Star Wars 7 shit talk

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so i'm watching this 'despecialized edition' of SW and while it's amazing it seems to me (having recently seen a 35mm print from the film's original release) that it does retain some of the revisions (audio and video) made to the film since the 1990s.,

Ha. I was just thinking earlier today that I sure know an awful lot about Star Wars for someone with so little interest in the new movie.

xpost There are a bunch of 'despecialized' editions out there. There's at least one super-anal version that does try, as much as possible, to restore it to the original theatrical version.

There's at least one super-anal version that does try, as much as possible, to restore it to the original theatrical version.

that's the one I got; the one that got all the press = Harmy's Despecialized Edition. 17 GB! it looks great, but i'm not convinced that it looks and sounds like a 1977/78 version of the film. (which is complicated since there were at least three different sound mixes for the film's first release.)

in the print i saw recently, the early scenes on tatooine (sp?) were beautifully grainy -- almost foggy. like they were shot with a really, really long lens. some of that seems to be gone in all the video versions i've seen.

also the original shot of the death star exploding (in slight slo-mo) is lovely.

I'm totally bringing a bong to this

Didn't they release the original theatrical cut as a bonus disc on DVD a decade or so ago?

Yes but it was a shit transfer ripped from the 90s laserdiscs

Still worth it to not see A NEW HOPE in the crawl

yeah but

1) it's non-anamorphic
2) very soft and blurry (taken from old laserdisc transfer to which a bunch of cheap early-90s "digital noise reduction" had been applied)
3) has "ghosting" and other analog video artefacts
4) has all kinds of audio problems beyond that
5) IIRC it uses 1985 sound re-mix prepared for first VHS release, not 1977 (or even 1981) sound mixes (mono or stereo or Dolby surround)

(there's a wikipedia page that documents all this in more detail than probably any of us care to read about)

xpost

It was more of a fuck you than not including it IMO

i mean, i know, it's easy to make fun of this type of anality, but if you're using STAR WARS to, say, teach the history of visual effects and sound design, it matters to actually have something that resembles the original release.

It was more of a fuck you than not including it IMO

― Hammer Smashed Bagels, Tuesday, December 15, 2015 7:33 PM (12 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

huh?

That Lucas deliberately 'caved' to OG fans by including the original cuts in less than desirable quality

Ie "ok you get it but I pissed all over it first"

oh, i see.

it occurs to me that the very perfectionism that led STAR WARS to become a landmark in visual effects (and it still really dazzles on that score) is what led lucas to constantly re-work the damn thing (albeit with much lower quality control).

i suspect that most of the parts of harmy's that don't include restored original fx are just from the se blu-rays-- iirc there is a visible change in the quality (used neutrally) of the image when it cuts to e.g. the landspeeder. could be wrong. those things are treasures tho.

tbh the landspeeder stuff is precisely what makes me think this doesn't really look like the 1977 release

in the print i saw, underneath the landspeeder there is a very conspicuous blur. in the "despecialized edition" there's a very well-defined shadow instead -- which is precisely what was done to "improve" the FX, if not for the 1997 edition then for earlier video releases. in other words, the FX seem to have vestiges of later re-toolings.

hell, all those Tatooine scenes looked murky for years, which fit the drabness of living on a desert planet without punk rock and bright clothes.

also i've always liked the searchers-quoting sequence where he returns home to find his aunt/uncle dead. i've always been a little shocked that they included those charred corpses in there--that's pretty intense stuff for kids. (and of course if it was a more thoroughgoing 'searchers' homage the horror would have been all displayed on obi-wan's face.)

and Snaggletooth's severed arm!

yeah! i don't object to any of this stuff. it's good to freak kids out. all the more reason to regret the relatively sanitized sequels.

I liked the pigeon droppings on Boba Fett's armor.

i suspect that most of the parts of harmy's that don't include restored original fx are just from the se blu-rays-- iirc there is a visible change in the quality (used neutrally) of the image when it cuts to e.g. the landspeeder. could be wrong. those things are treasures tho.

― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, December 16, 2015 1:44 AM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

there's some YouTube clips that show you what's being patched in from where

tbh tho the platonic Star Wars is one your mum taped off the telly two Christmases ago with an Argos advert and one for double deckers between yodas introduction and going back to cloud city

and Snaggletooth's severed arm!

Production photo shows they originally had something more hardcore in mind:

http://i.imgur.com/BjiJv.jpg

IIRC, the walrus guy in the cantina fight ("Ponda Baba" sez wookieepedia), I had his action figure, and his arm was frickin' detachable. Because 6 years olds need to be able realistically simulate the maiming that happens in bar fights that involve light sabers

Love the pipe in that photo

I knew him as Walrus Man, a frequent cross-brand character in my childhood, serving Megatron and Serpentor with grace and efficiency.

lol, his friend is named Dr. Cornelius Evazan

http://www.jeditemplearchives.com/galleries/2012/Review_DrEvazanTVC/Review_DrEvazanTVC_still.JPG

A doctor with the death sentence on 12 systems

gawd, I had a guy who i lived with in college who would walk up to people in bars and say HE DOESN'T LIKE YOU... I DON'T LIKE YOU EITHER

u_u

i prefer the names Richard Pryor calls them in his bar sketch

Not sure if this has been mentioned but there are some other versions around now, some enthusiasts have been buying up original prints, digitising the best reels with a 4k scanner and then going through and cleaning up dirt:

http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/team-negative1-star-wars-1977-35mm-theatrical-version-release-details-and-updates/id/14590/page/1
http://originaltrilogy.com/topic/Team-Negative1-The-Empire-Strikes-Back-1980-35mm-Theatrical-Version-Release-Details-and-Updates/id/16108/page/1

Hate how good cinemas in London are screening this over the weekend just to get punters in.

Bastards.

Production photo shows they originally had something more hardcore in mind:

In the novelization, not only does Obi-Wan decapitate and, uh, de-arm-itate Walrus Man; he bisects Dr. Evazan from top to bottom. That may have been a little much for a PG movie in 1977.

I always thought Alec Guinness voiced, uh, Dr. Evazan. It sounds like one of his imitations.

Andrew O'Hehir leads the few, the proud:

http://www.salon.com/2015/12/16/star_wars_the_force_awakens_you_know_all_the_spoilers_in_j_j_abrams_obsessive_reboot_because_youve_seen_this_movie_before/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_episode_vii_the_force_awakens/reviews/?sort=rotten

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is no more and no less than the movie that made us love it in the first place. In fact, it's basically the same thing. Isn't that what we all wanted anyway?

No. No, it isn't. Is that supposed to be a point in its favor?

My biggest apprehension about this is that it winds up being more of a nostalgic look back at why people love the original films rather than a thing that stands and earns love on its own terms. Something like The Muppets, which is more about the creator's fond memories than it is about moving on to the next chapter. Nostalgia. Legacy. Blechh.

I clearly have no issue with nostalgia on its own terms but fan service is kind of the worst. I don't need the Chris Farley Show retrospective.

Apparently the reaction is relentless, which was NOT the case in '77... and why I hate mersh action movies now.