| Thursday April 10th 2003 Today I discovered an incredibly important online petition, which I immediately signed. No no, nothing to do with Iraq, or world hunger, or 'save the panda'. I said it was incredibly important. George Lucas recently announced that only the special edition of the classic Star Wars trilogy will ever be released on DVD. That means the original theatrical releases never will. Dude, don't you get it??? The original versions - the ones that were first released to theatres in '77, '80 and '83, will never see the light of day on DVD. GL states that as far as he's concerned, they don't mean anything more to him than any prior version he edited that led up to their release - they were just one bump on the road along the way to achieving his ultimate vision in the special edition versions, and he's never looking back. He's on extremely solid moral ground, and I'm not about to challenge him in that respect. Those movies are entirely his property, and he's free to do what he likes with them. I won't concoct a 'sacrificing history' argument, because they're his property. [ Whispered Aside: But I don't buy the 'perfect vision' line. Maybe he wanted to sharpen the special effects, fine. But if you want to get nitpicky, he missed a few spots. And some things he tweaked were changes to the plot. If he'd always envisioned Greedo shooting first, he could have done that in '77 - it wasn't a question of special effects. ] But there's this petition, see, and you gotta sign it. Basically it states that yes, the trilogy is his property, and we (the fans) recognize he can do what he likes. But the original versions are what we fell in love with. They're what made the movies famous. I relived scenes from the movies as a kid over and over; I can't think 'childhood' without thinking 'Star Wars'. George has even said that was his goal: to create myths for a new generation. When I watch again, I want to say to myself 'yeah, the special effects aren't up to 200X standards ... but when I was a kid and saw THAT, that was SO COOL.' That isn't a nostalgic experience I can relive when watching the special edition versions. George, what if the '40s serials you love were 'updated' and the originals destroyed? Release your special editions - but give us the original versions too please!!! |