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That sound you hear? Hell freezing over

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 12:12 am
by Xenu

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 7:41 am
by Rspaight
Holy shit -- I'm genuinely surprised. I'll pick these up so I can retire my LD dubs. It's a bit of a screwing that you have to get the 2004 versions over again, but as long as the sets aren't $30 each or something, that's not a huge deal.

Of course, will Star Wars be the actual 1977 version or the 1979 revision with the "Episode IV" title? My money's on the latter.

Ryan

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 7:52 am
by lukpac
1979 revision?

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:12 am
by Rspaight
1979 revision?


The original 1977 release didn't say "Episode IV -- A New Hope" at the beginning. There may have been a couple of other extremely minor differences (sound mix changes or something). When they re-released it in 1979 as part of the run-up to Empire in 1980, they added "Episode IV -- A New Hope" to the opening crawl. So, if you really wanted to be hypertechnical, the ORIGINAL version of Star Wars hasn't been seen since then. And that's not even getting into the differences between the 70mm, 35mm, 6-track, stereo and mono prints.

It makes the Beatles Capitol albums look straightforward. The point being, there really is no Platonic ideal form of the first Star Wars movie.

Having skimmed the first few pages of the Home Theater Forum thread, apparently the press release originally promised the 1977 version of the opening crawl (sans "Episode IV"), but that sentence (which also talked about some other differences) no longer appears in the release Xenu linked to.

Ryan

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 8:46 am
by lukpac
Ahh. I had thought all of that language was added when work on the prequels began.

I never got the current DVDs, so this might work out well.

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:14 am
by lukpac
It does still mention this, BTW:

"Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie and, as bonus material, the theatrical edition of the film. That means you'll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983."

Guess we'll see.

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:19 am
by Rspaight
I've got the box they released in 2004, and the bonus disc has some cool stuff on it, including a GREAT documentary. I'll probably just swap out the three movie discs in the box for these new two-disc sets, and have a truly definitive seven-disc set. Whoo-hoo.

Ryan

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:25 am
by Rspaight
Here's the missing sentence (found here):

See the title crawl to "Star Wars" before it was known as "Episode IV"; see the pioneering, if dated, motion control model work on the attack on the Death Star; groove to Lapti Nek or the Ewok Celebration song like you did when you were a kid; and yes, see Han Solo shoot first.


Ryan

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 10:18 am
by MK
thank GOD

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 11:43 am
by Xenu
Rspaight wrote:Here's the missing sentence (found here):

See the title crawl to "Star Wars" before it was known as "Episode IV"; see the pioneering, if dated, motion control model work on the attack on the Death Star; groove to Lapti Nek or the Ewok Celebration song like you did when you were a kid; and yes, see Han Solo shoot first.


Ryan


Wow...I'm surprised that they deleted that.

Of course, even the above simplifies the issue; films, apparently, are oftentimes leagues more nightmarish variation-wise than albums! With Star Wars, you have several slight visual variations, but the more important variations come from the varying mixes of the soundtrack. A "true" deluxe version of Star Wars would include all five or 6 different mixes done throughout the year.

What I'm curious about, of course, is whether they used the original mono mix (doubtful, given the Dolby 2.0 stereo designation) with Aunt Beru Mk I, which I've always been curious to hear--mostly because the dubbing in of the new actress isn't done in a terribly seamless manner.

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 9:23 pm
by Beatlesfan03
Xenu wrote:What I'm curious about, of course, is whether they used the original mono mix (doubtful, given the Dolby 2.0 stereo designation) with Aunt Beru Mk I, which I've always been curious to hear--mostly because the dubbing in of the new actress isn't done in a terribly seamless manner.


Well if the discs are bare bones, couldn't they offer the 2.0 and mono as an option?

And speaking of Dolby 2.0 when Lucas issued the Trilogy on LD for the last time, weren't they 5.1 or no? Is 2.0 the "definitive" way to hear these movies? I still have my VHS copies from the last reissue prior to all the special edition crap so the 2.0 doesn't bother me. I guess I would just be surprised they wouldn't give a 5.1 option if it was previously available.

Posted: Thu May 04, 2006 10:32 pm
by Xenu
Beatlesfan03 wrote:Well if the discs are bare bones, couldn't they offer the 2.0 and mono as an option?


Well, bare bones implies that they probably wouldn't go through the effort. I wouldn't be surprised if they just pulled LD masters of these, given the obvious contempt Lucas has for 'em.

Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 7:46 am
by Rspaight
Well, bare bones implies that they probably wouldn't go through the effort. I wouldn't be surprised if they just pulled LD masters of these, given the obvious contempt Lucas has for 'em.


From what I hear, that's exactly what we're going to get. One article quoted on HTF says the sources for these date from 1993, which is when the THX LD box came out -- so that's probably what these are (and might explain the deletion of the reference to the 1977 version of the crawl).

My understanding is that whatever original film elements existed for the first film were in bad shape and were dismantled during the creation of the 1997 SE. So for that movie, the 1993 LD master might be the best source available, absent a massive restoration/reconstruction effort. The other two, though, might be easier to "remaster."

The important thing I took away from the press release is that these are first and foremost individual releases of the 2004 versions from the previous DVD boxes. The inclusion of the "original original" version is referred to as a bonus feature.

And speaking of Dolby 2.0 when Lucas issued the Trilogy on LD for the last time, weren't they 5.1 or no?


The last version of the "original original" trilogy (the "THX LDs") were Dolby Prologic encoded stereo. The Special Edition LDs in 1997 were 5.1.

And finally, quoting myself:

I'll pick these up so I can retire my LD dubs. It's a bit of a screwing that you have to get the 2004 versions over again, but as long as the sets aren't $30 each or something, that's not a huge deal.


Sounds like the retail price is indeed going to be $30 apiece. Ulp. But I'm sure they'll be widely available for $19.99 each on release.

Ryan

Posted: Sat May 06, 2006 12:50 am
by krabapple
you know, you really *shouldn't* care so much about this, guys.

Posted: Wed May 17, 2006 4:29 pm
by MK
Hell just thawed out.

http://www.digitalbits.com/#mytwocents

We've confirmed something that we'd begun to suspect... and it's probably going to disappoint a lot of you. It certainly disappoints us here at The Bits. Those new DVD editions of the Star Wars films? The original theatrical versions of the films are going to be non-anamorphic (our original post on this indicated otherwise, but we have confirmed that the widescreen versions will be letterboxed only). What this likely means is that Lucasfilm has simply re-purposed the previous non-anamorphic transfers that were done back in 1995 for the last laserdisc and VHS release of the "original" versions of the films. And with that, our enthusiasm for this DVD release has just dropped through the floor. Anamorphic-enhanced versions of the theatrical editions, we'd buy in a heartbeat. But what we're going to get instead is little better than a ported-over laserdisc. In this day and age, releasing a widescreen film without anamorphic enhancement on DVD is just unacceptable. Does Lucasfilm really think fans want those versions of the films on DVD so badly that people just won't care? Yes Virginia, they do. How many versions of these films do you suppose Lucasfilm will try to get fans to buy in high-def over the coming years? And think about it... you just know the studio has to be prepping yet another standard DVD release for next year's 30th Anniversary of the original Star Wars. Do you suppose this means that the theatrical editions won't be included in the super-über box set of all six films? Probably. Ugh.

Line up like Jersey cows and grease up yer teats, Force fans. Or better yet... run for the south forty as fast as your hooves'll carry you. Stampede!