Arrrrrchhh! They are going to do it with Raiders of the Lost Ark too! (1 Viewer)

[Wayne Bundrick]

The original title is "Raiders of the Lost Ark", but now Lucas wants us to call it "Chapter 24: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark".

 

[Scott Shanks]

Gee, I agree with everyone. One question comes to mind, though. What is the difference between a film getting spruced up visual effects and a film getting spruced up audio effects? Alot of people are really going ballistic about Indy getting "spruced up special effects", but no one seems to mind it when a mono film Snow White gets a DD 5.1 remix of the audio. I don't see there is a whole lot of difference.

 

[Eric Bass]

Oh for the love of.....

Man I've been dreading this since the Star Wars SE hit the theaters. Please no! Spare one of my top 5 all time favorite movies from your revisionism, I so want to retire that widescreen VHS tape! It's an 80's movie, let it look and sound like an 80's movie. And while you're at it, go back and re-release Jaws with the original soundtrack so I can retire that VHS tape as well, I can't stand the new juiced up soundtrack.

 

[Joseph Goodman]

The ONLY changes I would have no problem with would be digitally re-compositing the separate elements for the composite/blue-screen shots. Everything else, HANDS OFF!

 

[RobertR]

Perfectly expressed, Joseph. ANY other changes would be bad.

Let's hope George "I like to fiddle with it until I'm dead" Lucas doesn't have much influence over Spielberg these days.

 

[Rain]

Let's hope George "I like to fiddle with it until I'm dead" Lucas doesn't have much influence over Spielberg these days.

I doubt that would matter. Lucas isn't involved with E.T., but Spielberg was more than happy to bastardize that film in the name of political correctness and the almightly dollar. These guys are two peas from the same pod.

 

[RobertR]

These guys are two peas from the same pod

Good point. Reports are, however, that the original version of ET will be available on DVD, So Spielberg has that much in his favor.

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Should we go back and touch up Metropolis or Bride of Frankenstein because we have better SE technology now? ]

Since those are two of my favorite movies(especially BRIDE), I would have a coronary if anyone dared to touch those films. And even if Fritz Lang or James Whale were still alive, I doubt either one would want to mess with a film to bring it "up to date".

 

[Jim_K]

Can't say I'm surprised at all by this news.
What amazes me is the number of people here who are surprised. C'mon, couldn't you see this coming a few years ago? First Lucas with his butchering of Star Wars, then Spielberg with ET. Since both of these jokers were involved with Indy its only natural that they butcher this one up also.
Now excuse me while I go and kiss my Star Wars & Indy Widescreen THX Laserdiscs.

 

[Sam Davatchi]

I’m afraid that with these kinds of developments, Spielberg use the latest computer technologies to colorize Schindler’s List!

 

[Mike Broadman]

The original title is "Raiders of the Lost Ark", but now Lucas wants us to call it "Chapter 24: Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark".

WTF? Chapter 24? What were the first 23 chapters?

This movie used to be a nice little piece of entertainment. Why are they making it all so confusing?

 

[Seth Paxton]

Remember that Turner COLORIZATION is only a "technical" adjustment by the standards we are using too.
I understand cleaning up effects or even altering a film, which is why I said in my last post that I don't mind an artist doing a "modified version". The key is for the artist to acknowledge this as NEW AND DIFFERENT rather than imply that this is the only version.
Again, here is my biggest complaint regarding permanent effects modifications and I've said it hundreds of times:
Star Wars - Oscar wins for
Art Direction
Editing
VISUAL EFFECTS
Music
Sound
Special acheivement in sound effects
Raiders - Oscar wins for
Art Direction
VISUAL EFFECTS
Editing
Sound
Special acheivement in sound effects
So what exactly are they FIXING again? Do we go back and LOOP dialog over Oscar winning acting performances to "fix them"?
And doesn't being a winner in these areas make the film a benchmark? If you keep adjusting it don't you keep moving the benchmark?
This is very much like adjusting your world record in running to keep up with the current speeds. The problem is that you lose HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE when you do that.
To me this is like the sugar coated version of what Winston Smith does for a living in 1984. You are still changing the past to match the future, and thus not appear wrong or out of date. I thought that theme was exposed as being insidious in 1984, yet now we defend it.
People always expect some Orwellian world to come barging up to them as an obvious evil bully, when in fact it's much more likely to worm it's way in to everyday life just like this.
I'm being serious, not dramatic.
Release Raiders 1.5 or ET 1.7b, but also make 1.0 version available as well so we can understand what an Oscar winning visual effects film LOOKED LIKE.
No one has gone back to remove the strings from the UFOs in War of the Worlds. And that's a good thing.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Following that thought, think of this...

what if War of the Worlds and every other sci-fi/effects films WERE being updated all the time.

How would we know that Star Wars effects were ground breaking?? Answer: we wouldn't, WotW would look much like Star Wars with people going back to clean it's effects up all the time. We would not be able to say "see how far we have come".

Lucas/SS are fine to kick the ass of previous films effects due to them looking old, but god forbid if some future films outdo the effects they did.

 

[Stacey]

Good point Seth...who says in 5 years/10 years when new and more powerfull computers are available that Lucas and Spielburg don't take these movies and "update" them yet again..complaining that when they first "fixed" them they didn't REALLY have the CORRECT technology to do it but now they do.
Gaaa...forget I just said that!

 

[TheoGB]

WTF? Chapter 24? What were the first 23 chapters?

Chapter 23 is The Temple of Doom.

Chapters 1-22 are the new remastered 22 two hour long Young Indiana Jones episodes.

Personally I love Young Indy.

I think the main point we need to argue is 'GIVE US THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS TOO'. No one would give a rats arse about what they do if we have a version of the original we can still get hold of.