Star Wars: May the DVD be with you
Star Wars Trilogy DVD
The long awaited release of the ultimate science fiction trilogy onto the DVD format has been a topic of main stream press and the fan community at large. Everyone has an opinion about this release, mostly about George Lucas’ decision to release only an enhanced Special Edition that was originally released to theaters in 1997. Again, George Lucas has been tinkering with his movies an attempt to bring it closer to his imagining. And that is where true die hard fans lose there minds.
Forget the fact that he warned everyone when the last set of VHS copies of the original film was released, that this would be the last chance to purchase the original film as seen in the theaters. (If you were wise enough to buy the Widescreen that is.)
Forget the fact that these are his movies. Yeah, I said it. These are his movies. He envisioned them, worked damn hard with a lot of people to make it happen, and footed the bill himself so he could retain ownership. We the fans made them popular and gave him the chance to keep entertaining us with the Star Wars universe, but he owns it and can do what he likes with it.
But what you can’t forget, what’s undeniable is that these movies look better. Don’t take my word for it, and don’t go by your memory of what the movies look like, pop your cassette into the player and watch the movie. You can’t deny how pitiful the film looks on VHS all these many years later. The Greedo Solo debate over who shot first aside, Lucas put a lot of stuff into this edition that was sorely lacking and cleaned up a lot of effects that are showing their age.
Grab Return of the Jedi and watch the Rancor fight with Luke. The bluescreen effects are quite noticeable, especially when the door slams down on his head. Now, the movie looks and sounds great. I cranked up my surround sound, stuck the trilogy on my projector and was awestruck at how good the movie looked and sounded. Tie-fighters roaring through the room and explosions that shook the floor brought back a touch of what it was like to watch the movies on the big screen.
We’ll leave the debate on the actual scene changes for another time, but these DVD’s are the definitive DVD collection. One in only a handful of titles that actually make use of most of the technical improvements in owning a DVD player.
Damn it, now I don’t have any other reason to keep my Laserdisc player. Andrea will happily give that one away.
