Image Credit: Lucasfilm, Ltd.Amid all the gadgets and gizmos and glitz at CES, there was but one thing announced by Darth Vader (seriously): Star Wars is coming to Blu-ray. Great! My chance to buy the beloved franchise in yet another format! Looks like I have to retire my “go laserdisc or go home” shirt.
Yes, Star Wars: The Complete Saga will be available in September, but if you don’t want to shell out for the blasphemes the prequels, it’ll also be available as the separate trilogies — although the original trilogy will only be available as the re-vamped “Special Edition” versions. The full, nine-disc set (which includes 30 hours of bonus features, and new deleted and alternate scenes) will be $139.99, and the individual trilogies will be $69.99. (The full set is currently $89.99 on Amazon. A steal!)
I’ve been rethinking my Star Wars devotion since I read Javier Grillo-Marxuach’s “My Year Without Star Wars“ essay a few weeks ago. Grillo-Marxuach, who created one of my favorite shows ever, The Middleman, writes not just about his deep and abiding love for the films (he saw Phantom Menace six times!) but also about their overwhelming ubiquity.
Star Wars is the monomyth of Gens- X and Y: so pervasive that it occupies the mental volume whole genres did in the past. In some future accounting of late twentieth and early twenty-first century popular entertainment the term Star Wars could be spoken in the same way we now say “the Western.” Star Wars isn’t entertainment: it is a language, and anyone with access to the Internet, DVD, VHS, Super-8, or two cans attached by a string can share in the conversation.
[snip]
As a seven year-old, Star Wars was a Tesla coil of wonder. Thirty-four years later, it’s more like Mervyn Peake’s Ghormenghast: a hulking repository of arcana picked over by an ever-expanding army of courtiers who have lost sight of the original principle. The spice Mines of Kessel now have a gift shop, Starbucks and an Etsy tent where locals sell homemade tees with delightfully witty silkscreens of Wilhuff Tarkin in the style of Shephard Fairey.
See, the Star Wars fan in me really wants that shirt. But I get what he’s saying: You really can love something too much — and we can compulsively dissect that object of our affection until it loses all context and winds up consuming us.
Does this change the fact that I have a two-foot AT-AT sitting behind me desk? No. But I can’t be the only Star Wars fan out there who met the news of a Blu-ray release with a tiny twinge of dread, am I?
i would get the original trilogy if it were the ORIGINAL. not the special editions.
Amen. Bring back the Yub-Nub song.
Take out Hayden Christensen from the end of Return of the Jedi and maybe I’ll be interested
I will probably pick up the Blu-ray set. HOWEVER, I am disappointed that the original trilogy doesn’t have an option to view the an-altered versions
I for one am very excited (as someone who saw The Phantom Menace 8 times, Attack of the Clones 9 times and Revenge of the Sith 10 times in theaters). We can debate the merits of the prequels, or the over-expansion of the franchise… but as far as the Blu-rays go, it doesn’t get any better (except for the theater, of course). To have my favorite films in the best possible picture and sound, how could that be a bad thing? Now when they re-release the flims in 3D, and then have 3D blu-rays, then I’ll have said that enough is enough.
You are part of the problem.
What problem, Todd?
I’m excited, I don’t get the hate for the Special Editions (Yes I know Han shot first but I actually didn’t notice that they changed that until someone pointed it out…then I shrugged my shoulders and said Oh Well”) the extra scenes with Jabba and Han are worth it, plus he was able to clean up the picture so it is crisper. I’m okay with the prequels (They aren’t that bad, just no where near as wonderful as the originals) so I would go for the box set.
To me, there’s a difference between cleaning up the picture so it’s crisper and adding in a bunch of CGI and other special defects that take away from the period in which it was made. I feel that CGI is a lazy way of doing special effects – make it on the PC instead of miniatures w/ stop motion and puppets. It’s NOT the same. Another example – Clash of the Titans. If it aint broke, DONT fix it.
I’d pay extra to have the ORIGINAL versions of the original trilogy. I will not be buying this. I’m happy with my DVDs of the unaltered versions of the original trilogy.
I don’t remember those ever coming out, even in America.
I think I can live with just my regular DVDs for now. The upscaling on my blueray player is already pretty damn good.
That it’s not the original or doesn’t show the original “as is” is phooey. I’m pre-ordering it now for $90 at Amazon (all 6 episodes).
These Original Star Wars Fans are getting annoying and it’s still months until the release.
Why do people act as if Lucas owes this minority of moaners so much. He doesn’t.
Watch your DVDs or VHS’s if you’re so obsessed with the originals. The rest of us will welcome this release.
Consider this: If a novelist wrote a book in the late 70s but was restricted by the socio-political landscape as to what he could print, would we expect him to release the original on Kindle even if he had a second edition publsihed in the 90s which conveyed his true and unhindered vision??? Answer: No.
Excellent points!
Why don’t all you haters go buy Avatar and leave the star wars saga for those of us who appreciate Lucas’ amazing gift of this magnificent story in 6 parts. I’m so tired of all of your pedestrian rants.
Star Wars Lives in the Heart.
Dear Ms. Lyons Re: “but if you don’t want to shell out for the blasphemes the prequels”
I suggest you go back to journalism school where you might learn that your editorial does nothing but cloud the issue with your own egocentric opinions. Just give us the facts, we will decide what is and is not blasphemous.
Thank you
Judging by this article we should all be driving model T’s. I wonder what all the fuss is about, could it be bitter adults who can’t see past the 70′s and forgot what it means to be a Star Wars fan. Spending time at the Celebrations I have witnessed such phenomenal positivity in the new generation of fans that I find it “blasphemous” to have this ongoing hatred for anything Lucas does. After all he invited us into “his” story, it seems that some of the posters here have forgotten that they have not done anything to contribute to the culture as these films have. They have created community, family, and a true sense of wonder and possibility. Perhaps the previous poster said it best when he suggested that the haters go elsewhere “good riddance” I say, more for us to enjoy!
100% agre
I agree, I’m down with the ORIGINAL TRILOGY not the special edition versions. There’s just some stuff they did on the special editions that don’t really look right compared to the rest of the filming. To go in 15 years later and alter a classic is like following the mind-controlling “Big Brother” of the book 1984. Altering the past to make it fit the future in order to satisfy someone else’s own agenda. George Lucas has been trying since the beginning to get the praises of the film critics….he always failed….so he thought he would alter his landmarks to be more visible…but that only made it worse. Now the old-school fans hate him as much as the film critics. Nice way to betray your own kind George….because of you the only way I can relive those child hood memories is if I go to the local dump & hopefully by the “forces” that be I’ll find a VHS player….
Actually the unaltered versions of the original trilogy were released were released on DVD (unremastered)along with copies of the special edition versions. My main issue with the special edition versions is senseless changes like Greedo shot first, a Jabba scene that basically serves no purpose expect for saying the same thing Greedo tells Han. In Empire Luke’s awful added scream as he falls was thankfully removed. I liked some of the work, like the end celebration footage from Jedi, but I agree there are moments that seem to just be added as if it were test footage for the prequels. I like the prequel trilogy, but altering the original is kinda pointless. Nobody expects a movie made in 1977 to look like it is brand new. The remastering process was awesome. I think one thing people fail to realize is that the special edition cuts were remastered and they let the originals go, so it would be near impossible to ever get an unaltered remastered cut of the way they were first seen in theaters.
no un-special editions, no dice!