any way and were essentially the VHS versions but on DVD. That smacked of someone saying “Fine, you want these? Well here they are. They look and sound like shit on your big awesome TVs, but if you want them, here they are.” They were inferior releases of the film, but people still bought them because people like to have everything. There still has never been a proper DVD release of the theatrical versions of the original trilogy.It’s not as though there hasn’t been precedent set for this type of thing. The Lord of the Rings films were given both theatrical and extended releases and both can stand on their own. Fans will undoubtedly prefer one to the other, but that’s not for Peter Jackson or anyone else to dictate. Most films now will come out with a theatrical version first and then a few months later come out with a director’s or unrated cut. The release of classic “Doctor Who” stories is also a good example of the right way to do it. Some stories have what have been regarded as really awful special effects, even for the 70s or 80s when they were made. What 2 Entertain, the DVD releasing arm of the BBC, has done is offer both cleaned-up broadcast versions as well as a version with improved special effects or sound or what have you as a second viewing option. It has been left to the viewer to decide which version they would like to watch.The best example is Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Since its initial release in 1982, there have been several versions of the film, as Scott likes to recut it every few years just for the shit of it. When he came out with “The Final Cut” in 2007 (though I think an even finaler cut now exists somewhere), it was released in a huge set along with the theatrical release, the initial work print, and the first director’s cut. Four completely separate versions of the film to compare, contrast, and enjoy. Obviously, the “Final Cut” is Scott’s preferred version, as it’s the closest to what he would have liked the film to be in 1982, but he isn’t forcing that version upon us and if people would rather watch the theatrical cut, they have the opportunity to do so, and everything is hunky dory.George Lucas has created a world unlike any other, one that we’re still talking about nearly 35 years later, but future generations are not going to get to experience the same film that we adult fans grew up watching. Personally, I’d like to see a version of the prequel trilogy that tries to adhere to the original trilogy and not vice-versa. Maybe with stories that mean something and characters that make relatable choices. I realize this is a pipe dream, but still. This is a plea to all filmmakers who were unhappy with the initial releases of their films and want to change it: Don’t deny us the ability to experience everything. Once something is out in the ether, it exists and should be up to us to embrace or discard. You can make as many versions of your film as you’d like, but let us decide which we’d like to watch.
Agreed… George Lucas’ tinkering seems less of a case of, hey, “lets add some new material as a bonus for the fans” (I actually think that the deleted scene with han and jabba, though a bit silly, is a perfectly fun little piece of fan-bonus which doesn’t detract from the films), and more of a case of some deep rooted insecurity in his own abilities as a film-maker. Since he seems to HATE everything he’s done except Star Wars and Indiana Jones, since audiences seemed to as well. Even though THX-1138 is a FAR superior science fiction film to any of the Star Wars films, and American Graffiti is more human than anything he’s ever done (and a success in its own right).
Part of the problem is that Star Wars came out in an age before home video. The concept of ‘owning’ a film on some home format was a foreign notion. You could ‘watch’ it many times in a theatre, but it wasn’t designed for viewing and pausing and re-viewing. I don’t think George (or his ego or self-esteem) was ready for his work to fall under such close scrutiny.
In about thirty years time, when we’re buying films on illuminated micro-fibre information sticks for projection in a fully immersive 5-d home holo-deck environment, I suspect he’ll recut ALL of the Star Wars films again, prequels included, and overhaul ALL of the effects from the ground up. And it’ll still look fake.
It kills me that he won’t release the original trilogy in it’s original form. I’m dying to see how beautiful the Blu’s will look but I absolutely refuse to give him any more of my money.
Are the original, non-childhood-rapey version of Episodes IV-VI available on DVD anywhere? I have dim memories of having them in a VHS box set when I was a kid, which was the last time I think I watched any of them. Hopefully, the answer isn’t “Noooooooooooooooo!”
@Mattallica – The dvds which came out around 2004, with badly photoshopped covers, have a ‘bonus’ disc which includes each of the original films, though they’re letterboxed and not anamorphic, and the quality is actually worse than the laserdisc version. Also worth noting that the “A New Hope” ‘original’ one isn’t the original 1977 film, its the SLIGHTLY different 1981 version, so it has a few different vocal takes, a couple of other minor edits, the addition of “episode IV: a new Hope” in the crawl, and a different voice for Aunt Beru among other things)
I think they should let him keep tinkering. It’s always a good laugh to hear people shouting about how outraged they are about his actions.
The only problem is that instead of pitchforks and torches, the angry mob brings cash and credit cards to drown the monster in money.
George Lucas created these chracters and he should be able to do whatever he wants with them. If the first attempt at tweaking the films ended in disaster, he might have stopped, but it didn’t.
I’m hoping for a restoration of the X-Mas special in 3-D with a special appearance by Boba Fett.