Where you left your keys ...Rick's Cafe Americain

George Lucas had a limited budget and limited technology when he made Star Wars and for years complained to anyone who listened that Star Wars was one about 1/4 of what he wanted it to be.  This left fans salivating at the prospect of what the prequels might be like, with modern special effects technology.  But before Episode I came the Special Editions and we began to get a taste of George’s “true” vision.  For the most part, the Special Editions just upgraded the technology (though oddly they didn’t upgrade the most glaring special effects error in Star Wars, where Obi Wan’s light saber nearly flickers off), such as beefing up the exploding Death Star (I liked the original one better) and there are some instances where there actually was improvement.  If Lucas had left it at that, then no problem, but he went further and actually changed the story in some places.

The worst example of this is Greedo shooting first.  One of the coolest scense in Star Wars is where Han Solo, only introduced about two minutes prior, pulls his gun under the table and blows away Greedo right before Greedo is about to blast him.  But, apparently, that is not how it was supposed to happen and it only looked that way because of inadequate special effects.  Apparently, Greedo was supposed to shoot first and miss FROM POINT BLANK RANGE and only then, after being fired upon, was Solo to blast him.  This takes a great scene and makes it into one of those, “oh come on, do you expect me to believe that crap” kind of scenes that happen every five minutes in the Matrix sequels.  Lucas got lucky in that his original intentions did not come across.  But, rather than accepting this blessing, Lucas changed the movie to put back HIS vision.

There are other examples and what they all demonstrate is that Lucas simply does not get that the creator of art does not keep sole ownership of it once it is released into the wilds.  Art (whether it be written, drawn, filmed or performed) can take on a life of its own once it is made available to the world and, in my opinion, that is often one of the marks of great art, people take it and make it their own.  To then take that art and alter it long after it has had its impact (especially in a substantive rather than superficial way) is pretty fucking arrogant.

But, making an alternative version of something can be acceptable and director’s cuts have a strong history in cinema (though the Special Editions cannot really be considered director’s cuts), so while I think the substantive changes demonstrated that Lucas got lucky in many ways with Star Wars, the original is still there for everyone to enjoy if they so choose.  But this decision takes away that option and that is unacceptable.

I can speak from experience that watching a well done DVD on a wide screen plasma home theater system that projects at the exact pixel rate of DVDs absolutely blows away the VCR experience.  Lucas’ decision to not release the original trilogy movies on DVD effectively excludes them and diminishes them to a 2nd class existence on 2nd (or 3rd) class technology.  And in case there is any confusion on this, consider this quote:

“The original versions technically don’t exist,” says Lucasfilm’s Jim Ward, who is the project’s executive producer. “(Lucas) wanted to represent the films as they exist in his mind, and that’s the special-editions versions.”

Lucas could have easily thrown the Originals into a DVD set along with the Special Editions.  The recently released Aliens mega-pack contained multiple different versions of the movie.  Or Lucas could have sold them separately and probably made a lot more money.  This is not an economic decision, but a principled one.  And it shows that George Lucas is an arrogant fucking asshole.  If there was anything I would ever consider stealing so I would have the satisfaction that he would not get my money it would be this.

I just hope that Lucas will listen to his die hard fans.  The ones that made Star Wars what it is (or, perhaps I should say, was), get down off his pedestal and reconsider his decision.

George Lucas had a limited budget and limited technology when he made Star Wars and for years complained to anyone who listened that Star Wars was one about 1/4 of what he wanted it to be.  This left fans salivating at the prospect of what the prequels might be like, with modern special effects technology.  But before Episode I came the Special Editions and we began to get a taste of George’s “true” vision.  For the most part, the Special Editions just upgraded the technology (though oddly they didn’t upgrade the most glaring special effects error in Star Wars, where Obi Wan’s light saber nearly flickers off), such as beefing up the exploding Death Star (I liked the original one better) and there are some instances where there actually was improvement.  If Lucas had left it at that, then no problem, but he went further and actually changed the story in some places.

The worst example of this is Greedo shooting first.  One of the coolest scense in Star Wars is where Han Solo, only introduced about two minutes prior, pulls his gun under the table and blows away Greedo right before Greedo is about to blast him.  But, apparently, that is not how it was supposed to happen and it only looked that way because of inadequate special effects.  Apparently, Greedo was supposed to shoot first and miss FROM POINT BLANK RANGE and only then, after being fired upon, was Solo to blast him.  This takes a great scene and makes it into one of those, “oh come on, do you expect me to believe that crap” kind of scenes that happen every five minutes in the Matrix sequels.  Lucas got lucky in that his original intentions did not come across.  But, rather than accepting this blessing, Lucas changed the movie to put back HIS vision.

There are other examples and what they all demonstrate is that Lucas simply does not get that the creator of art does not keep sole ownership of it once it is released into the wilds.  Art (whether it be written, drawn, filmed or performed) can take on a life of its own once it is made available to the world and, in my opinion, that is often one of the marks of great art, people take it and make it their own.  To then take that art and alter it long after it has had its impact (especially in a substantive rather than superficial way) is pretty fucking arrogant.

But, making an alternative version of something can be acceptable and director’s cuts have a strong history in cinema (though the Special Editions cannot really be considered director’s cuts), so while I think the substantive changes demonstrated that Lucas got lucky in many ways with Star Wars, the original is still there for everyone to enjoy if they so choose.  But this decision takes away that option and that is unacceptable.

I can speak from experience that watching a well done DVD on a wide screen plasma home theater system that projects at the exact pixel rate of DVDs absolutely blows away the VCR experience.  Lucas’ decision to not release the original trilogy movies on DVD effectively excludes them and diminishes them to a 2nd class existence on 2nd (or 3rd) class technology.  And in case there is any confusion on this, consider this quote:

“The original versions technically don’t exist,” says Lucasfilm’s Jim Ward, who is the project’s executive producer. “(Lucas) wanted to represent the films as they exist in his mind, and that’s the special-editions versions.”

Lucas could have easily thrown the Originals into a DVD set along with the Special Editions.  The recently released Aliens mega-pack contained multiple different versions of the movie.  Or Lucas could have sold them separately and probably made a lot more money.  This is not an economic decision, but a principled one.  And it shows that George Lucas is an arrogant fucking asshole.  If there was anything I would ever consider stealing so I would have the satisfaction that he would not get my money it would be this.

I just hope that Lucas will listen to his die hard fans.  The ones that made Star Wars what it is (or, perhaps I should say, was), get down off his pedestal and reconsider his decision.