Star Wars is coming out on Blu Ray in September. As you can imagine, Lucas is pulling out all the stops. He also can't resist making changes, as he's done to every single release of the movies whether it be theatrical or home.
Due to the extreme number of rabid Star Wars fans (I'm a big fan, but not a rabid one) a whole underground culture has developed around these movies. One stream in that current is a large number of fans who track the various changes (good and bad) that George makes (inflicts?) upon the films.
Many people have been asking for a release of the original trilogy in it's original form. Alas, that may not be possible. Lucas has said the original negatives were in very bad shape and they were destroyed during the first restoration of the films. Film stock in the 1970's was notoriously bad and Star Wars: A New Hope was in terrible shape. The entire 70mm negative was blue. It took a major reconstruction effort to save it. Fortunately for Star Wars, the huge fan base means the profit of such a venture is guaranteed, so it was done.
Many changes were made to the original trilogy when it was re-released in theaters. Digital effects were used to fill out the various scenes in a way that could not have been done in 1977. And it's amazing what they've done. But many people hate George for that. They want to see the movies as they were shown in theaters at release. They don't want to see digital Womp Rats hopping around the streets of Mos Isley.
There was a huge controversy when for some odd reason we'll never know, Lucas changed the fight scene in the Mos Isley Cantina between Greedo and Han. In the original movie, Han fired his gun first at Greedo, Greedo then shot and missed, and died. In the modified version (and in all versions since) Greedo fires first. Was George trying to change our opinion of the rascal Han? Nobody knows, but I've seen more than one of these tee shirts on the streets:
Due to the extreme number of rabid Star Wars fans (I'm a big fan, but not a rabid one) a whole underground culture has developed around these movies. One stream in that current is a large number of fans who track the various changes (good and bad) that George makes (inflicts?) upon the films.
Many people have been asking for a release of the original trilogy in it's original form. Alas, that may not be possible. Lucas has said the original negatives were in very bad shape and they were destroyed during the first restoration of the films. Film stock in the 1970's was notoriously bad and Star Wars: A New Hope was in terrible shape. The entire 70mm negative was blue. It took a major reconstruction effort to save it. Fortunately for Star Wars, the huge fan base means the profit of such a venture is guaranteed, so it was done.
Many changes were made to the original trilogy when it was re-released in theaters. Digital effects were used to fill out the various scenes in a way that could not have been done in 1977. And it's amazing what they've done. But many people hate George for that. They want to see the movies as they were shown in theaters at release. They don't want to see digital Womp Rats hopping around the streets of Mos Isley.
There was a huge controversy when for some odd reason we'll never know, Lucas changed the fight scene in the Mos Isley Cantina between Greedo and Han. In the original movie, Han fired his gun first at Greedo, Greedo then shot and missed, and died. In the modified version (and in all versions since) Greedo fires first. Was George trying to change our opinion of the rascal Han? Nobody knows, but I've seen more than one of these tee shirts on the streets:
Some of the changes were done to correct mistakes or inconsistencies. There were many, many frames altered to remove the original matte lines in the special effect scenes that showed up so glaringly in the home releases. And several scenes showed light sabers from an angle that exposed the fact that the actors were fighting with rods. Fans have not complained about these changes because they were intended to restore the theatrical experience instead of altering it, But there were many other changes that riled feathers.
For instance, the light sabers in the original film have a white-hot core surrounded by a small band of color. In the restorations these blades were much dimmer and fully colored. That didn't go over well. They've been that way ever since.
Mistakes have been inadvertently added as well. A fan discovered something in the 2004 DVD release of A New Hope that has come to be known as the "Humdinger Glitch". It's a band of digital noise in a single frame that has now been present in every release since that time. You can't see it when you just "watch" the film, but if you stop right on that frame, well, there it is.
For instance, the light sabers in the original film have a white-hot core surrounded by a small band of color. In the restorations these blades were much dimmer and fully colored. That didn't go over well. They've been that way ever since.
Mistakes have been inadvertently added as well. A fan discovered something in the 2004 DVD release of A New Hope that has come to be known as the "Humdinger Glitch". It's a band of digital noise in a single frame that has now been present in every release since that time. You can't see it when you just "watch" the film, but if you stop right on that frame, well, there it is.
Yet with all the changes done to "fix" and "improve" things, a few glaring oversights remained. One such lingering goof is one that has been around since the beginning. In Empire Strikes Back: during the scene where the Wampa hits Luke's Tauntaun, you can see the puppeteer's arm because the costume arm didn't extend far enough. And that has remained to this day.
Well, no longer. In preparing these films for Blu Ray, Lucasfilm has scrubbed them from front to back, meticulously correcting many past errors, including the Humdinger Glitch. The Wampa arm has been corrected (note, these are not HD screenshots, they're just to illustrate the changes):
The light sabers have been restored to their original white-hot glow:
The color timing of the films has been reconstructed and now everything looks right. In the past versions you would notice color shifts in the light sabers from scene to scene. That's all corrected.
The audio has been completely rebuilt from the original magnetic masters, and remixed in lossless Dolby 6.1 channel surround. In recent releases, John Williams' score was often too buried in the mix and almost silent at times. Lucasfilm sound engineers fixed that. They also restored many effects that were supposed to be louder in the original films but were subdued due to inadequacies in sound mixing technology of the time.
But George can't leave well enough alone, and the word is he's added a few new surprises as well. We'll have to wait to see how the fan base reacts. And I'll bet Greedo still shoots first. For some reason George wants it that way. Oh well.
They've also included many, many deleted scenes that have not been seen in public before. A real fan would say that alone justifies the price of this set. For me it's the movies. I never get tired of seeing them and from what I hear, they look amazing in HD.
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