back to article How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Star Wars Special Editions

I had just turned ten when Star Wars was released in the US in May 1977, but I had to wait almost a year before I got to see it – at the ABC Torquay in April 1978, since you ask. The movie didn’t premiere in Britain until December 1977, and in those days movies took a while to make it out of London and into the sticks. I was a …

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  1. eJ2095

    Suppose

    I better make do with the Xmas Edition of Star Wars for now.....

    1. Gavin Chester

      Not the dredded Holiday special

      That Lucas has reportedly said he would like to see vaporised out of existence...

      1. Alien8n

        Re: Not the dredded Holiday special

        The Grexnix Edition?

        1. Teiwaz

          Re: Not the dredded Holiday special

          They're not connected, but I always dig out Meco Christmans in the Stars album around this time of year.

          Most of it is cack, but 'what do you get a wookiee for christmas (when he already has a comb)' gets a laugh from people who've not heard it before.

          The Holiday special is note-worthy in that all the other wookiees are dressed (to some extent), begging the question, 'is Chwebacca a naturist?'

          1. PhilBuk

            Re: Not the dredded Holiday special

            I prefer the Family Guy version.

            But seriously, my first set of tapes of the real thing were the letterbox versions. These lasted several years with me skipping the specials after I heard some bad things about them. After the prequels, the DVD versions don't seem so bad now so the extra tweaking must have paid off. The DVDs also come with the rather good documentry (includes the quote from Carrie Fisher - "Every time I look in the mirror I have to give George a couple of bucks").

            Phil.

  2. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Meh

    Nope

    I can live with nicer special effects but they're not essential and are completely unnecessary if we also have to put up with the storm troopers filling a desert when looking for Luke and Obi-Wan, new alien creatures bouncing around in the background shouting "Look at me" in alien speak and everything turning a bright share of magenta in the Death Star.

    That's why I stick to the Despecialized Edition.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHfLX_TMduY

    1. chivo243 Silver badge

      Re: Nope

      Yes, I have all three original films in Despecialized Editions. A colleague also tells me there are Fan Edits without JarJar or even those silly Ewoks. I am waiting to see those! I also heard there is a Original Three all in one film version out there. Maybe I'll spend some vacation time searching for these gems...

      1. tony72

        Re: Nope

        I'll be watching the despecialised versions of episodes IV and V again this weekend and next respectively. I don't think any amount of editing can fix the rest; I did watch The Phanton Edit way back, and it was an improvement over its original, but you can only do so much.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have an early box-set of the original trilogy on VHS. No idea which version/cut they are. I might just have to dig out the player from the attic and watch them over christmas.

  4. pear

    mneh

    There's two and a half issues I think

    One is the refusal to maintain the original editions. The other is that some of the changes are just outright bad and often technically poor. The half issue is the latest blu-rays have some very strange colour grading/tint at times.

    Cleaning up/enhancing special effects I have no issue with at all. Darth Vader shouting Noooo is just ridiculous. Adding Jabba is pointless and poorly implemented.

    Replacing Lapti-nek with "Jedi Rocks" is awful, however I rather prefer the "victory celebration" music to Yub Nub. In '97 that's all they did, cool, but in more recent versions they kept adding ridiculous things on other planets and got rid of Sebastian Shaw and replaced him with a creepy young Anakin.

    1. Triggerfish

      Re: mneh

      Yep the problem with the Han, Greedo redone shootout is its so shoddily done. Techs at ILM must have been crying at the Pound shop quality.

      1. Danny 14

        Re: mneh

        And stupid scenes such as someone falling off when they are speeding into mos eisley. Or the frog thing eating on the pan out of Jabbas palace. Idiotic music scenes in Jedi (complete with cgi closeups to hide the unfinished work in the background). Daft party at the end of Jedi (because the planetary governors went "the emperor is dead, better give up control now")

        Stupid additions that have no reason to be there.

    2. lone_wolf

      Re: mneh

      think this ending sums it all up for return of the jedi special edition.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdukWtJwlPU

  5. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    Err, you got it wrong buddy

    Lucas was so busy fighting the studios for money when the original filming and cutting was done that people who knew what they were doing like Irvin Kershner (director of Empire Strikes Back) and the screenplay writers could make a good breakfast out of that hash sling. He was haggling with the money man so he was not around to interfere.

    You can start seeing his real artistic merit in Return of The Jedi - no new ideas, rehash of IV in a forest instead of a desert, special effects for sake of special effects, lame plot and cutsiness all around.

    When the prequels came along he was already swimming in money generated by the franchise over the years - like Uncle Scroodge McDuck swims in his vault. So he ended up having complete artistic control. That is where we see the real Lucas and just how appallingly bad he is.

    So stop giving him the credit he does not deserve. He is a fantastic businessman and a studio CEO. Director or god forbid full artistic control - you might as well put Jar Jar Binks in charge.

    1. Roq D. Kasba

      Re: Err, you got it wrong buddy

      Alas, I agree. More hack than genius. Budget constraints MADE those films.

    2. tony72

      Re: Err, you got it wrong buddy

      Yes, Lucas deserves credit for originating Star Wars, but just because you originate something good doesn't preclude you from trashing it later, and there's no particular reason that you should be respected for it should you so do.

    3. Bronek Kozicki

      Re: Err, you got it wrong buddy

      but you have to admit that J.J.Abrams is a good match to Lucas.

    4. Naselus

      Re: Err, you got it wrong buddy

      "He is a fantastic businessman and a studio CEO. Director or god forbid full artistic control - you might as well put Jar Jar Binks in charge."

      Utterly this. He's actually really quite bad at many things.

      Episode 4, he was so constrained by the studio that he couldn't control everything. Good movie. Episode 5, again, he didn't have full freedom. Good movie. Episode 6, he starts being able to dictate the terms. Ewoks.

      1, 2 and 3 really just sum up the fact that Star Wars would not be the films we fondly remember had it not been for Harrison Ford re-writing half his only dialogue (why do you think Han is so great?), people other than Lucas handling the direction, script writing being basically removed from him completely, brilliant actors and support cast developing characters like Yoda, and more mature minds telling him not to be so bloody stupid before he ascended to Godhood. The man thinks Jar Jar Binks is entertainment, and he believes that the Phantom Menace is how you make a political thriller.

      His cack-handed approach to the Special Editions included some frankly bad ideas that completely alter some characters (Han shot first), but worse still many of the CGI additions actually get in the way. Sure, some work - Bespin in particular goes from looking like an Apple-themed set of corridors to actually looking like a city in the clouds - but Mos Eisley becomes a jarring mess of CGI stuff strolling around in the way of the action and actually makes it harder to tell what is going on. And the whole empire-wide celebration thing at the end of Jedi makes no sense.

      Lucas is pretty good for a big picture kind of guy (though most of the features of his work are actually very derivative), but he should be kept in a galaxy far, far away from any of the details.

      1. Deltics

        Re: Err, you got it wrong buddy

        He wasn't just cosntrained with what he made. Those constraints were so sever that they actually SHAPED what he made.

        The Death Star in ANH is ONLY there at all because Fox wouldn't let him make the 3-4 hour epic he wanted (the Death Star in Jedi was the original and only one, until Fox told him to make the movie shorter and he needed a proper ending for the truncated movie).

        Obi Wan's iconic act of self sacrifice only happened because Lucas wasn't going to be able to show Luke's training, and without that Obi Wan just stood around for the final 3rd of the truncated story. Answer: Kill him off, create huge emotional beat. But not what Lucas originally wanted or intended.

        And of course, as a further consequence of that.... Yoda.

        Even Chewie only exists at all because without the final act there were no wookies. Lucas loved the idea of wookies so much that he then created Chewie just to get one into the movie (you can remove Chewie from the story entirely without changing anything. The "prisoner transfer" sequence would be different of course, but could still work and actually could make far more sense than it does as it stands - a fun sequence for sure, but the "plan" doesn't actually bear close scrutiny).

        So we also need to blame those same constraints for Ewoks since having established wookies as technologically adpet flight engineers, Lucas couldn't then have them running around in trees worshipping the shiny metal body of 3PO.

        So take a few letters away, shuffle them around and WOOKIE >>> EWOK.

        Thanks Fox. But not for the last part.

    5. Arctic fox

      @Voland's right hand Re:"....you might as well put Jar Jar Binks in charge."

      Ouch! What a nightmare vision. Mind you the most nightmarish thing about it is that you are right. I love the original trilogy but like you I am aware of the fact that it was Lucas' dependence on others when he made the orginal three that had a great influence on the result.

      1. Graham Dawson Silver badge

        Re: @Voland's right hand ....you might as well put Jar Jar Binks in charge."

        More than anything it was people saying "No george, that's stupid" in the originals that made them so great.

        the first Star Wars as written was tight as an orphan's belt. The pacing was nearly perfect, at least partly in thanks to editors who told Lucas where he could stick his opinions. Nobody can do that now; he's too powerful. Nobody says no to him.

        Without fail, practically every scene that was added to the remasters killed the pacing stone dead. Lucas has no idea about pacing, which is obvious from watching the prequels, which are a complete mess of meandering, go-nowhere scenes and pointless spectacle.

        But that's George for you. He thought people liked Star Wars for the spectacle of its special effects, which brought him to blows with Irvin Kershner, who reckoned that telling a strong story about well-rounded characters was the key to success. Given that Kershner is the mind that brought us Empire and Lucas the one that brought us the CGI-laden farce that was the prequels, I think it's clear who was right.

        1. Arctic fox
          Thumb Up

          @Graham Dawson Re: "I think it's clear who was right." To be honest old chap...............

          .................I cannot for one moment disagree with you. My lady and I are Star Wars fans from way back when. Indeed we watched the first of the originals in the West End in 1977 when it was first released and the experience for us was amazing. When the first of the prequels was released we almost ran to our local "picture palace". We left after half an hour - we were that pissed with what Lucas had done. To this day "Jar-Jar" is a swearword in our house that no expression from our upbringing in the east end of London could possibly match (quite apart from the many other sins that Lucas committed in that unspeakable trilogy).*

          *I will be very open here and say that I regard the prequel trilogy as self-indulgent garbage produced by someone whose fortuitous success** with the original films had promoted him beyond his level of competence.

          **Given that there were many others involved in the original series whose contribution was enormous - something that Lucas' ego has never allowed him to acknowledge properly.

    6. FatGerman

      Re: Err, you got it wrong buddy

      Totally. He's a *terrible* director. Doesn't understand pacing, editing, dialog, or even lighting. He had an idea about making The Magnificent Seven in Spaaaaaace and he's such a brilliant bullishit artist he convinced a studio to let him make it. Said studio then hired proper directors to make the sequels, which even fans agree were better. Lucas's main contribution to 20th century cinema is merchandising. Wow, thanks George.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm sorry but I will never forgive George Lucas for changing the ending of Return of the Jedi, I don't want to see all these worlds celebrating I want to see the ewoks celebrating and the original darth vader, other than that I didn't mind the additions.

    I have the limited edition DVD tin with the original theatrical version so all is well with the force.

    1. PleebSmasher

      I don't like the music change in Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi. Changed, and a CGI alien performer added.

      I don't think I can point to a single CGI addition in that trilogy that enhanced the movies. Did they fix that scene where Obi-Wan's lightsaber looked like a stick when fighting Vader?

      1. Androgynous Cupboard Silver badge

        There were a couple - if you rewatch the originals you can see a few scenes that jar a little, like the Falcon leaving Mos Eisley, which is nothing more than a light blob moving in a very odd way in the original. I have a little sympathy here, it's clear what the original intention was but the technology wasn't up to the job at the time.

        For the rest, every time a comedy alien punches another my hackles raise.

  7. Ian 56

    Just dropped by to recommend the Star Wars Revisited fan edit:

    https://swrevisited.wordpress.com/

    http://fanedit.org/ifdb/component/content/article/79-fanedit-listings/fanfix/928-star-wars-episode-iv-2004-special-edition-revisited-purist-edition

    Go for the Purist edition - which is as close to the original release as you will find. Han shoots first, the Death Star explodes without the extra ring-of-fire, etc, etc.

  8. PaulyV

    £12.95 (in 1970's money - £42 now) for a silent 5 minute 8mm projection reel of Star Wars.

    What a world we lived in!

  9. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge

    It's a tough one

    I can understand an artist wanting to improve their work, make it more like the vision they had but couldn't deliver at the time, but that's not the same work of art the audience fell in love with.

    I suppose we should just love both, but they are not the same, will always have an inequality about them. It begs us to judge one as better than the other, which we should not have to do, can put us at odds with the artist, damages our relationship with either the original work or the artist.

    I think the problem with Lucas is that he went beyond subtly improving the work and actually changed things.

    And don't get me started on bonus tracks added to the end of concept albums.

  10. Alien8n

    Blade Runner

    The film that takes the crown for special editions has to be Blade Runner, 5 different cuts before you get the final version. And even that leaves more questions than answers.

    1. Bronek Kozicki

      Re: Blade Runner

      ... but at least you can read the original book.

    2. PassiveSmoking

      Re: Blade Runner

      Yes, but all the various cuts have been made available, whereas Lucas seems intent on burying the older cuts. I've got a 5 disc box set with all five cuts of Blade Runner from the work print to the Final Cut.

    3. MT Field

      Re: Blade Runner

      I do think we need to get over this issue with the changes. But Lucas himself lost any credibility as an artist when he started messing around with his old works.

      Yes, in the Hollywood studio system, some are never happy that their artistic vision was not properly realized because of those meddling fools in production accounts. So there is room for a special edition or a directors cut. But just one, and if you go to town with additions you may just spoil it, George.

      For me Blade Runner is one of my all time faves, despite the incredibly annoying continuity gaps, but I can just about cope with those (and clearly so can it's director).

  11. TheProf

    Moan

    The most frequent moan I hear is not about the 'reimagined' versions rather that the original theatrical versions are not available to buy.

    So, Disney, here's your next market; Star Wars:The Archive Editions.

    1. John G Imrie

      Re: Moan

      The problem isn't Disney, it's Fox. They have the distribution rights on the original theatrical versions.

      1. Teiwaz

        Re: Moan

        Maybe Fox could do a remaster of their own.

        I'd believe it they replaced the Emperor with Rupert Murdoch...

        1. Steven Roper

          Re: Moan

          "I'd believe it they replaced the Emperor with Rupert Murdoch..."

          That would completely destroy the films' credibility. The Emperor isn't nearly that evil.

      2. Duffy Moon

        Re: Moan

        I believe Fox only have distribution rights to Star Wars (A.K.A. Episode IV).

        Yes these films are Lucas's vision, but the theatrical releases were a public artwork paid for by the cinema-goers. Therefore they belong to us.

    2. Teiwaz

      Re: Moan

      Appealing to Disney for a DVD/BlueRay re-release?

      Really must be A Last Hope...

  12. Novex

    Options

    I'd just like to have the option of being able to see the original theatrical cuts on a good clean transfer to blu-ray (or whatever next generation disc/format comes out).

    However, I'm happy to concede that these are Lucas's films (though in a real sense they're now Disney's) and that he is/was free to tinker to make improvements or changes. Whether those changes are good or bad is subjective - for my money, the spaceship battles look better in the SEs, but the rest in the main was unnecessary with a few exceptions. One thing I never understood was the change in ROTJ for Sy Snootles and the band, but then not fixing the not-very-good special effects of the Rancor sequence - I thought, and still think, the Rancor is crying out for a rework.

  13. Sane

    If the author has made his peace with the special editions; good for him. But Star Wars picked up more than a fistful of Oscars and it's worth remembering why. One was for special visual effects. John Dykstra's ILM invented motion control, which led to those great space battle effects. Many of these shots were replaced by CGI in the special editions. Another Oscar was awarded for the film's intense, fast-paced editing, which was cutting-edge back then. The padding of scenes with extra shots diminishes this in the SE. John Williams's score is muddied in the SE. Many of John Mollo's Oscar -winning creature designs are replaced entirely with CGI in the SE. I could go on.

    Love the SEs all you like, but not letting us remember the originals for the achievements they were is inexcusable revisionism. There's no official widescreen version of the unaltered originals that doesn't suffer from a dodgy colour palette, motion smear and aliasing. The amount of work fans have had to do, to try to create such version, is incredible. And it shouldn't have ben necessary.

    When an artist creates something, a book, a piece of music or a film, at that moment, the artist's vision stops being the definition of what that thing is. How the work is received and perceived becomes part of its definition. The originals deserve to be preserved.

    P.S. I own the SEs (Christmas present). I do watch 'em. I love the extras. Shame about the colours and the contrast levels. And the SE-y bits.

    1. tekHedd

      In modern internet terms, it's like if you write an Amazon review and receive dozens of upvotes, then change the review completely, but keep the upvotes.

      The comment about editing is spot on. the original really has a better flow. Anybody who hasn't seen the original cuts in 20 years, watch the original version again--it's surprisingly much better than you remember, because what you remember is watching the special editions. (Oh right, you'd have to torrent illegaly to even see it, wouldn't you. :P So never mind.)

  14. Daggerchild Silver badge

    "Pray I don't alter it further"

    Good selection of the changes the editions flip flopped through over the ages. There are way more than anyone thought...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p9ozSFOMQY

    And here's 5 hours of Darth Vader Yule Log. Naturally.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVJzibVS2YM

  15. Nick Kew

    Am I the only one ...

    ... never to have seen Star Wars? There must be more of us amongst Reg commentards.

    (My family wasn't *that* rich back in the '70s. I never even knew where the nearest cinema was, except that I couldn't have got there).

    1. Geoffrey W

      Re: Am I the only one ...

      You're not alone. I was something of a punk at the time and scowled ferociously at such populist nonsense. I have however seen one or two of the more recent things as it would have been churlish to let my wife go on her own. I didn't enjoy them. One of them contained Jar Jar Binks. The things you do for love.

    2. Robigus
      Meh

      Re: Am I the only one ...

      I saw it a couple of weeks ago. You've missed nothing, apart from some Peter Cushing / Alec Guiness nostalgia. Zap zap noises in space, quasi-religious powers through blood lines. Bollocks like that.

      I watched (under some duress) Episode 1 after that. It was awful, just awful.

      Reviews are praising the new one. Hopefully it's a better film.

    3. Steven Roper

      Re: Am I the only one ...

      No, you're not the only one. My brother's other half not only hasn't seen any of the SW movies, she adamantly refuses to watch them.

      1. Geoffrey W

        Re: Am I the only one ...

        "My brother's other half not only hasn't seen any of the SW movies, she adamantly refuses to watch them"

        I assume your brother does like Star Wars (otherwise its a bit of a pointless post), and here I am with a woman who loves Star Wars, while I don't. The Joke God in the sky does like his petty torments. Still, I love her dearly, and her lovely big bottom, so I will endure this new film bravely.

  16. Nicholas Nada

    Koona t'chuta, Solo?

    I'm fine with all the special edition changes except Han not shooting first, as it messes up his narrative development. His was the redemption story - a rogue and a smuggler, you're supposed to think that this is a dangerous man that Luke and Obi Wan are having to trust here. The kind to shoot first, who's only out for himself and the money he can make to pay off the debts he owes to gangsters.

    That's where he comes from, so when he shows up at the end to help save the day, after apparently taking his money and leaving, it's meant to be a surprise. If he wasn't a bit of a bad guy to begin with then it's no surprise when he shows up to play the good guy at the end.

  17. IHateWearingATie

    Limited edition Tin...

    .... with original theatrical versions on DVD for the win.

    Decided to get my son into Star Wars last year so showed him the originals rather than the specials. Hadn't watched that version for a while and it reminded me of just how good the visuals were for 1977, and how well they have aged compared to some of the CGI in Phantom Menace.

    Tickets booked for the cinema on Saturday morning for The Force Awakens. Can't wait :)

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