Stupendously big news has come down from the Holy Sepulchre of The Great Flanneled One:
In response to overwhelming demand, Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment will release attractively priced individual two-disc releases of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Each release includes the 2004 digitally remastered version of the movie and, as bonus material, the theatrical edition of the film. That means you’ll be able to enjoy Star Wars as it first appeared in 1977, Empire in 1980, and Jedi in 1983. [Emphasis mine.]
Uncle George is taking a page from The Disney Book of Dirty Tricks and General Corporate Evil and will be offering these discs for a limited time only — September 12 to December 31 — but I can live with that. Yes, it’s manipulative and no doubt designed to maximize sales by threatening us with an artificial scarcity, but who really cares if it means that Han shoots first, as he should? I know what I’ll be wanting for my birthday. Hell, I’ll probably buy two copies in addition to asking for the birthday gifts, just to have the spares on hand.
The complete press release is here. I don’t know about you, but my day has suddenly gotten drastically brighter. My morning cup of coffee even tastes better. How odd…
All praise to The Great Flanneled One!
Amen, sister!
As I also take this as good news, I have some hesitation…
First, the are the transfers clean, restored material or old workprints? Second, I noticed the sound will be DD 2.0 – So no sound treatment either.
Something churning in my gut says Lucas is doing this to get people off his back as well as to also say, by showing us the old, cruddy films he thinks they are, that he’s done something good by restoring them to the new versions.
As much as I want this to happen, I doubt these will be in much better condition than a pirated copy taken from Laser Disc to DVD.
I suspect there is an element of getting people off George’s back in this decision, but I also think he (or whoever is behind this) is smart enough to know that putting out an inferior version won’t silence the critics. If anything, it’ll make the hue-and-cry worse.
I’m inclined to think that they’re following the same model established by the ET disc a few years ago, which provided a nice (if unflashy) copy of the theatrical version. They’ll be better-looking than my bootlegs, I’m sure of it.
As for the sound, I think Uncle George is just providing what people say they’ve been wanting (but perhaps don’t entirely understand), which is the original 1977/80/83 versions. Don’t forget that 5.1 surround is a fairly recent invention. These movies were originally released in plain old Dolby two-channel stereo, advanced for the time but not what we’ve become accustomed to now. People will no doubt bitch about the lack of surround, but they’ll be getting exactly what they’ve been asking for.
There’s also the possibility (and maybe even probability) that the announced specs will change before the actual release arrives. Happens all the time…