Thursday, March 1, 2007

George Lucas, You Shit Bastard.

I own one copy of each of the Star Wars movies. I, II and IV-VI on VHS (the 1997 versions of the original trilogy), and Episode III on DVD. In 2004, Episodes IV-VI were released on DVD, with shiny new CG sequences and scenes added in. There is no DVD available of the ORIGINAL original trilogy.

I don't know that I have ever seen the ORIGINAL trilogy, at least not that I can remember.

In 1997, with the opening of Episode I came the new VHS versions of A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.
Here is a scene from that version of Episode IV:


And here is what appeared on the one and ONLY DVD release of the film in 2004:


Just compare those two. Just look at one, and then look at the other. Digest it. Let it marinate in your brain.

Han vs. Greedo:
How many shots were fired, and who shot first?

Originally, Han fired the first and only shot. In 1997, Lucas decided he did not like this. He changed it, so that, from about a foot away, Greedo fires and misses, followed by Han shooting and killing Greedo. This was later changed so that the shots were even closer together chronologically, and, finally, in 2004, Han Solo is digitally leaned over, dodging Greedo's shot. This creeps me out.

Now, I see here that a DVD was released in 2006, featuring two versions of at least the first film, and I would guess the two original sequels as well. It has the original theatrical version, as well as the 2004 changes. I hate Lucas less now.

2 comments:

Nathan Veliz said...

George Lucas released episode IV-VI unaltered, or the OT(Orginal Trilogy) for all my Star Wars purists out there, in 2006. I remember when I was still a fairly active member on TheForce.net forums, there were constant rumors that Lucas had like fuckin' destroyed all the copies of the OT in favor of his precious CGI version, and the only remaining copies were on Laserdisc.

Personally, I can't stand the CGI addins(being a purist myself.) Especially the whole Solo dodging Greedo's blast. It ruins the mythology behind him, it's said that in ever blaster duel, he's ever been in he's never given the opponent the chance to shoot.

I have the Ot in boxset form because I love me some Space Opera action!

Ben Cannon said...

YES. The movies were pretty damn KICKASS to begin with, (or so I hear, I don't think I've seen them,) why mess with that?

("If it's not Baroque, don't fix it! A-hah, a-hah.")