ROTTEN TOMATOES: Lucas Gives In To Demands of the Dark Side -- Er, Rabid Fans

Lucas Gives In To Demands of the Dark Side -- Er, Rabid Fans

by Scott Weinberg | May 04, 2006

Remember all that geekboy hullabullo a few years back when it was announced that the Original Trilogy ("Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back," "Return of the Jedi") would be released on DVD ONLY in their new-fangled special edition form? (And I'm not knocking the geekboys, mainly because I was one of the complainers.) Well, it seems that George Lucas has reversed his "lifetime ban" on the uncut OT. The unrejiggered Star Wars trilogy is finally coming to DVD.

From the official Star Wars website: "In response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie, as well as the original 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.

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.

This release will only be available for a limited time: from September 12th to December 31st. International release will follow on or about the same day. Each original theatrical version will feature Dolby 2.0 Surround sound, close-captioning, and subtitles in English, French and Spanish for their U.S. release. International sound and subtitling vary by territory.

"Over the years, a truly countless number of fans have told us that they would love to see and own the original version that they remember experiencing in theaters," said Jim Ward, President of LucasArts and Senior Vice President of Lucasfilm Ltd. "We returned to the Lucasfilm Archives to search exhaustively for source material that could be presented on DVD. This is something that we're very excited to be able to give to fans in response to their continuing enthusiasm for Star Wars."

Oh, and if you have a few extra dollars for Uncle George, the "Lego Star Wars 2" video game will be released on the same day.

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(1-20 of 35 posts) | Reply

bacoby13 writes:
on May 04 2006 06:19 AM

I can't believe no one has commented on this yet!
Freak!
Best. News. Ever....

(Reply to this)

Banana Kid writes:
on May 04 2006 06:25 AM

About damn time. Lucas likes money, and this is going to sell like crazy. Maybe if I ever take a break from Lego Star Wars 2, I'll give it a watch.

(Reply to this)

adml_shake writes:
on May 04 2006 06:27 AM

[b]about time....[/b]
awesome, I wish they'd done that the first time around, but i'm still happy to hear it.

(Reply to this)

Rubin Safaya writes:
on May 04 2006 06:27 AM

I'm just wondering if this means they're being released without at least a good digital cleanup on the sound and picture. I personally can do without the matte lines around the model ships.

(Reply to this)

SpikesInMySkull writes:
on May 04 2006 06:40 AM

Awesome... now all we need is Lucas to come out and finally admit, "I am an idiot and hack. All of the sucess I acheived was do to the creativity and talents of the truely great talents I was worked with through my career. Star Wars is NOT in fact "my thing" as I have said on numerous occasions, but was a team effort that to which I contributed the original vague idea, but that was fleshed out it what it is by people who actually have a clue. This is in fact why Episodes 1-3 sucked. Because I was given (by myself) Carte-Blanche on these pictures no innovation was required (as with the original trilogy), and further because I have declared myself God of not only the Star Wars universe but in fact the entertainment industry I am no longer willing to accept creative inputs or artistic expression from anyone but myself when filming, hense moments such as when Harrison Ford changed the line to "I know" are no longer possible, and as such I apologize to Natalie, Ewan and Haden, who are all actually quite talented, for making them looking like complete douches. Furthermore, I acknowlege that disowning the theatrical version of the Star Wars films, which are only the basis of my career and perhaps the most important works of modern Science Fiction, is the epitomy of conceit. Oh, and in case you haven't figured it out by now, I finally came to terms with the fact that DVD is catching on."

(Reply to this)

sokiveta.com writes:
on May 04 2006 07:02 AM

In reply to this comment (#835126)
[b]I sort of agree[/b]
I think Lucas is very talented, but what made the first set of Star Wars movies so good was the experience of those around him. I think Lucas was lucky to have so much talent surrounding him, and I�m talking more about the film crew, than the actors. They really helped him mold that raw talent into very good movies.

Then, the second set of Star Wars movies were so bad because Lucas was too powerful and didn't listen to any criticism. He was finally able to do exactly what he wanted to do and didn't care what anyone else thought.

(Reply to this)

lonechicken writes:
on May 04 2006 07:06 AM

Might as well wait for these untampered ep.4-6 to come out on the winning format between HD-DVD and Blueray. What's the point of getting them now on plain DVD?

(Reply to this)

dracus writes:
on May 04 2006 07:30 AM

I enjoyed the original versions as they were being released in the theaters but to be honest I've enjoyed the updated cleaned up special effects versions better and I've never really understood what the ruckus was about. If these movies were tinkered with by anyone other than George Lucas, I could understand. BUT the Star Wars movies belong to him, not us, and it's his right to do with them as he pleases. George Lucas has to be sitting home scratching his head in amazement over this and throwing his arms in the air in glee over the unexpected bundle of cash he's going to get by doing so. Anyway, I'm pleased with his improvements and have no interest in paying for or even viewing 'what I believe' are the inferior 1970's versions.

(Reply to this)

dracus writes:
on May 04 2006 07:50 AM

[b]LOOKING FOR ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS[/b]
If a movie hasn't been filmed in HD, how can it be any better on the new HD DVD systems? And if so, how much of a difference can the quality be?

(Reply to this)

Jeliel� writes:
on May 04 2006 07:56 AM

[b]GREAT NEWS[/b]
That's just FANTASTIC NEWS. The orignals were so much better than the re-touched ones. Now I'll buy the trilogy. Otherwise it would have been banned from my shelf.

(Reply to this)

sr78 writes:
on May 04 2006 08:06 AM

[quote]If a movie hasn't been filmed in HD, how can it be any better on the new HD DVD systems? And if so, how much of a difference can the quality be?[/quote]

Resolution of analog film is a lot higher than DVD (480 lines), even higher than HD resolution (1080 lines), namely up to 3000 lines (6K lines horizontally); thus all analog films will benefit greatly from an HD transfer.

Ironically, movies that are shot digitally like the Star Wars prequels are recorded at 1080 lines (2k horizontally, 1920x1080). While it is possible to shoot at 4k now, this means that analog film is still superior. When we get high res screens that display over 4k (somewhere in the region of 4000x2000 pixels), analog transfers will be the way to go, and those nifty digitally shot movies will lag behind ;)

(Reply to this)

dracus writes:
on May 04 2006 08:26 AM

In reply to this comment (#835132)
I appreciate your answer, thanks sr78

(Reply to this)

dylan21484nj writes:
on May 04 2006 08:27 AM

good news. i loved the "untinkered" versions, although i didn't mind the changes (except putting the young Anakin in at the end of Jedi, that's the only one that bugged me... and maybe Han not shooting first too), and i'm glad we'll finally get DVD versions of the movies without "Uncle George's" meddling.

(Reply to this)

Delta-Cain writes:
on May 04 2006 08:35 AM

I'm not sure I actually want to buy another version of the OT. This will be the 5th version I've bought. Honestly, this makes me seriously consider buying the bootleg DVDs of the original version of the OT. I will get Lego: Star Wars 2 though.

(Reply to this)

rockstarfrank writes:
on May 04 2006 10:02 AM

Great now what am I going to do with my lazer disc DVD bootlegs? HA!

Well, It's about damn time! Great news!

(Reply to this)

ndjarnag writes:
on May 04 2006 10:39 AM

Lucas may not be considered a great director, but he is a good business man...

(Reply to this)

cabezone writes:
on May 04 2006 12:22 PM

In reply to this comment (#835134)
I'd like a version that just changes the shooting scene back to Solo firing first, otherwise I prefer the altered versions.

(Reply to this)

Eternity writes:
on May 04 2006 12:36 PM

They should just release the 1997 version on DVD.

(Reply to this)

TheIceGhost writes:
on May 04 2006 01:25 PM

[b]cool..[/b]
I'm happy they are doing this, not because its "the way it should be", but so all the 45 year olds will stop whinning. I'm a "new-age" Star Wars fan, hence, Ep. I, II, III, and the Special Edition. I watch the unrevised ones and it makes me cringe, some of the stuff is just so dated, I prefer the newer ones. And Han shooting first just felt weird to me first time I saw it. I love the old ones, Empire is still my favorite although in my opinion Revenge is right behind it, but I like the changes on the current IV thru VI DVD. It is clean, it matches and molds with the new ones better with the added effects, and to me gives an all around better experience. Really if anything I think they need to make MORE changes to better match up the first three, making it look like one big epic story (visually) than having all this ridiculous action stuff from the first three only to have it toned down in the next three. Han shooting first is way cool (once I got use to it heh), but I actually like the reasoning as to why George changed it in the first place better (Han isn't a murderer...makes sense). I like Hayden in the end of Jedi, to me it adds closure and ties things together better, esp. after Episode III. Even making Yoda digital in Empire and Jedi wouldn't bother me TOO much, although I can see the backlash from somethin like that now...I dunno, I just hope after it comes out the moaning and groaning finally stops! Happy May 4th!

(Reply to this)

cabezone writes:
on May 04 2006 02:01 PM

In reply to this comment (#835140)
Han is a thug and a drug runner, it's makes perfect sense for him to shoot first. You don't survive running drugs by shooting second.

(Reply to this)

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