NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!
Wow. I haven't felt this sort of crushing despair and hopelessness for the future since I read Book 2 of 1984. The cause, you ask? Not because Iran may have nukes soon. Not because nothing's being done in Darfur. Not even because I'm working four straight days this weekend. It's because of the horrible, horrible news about Star Wars. Pathetic, I know, but it's extremely... I suppose disenheartening is a good way of putting it. Abandon hope, all ye who enter, and know not but woe, as you read what follows:
Quoth theforce.net's posting of the official response e-mail from Lucasfilm, Ltd.:
"I wanted you to know how much we appreciate the passion and enthusiasm you have for Star Wars, and thank you for sharing your concerns about our upcoming DVD release.
The DVDs being released in September will contain two versions of Star Wars: Episodes IV, V and VI - the Special Editions (which represent George’s vision of the movies) and the first versions, which will be included as bonus material. We hoped that releasing those “original” movies on a bonus disc would be a way to have some additional fun with the debut of the movies as individual DVDs. We certainly did not want it to become a source of concern or frustration for any of our fans.
As you may know, an enormous amount of effort was put into digitally restoring the negatives for the Special Editions. In one scene alone, nearly 1 million pieces of dirt had to be removed, and the Special Editions were created through a frame-by-frame digital restoration. The negatives of the movies were permanently altered for the creation of the Special Editions, and existing prints of the first versions are in poor condition.
So many fans have requested the original movies, we wanted to find a way to bring them to you. But since these movies do not represent George's artistic vision, we could not put the extraordinary time and resources into this project as we did with the Special Editions. The 1993 Laserdisc masters represented the best source for providing the original versions as DVD bonus material. Although these are non-anamorphic versions, they do preserve the original widescreen composition of the movies.
We want you to be aware that we have no plans - now or in the future - to restore the earlier versions.
We hope you will understand our decision and, again, want to let you know how much we appreciate your interest and enthusiasm.
Sincerely,
Lynne Hale
publicity@lucasfilm.com "
Damn. Just... damn. I can't even think of the right way to express this feeling. Did you read that second-to-last paragraph?
"We want you to be aware that we have no plans - now or in the future - to restore the earlier versions."
That's... sick. I've seen some pretty horrible sights in my life, but this... this is just... DISGUSTING.
I have seen no petition. No mass movement. No boycott protests. The damned Star Wars community is just too divided to do something. It seems we'll never get a gorgeous restoration, anamorphic widescreen, or even a decent STEREO sound setting (yes, the sound quality is going to suck so badly stereo seems like a sweet alternative).
And why? Why must we, the fans, be forced to put up with this utter bullshit? Simple. It's because of three very bad, lazy, and greedy reasons:
1. Money. They want to cheat the purists out of their hard-earned cash to buy a release with shoddier quality than the 1996 VHS release.
2. George Lucas' "Artistic Vision". See paragraphs two and three for what I'm talking about. Apparently, if Lucas thought that Luke should have been a furry with a talking bunyon, he can get away with it because it would be his "artistic vision". Need I remind you of Adolf Hitler's "artistic vision" of a "pure" Germany?
3. Apathy, and Restoration in General. Okay, do NOT under any circumstances buy into the "lengthy and costly restoration process" bull in paragraph four. I seem to remember a discussion of DVD-release restoration of far older films (namely Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves), and what they said was quite enlightening. Those of you with good enough memories may remember the final VHS release of the film, and how gorgeous it looked. THAT was a lengthy and expensive restoration process. The actual film, it seems, had to be cleaned, BY HAND, without a computer. The person being interviewed then pointed out that, had they been able to do it digitally, it would have taken a VASTLY shortened amount of time. You have no excuse, Lucasfilm, especially now that current consumer PCs are more powerful than what you made Episode I on.
I no longer wish to retain any of my Star-Wars-fan-based blog features. So be on the lookout for changes, effective immediatly.
Good night, and good luck Star Wars fans. We're going to need as much of it as possible.
Quoth theforce.net's posting of the official response e-mail from Lucasfilm, Ltd.:
"I wanted you to know how much we appreciate the passion and enthusiasm you have for Star Wars, and thank you for sharing your concerns about our upcoming DVD release.
The DVDs being released in September will contain two versions of Star Wars: Episodes IV, V and VI - the Special Editions (which represent George’s vision of the movies) and the first versions, which will be included as bonus material. We hoped that releasing those “original” movies on a bonus disc would be a way to have some additional fun with the debut of the movies as individual DVDs. We certainly did not want it to become a source of concern or frustration for any of our fans.
As you may know, an enormous amount of effort was put into digitally restoring the negatives for the Special Editions. In one scene alone, nearly 1 million pieces of dirt had to be removed, and the Special Editions were created through a frame-by-frame digital restoration. The negatives of the movies were permanently altered for the creation of the Special Editions, and existing prints of the first versions are in poor condition.
So many fans have requested the original movies, we wanted to find a way to bring them to you. But since these movies do not represent George's artistic vision, we could not put the extraordinary time and resources into this project as we did with the Special Editions. The 1993 Laserdisc masters represented the best source for providing the original versions as DVD bonus material. Although these are non-anamorphic versions, they do preserve the original widescreen composition of the movies.
We want you to be aware that we have no plans - now or in the future - to restore the earlier versions.
We hope you will understand our decision and, again, want to let you know how much we appreciate your interest and enthusiasm.
Sincerely,
Lynne Hale
publicity@lucasfilm.com "
Damn. Just... damn. I can't even think of the right way to express this feeling. Did you read that second-to-last paragraph?
"We want you to be aware that we have no plans - now or in the future - to restore the earlier versions."
That's... sick. I've seen some pretty horrible sights in my life, but this... this is just... DISGUSTING.
I have seen no petition. No mass movement. No boycott protests. The damned Star Wars community is just too divided to do something. It seems we'll never get a gorgeous restoration, anamorphic widescreen, or even a decent STEREO sound setting (yes, the sound quality is going to suck so badly stereo seems like a sweet alternative).
And why? Why must we, the fans, be forced to put up with this utter bullshit? Simple. It's because of three very bad, lazy, and greedy reasons:
1. Money. They want to cheat the purists out of their hard-earned cash to buy a release with shoddier quality than the 1996 VHS release.
2. George Lucas' "Artistic Vision". See paragraphs two and three for what I'm talking about. Apparently, if Lucas thought that Luke should have been a furry with a talking bunyon, he can get away with it because it would be his "artistic vision". Need I remind you of Adolf Hitler's "artistic vision" of a "pure" Germany?
3. Apathy, and Restoration in General. Okay, do NOT under any circumstances buy into the "lengthy and costly restoration process" bull in paragraph four. I seem to remember a discussion of DVD-release restoration of far older films (namely Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves), and what they said was quite enlightening. Those of you with good enough memories may remember the final VHS release of the film, and how gorgeous it looked. THAT was a lengthy and expensive restoration process. The actual film, it seems, had to be cleaned, BY HAND, without a computer. The person being interviewed then pointed out that, had they been able to do it digitally, it would have taken a VASTLY shortened amount of time. You have no excuse, Lucasfilm, especially now that current consumer PCs are more powerful than what you made Episode I on.
I no longer wish to retain any of my Star-Wars-fan-based blog features. So be on the lookout for changes, effective immediatly.
Good night, and good luck Star Wars fans. We're going to need as much of it as possible.