Star Wars discussion from The Bits... (1 Viewer)

[Steve_Klein]

Thought I'd relate my "30th Anniversary" Star Wars viewing experience...

I was honestly hoping to find an independent theatrical screening of the original, non-SE version of Star Wars (I remember being excited to hear of such a screening a few years ago in L.A. only to be informed at the last minute they had to change it to the 1997 SE at Lucas' behest). Failing that I went for the next best thing.

I spun up the 2006 GOUT DVD of Star Wars (no Episode IV, thanks) in a custom theater consisting of a Runco DLP projector (don't know the exact model but it has the CineWide lens with AutoScope) and a Stewart CineCurve screen (again, I don't know the exact size but it's by far the largest screen I've seen the original version of Star Wars on since it was last in theaters). The player was the Sony BDP-S1, the amp was a Rotel and the speakers were B&W. And no, I do not own this system... =)

Anyway, after much fiddling with the picture height / position controls on the Runco (which is not designed for 4x3 letterbox material at all), I got the image to fill the screen. Of course this meant I'd lose Greedo's subtitles but that's okay; I know them by heart anyway. Given the source my expectations were not high, but the overall effect was... quite watchable really. There was grain and aliasing everywhere of course but (and I don't want to make this an "original vs. SE" rant) the magic of seeing my all-time favorite movie back on a large screen with everything "the way it is supposed to be" overcame most of that. I still got chills in the same places (Luke looking at the sunset, the blastoff from Mos Eisley, the beginning of the TIE Fighter attack, the X-Wings diving at the Death Star, "You're all clear kid!", etc.) I was pleasantly surprised by the DD 2.0 audio on the GOUT DVD -- quite active and enjoyable to my untrained ears (again, better than I've heard it sound in a long time and probably better than any theater that I would have had access to in the late-'70s / early-'80s).

Okay, one quick rant: for the "29th Anniversary" of the original release of Star Wars in 2006 to promote the Lego video game (huh?) we get the most recent, half-hearted repackaged release, but for the 30th Anniversary we get:


[url=https://static.hometheaterforum.com/imgrepo/5/53/htf_imgcache_8413.jpeg] [/url]


As David Spade might say, "Really George? Really?"

 

[GuruAskew]

Another big "gaffe" in "The Phantom Menace" in terms of watching it first is that Yoda is never identified. Sure, they talk about Yoda and Yoda is obviously featured but nowhere do they say "hey, this little green guy is Yoda". Granted, everyone knows who Yoda is but those kinda assumptions shouldn't be made.

I still stand by the I-VI viewing order but there are a handful of minor issues such as this when it comes to watching them that way.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I still say the best way to view it is:
ANH - The perfect intro to the Star Wars universe; including Obi-Wan's explanation of the Jedi mythos.
ESB - Preserves the surprise of Yoda and "I Am your Father!"
------
Then "Flashback" to see how Anakin "devolved":
TPM
AOTC
ROTS
-------
Then back to the Luke/Anakin/Palpatine showdown in
ROTJ

And let me tell you: ROTJ really *rocks* when viewed immediately following ROTS!

 

[Lee-c]

It's crazy if Lucasfilm doesn't release a new Star Wars DVD set with new transfers this year. It's the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars, how can you not have a new top-quality Star Wars collector's home video set for Star Wars fans to celebrate this great event?!

 

[MielR]

Hey, at least you got that! I saw no sign of those PO boxes where I live. Weren't they supposed to be all over the country??

 

[Adam_WM]

The mailboxes are not everywhere. They are in most of the country and I believe there are only 400 of them. Do a google search for them, I think there is a map with their locations.

 

[Michael Harris]

And here is just one of those maps: http://www.frappr.com/r2d2

Happy Anniversary!

 

[Will_B]

Maybe I've mentioned this before... the big spoiler for me, for Return of the Jedi, was done by Starlog magazine. A month or two before the film they had a fold out cover image with the new Death Star under construction! What fers they were to do that. Really lame.

I always thought it would be creepier if the new Death Star had been built partially on the ruins (a big chunk or two) of the first Death Star. It would have made it a more haunted, evil kind of place.

 

[SilverWook]

When I saw that cover at the time, I actually thought it was the remains of the first Death Star being rebuilt!

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

To be honest, from what you have described, it doesn't seem like that much of a spoiler. The opening crawl refers to the rebuilding of the Death Star, the first scene has Vader visiting the new Death Star, and the entire premise of the film (once they rescue Han) is destroying the second Death Star. So the fact that there's a new Death Star surely isn't that much of a spoiler (although spoilers are in the ey of the beholder, I guess).

Now, if they showed the half-completed Death Star firing at ships, that would be a spoiler, since it was supposed to be a surprise that the station was fully operational, but otherwise I can only see that picture if you want to know absolutely nothing at all about the film - in which case almost any ROTJ-themed item - be they book or magazine covers, TV ads, trailers, or even the film's poster - would be considered spoiler.

 

[Will_B]

I'm not defending Lucas for his clunky storytelling techniques, but a film can't spoil itself. You either get an emotional rush from seeing the film present the info, or you do not because it was spoiled by someone else before you saw the film.

BTW The poster, as I remember it, was a lightsaber being held aloft against a starry black sky. No spoilers there.

 

[Carter of Mars]

That poster had the incomplete Death Star on it.

 

[Will_B]

Ok, true, it does, but it is so tiny that you really wouldn't notice it, especially if your head didn't even reach up to the bottom of the poster!

http://www.cinemasterpieces.com/rotjajuly05.jpg

Could be a moon, if you don't look closely. Remember that there was no internet. People did not have wallpapers of the poster to stare at, zoom into, and discuss. You saw the poster when you walked through the lobby of the theatre. And you saw low-res dot matrix, black and white versions of the poster in the newspaper.

But in any case, this is weird that I am having to defend the fact that I, and the other fans who were kids at the time, were upset at Starlog for ruining what would have been a great surprise. That's the way it went down.

 

[PeterTHX]

It was a surprise to me too, when I saw that (and it was a very cool cover, another ILM masterpiece). But I'm not too surprised, after all everyone would want to know what the film was about. It's central to the plot.

True spoilers would have been:

Vader really is Luke's father.
Leia is the sister.
Han lives gets rescued.
The Emperor is an incredibly powerful Sith lord.
Yoda dies.
Vader kills the Emperor, etc.

 

[MielR]

I also remember seeing many photos of the unfinished Death Star 2 prior to the film opening (Starlog was one of my fave mags, too).

Thanks, guys!

 

[Greg_S_H]

Again, I didn't have any doubts of this when I was a kid. I didn't know all of the behind-the-scenes stuff where Ford wanted to be killed off, so his not being rescued would have been the only surprise.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Fans care about the "30th Anniversary", Lucas does not.

If you want to post that Lucas does indeed care, where is the DVD release to back up your post? DVD just passed VHS in market penetration in US homes, yet no Box Set for the fans to celebrate the franchise that made him ridiculously rich.

 

[Bryan Ri]

Some would argue that he's finally listening to the fans that bitch about him double, triple, quadruple, etc dipping...

 

[oscar_merkx]

There are always two sides to every story

 

[TravisR]

A DVD set (or the lack of one) would prove how much or little George Lucas cares about Star Wars? :rolleyes