Star Wars Blu-Ray Details: May the 4th Be With You! (1 Viewer)

[Scott Calvert]

I seriously, seriously doubt there is much of anything wrong with the original negatives/interpositives/internegatives for any of the Star Wars films.

 

[MatthewA]

Originally Posted by Ricardo C

It's always possible. Enough prints are in private collectors' hands that if Lucas were to give in, and it turned out that he no longer has the original elements, enough collectors/preservationists would step up and a restoration could be undertaken.


The negatives may be lost, but a restoration from a 70mm print? I wouldn't sneeze at that.

70mm prints from prior to the introduction of low-fade stock in 1982 would be faded. There were Technicolor dye-transfer prints of the original film made in the UK just before they discontinued the process.


I doubt he would lose the originals. He needs them as a base from which to make alterations. For all we know he could go back to square one and make Chewbacca shoot first!

 

[Mark-W]

I thought I had heard at this forum that, at a minimum, the original version of Star Wars IV: A New Hope was preserved and stored in the UCLA film, AFI,or the Library of Congress film archives back before the SE versions were made.


In 1989, the U.S. National Film Registry of the Library of Congress selected the film as a "culturally, historically, or aesthetically important" film, and I thought that is when a copy was placed in the LOC and preserved.

I do see at wikipedia they are reporting that the SE versions are preserved, but they do not state where. It is entirely possible some preservationist organizations have one version and others have others. (I would think ULCA would capitulate to their former student.)


mw

Originally Posted by Ricardo C

It's always possible. Enough prints are in private collectors' hands that if Lucas were to give in, and it turned out that he no longer has the original elements, enough collectors/preservationists would step up and a restoration could be undertaken.


The negatives may be lost, but a restoration from a 70mm print? I wouldn't sneeze at that.

 

[PRO-630HD]

What is the skinny on the original trilogy scans? 4K? I heard all the effects shot of the SE films were done in HD. I also read that the films were scanned in HD or 1.9K when Lowry did them. Anybody know, I predict if they do release these using the 2004 dvd masters in HD PQ is not going to stun like it did on the original dvd's. No different than if they would have used 525i masters for the dvd's. HD is capable of less than 1/2 the resolution of 35mm film and simply won't knock anybody's socks off. All of the the best bluray transfers use 4K scans of the 35mm OCN end of story.

 

[Jeff Robertson]

I really hope they're not derived from the 2004 masters. "A New Hope" on DVD looked too dark. Pulling in fresh scans should give an opportunity to correct this, among other things.

Originally Posted by PRO-630HD

What is the skinny on the original trilogy scans? 4K? I heard all the effects shot of the SE films were done in HD. I also read that the films were scanned in HD or 1.9K when Lowry did them. Anybody know, I predict if they do release these using the 2004 dvd masters in HD PQ is not going to stun like it did on the original dvd's. No different than if they would have used 525i masters for the dvd's. HD is capable of less than 1/2 the resolution of 35mm film and simply won't knock anybody's socks off. All of the the best bluray transfers use 4K scans of the 35mm OCN end of story.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

From what I remember reading in 2004, Lowry never actually scanned the footage; Lucasfilm gave them digital files to clean up, and if that's indeed the case, it would make sense that Lucasfilm would actually go back and create a new transfer instead of trying to further clean up the HD master created for the DVDs. They looked pretty good in 2004, but with Blu-ray I know it could be stunning.


My issue with the special editions has less to do (for the most part) with content changes; it's more about how, to my eye at least, none of the changes look organic to the films - most of the changes look like they were simply drawn in over the frame rather than being part of the frame (if that makes any sense). That, more than anything, is why most of the new effects take me out of the film at least for a moment. It's not because the ideas are all bad, but the execution just isn't where it needs to be in order for it to be convincing.

I'm not at all surprised that it's the "special edition" versions on Blu-ray, and I don't really object all that much; what I do object to is the way Lucasfilm gave us those non-anamorphic DVDs and has basically used the less-than-impressive quality of those to say "See, that's why I'm not offering those versions, they look like crap!" It's a false equivalency. I'd rather he just say, "These new versions are how I want the film to be remembered, and since it's my art and I own it, that's the way I'm putting it out" rather than "The originals don't exist anymore" or something alone those lines. I think for many people, certainly myself, the holy grail would be a "Blade Runner"-style release that had all versions in full HD quality. By all means, make the special editions the prominent versions on the disc, but it would be great if they were still released. (I like how when "E.T." originally came out on DVD, initially only the super-deluxe-mega-expensive set was going to include the original version, but Spielberg intervened at the 11th hour and insisted that the original version be included in the standard release along with the special edition. The special edition is disc 1, and that's fine, but disc 2 has the original preserved as it was.) I understand why Lucas prefers the newer versions; in many ways the newer versions tie in better with the prequel trilogy, and I get how and why he sees it as a complete work and wants it to be remembered that way. And it's his right to do so. I just disagree. (I also feel like I'd be cutting off my nose to spite my face in refusing to watch the special edition when that's the best quality version out there, in terms of home video presentations.) But I know I'm preaching to the converted here and that this topic is one very dead horse. (I seem to recall when the DVDs came out that included the non-anamorphic original versions, that someone on this forum even came up with an emoticon or animated gif of someone flogging a dead cartoon horse. We might need to get that picture back...)


A cute little story about the original version of "Star Wars" - it's one of the films being preserved by the Library of Congress because of its cultural significance, and the version they have is the original, unaltered version. Rumor has it that when the special edition came out, Lucas tried to have them swap out his new version for the original, and the LoC flat-out turned him down. I don't know if that's actually true, but it's a great story.

 

[ROBCOD]

I agree, The Battlestar Glalatica Set was disaterous. The packaging should be like the Star Trek complete movie Set (individual plastic sleeves for each disc)