the crimes of george lucas ('90s on)

also it's a cliché but lucas was probably always better shooting cars and technology than people, in a way. i don't mean that solely as a "he doesn't care about people" slight. there's an inventiveness to the way he shoots cars in A.G. and spaceships in S.W. that isn't matched the pedestrian ways he blocks and shoots actors. this problem obviously intensifies with the prequels, where most dialogue sequences can properly be called "inept."

as someone who teaches film it's totally unforgivable that lucas has taken the original star wars out of circulation. it's a film of enormous historical importance, not least for its special effects, and showing the 1997 or later versions in a film history class would make no sense.

it's ironic that "star wars" was one of the first features chosen for the national film registry, since lucas has ensured in years since that even if the original film negative or projection prints are sitting in archives, nobody is going to show them to the public. i'd actually like to write a nice letter explaining how keeping the original version in circulation somehow would be a service to the study of film history, but i get a feeling he wouldn't reply or possibly would shit in a box and send it to me overnight.

^he already did that. it's called Star Wars on blu-ray.

lol

also:

http://www.mwctoys.com/REVIEW_100705b.htm

i mean i didn't really care much until i started teaching.

i've ONLY ever seen the original version. in theaters during its 82-83 revival in advance of return of the jedi, and then frequently on BETA and VHS in subsequent years. probably the last time would've been in the early '90s. i've never seen the various "revisions" and have no interest in seeing them.

so it's kind of o_O for me to read above that other folks have never seen the original and/or didn't realize the "episode iv" thing was tagged on after the fact.

kids these days IIRC.

Lookee that, just in time:

http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars-the-phantom-menace-3d/

it's ironic that "star wars" was one of the first features chosen for the national film registry, since lucas has ensured in years since that even if the original film negative or projection prints are sitting in archives, nobody is going to show them to the public. i'd actually like to write a nice letter explaining how keeping the original version in circulation somehow would be a service to the study of film history, but i get a feeling he wouldn't reply or possibly would shit in a box and send it to me overnight.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Thursday, February 9, 2012 11:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

apparently the version in the registry is the 1997 or whatever "special edition." its kind of a disgrace.

It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down.

i cannot believe he's trying to gaslight the hundreds of millions of people who saw han shoot first.

A billion dollars will feed any particular delusion you care to nurture or randomly devolve into.

i cannot believe he's trying to gaslight the hundreds of millions of people who saw han shoot first.

I know, it's like someone needs to tap him on the shoulder and say "um, actually, these are the droids we're looking for, thanks." But, as has been pointed out above, he has maneuvered himself into a position where this will never happen.

i've never seen the various "revisions" and have no interest in seeing them.

I've watched each of the revised versions of Star Wars once, on television, because I will never give him any more of my money.

The first time I saw American Graffiti I was too young to know it was made by the Man Who Made Star Wars, and was mostly concentrating on the fact that the bloke from Close Encounters AND the bloke from Happy Days were in it (how could such a thing be?). Maybe those people helped make it better? Or maybe it was just better for the same tired reason: because there were people around him then who would curb his worst excesses and keep him focused on the thing he originally said he wanted to do.

A good line in Peter Bradshaw's Guardian review of the re-release:

Watched again now, Phantom Menace seems flat rather than actually objectionable: there is something almost exotic in its intricate dullness, and characters like Jar-Jar are now too boring to be offensive.

apparently the version in the registry is the 1997 or whatever "special edition." its kind of a disgrace.

― the jazz zinger (s1ocki), Friday, February 10, 2012 12:22 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

well there isn't really a "registry" that holds actual copies of films, as far as i understand. it's just a way of establishing preservation priorities and to highlight the importance of film preservation and restoration in general. and since star was "inducted" in 1989, before any of the revisions, i think we can assume it's the original version that they had in mind.

star WARS i mean

am you should write an op-ed and subit it to the times or something

im serious -- i never really thought about star wars' "historical importance" but i think youre totally right

Yeah you could say the historical important mostly lies in the special effects, which were hand-crafted in-house and started a number of companies that have dominated the industry for decades. And yeah it's shitty to say "ah, that was no good" and go in and replace it w computers.

The funny thing is, every time I see any of the SW there are a bunch of things that are still wrong that they could easily fix rather than doing stupid stuff like the rock in front of R2. For instance there's a bit in SW where Darth Vader is talking to one of his men and after he is done talking the actor is still gesturing. That seems like a pretty simple fix. There's plenty of little bits here and there where the voice overdub is just a little too long for the reaction shot that follows it, etc.

Looking forward to this RLM stuff.

I recommend http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/ if you dare to take the geekiest plunge of your life. Really gets into GL's headspace.

the saddest thing for me personally is that while i grew up with & used to love these films, i now kinda fucking hate them and everything about them.

part of that is prob the geek culture over-embracing of SW (helvetica minimalist fan posters etc), part of it is the fact that you can't even see the original films now.

Ok that 3D review is just the old one with a fake 3D filter and a very few extra cheesy 3D bits thrown in.

that's the joke

Yeah you could say the historical important mostly lies in the special effects, which were hand-crafted in-house and started a number of companies that have dominated the industry for decades. And yeah it's shitty to say "ah, that was no good" and go in and replace it w computers.

exactly! if you're teaching a history of the past several decades of american cinema and wanted to talk about special effects--or dolby sound for that matter-- well star wars is a key film, the key film in some ways. but of course you won't understand the nature of its contribution if you see the revised versions.

indeed the extent to which the effects are "flawed" or obvious is itself an important part of the history. teachers have to able to explain the processes by which they were made and how that is and isn't revealed on screen.

sometimes i think we should have some kind of patrimony laws that allow for the preservation and availability (at least to researchers/teachers) of stuff -- a legal "right" that trumps the rights of the author. but that will never happen.

man i wonder how much vintage 35mm prints of star wars go for these days.

most of 'em are probably pretty beat up.

stalinist lol from that interview ned linked:

If you look at Blade Runner, it’s been cut sixteen ways from Sunday and there are all kinds of different versions of it. Star Wars, there’s basically one version — it just keeps getting improved a little bit as we move forward.

"improved"

RLM has put out an actual new thing - commentary track for Episode 1. Might be worth saving for the next time I'm home for the holidays and stuck on the couch and cable is showing the marathon of all these goddamn movies.

Lucas' late 70s plans for a Bondesque franchise are actually all kinds of awesome. Can't be bothered to dig up the quote, but I would love to see the minimal dialogue droids only film he proposed.

And you can sense his excitement in those early interviews for being the creator of a fun, quirky, unexpectedly mega-popular new thing, as opposed to the later burdened beard-faced Keeper of the New Western Myth.

it's great that he uses the Blade Runner example. For the blu-ray release, we got 6 (I think) versions of the movie: original, director's cut, restored with new effects, workprint etc. And Scott was appreciative of how fans could have their different favorites and no one was "definitive."

yeah that's a great counterpoint to the way lucas has handled star wars. in fact i know folks who have compared the different versions of blade runner in class -- so the fact that they are all easily available (and on blu-ray, no less) is a godsend.

i don't think any of the versions of B.R. have new effects though? there was the original workprint, the original scott cut that went unreleased, the version released in 1982, an edit scott made for a 1990s release which is a reworking of his original cut, and finally the so-called "definitive" version that scott put together a few years back. i'm not aware that any of these have new effects work. i thought it was different edits, essentially--and a revised soundtrack.

the bluray has new effects, but it's very subtle. Sprucing up the lighting in the cityscapes and stuff.

there's not like, little monkey shaped aliens running around in the background or anything.

ah, i see.

they didn't add a fat funny-accented replicant sidekick for comic relief?

he added in a whole new scene of Deckard wearing a negligee jerking off over a photo of his maybe-mom...changes EVERYTHING

that does make sense of the final scene where edward james olmos

spoiler

leaves an origami version of deckard's mom in the hallway. i always wondered what was up with that.

'improved'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np6vAuS0KNs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd7Wh4vrVyk

Yub-Yub: Gone but not forgotten.

The GF and I saw TPM in 3-D tonight, mostly because we couldn't think of anything better to do.

I really wish we'd have thought of something better to do :(

Hopefully you guys got well lit before the show.

fucking yub nub

;_;

The GF and I saw TPM in 3-D tonight, mostly because we couldn't think of anything better to do.

I really wish we'd have thought of something better to do :(

― Millsner, Saturday, February 11, 2012 8:41 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

spending a night on the toilet due to diarrhea is probably preferable to seeing that film again. at least you can get some reading done.

re. those clips i don't think return of the jedi is really any better than the prequels.

oh c'mon

like on a visual level alone...

http://neofilm.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/return-of-the-jedi-poster.jpg

http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/star-wars-the-phantom-menace-movie-poster-01.jpg

it's amazing how consistently awful the visual design of every single thing in the new trilogy is: padme's costumes, jar jar, darth maul's makeup, liam neeson's face

http://dyn3.media.forbiddenplanet.com/products/17726540.jpg.size-300_maxheight-300_square-true.jpg

http://di1-3.shoppingshadow.com/images/pi/1e/d8/c7/46478690-260x260-0-0_Hasbro+Star+Wars+Episode+I+Sebulba+s+Pod+Racer+Wit.jpg