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27 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
These are still not the original releases from 77,80, & 83, March 2, 2008
This review is from: Star Wars Trilogy (Widescreen Theatrical Edition) (DVD)
I had a chance to watch the Star Wars disc from this supposedly unaltered set and was bummed out that even these are not the version that were in theaters back when I saw them. I know this because when I was 8 I got to watch a bootleg Beta Max version of the first film nearly 50 times at a friends house. I had also seen it the year before in theaters in 1977.
This disc is missing 3 items that were in the original theatrical release. I will list all three.
1. When they are all in the control center(in the death star), C3P0 points and tells Kenobi where to release the tractor beam in 3 different points at the same location. (This was not on the DVD)
2. This one is the most obviuos ommission. When Luke and Leia are at the Chasm before Luke throws the grappling Hook to swing across. In the theater version , he puts the grappling hook in his gun and fires it at the ceiling so it will hook on. Unfortunately it misses for them and it falls down. Luke then needs to coil the whole cord up again with the hook and this time he tosses it and it catches. If you watch any version of the film you will see a really poor edit of Luke pulling up the cord from his belt multiple times as if it had fallen once. But Lucas couldn't just shorten the scene because it would have thrown off the music so he copied and pasted Luke pulling up the cord 2 times. For what ever reason, he felt the first time using a gun was not needed to be left in.
3. This one is minor but when they get through the blast door in the death star to avoid Vader, you can hear the Storm troopers tell the door operator (somewhere) to "Close the blast Doors" and then after it closes, you hear someone say "open the blast doors". In all the versions since the movie came out in theaters the "Close the blast Doors" line has been edited out. It is possible it is still on the non THX version of the Laser Disc.
There is also a shortened scene in the Return of the Jedi but that is for another day. George shortened that as well.
George if you are reading this (And I know you are not) Why don't you actually put the "REAL" theatrical version on DVD and not this Psuedo version of Theatrical. All these DVDS are is of a transfer from the THX Laser Disc Version. I think the original Laser Disc version might have a little more in them, but I am not sure.
BTW, George even did this with Episode III as well. He took out a 15 second scene of General Grevious climbing out side of the crashing ship as it was going down at the beginning of the film. he deleted it because he later realized that General Grevious could not breath outside in space. We know he breathes because of his coughing all through out the film. Those 15 seconds never made it to the DVD or the deleted scene section. Woops ;o)
I don't knwo why he does this to all of his films.
I wish my friend still has his Beta Max copy but it has been long gone for 20 years.
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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Original Versions Are Included, February 2, 2010
This review is from: Star Wars Trilogy (Widescreen Theatrical Edition) (DVD)
i just want to clear one thing up right here and now.regardless of what anyone else says,the theatrical original versions are included with these movies on disc 2 of each movie.i know they are the unchanged original versions from before Lucas changed them,and not because i have a great memory,I'm from the 60s after all,but i played the dvd version and my original 1992 VHS version at the same time side by side and they played in sync throughout the entire movie second for second.if there were any changes made then one of the movies running would have fallen out of sync.my 1992 versions are from way before Lucas changed them and added new parts.you should be able to find these versions included with these best buy tin versions on the normal [paper] box set 2 disc versions also,as long as they are from 2006 or beyond.the VHS version looks alot worse than the DVD could ever look.the DVD looks great!however,in my opinion,the sound on the VHS is clearly superior to the DVD.its much louder and the stereo separation is much more defined.there is also a touch of extra re-verb in the sound on the VHS which gives it a movie theater feel.anyway let the debates continue and may the force be with you!
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8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Every expense spared, January 26, 2007
This review is from: Star Wars Trilogy (Widescreen Theatrical Edition) (DVD)
Watching the original versions of the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD is like travelling back in time - not so much to the innocence of youth but more to the days when picture quality was never much of a consideration on video releases and Fox had the reputation for the worst transfers in the business. Watching these DVDs is to step back into an age of low resolution standards conversions with all the loss of detail and motion blurring that that entailed: certainly if you've got one of the old remastered video releases you might as well hold on to that, because the quality isn't as poor as this. The sound quality is pretty awful as well. From Lucas' past track record it's all too easy to imagine this is just a scam to allow him to sell a remastered version a couple of years down the line, but it's even harder to dispel the notion that somewhere Lucas is whining "See how soft the focus is? How can you say these are better films?"
Although commonly blamed for the death of cinema as we knew it, in truth Star Wars was a huge breath of fresh air after the increasingly stale and formulaic week-in, week-out reality of woefully unimaginative and derivative downbeat on-the-cheap 70s cinema. It wasn't merely a matter of having a happy ending, more that there was a sense of panache and unapologetic adventure that had been missing for too long at the time (even the decade's best adventures, such as The Wind and the Lion and The Man Who Would Be King, saw their heroes destroyed by society in an age that had no place for them). Looking at it for the first time in years, its much better directed than remembered, extremely well constructed and beautifully designed, introducing the `future is old' concept that many would attribute to Ridley Scott. It also, unlike the prequels, has the saving grace of Han Solo, a character whose deprecating sense of humor undercuts the more solemn and potentially pretentious moments in a way that would be much missed amid the talk of apprentices, trade embargoes and midi-chloridians in the prequels. It's still fun and it still works, even in the very worst transfer of the originals.
The Empire Strikes Back suffered the least in the special edition reworkings (although the clunky rewriting of the scene with the Emperor shows Lucas' leaden touch with dialog only too clearly) and as a transfer suffers the least of the original versions, but it's still not good enough. The film itself holds up surprisingly well, fully deserving its reputation as the best (and naturally least commercially successful) of the series. A lot of the credit has to go to co-writer Leigh Brackett, with the film's verbal sparring having a classic Hollywood feel to it that gives it a mixture of the best of both worlds, while keeping things moving at a brisk pace. Irvin Kershner's direction brings the best out of the cast too, while the action scenes - particularly the battle on the ice - are the best in the series. It's just a shame that the film's (genuinely unexpected at the time) cliffhanger was thrown away in the follow-up.
Return of the Jedi isn't as bad as the scarred memories of working at a movie theatre showing it five times a day for 12 weeks would have it, but it's still the least of the series. With no producer or studio to rein him in this time, Lucas offers something that's little more than a rehash of the first two films, but with bigger Death Stars, more spaceships, more teddy bears and far, far too many Muppets, it's crippled by an atrocious opening section where one after another the heroes try to rescue Han Solo only to get captured in the most tedious ways possible. Richard Marquand's inability to direct action is much to the fore in this section, and he's not much better in the rest of the film, while Harrison Ford gives a particularly bad performance that's all too indicative of a bored man with nothing to do but stuck here anyway because of contractual obligation. If you can forget the dire first third, the rest of the film is okay when it's dealing with the Skywalkers' family feuds but less successful on the ground in the Teddy Bears Picnic - sorry, Ewok scenes. Still, it does have Princess Leia in the slavegirl outfit...
The discs also include the revised special editions released a couple of years ago, which at least boast excellent picture and sound quality, though are all extras-lite with only a commentary and a Star Wars Lego promo.
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