And Here's Why I Don't Have a Girlfriend....
The other day I received some awesome news courtesy of the brewer patriot: George Lucas has decided to release the original theatrical versions of the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD. This is obviously great news for anyone who wasn't thrilled with some of the changes Lucas made in the "special editions," which include the theatrical re-releases in 1997 and the DVD releases in 2004. Hearing this news, I started thinking about all of the changes that were made, and which ones I liked and which ones didn't really do it for me. And although it started with a short comment to the brewer's post, I soon realized I needed a much larger forum to fully explore this topic.
But don't think I'm gonna let the nerd factor stop at just discussing the changes. I'm gonna take it one step further. Prepare yourself. I've come up with an idea that may just blow your mind.
With the original and special editions readily available in digital format, and with the current generation of consumer video editing software and DVD burners, it will be entirely feasible to make your own cut of the films. Want Han to shoot first, but you like the Jabba hanger scene? Make it happen. Like the addition of digital starships, but you're a fan of the smaller, grittier-looking Mos Eisley? Do it. The possibilities are endless.
And the chances of me actually doing this is somewhere between "definitely" and "absolutely."
What stays and what goes? Here are my picks:
Episode IV: A New Hope
From the Special Edition: The digital starships are a huge improvement over the scale models used originally, most notably in the lead-up to the Death Star attack. The expanded Mos Eisley was also a good move to me. It actually makes the city seem like a bustling spaceport instead of a backwoods outpost. The added "Jabba hanger" scene really only gives Jabba some early face-time and introduces Boba Fett, but I'll keep it, too. The revised Death Star explosion is also an improvement.
From the Original: Han shoots first! I'm not going to get into the morality of the scene (I believe that's why it was changed...Lucas didn't think a hero character should attack unprovoked), because that is irrelevant to me. I just think they did a crappy job editing to make it look like Greedo pulled the trigger first. It's like all the action freezes for a brief - but very noticeable - moment so Greedo's blaster can go off. I can't stand the way it looks.
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
From the Special Edition: Empire was probably changed the least of the three movies in for the 1997 theatrical release, but got a much-needed upgrade with the DVD release. The holographic Emperor who contacts Darth Vader in the original was clearly not played by Ian McDiarmid, and that caused a huge continuity problem. Thankfully this was corrected, and new scene will be the one in my cut. The extended Wampa Cave scene aren't essential, but I'll keep those. The expanded Bespin was also a good move to make Cloud City actually look like a thriving metropolis.
From the Original: I think I'm going all-special on this one, although it speaks to the quality of the original that so few changes needed to be made in the first place.
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
From the Special Edition: Here's where it gets hairy. Much like A New Hope, the space battle scenes are better off with the digital ships. But that's only a small change, and there were some big ones here. Most notably, the ending. Instead of just showing the Ewoks and Rebels celebrating their victory, the special edition introduces a montage of creatures celebrating all over the galaxy. This I like, mainly from a continuity standpoint as it incorporates worlds such as Naboo and Coruscant that were only shown in the prequels. The problem is that by extending the scene, the original song would no longer fit. Not that the new song is bad, but for nostalgia purposes I say keep the visuals but lose the audio.
From the Original: The musical number in Jabba's Palace was an amusing distraction in the original. In the special edition it became a mind-numbing debacle. This scene in the revised version takes me right out of the movie. Original definitely stays. Then there's the most controversial change in Jedi: the appearance of Anakin's Force ghost. In the original, the ghostly image was portrayed by Sebastian Shaw, who played Anakin/helmet-less Vader. In the revision, Shaw was replaced with Hayden Christensen, who of course played the pre-Dark Side Anakin in the prequels.
There are a couple of problems here. First, let's look at Shaw. One running theme of the entire saga is the redemption of Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, and that redemption is complete when Vader saves Luke from the Emperor. Thus for a few brief moments - between tossing the Emperor down the bottomless shaft and his death after the heart-to-heart with Luke - he was Anakin again, and died as older man on the good side of the Force. However, as Shaw appears in the ghost scene, he is unscarred, has all his limbs, and generally appears in good health. Anakin may have been redeemed spiritually, but he was never redeemed physically.
Now look at Christensen. Having young Anakin appear as the ghost seems to indicate that he completely ceased to be Anakin when he turned to the Dark Side as a young man, and implies that he was never fully redeemed in the end. Even though this interpretation validates what Obi-wan told Luke during their first meeting, I think it kind of destroys a central theme of the film. So ideally, for me at least, Anakin should appear older, but scarred and dismembered. This isn't one of the choices though, and probably wouldn't work very well cinamatically.
With that said, I'd have to go with Shaw here. Even though Anakin never existed as an able-bodied middle-aged man, I just like thinking that in the end Anakin overtook Vader and existed once again free of the Dark Side. Plus, it's a ghost, so it can probably take any form it wants.
September 12th is the date, folks. Mark your calendars!
But don't think I'm gonna let the nerd factor stop at just discussing the changes. I'm gonna take it one step further. Prepare yourself. I've come up with an idea that may just blow your mind.
With the original and special editions readily available in digital format, and with the current generation of consumer video editing software and DVD burners, it will be entirely feasible to make your own cut of the films. Want Han to shoot first, but you like the Jabba hanger scene? Make it happen. Like the addition of digital starships, but you're a fan of the smaller, grittier-looking Mos Eisley? Do it. The possibilities are endless.
And the chances of me actually doing this is somewhere between "definitely" and "absolutely."
What stays and what goes? Here are my picks:
Episode IV: A New Hope
From the Special Edition: The digital starships are a huge improvement over the scale models used originally, most notably in the lead-up to the Death Star attack. The expanded Mos Eisley was also a good move to me. It actually makes the city seem like a bustling spaceport instead of a backwoods outpost. The added "Jabba hanger" scene really only gives Jabba some early face-time and introduces Boba Fett, but I'll keep it, too. The revised Death Star explosion is also an improvement.
From the Original: Han shoots first! I'm not going to get into the morality of the scene (I believe that's why it was changed...Lucas didn't think a hero character should attack unprovoked), because that is irrelevant to me. I just think they did a crappy job editing to make it look like Greedo pulled the trigger first. It's like all the action freezes for a brief - but very noticeable - moment so Greedo's blaster can go off. I can't stand the way it looks.
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
From the Special Edition: Empire was probably changed the least of the three movies in for the 1997 theatrical release, but got a much-needed upgrade with the DVD release. The holographic Emperor who contacts Darth Vader in the original was clearly not played by Ian McDiarmid, and that caused a huge continuity problem. Thankfully this was corrected, and new scene will be the one in my cut. The extended Wampa Cave scene aren't essential, but I'll keep those. The expanded Bespin was also a good move to make Cloud City actually look like a thriving metropolis.
From the Original: I think I'm going all-special on this one, although it speaks to the quality of the original that so few changes needed to be made in the first place.
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
From the Special Edition: Here's where it gets hairy. Much like A New Hope, the space battle scenes are better off with the digital ships. But that's only a small change, and there were some big ones here. Most notably, the ending. Instead of just showing the Ewoks and Rebels celebrating their victory, the special edition introduces a montage of creatures celebrating all over the galaxy. This I like, mainly from a continuity standpoint as it incorporates worlds such as Naboo and Coruscant that were only shown in the prequels. The problem is that by extending the scene, the original song would no longer fit. Not that the new song is bad, but for nostalgia purposes I say keep the visuals but lose the audio.
From the Original: The musical number in Jabba's Palace was an amusing distraction in the original. In the special edition it became a mind-numbing debacle. This scene in the revised version takes me right out of the movie. Original definitely stays. Then there's the most controversial change in Jedi: the appearance of Anakin's Force ghost. In the original, the ghostly image was portrayed by Sebastian Shaw, who played Anakin/helmet-less Vader. In the revision, Shaw was replaced with Hayden Christensen, who of course played the pre-Dark Side Anakin in the prequels.
There are a couple of problems here. First, let's look at Shaw. One running theme of the entire saga is the redemption of Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, and that redemption is complete when Vader saves Luke from the Emperor. Thus for a few brief moments - between tossing the Emperor down the bottomless shaft and his death after the heart-to-heart with Luke - he was Anakin again, and died as older man on the good side of the Force. However, as Shaw appears in the ghost scene, he is unscarred, has all his limbs, and generally appears in good health. Anakin may have been redeemed spiritually, but he was never redeemed physically.
Now look at Christensen. Having young Anakin appear as the ghost seems to indicate that he completely ceased to be Anakin when he turned to the Dark Side as a young man, and implies that he was never fully redeemed in the end. Even though this interpretation validates what Obi-wan told Luke during their first meeting, I think it kind of destroys a central theme of the film. So ideally, for me at least, Anakin should appear older, but scarred and dismembered. This isn't one of the choices though, and probably wouldn't work very well cinamatically.
With that said, I'd have to go with Shaw here. Even though Anakin never existed as an able-bodied middle-aged man, I just like thinking that in the end Anakin overtook Vader and existed once again free of the Dark Side. Plus, it's a ghost, so it can probably take any form it wants.
September 12th is the date, folks. Mark your calendars!
posted by jonphiwil @ 10:40 PM
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