Saving Star Wars... Resources on GOUT Editions.

[budious]

Did you know the version of Star Wars you watch today is not the same that most fans have the privilege of remembering? Over the years, George Lucas has taken it upon himself to "correct" his films by tampering with color balance, resolution, new CGI sequences or replacement FX, and controversial moves that effect character bio and influence the mood of the film (Han shoots first in ANH, Sebastian Shaw replaced by Hayden Christensen in RotJ). Most younger fans can shrug off the importance of the original preservation and accept the newer cuts at face value but for those of us who funded the original Lucas empire, we feel he has an obligation to fulfill our desire to see full preservation of the GOUT (George's Original Unaltered Trilogy). While unauthorized efforts have been undertaken by the community, George Lucas has repeatedly expressed his disdain for the original cuts and refuses to fund their preservation or offer their release in high definition. The following websites offer general information about the preservation efforts and also document how the original cuts have been slowly transformed over the years. Also check out the blu-ray boycott and petition websites demanding high definition GOUT releases.

 

History and preservation information:

http://www.savestarwars.com/

http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/savingstarwars.html

 

Versions (Content):

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases

http://partners.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/502318

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/alternateversions (ANH specific)

 

Versions (Video/Audio Quality):

http://www.aptirrelevance.com/otscreenshots/#versions

http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/starwarsaudio.html (1977 70mm Audio)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/russdawson/mono/ (Star Wars Mono Sound Mix)

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Colortiming-Cinematography-was-What-changes-was-done-to-STAR-WARS-in-93/topic/9805/ (Color Timing in 1993 THX Edition)

 

Frame captures and comparisons:

http://www.aptirrelevance.com/otscreenshots/

 

Film Presentations: (This is what proper theatrical cut Star Wars on blu-ray should look like!)

http://s321.photobucket.com/albums/nn388/sixpakcinema/ESB%2016mm/ (ESB 16mm)

http://savestarwars.com/technicoloribscreening.html (ANH 35mm at Senator Theater)

http://petergaultney.smugmug.com/Movies/historic/Star-Wars-at-The-Senator/13089279_nXePV#948662138_wuqj9 (ANH 35mm at Senator Theater)

 

Discussions on these subjects and more:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/

 

Petition for "GOUT" availability on Blu-Ray:

http://originaltrilogy.com/petition/

 

Threads on these forums with similar content:

viewtopic.php?p=544691

 

THX 1138

Films made by Lucas prior to Star Wars have not escaped his wrath either. The 1971 classic, THX 1138, was retouched in 2004 with its own Special Edition DVD and the original theatrical cut was not optioned to collectors.

http://www.maverick-media.co.uk/movies/thx_1138_1971/changes_001.html (Comparison of THX 1138 1971/2004 Editions)

Edited September 6, 2010 by budious

[Slocket]

I have both versions and it is different.

 

If you paint a Mona Lisa, then keep screwing with it, then it is no longer the master piece it was.

 

XCOM game remakes come to mind...they changed it too much and they all failed.

[budious]

Added a few new links in original post. In particular, check out the links regarding content because changes to the film impacting quality and home releases were prevalent from the start. Numerous changes existed between Star Wars (1977) with the original "Star Wars" scrawl and the later "A New Hope" (1981) re-release opening crawl. Also, while the film remained in theaters during it's initial run, minor bits of dialog and scene lengths were adjusted depending on the 35mm Mono/Dolby Stereo or 70mm 6-track audio projected in cinemas. Similar history is documented for Empire Strikes Back cinema releases in which the 70mm prints had numerous differences in comparison to the 35mm prints.

 

Later editions of the film released on early home video offered numerous remixes in audio, speed-up for CED time compression, and the 1993 THX "enhanced" release VHS boxset produced significant motion ghosting and coloring issues due to digital video noise reduction (DVNR). Prior to even being tampered with for the 1997SE and 2004SE releases, the films had already undergone significant mutations. This most noticeable distinction is the loss of contrast and color depth, the current special editions and 2006 official "GOUT" release both suffer crushed blacks/whites (in film terms, the color range is compressed and less detail is evident), though the 2004SE is noticeably darker than the 2006 "GOUT", both are significantly darker than their Laserdisc and 16mm/35mm film preservation counterparts. (View the screenshot comparisons links and pay attention to the star backgrounds, shadowy halves of planets, and dark corners of rooms and hallways.)

 

Why purposefully reduce the image quality of the original trilogy? When George Lucas produced the Phantom Menace, he once again turned to 35mm film to record the live-action sequences (70mm is industry standard for live-action special effects so you can zoom and crop, and most shots only the budget to be done once in the case of models, explosive sets). This required him to digitalize the film frame by frame before inserting the special effects. This is how film has been traditionally done. However, desire to be cutting edge (ILM) and reduce the expense and time required to produce the special effect elements, Lucas turned to filmless digital recording to shoot Attack of the Clones live-action sequences. The problem was the first generation studio digital HD cameras were only 1080p and then only supported non-anamorphic recording modes (1.78:1, commonly referred to as 16:9 HDTV), to produce the desired 2.35:1 aspect ratio for Attack of the Clones, the camera could only capture live sequences at 818p (1920x818). This means at most the original source recording of Attack of the Clones only has about %20-25 resolution of any of the previous Star Wars films. Production of Revenge of the Sith continued with digital HD cameras, but the second generation now supported anamorphic 1080p (live action shot at 1920x1080 for mastering purposes, vertically stretched) for 2.35:1 aspect ratio shooting. This means while Revenge of the Sith has superior master to Attack of the Clones, both are still far inferior to the 35mm counterparts used in traditional film making (Episode I, IV-VI).

 

Now to simplify the technicalities regarding film, 35mm film depending on it's quality can yield between 4K-6K lines of resolution, and is not uncommon to be scanned at 8K for producing digital HD masters that will be downscaled to blu-ray resolution but will long preserve the film for future home video standards (Wizard of Oz was remastered in 8K line resolution prior to blu-ray release), 70mm film in most instances can yield 8K-10K lines of resolution. Mastering and yielding resolution are not the same, a frame of film may render 5K lines of resolution and be mastered at 8K, such that about every 1.6 lines contains a unique pixel and can be interpolated to produce the missing pixel.

 

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases (Details in changes of cinema cuts, 1997SE, 2004SE, PT DVD releases)

http://www.aptirrelevance.com/otscreenshots/screenshots.php (Shot 1 is a good example of degraded contrast, note the star field on the left of the screen)

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/DVNR-smearing-in-GOUT-not-in-the-master-Or-is-the-1995-release-a-different-master-altogether/topic/11856/ (1993 THX "DVNR")

[Evaders99]

Did you create this site? Looks like a lot of research when into it

 

That quote is so ironic. I love it

[budious]

None of these websites are mine but I do appreciate their efforts and enjoy studying cinema, especially as it regards the Star Wars legacy.

 

I post it here because while I was aware of the differences I had not studied it in detail until after stumbling across the fanedit The War of the Stars which in turn used movie footage not from an official SW release but from the preservation efforts of two 16mm reels known as the Puggo Grande. Looking at the photos of the projection from the Senator Theater's presentation of the 35mm and screencaptures of the 16mm preservation, both show how much brighter and richer in color the original prints were. The gradual degradation of master prints due to noise reduction and color timing has killed a lot of the contrast and made the film darker, and either too red or too blue in many shots.

 

The struggle for fans of cinema demanding that George Lucas release the original unaltered trilogy in restored high definition and audio goes along the same lines as the gaming community here being discontented by the pedestrian nature of the Star Wars gaming franchise. Unified in our displeasure and discontent, somewhere on Skywalker Ranch, a fat man in his underwear adulates this post.

 

Added more links to the original post:

http://www.wideanglecloseup.com/starwarsaudio.html (1977 70mm Audio)

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/russdawson/mono/ (Mono Sound Mix)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/alternateversions (ANH changes)

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Colortiming-Cinematography-was-What-changes-was-done-to-STAR-WARS-in-93/topic/9805/ (Color Timing in 1993 THX Edition)

 

When the original theatrical version was first released, it was simply titled Star Wars.The opening crawl was changed to "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" during the 1981 re-release. According to Sterling Hedgpeth, Lucasfilm film archivist: "I found a box with all the positive elements for the 'revised' opening crawl, and the assorted trim boxes are dated from October through December 1980. This, then, is consistent with the view that Episode IV: A New Hope was added for the first time to the opening crawl for the April 10, 1981 re-release."

 

There are at least two different prints of the original Star Wars in circulation. One definite difference between them is that the brief scene in the Death Star corridor where Chewbacca roars and "frightens" a little messenger droid is missing. This scene was NOT in the "opening day" version.

 

The 1981 re-issue contains three dialogue differences from the original. First is the appearance of the "close the blast doors" line that was silenced in the 1981 version. The 1977 version has Aunt Beru's line "All his friends have gone" places emphasis on "friends" rather than "gone" in the 1981 version. Finally, Luke shouts "Blast it, Wedge, where are you?" rather than "Blast it, Biggs, where are you?" Because Luke's head is turned to the side, it's impossible to tell which is the on-set name used. The redubbing makes Wedge's rescue of Luke more unexpected.

 

The voice of the actress who played Aunt Beru, Shelagh Fraser, was dubbed over in all but the original prints.

[budious]

While the topic of this thread is centric on the unaltered original trilogy, based on my disdain of the prequels and my disdain of George's disdain for my preference of his worst cuts... I did find this amusing bit from EPI:TPM in which early theatrical prints to cinemas contained a "PG safe" version of Darth Maul plummeting down the shaft whole. Later, when the preferred split Darth Maul sequence had been approved for a general audience PG rating, the remaining prints were rushed to cinemas with the updated sequence.

 

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a117/Sluggomatic2000/Maul/alternatemauldeathmp8.jpg