Saw the original STAR WARS projected in 70mm mag last night. Wow, it really rocked!

I have a dvd copy of the laserdisc....I think it was the remastered one of the original....except it says a new hope chapter IV at the beginning.
All I know is Hans shoots first.
So that is why I was saying that I liked the sound....but I just put the dvd in, and at the end of the credits it says it used Dolby noise reduction.

 

hate to go slightly off topic here but i wonder what people think about the "blue box" vhs versions and where they fit in regards to how close they are to the original release?

 

It was worse than pulling cotton wool over my eyes. Shots that involved the Falcon in the asteroid belt was copied over and reused when approaching the cloud city, who does he think he’s kidding. So technically that was not a new shot it was con and way of milking us for more money at the box-office back in 1997.

 

Do you mean the "Darth's Head" widescreen VHS box? Same versions as the 1993 Laserdisc, as far as I know.

Again, though, are the home video releases (in the 80s, and 1993) really the exact same as the cinema releases? I've read about little changes every time they were released, especially Star Wars.

 

"Dolby system® noise reduction making films sound better"

Found this little piece of cinema trivia information relating to Star Wars you’d hath to scroll down the page until you start reading the comments.



http://cinematreasures.org/theater/33/​

 

Yip according to the in-70mm Dolby stereo listing it was.

Hamlet 1996 6 Track Dolby Stereo SR (SS)
http://www.in70mm.com/library/70mm_in/dolby_stereo.htm

 

no, its the blue box with the paperback book and a documentary video included. not sure what year it was released, but its not a "futzed with" version. but im sure there were some changes made. ill have to search the net to see when it was released.

edit, looks like 1992 release.

 

No way to fool us, but kids at the time certainly thought that seeing Greedo shooting first was icing in the cake. It may sound a bit old school, but I think no other version beats the original Star Wars. Lesson number one for Lucas is never messing with sacred things again. He should have known better than us, nerds.

 

Twas Kenneth Branagh, however. Not Mr. Gibson. Maybe we should be thankful he didn't do that Jeebus movie in 70mm.

 

He's not alone - a lot creative people are like this, forever tweaking, and they can't "see the forest, only the trees" or however the cliche goes. He just doesn't see that a creative work is done in a moment of time and you are not the same person 30 years later. Scorsese has said, "sure, there are things I want to change but I just move on". Huxley said, and I paraphrase, Brave New World would not be Brave New World if he revised it. Spielberg's sense prevailed and he included the original cinema cut of E.T. on DVD.

These are the reasons I am suspicious of "director's cuts" in the age of DVD - they are rarely cuts that were butchered by the studio before release (there are exceptions, like Brazil, Blade Runner, Legend), they are just after-the-fact futzing and tweaking, or re-working (Michael Mann, I'm looking at you). Although, Ridley Scott's Final Cut of Blade Runner was tastefully done.

 

Yes, Ridley's was right, but Spielberg's new version for E.T caused me pains. Thankfully he included the original film in the DVD package. The original will ever be the one and I can't find any kind of arguments to change my mind on that.

 

I have two LDs -- the 1989 "Special Widescreen Edition" and the 1995 THX remaster. I haven't played them in a while but I am fairly certain that both have the "Episode IV". I've always been under the impression that no home video version was ever released without it until the DVD. Beyond that, I've never noticed any big differences between the two (as far as editing, dialog or effects go).

For years I was scheming to make a "needledrop" of one of them so I could have a more convenient way to play the original version, so I was actually delighted when they decided to essentially do it for me with that DVD -- with the bonus of scrubbing "Episode IV"! I couldn't agree more that should have done better, but I'm fairly sure it's a better transfer of that old LD than I could have ever done myself, so for now, I'll take it.

I've always had a vague impression that the old "Star Wars Trilogy" box was the nicest LD version out there, but that's just an impression I got at some point.

 

WRONG! that is not the original read my lips! If you really listen and I mean listen! It’s the same new mix or partly where the truck 4x4 pulls-up[ down the sidewall array surrounds] then onto the fronts same as the 20th YUCK edition!

Same as with the space craft blasting overhead when E.T. is abandoned listen very carefully YOU and I where RIPPED OFF BLIND, well RIPPED off by our listening senses that is, cheated coned milked.

If you happen to have the original on laserdisc give it an A & B test, of course I didn’t hath to I spotted it straight away.

 

I don't quite understand your post, Logan5 - so, in other words, the "original version" of E.T. on the DVD set has the same sound mix as the revised version? All audio mixes are sourced from this?

 

The early editions of Star Wars on laserdisc before the THX laserdisc program was introduced sounded more close to the theatrical 35mm Dolby stereo versions.

Return of the Jedi when the princess is talking to herself towards an Ewok, LOL, has her voice panned to the left front, and partly in the centre, or (half panned).

In the later versions THX editions it’s in the centre channel, oh that sucks! Check it out if you don’t believe me.

What ever you do, DO NOT SALE THE EARLY LASERDISC EDITIONS!

 

Yes about so much of it has had the 20th Anniversary mix, applied to it so that dosen't make it an original does it.

Never sale your laserdiscs never sale your early DVD editions because I think Hollywood is taking us all for a ride and it will never get better with Bluray, mark my words.

 

Got this quote from the Wikipedia article:

--George Lucas, "An Expanded Universe," American Cinematographer magazine, February 1997

I vehemently and with every fiber of my being disagree with this position.

 

Well that does suck but I think Lucas is a hypercritical joke, otherwise why keep on re-mixing the soundtracks and applying slight sly changes in the visuals as he did with the 2004 DVD editions, hello is there anybody in there.

 

Lucas was still working on some of the mixes when the movie'd already OPENED!

 

That would include George Lucas sadly. Lucas has made all sorts of excuses for this but, unfortunately, it comes down to the spoiled kid who is going to give us what we want but make sure we don't like it (and prove us wrong by showing us**how bad** it would look).

 

This should be the blu-ray release. It really should.

 

We have several prints of all the movies in 35mm, and have been working on restorations of each of them.

Star Wars 35mm, and Empire Strikes Back 35mm Grindhouse have been released.

Team Negative1