The bad news came down a couple weeks ago, but I was too disheartened — and too distracted by other topics — to comment at the time. It seems that my buddy Cheno’s hunch was correct: the upcoming Star Wars DVDs will present the original theatrical versions of those landmark films in non-anamorphic letterboxed transfers based on 13-year-old masters that were originally prepared for the old analog-laserdisc releases. What that means, for those of you who aren’t home-theater savvy, is that the video quality on the unf***ed-with editions will be better than your old VHS tapes, and it will probably be better than the bootleg DVDs that are floating around the ‘net (which are all copies of the laserdiscs made with home-brew equipment), but it won’t be up to the standards of even an average DVD release. You see, nearly all the DVDs sold these days are “anamorphically enhanced,” which basically means they’ve been processed to look good on high-definition TVs. Without anamorphic enhancement, the theatrical versions will look pretty good but not outstandingly good on a regular TV, and lord only knows what my fancy new HDTV will make of them. Anamorphic enhancement isn’t anything new or special; every major-studio DVD movie release of the last few years has got it. As many disgruntled SW fans have pointed out, the upcoming release of George Lucas’ mid-90s flop Radioland Murders will have it. But not the 1977 movie that literally changed how Hollywood does business.

Needless to say, I’m immensely frustrated by this development. There’s just no good reason why these films can’t be presented in a form that meets the current industry standards. (Don’t take my word for it: the DVD experts at The Digital Bits explain why Lucasfilm’s excuse that “this is the best they can do” is crap in this long and enlightening post.)
Just for the sake of argument, however, let’s pretend that George Lucas really isn’t being petty and mean towards the very people who put him in his current position as grand-high poobah of the digital filmmaking revolution. Let’s say he’s just made an error of judgment and now he’s sitting in his big leather chair at Skywalker Ranch, scratching his beard by the light of his authentic Tiffany lamp and wondering why he just can’t seem to satisfy his seemingly irrational fans. Let’s imagine he’s turning a Jar-Jar Binks action figure over and over in his hands as he sincerely asks himself, “What do they want from me?”

To answer your question, Hypothetical George, let’s consider the movie Blade Runner. Like Star Wars, Blade Runner is a vastly influential film whose director, Ridley Scott, has never been quite satisfied with how it turned out. Like Star Wars, Blade Runner exists in multiple versions and fans of the film are divided over the various revisions that have been made over the years. But unlike what’s happening in the Star Wars situation, Blade Runner fans aren’t being told to forget that the original version of the film — the historically significant version that was the genuine influence on films to come — ever existed. Once again, a report from The Digital Bits:

This coming September, there will be a new limited DVD release (HD-DVD & Blu-ray Disc are also planned) of the restored 1992 Director’s Cut (you know… the one that isn’t really a director’s cut). This will be available for just four months. We believe this is basically the 2-disc release that Warner had originally planned to bow LAST year.

 

Then next year, just in time for the film’s 25th anniversary, Ridley Scott’s ultimate Blade Runner: The Final Cut will hit theaters for a limited run. This will be a REAL director’s cut, with restored scenes and more – all the stuff that Ridley’s always wanted to do with the film but hasn’t really been given the chance to do before. That will be followed later in the year by an Ultimate Blade Runner DVD release. You can expect a multi-disc box set (again, likely with a simultaneous HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc release) that will contain at least four different versions of the film… ALL in full anamorphic widescreen, we might add. You’ll get the film’s original U.S. theatrical cut, you’ll get the expanded international theatrical cut, you’ll get the 1992 Director’s Cut and you’ll get the new Final Cut as well. Now… we realize at this point, you may have questions. Keep in mind, there’s a TON of additional material that’s going to be included in this set that hasn’t been announced and can’t be talked about yet – all-new material that you’ve never seen before. The set is pretty early in the planning and production stage, so it’s way too early to talk details, but trust us… some very cool stuff is in the works. These extras will likely be different from the September ’06 release, so if you buy both you’ll at least be getting your money’s worth.

 

Imagine that… anamorphic widescreen AND real value in a DVD release!

So, Hypothetical George, let’s review: Blade Runner was a box-office flop on its initial release, then garnered a cult following on home video and gradually came to be seen as a minor classic. Its director continues to tinker with his creation, trying to make it better resemble whatever he thinks his original vision was 25 years ago, but he doesn’t try to bury his “earlier drafts.” Instead, he accepts that fans continue to value them and decides the earlier versions are worthy of preservation. He (or the studio that owns the property) offers up a well-planned, one-stop-shopping box-set that contains all the variants of the film in high-quality transfers as well as decent extras, despite the fact that such a package caters only to a niche audience of hard-core fans and will, by extension, have limited sales potential.

Contrast this with the handling of three of the most successful movies ever made, movies that penetrated popular culture on an unprecedented scale, revolutionized the way movies are made and marketed, jump-started the modern visual-effects industry (which in turn led the way to the digital filmmaking revolution that Lucasfilm is striving to lead), and, not least of all, influenced the dreams of an entire generation of children. And then ask yourself again, Hypothetical George, why are those damn fanboys so ungrateful? Isn’t the answer rather obvious? Duh.