Customer Reviews

Star Wars, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (Special Edition) [VHS]

5 star:		(242)
4 star:		(59)
3 star:		(35)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(75)

 

 

So after waiting 11 years or so, we finally get a re-release of the original version of Return of the Jedi in all it's unaltered glory. Just as fans have been dreaming about since the advent of DVD.

Well, um...I don't think any fan was dreaming about this particular release.

The original release version of Return of the Jedi (the only reason to buy this set as most all fans will already have one of the previous Special Edition releases) is relegated to bonus material on disc two. Ouch! But wait, it gets worse.

George Lucas, the champion of pristine presentation in the theatre and at home has released the film that made him a legend in the state of the art of technology circa 1993.

Yes, that's right. This transfer is from the laserdisc release of '93. Even worse the film is not anamorphic like just about every other modern day DVD. What does that mean? Well a non-anamorphic DVD has a low visual clarity and the image won't fill a widescreen TV. To make a movie anamorphic takes very little time and money. That Jedi is not anamorphic shows a disregard for the film that is disturbing.

Star Wars fans expect these landmark films to be treated just like many other films (Vertigo, Gone with the Wind, Citizen Kane, Snow White, etc.) that have gotten detailed restorations that cleaned up dirt, grime and audio ticks and presented the films in today's state of the art. This is the release most fans were dreaming of. A release that showed the film some modicrum of respect.

George, the fan base you have worked so hard to woo over the years is fed up with your shoddy treatment of these films.

This could very easily be an ecstatic 5-star review. The original, unaltered Star Wars trilogy, finally on DVD with no droid & alien cartoon antics, no Hayden Christensen's face on Sebastian Shaw's body, no videogame-quality Jabba the Hutt, the original Academy Award-winning special effects, the music we remember... This should be a red-letter DVD release for Star Wars fans. Sadly, it is not.

Here's why you should boycott this release:

1. The picture & sound are intentionally presented in mediocre quality. These DVD's are transferred from the exact same videotape used to create the laserdisc release in 1993. That means a non-anamorphic, muddy, letterboxed picture that will have to be zoomed in to fill widescreen TVs or computer monitors. Lucasfilm refuses to fulfill the basic minimum standards of a current DVD release and make a new transfer. The quality of this DVD presentation will not live up to that of such timeless classics as Caddyshack II & Ishtar.

2. It's overpriced. If Lucasfilm is only willing to toss out these beloved films in this shoddy version, and they are unwilling to spend any time or money at all on their release, that is their right. They should charge accordingly. As bootleg-quality laserdisc transfers, these DVD's should sell for $5-$10, tops. Incredibly, Lucasfilm is charging $90 retail for these three movies! That's almost twice the cost of the (still available) box set with the exact same Special Edition discs!

They're trying to justify the cost by bundling the unaltered movies (the only reason to buy this version) with the Special Edition movies, but they must know it's a sham. Anybody who is willing to pay $90 ($60 @ Amazon) for the Special Edition DVD's has already bought the existing box sets. The Special Edition discs in this set are a complete waste of plastic, and they do not justify the outrageous cost.

If, for some reason, you have not yet purchased Star Wars on DVD, this set may be an adequate value. For anyone else, this set plus the existing box set you already have will run you a total of $160 retail ($110 @ Amazon). Is that a fair price to pay for an intentionally mediocre release of the movie that made Lucas' empire possible? Is it right to release this classic piece of cinematic history with picture and sound quality far below the latest releases of Buckaroo Banzai or Barbarella? I'll leave that for you to decide.

Well, I was going to pick these up to get the theatrical cut of each film in a widescreen release, but it looks like I will not now. It's really disappointing that they are non-anamorphic and since it seems to be inevitable that they will be re-released at some point with anamorphic transfers despite the fact that Lucas says otherwise. If I was still using a standard television set for my primary device to view DVDs, this would be fine for now I suppose, but having just purchased a widescreen television in January, non-anamorphic DVDs are not attractive to me at all.

So a warning to all, if you don't know the difference between anamorphic and non-anamorphic DVDs and unless you don't mind buying these again to get anamorphic transfers in the future, I suggest you go do a search on the web to see for yourself what the difference is so that you can make a more informed purchase.

First off, I already have the special/altered movies on dvd. IF I bought this latest release, it would only be to obtain the ORIGINAL theatrical release (with all the matte lines/primitive technology). The original version is all that I'm missing from my dvd collection & my only motive to purchase a new release.


DVD has a maximum resolution of 720x480 dots on the screen; did Lucas take advantage of that improved hi-res technology for this "first time on dvd" original theater version?? NO of course not. He's giving us the original movie in laserdisc resolution:

540x320

(analog letterboxed). That's only *50%* the pixel resolution that DVD can offer!!! What a royal ripoff. Are we fans supposed to be happy about getting an inferior-quality print of the original movie? Fat chance. The original movie was recorded with 6-track surround & on hi-resolution 70mm film <---- THAT'S what we want, not some inferior 540x320 blurry picture from an old 1980s laserdisc.

Get with the program George.
You should have released the originals in hi-resolution 720x480. You should have taken advantage of DVD's full potential, not dump some inferior/blurry/lo-resolution video on us.

1) You've already bought this movie several times, and probably have the 2004 DVD editions. You are being forced to buy the 2004 edition AGAIN just to buy the original theatrical version.

and

2) This DVD will not be enhanced for widescreen TVs which means if you have a widescreen TV you will have black bars around ALL FOUR SIDES of the screen. Even if you don't have a widescreen TV, the picture quality will be very poor, transfered from a 1993 release.

Do not buy this title.

To those who say that anamorphic makes little difference in picture quality-- you are wrong. On televisions that can take advantage of it, it means a 33% increase in lines of resolution. More lines of resolution equals better picture. Even if you don't have a widescreen tv now, you most likely will in the future, and you will miss the extra resolution. Some non-widescreen sets (4x3) can also display anamorphic titles properly as well.

If you're buying this to get the original theatrical version, be warned that you're getting a re-hashed 1993 *WIDESCREEN* laserdisc transfer of the original films.

Not only will the picture be substandard on digital, widescreen TVs, compared to even the most basic modern DVD transfers from film, but for those of you who want the pan-and-scan version, you will be getting widescreen to boot. There is no pan-and-scan version of the original theatrical release on either the widescreen or pan-and-scan releases of this DVD!

There are film elements in existence that could have been utilized to produce a much better-looking transfer to DVD, but Lucasfilm decided it wasn't worth the effort or cost. That being said, if it isn't worth their time, why should it be worth yours?

Buyer beware

I suspect the reviewers who assert that the longtime fan base should be satisfied with the DVD transfers of the original theatrical versions because "this is the way they looked back then" never saw any of the original trilogy in 70mm with 6-track magnetic stereo sound on a 65-foot screen. Apparently they're not aware that DVD is a low-res medium compared to film. The fact is, the 1977-83 trilogy looked and sounded better in theatres, way back when, than in any home-video transfer since--including the 2004 "Special Edition" DVDs that restored (or approximated) the original color palette and cleaned up each frame along with adding George Lucas' can't-leave-well-enough-alone second thoughts to many scenes. So the argument that digitally remastering the original versions to 16x9 anamorphic would be "tampering," and thus something the "purists" should object to, is disingenuous. Transferring movies from one medium (film) to another (digital) is inherently an act of tampering. So by doing as little as possible in bringing the original cuts to DVD, Lucas wasn't being respectful to those original versions. He was saying that he didn't think the original cuts were worth a high-quality presentation on DVD.

Well, the rumors are flying that better-looking transfers of the originals will eventually show up when a 30th anniversary edition of the '77-'83 trilogy is released on DVD. Having bought (and parted with) the 2004 boxed set and having just bought the separate issues of the "before" and "after" versions, I'm not sure that springing for that eventual THIRD reissue of these movies on DVD is in the cards. This DVD of the circa-'83 "Jedi" is certainly watchable, if not as vivid as the 1997/2004 version on Disc 1 of this set. For me, though, the important thing is that, as with "Star Wars" and "Empire," I can watch this movie without the intrusions of later revisions: digitally-added creatures, the loss of a Han Solo one-liner, a younger actor--whose face Luke Skywalker would never have seen--turning up as a paternal ghost, and an overblown celebration montage at the end (CGI crowds celebrating an event that apparently the entire universe had heard about within a couple hours of its occurrence). For that I'm glad. And if by chance I actually want to see the 1997/2004 revision, it's right there in the same DVD case as the original.

While this set appears to give Star Wars fans what they longed for all along, it doesn't. It offers up a rehashed non-anamorphic version of the older films. Not worth your money. Stay away!

The third installment in the spectacular Star wars Trilogy chronicles the further adventures of the heroes of the Rebel Alliance. Return of the Jedi is a different adventure than The Empire Strikes Back, being more in the tradition of Saturday matinee serials in both story and tone than its dark (but nonetheless better) predecessor.

Luke returns Tatooine only to rescue his friends from the vile Jabba the Hutt. The Alliance finds that the Empire is constructing a new, more powerful Death Star protected by a an energy shield generated from the moon of Endor. The Alliance conjures up a daring plan to destroy the technological terror while Luke prepares to confont his nemesis-father Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine aboard the half-completed battle station.

Mark Hamill gives a charismatic performance as Luke Skywalker, being more in control and taking charge of the film. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher are suprisingly bland compared to their performances in Empire in contrast to Luke. C-3PO and R2-D2 are once again delightful and the Ewoks are cute and all but are just too silly. Alan Hume's cinematography can't match his last work in Empire but still is well-done. The set designs again can't live up to the designs in Empire but still are eye-filling and ingenious. The set in Jabba's palace is good, but the interior designs of the Death Star are more imaginative and interesting, in my opinion they are the best in the film. The editing and especially the soundwork are excellent, while John Williams contributes a fine score. But here the first improvement over Empire is the truly dazzling special effects. Lucas rounded up the best effects supervisors, (Dennis Muren-9 Oscars, Richard Edlund-6 Oscars, Ken Ralston-5 Oscars, and Phil Tippet-2 Oscars) and they did a fantastic job, using over 15O models along with the even more stunning laser, lightning, and fire effects. The action sequences are the other improvement, boasting of 5 the most breathtaking scenes ever filmed. The space battle and Sarlaac pit fight are in my eyes the highlights, though the speeder bike chase and the lightsaber duel are nothing short of spectacular.

For the special edition, Lucas supervised the introduction of new footage along with remastering the sound and editing, and enhancing the cinematography and visuals with the newest state-of-the-art technologies. Overall, Return of the Jedi is an outstanding film with nice touches of warmth and humor. Though it can't measure up to the first two films, it still excellent. And like the first two, its a dazzling adventure that will leave you breathless.