The thing that makes Star Wars truly great is Greedo shooting first. Wait, come back, I’m being serious! The original Star Wars trilogy was an incredible cultural touchstone, and obviously Star Wars merchandise and expanded universe novels created a whole world for fans to inhabit. However, the moment when Star Wars became truly great was the moment in 1997 when a generation of fans had to examine what this film meant to them, and why it was so important that Han shoot first. This moment galvanized an already fervent fandom to, if you don’t mind me mixing my geek metaphors, play Sam Beckett in the SWU, going back to earlier prints of the films to put right what Lucas had made wrong.
Using the sort of film tech popularized by Lucas himself, the fandom dove in and started making new editions of the original trilogy, and then turned their scalpels on each of the prequels. Rather than accepting anything as “canon,” they made their own. Now, as a flurry of new films loom, causing hope, fear, and trembling, I’ve rounded up nine different ways you can experience Star Wars into one handy list!
I feel I should restart this article by telling you all a little about myself, and what you’re about to read. To once again mix geek metaphors, Star Wars was part of the device that kicked off my own nerd Genesis Protocol. I saw the original trilogy, uncut and pre-specialized, at about the same time that I read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and a few weeks before I dove headlong into Star Trek: the Next Generation. I am personally pro-Original Trilogy and anti-prequel, but I come here today not to rant about that—okay, there will be some ranting, but mostly I’m just interested in how many different ways there are to watch these movies.
Plus, George Lucas’ own divided nature fascinates me, as does his fans’ reactions to him. Lucas wants people to have access to more tech, and Lucasfilm held The Official Star Wars Fan Film Awards from 2002 until 2012 (and apparently they’re coming back this year)—Lucas himself bestowed one of the awards. Troops, which showed Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru in a fairly negative light, won the OSWFFA’s Pioneer Award the year it was released. And he liked George Lucas in Love enough to send its creators a congratulatory letter. So he’s evidently okay with fans mucking about in his universe. Which is great! But then there are his thoughts on the 1997 Special Edition vs. the Original Trilogy:
There will only be one. And it won’t be what I would call the ‘rough cut,’ it’ll be the ‘final cut.’ The other one will be some sort of interesting artifact that people will look at and say, ’There was an earlier draft of this.’ …[W]hat ends up being important in my mind is what the DVD version is going to look like, because that’s what everybody is going to remember. The other versions will disappear. Even the 35 million tapes of Star Wars out there won’t last more than 30 or 40 years. A hundred years from now, the only version of the movie that anyone will remember will be the DVD version [of the Special Edition], and you’ll be able to project it on a 20’ by 40’ screen with perfect quality. I think it’s the director’s prerogative, not the studio’s, to go back and reinvent a movie.
Which, again, I completely agree with keeping the studio out of an auteur’s vision! But I don’t think Lucas realized that it wouldn’t be the studios interfering, it would be the fans themselves. Over the last thirty years, Star Wars enthusiasts have come up with many ways to re-experience the films, some with official sanction, and some without.
Original Release!
The image above is of the laserdisc set that was released in 1993, during the brief battle between laserdisc and DVD, as well as a couple different box sets of the Original Trilogy, and my ancient, rotting VHS copy with all three films. No, I will never get rid of these. But even these aren’t technically “Original Release”! The three original films were even being altered a bit in the early years—the subtitle A New Hope was only added to the original title of Star Wars after The Empire Strikes Back came out, for instance. Most of the tweaks that were made to the trilogy were slight, however—certain sound effects were changed, and dissolves were reedited into quick cuts. These are the versions that people remember, misty-eyed, when they talk about going to the theater.
They were released on VHS in the mid-80s, then on Laserdisc in 1993, and finally included in a 2006 DVD release. (However, the DVDs still pissed many people off, because they were grainy, low-contrast, and letterboxed rather than widescreen.)
In Turkish!
OK, technically Dünyay? Kurtaran Adam isn’t Star Wars. But it involves a heck of a lot of Star Wars footage, so I’m throwing it in here anyway. Unlike these Chinese Star Wars comics which expanded on the SWU in some, shall we say, inventive ways, Dünyay? Kurtaran Adam attempts to tell its own distressingly confusing story. So as far as I’ve been able to figure out: Murat and Ali crash on a planet, fight some skeletons, and run afoul of a 1,000-year-old wizard, who spends the rest of the film tormenting them in some sort of convoluted plan to take over Earth. I think. There are also zombies, ninjas, and magical golden swords, and a queen?
But most importantly, there are many pilfered shots of the Death Star, Mos Eisley cantina, and even the Millennium Falcon herself interspersed with the two main actors. You can read a review here, and watch the whole shebang for free! And hell, here’s a trailer for the English dub, or as the filmmakers call it, “The Ottoman Empire Strikes Back.”
Special Editions!
You could obviously watch the Special Editions, in which George Lucas took the original trilogy and remastered the shit out of it. To quote Wikipedia: “The changes are controversial, with opponents claiming that the changes detract from the story and tend to be more distracting than expedient.”
You can see a complete list of tweaks here, but the soul of the controversy around it can be summed up with the phrase “Han Shot First.” I think that moment became the rallying point because it undermines Han’s character arc so drastically: rather than being a mercenary who gradually joins the Rebellion because he believes in it, and finally chooses to put his love of Leia before his own needs, he’s now just an improbably lucky fuck-up. (We also get a shockingly milquetoast Jabba the Hutt.)
For me, though, the worst moment comes in Empire. I can still remember sitting on my living room floor the first time I saw Empire. I can, if I want to, remember exactly how the carpet felt under my hands, and how hot it was, and I can feel myself holding my breath as Vader tells Luke that he’s his father. I went in knowing the twist, and was waiting for it, but I had no idea what happened next. I had somehow decided that Luke was going to turn to the Dark Side and that it would be up to Han and Leia to get him back, so I was waiting for him to take Vader’s hand. And instead he chose to let go and fall to his death. (Now, I was not a complete idiot. I knew that they couldn’t kill the hero off—at least not yet. But Luke doesn’t know that.)
The fact that in the midst of learning who his father is, and that his father-figure Obi-Wan has been lying to him the entire time, and that his beloved mentor Yoda has been training him to kill his own father, he puts all of these emotions aside and chooses death rather than Vader’s offer of ultimate power…it’s an amazing moment. And it’s made more amazing by Luke’s silent resolve. He doesn’t curse Vader, or try to bargain his way out of anything, he just lets go. So imagine my shock when I attempted to watch the remastered version and discovered that Luke shrieks like a frightened 5-year-old as he falls. I can understand wanting to inject some more humanity into the scene, but that was not the way. Not to mention that it actually made it seem like Luke might have slipped. I’m pleased to say that seemingly even Lucas agreed it was a mistake, since the silent version was restored in the 2004 DVD release.
Han was less fortunate: even in 2011’s Complete Saga Blu-ray he only gets to shoot simultaneously with Greedo, rather than getting the drop on him. But, to balance that, Vader now also screams “NOOOOOO!” when he kills the Emperor, even though that makes no emotional sense whatsoever.
Phantom Edit!
To give you an idea of the world that gave us the Phantom Edit, the Phantom Editor used a Hotmail account, popular opinion held that he was a pseudonymous Kevin Smith, and the phrase “remix culture” was tentatively trotted out in every single article about it. Looking at these articles now, particularly Salon and NPR, might stab some people with a certain type of nostalgia. But this was one of the points of Star Wars. The film united several different genres of nerds when it came out, it encouraged cultish devotion and rabid message boards as the internet grew, and now that those original nerds and their younger siblings had access to decent tech, they could unleash their passion into creating a better movie than the one Lucas gave them. More importantly, they got rid of every trace of Jar Jar. (Understand, I’m not talking about murdering Jar Jar, just editing him out.)
The film circulated around Hollywood in 2000 before going viral, and eventually an editor, Mike J. Nichols took credit. When people asked why he had put the time and effort in to actually do the thing so many fans said they wanted to do, his reply was unabashedly emotional: “[George Lucas] got so wrapped up in the cloud of advanced technology that he overlooked some of the more primitive elements of good storytelling that he became famous for” and Nichols wanted to restore some of the “strong-hearted-ness” that he loved about the original Trilogy.
The Phantom Edit cuts Jar Jar’s scenes down, and also removes some of the expository trade dispute stuff. Anakin’s dialogue is trimmed, so we no longer here the future Darth Vader shout “Yippee!” at any point. And, best of all, it removes the midichlorians! The Force can go back to being a spirit that unites us all, rather than a biologically-based meritocracy. You can watch the whole thing on Youtube!
Harmy’s Despecialized Edition!
Harmy painstakingly constructed his “Despecialized Edition” from the many fan clean-ups that have appeared online over the years. He started with the 2011 Blu-Ray edition, which a fan called You_Too had color corrected to improve the magenta tone of the film. He combined it with Project Blu, (an upscale of “George’s Original Unaltered Trilogy” which was included on the 2006 DVD extras), the “Flunk” edition from 1997, Team Negative 1’s scan of the original 35mm print (which they did on a home-built scanner), and Puggo Grande, which was a homemade capture of one of a 16mm prints. So, as you can see, this all took a ton of work, but many Star Wars fans working together like some sort of, I don’t know, Rebel Alliance or something. You can see a documentary on the making of HDE, which I highly recommend you watch, as it is fascinating.
When Harmy’s Despecialized Edition Version 2.5 came out a few months ago, it was written up in Polygon, and, perhaps more surprisingly, The Atlantic. Both outlets are quick to mention that this version isn’t strictly…er…legal, per se, but you can’t discredit Harmy’s passion for his project. Plus his own arc is fascinating: he didn’t see the original trilogy in theaters (he actually enjoys the Special Editions) but the more he learned about the Trilogy’s cultural impact, the more he fell in love with the SWU. He ended up writing his undergrad thesis on it, and has now dedicated years of his life to creating the cleanest version of the Trilogy. He’s also excited to pass this version along to the next generation: “I want to show that to people. I wanted to show my brother. He was three when I started working and I showed it to him when he was five and he loved it.”
Rister Order
This is outlined on the NoMacheteJuggling blog as IV, V, I, II, III, VI. As NoMachete says, “George Lucas believes that Star Wars is the story of Anakin Skywalker, but it is not. The prequels, which establish his character, are so poor at being character-driven that, if the series is about Anakin, the entire series is a failure. Anakin is not a relatable character, Luke is.” Rister Order starts the journey with Luke, takes us up to the critical moment when we learn that Vader is Luke’s father, and then gives us what is essentially a loooonnnnng flashback to Anakin’s youth and fall, before leading us back to the graceful, redemptive ending of ROTJ. This helps us care about Anakin and Padme, despite the clunky dialogue and awkward acting, and also deepens Obi Wan’s role in the story, so the moment when Luke looks over and sees the great Force Ghost Jamboree is even more poignant, because t’s not just the moment when Luke realizes he has saved his father, it’s also Obi Wan’s reunion with his best friend.
Machete Order
In response to the Rister Order, the brilliant programmer behind No Machete Juggling suggests his “Machete Order” of IV, V, II, III, VI, cutting out Episode I entirely in order to strengthen Anakin’s character.
…Episode II quickly establishes [Anakin] as impulsive and power-hungry, which keeps his character consistent with eventually becoming Darth Vader. Obi-Wan never really seems to have any control over Anakin, struggling between treating him as a friend (their very first conversation together in Episode II) and treating him as an apprentice (their second conversation, with Padme). Anakin is never a carefree child yelling ”yippee,” he’s a complex teenager nearly boiling over with rage in almost every scene. It makes much more sense for Anakin to have always been this way.
Removing The Phantom Menace also brings balance to Luke and Anakin’s respective arcs, and we lose Jar Jar all the usual stuff people complain about. We also get a deeper sense of Yoda’s hubris, as this Den of Geek review points out. But we lose Qui-Gon Jin, and with him Obi Wan’s promise to train Anakin. Obi Wan’s determination to train Anakin can be read as his attempt to prove Qui Gon right–Qui Gon said he was the chosen one, dammit, so he has to be the Chosen One–and losing that element undercuts the tragedy of Obi Wan’s failure.
The Editor Strikes Back
And so we come to The Editor Strikes Back, Topher Grace’s take on the prequels. Topher Grace, best known for playing Eric Forman in That 70s Show and Eddie Brock /Venom in Spider-Man 3, is a giant 80’s-era film geek, and decided to test both his editing skills and his love of Star Wars by creating a whole new version of the prequel trilogy. His edit slashed the three films down into one tight 85-minute movie that, from all eyewitness accounts, worked extremely well. He screened the film once at his home in Hollywood for a group of film industry friends, and while he did release a trailer, it’s unlikely that the full cut will ever be seen in public. The film highlights the relationships between Anakin and Obi Wan and Anakin and Padme, and cuts out almost all of the trade discussions and Jar Jar.
His most interesting decision, however, is to start his film in the middle of the battle between Qui Gon Jinn, Darth Maul, and Obi Wan. Viewers are immediately dropped into a tense light saber fight (which is a pretty fantastic hook) and even better: if you were watching this as part of Machete Order, you’d theoretically have no idea who these three people are, or why they’re fighting, but you know they’re Jedi and you want to know what happens next. Within the first few minutes Qui Gon is mortally wounded and Obi Wan slices Darth Maul in half (always a good start to a film). The first time you hear Anakin’s name, it’s because Qui Gon uses his dying breath to whisper it to Obi Wan, insisting again that the boy is the chosen one. When Obi Wan swears to train him, we see that it’s a promise he’s making to his dying master, and since we already know that Anakin grows up to be Vader, the tragic nature of the story punches us in our collective gut. Then Grace cuts straight to the next film and we meet Anakin as a teenager, twitchy and nervous because he’s seeing Padme for the first time in a decade. In Grace’s ending, Anakin is never told about Padme’s death, and there is no terrible “NOOOOOOO!!!”—the twins are born, Padme dies, the helmet comes down, cut to black.
Star Wars UnCut
OK, maybe this one is my favorite. In 2010, Casey Pugh put out a call for Star Wars fans to recreate the 2004 Special Edition of A New Hope, via 472 15-second scenes. Hundreds of fans signed up, and once Pugh edited them all together, he found he had a glorious Starwars-enstein’s Monster. The film is a patchwork of ’70s grindhouse, animation, machinima, stop-motion LEGO, paper bag puppetry, a pregnant woman playing Jabba, a dog in a trashcan playing Artoo… it’s brilliant, and absolutely delightful to watch all these people pour so much love into the project. And you can watch the whole thing online for free! Right here in fact!
So, as I said, the most important moment in the history of Star Wars was Greedo shooting first, because this was the moment when people from all different backgrounds took it upon themselves to create their own cuts. Star Wars went from being a passive experience to an interactive one, and now it is another playground for creative people of all stripes and spots. I hope The Force Awakens is a magnificent, moving film. I also hope that a week after its DVD and Blu-Ray releases, a clever 12-year-old with a cool idea chops it into pieces and makes her own version!
Leah Schnelbach wants you to know that you are all luminous beings. Even you, Chris. Check out her crude natterings on Twitter!
“Vader now also creams “NOOOOOO!” when he kills the Emperor, even though that makes no emotional sense whatsoever” – wait, what??? I don’t have a Blu-Ray, so I haven’t seen that version (the most ‘recent’ version I’ve seen is the DVD release for the original trilogy).
So many mixed feels. I am also kind of fascinated with Lucas’s thought processes and can actually relate to his need to keep tinkering with it, as when I was 14 I started writing a story that I still occasionally go back in and screw around with. But once it’s been released to the public, enough is enough, man! I can be okay with adding some touched up effects, an extra scene or two, etc (for example, the extra scenes at the end of Return of the Jedi that show the new locations were kind of neat and don’t really detract from the main story).
But tinkering with a released scene to the extent that it actually changes a character/scene (apparently we’ve all just been interpreting it wrong) is…gah. Actually, my least favorite changes are 1)Replacing the Emperor with Ian McDiarmid in ESB (and I say this despite Ian McDiarmid being my favorite actor in the whole series), 2)Re-dubbing Boba Fett’s voice, 3)Hayden as the Force Ghost (full disclosure, I actually kind of love it too because I had a huge crush on Episode 3 Hayden when that movie came out, lol. But story wise it doesn’t make perfect sense – can’t old-Anakin be said to have reclaimed his Jedi-hood at that point? I do understand the thematic symbolism Lucas was going for so I can kind of squint at it and have it make sense, but..eh) – mainly becuase it seems so disrespectful to the original actors to overwrite them in that way, even if it is more consistent. Also, the Emperor’s new dialouge is really, really akward, and that scene just isn’t as good anymore.
Interestingly, my first time seeing Star Wars was the special editions, so I don’t have quite the visceral reactions to them others do.
However, I will say I find myself a bit frustrated by people who try to re-edit or re-do the prequels. Yes, I get it, it’s not what they wanted or how they thought the story will go, but while I can get behind, to an extent, the idea of the fandom owning the story once it’s released, I also feel that there’s a point where the creator who actually has the story in his head gets to say, ‘this is the way things are in this universe’.
But of course people have the right to do it, it’s just not something I’ll ever feel the need to seek out and watch. I’m a lot more interested in what Lucas’s vision is (even though that can be a bit bizarre and seems to have changed over time), even if I don’t love every part of it. (And I did actually enjoy the prequels. Over time I’ve decided I really like The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones is meh and the weakest point, and I love Revenge of the Sith)
Oh, I do want to say, that the Rister Order does actually look like a fun way to watch the movies. I’ll be honest, I can’t imagine starting the movies with the prequels. Even if that was the intent a long time ago and George Lucas intended it to be Anakins’ story, the mere fact that they were made after the original trilogy means that they are going to be drawing from them, so it just doesn’t make as much sense to watch them first.
Although it would be quite interesting to go and watch the prequel trilogy without knowing Anakin is redeemed! I kind of wish I could wipe my memory temproarily and do that, haha.
I first remember thinking Lucas was editing when, waaaay back, the Ewok crying at his fallen companion in the battle at the end of Jedi seemed to be a different length depending on which tape I watched.
We were told by Lucasfilm back in 1995 that we wouldn’t be able to get the “original trilogy” after that date – this is the promo on the THX VHS tapes in the lower right corner of @Cloudyvision‘s media spread.
I have an incredibly strong desire to see the Topher edit. It sounds incredible. Hearing about that actually gave me the idea to do the same with The Hobbit movies. Granted, I don’t know that I’ll ever have the time to do it, but I would like to edit the 3 movies down to a single 3 1/2 hour or two 2 hour movies.
No honorable mention of the Star Wars Subway from Improv Everywhere? Criminal!
Wait! Where is the brazilian version?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Os_Trapalh%C3%B5es_na_Guerra_dos_Planetas
Minor clarification nitpick: While it is true that the new versions are remastered, I feel like you are using that word to mean re-edited/changed. You are not the only person that does this; I have seen people label their fancuts as “remastered,” even though nothing could be further from the truth. Remastering just means a new master copy is made, usually to improve sound or picture quality. So the 1995 THX versions were remastered, despite not have any/significant/noticeable changes from the previous 1992 or 80’s releases.
Count me as one who enjoys the prequels, though there are things I don’t like about them. But I still suspect the thing I think people really hate about Phantom Menace is Jar Jar. I feel like this is evidenced by the Phantom Edit cut where mostly what was done was editing out Jar Jar. I feel like too many people dismiss the whole film because Jar Jar rubs them the wrong way, when it’s not that terrible as a whole. I do think, however, that the “love” scenes in AoTC do hurt the film, because so much is riding on it (as opposed to Jar Jar, who is not a central character). I think those scenes could’ve benefited from outside help in writing and directing.
I hate when people say “Han shot first.” This implies that someone shoots second. It would be more accurate to say “Greedo never shot!”
it’s awful how in the earliest version Han actually bored Greedo so much with his long spiel about intergalactic trade that Greedo committed suicide and in the later versions he had to resort to something so primitive as a blaster.
Around a year ago I watched a series of videos on Youtube which attempted to recreate unfilmed scenes using concept art, and on set pictures etc. However I cannot seem to find it anymore, I’ve no idea what combnination of search terms will bring it up, so if anyone knows what I’m wittering on about please post a link.
If you read the Making of Star Wars is becomes pretty clear that a lot of the people who worked on the original film were not happy with the results. This explains the motivation to “fix” them, but does not proplerly explain the results of these fixes.
Of course, Lucas messed around with the original trilogy long before ’97 too. In ’77, they had more time to work on the mono mix after the Dolby mix was done, so it had different dialog and sound effects in a couple of spots, depending on where you saw it.
There were also a couple of additional effects shots added to 35 mm prints of Empire while the 70 mm prints were already in theaters.
My girls just recently came of “Star Wars” age, and my eldest started watching them a few years ago after the 3d release of The Phantom Menace So, she saw that in the theaters, and wanted to watch them all. Waited about a year, and we watched them in Machette order, skipping The Phantom Menace, which I hope to never see again as long as I live.
When we got to the scene in Empire, my daughter looks over at me with tears in her eyes, but not overly emotional and says ‘Daddy, that’s not true, is it??’. Then she turns away and says ‘Vader is lying.’ It was awesome to be able to LEAVE THAT HANGING inside her and watch EPII and EPIII. She hung on to that literally until Anakin was burning in the lava.
Machette Order is BY FAR the best way to consume Star Wars for the first time. And I would also condone taking the time to watch The Clone Wars series in between EPII and EPIII. It adds so much to EPIII.
Oh man, that is SO awesome. As I said, I wish I could turn my brain off and try that (although I’d still include Episode I). My kids have already seen Star Wars (they’re 2 and 3.5) so I don’t know that that cat can be out in the bag.
I think the only thing that might be lost is not being able to appreciate Palpatine quite as much (especially in Phantom Menace), but I think he does such a good job in the prequels it would still be awesome, and seeing him as the Emperor in Return of the Jedi would be a different experience having seen him first as the Senator/Chancellor.
The thing is, Palpatine isn’t refered to by name until Return of the Jedi, I believe, so, if you are a kid, and watching in Machette order for the first time, you don’t realize that Palpatine and Sidious are the same person. You realize that Sideous is the same person as the Emperor, but that’s it. So, yeah, there is an element of Ian McDermitt’s performance as Chancellor that is lost, but not really that much. In its place, you get another reveal, that Palpatine is playing both sides in the Clone Wars. Its an even trade, in my opinion.
I would say that Machette Order does leave out the Podracing scene, which is one of my favorites in the entire sequence. Its a bit “wink wink” in its execution, but I think it hits all the right notes when viewed on its own. It just doesn’t work in a movie that is otherwise a fairly serious political drama. Its completely out of place.
But as a stand alone 11 minutes, its pretty awesome.
Palpatine is definitely referenced by name in all 3 prequels, so I’m assuming you mean original trilogy, right?
But, oooh, you’re right – one of the fun things for me about the prequels is knowing that Sidious/Palpatine are the same person and watching him play both sides (although I remember there being some crazy theories trying to say they weren’t actually the same). But it would also be pretty fun to get that reveal in Revenge of the Sith (I’d have to re-watch Attack of the Clones to see if it would be obvious there without the foreknowledge. I think Sidious only appears in the scene with Dooku at the end and says a few hinting things about the war but you might not necessarily make the jump. It actually technically would be possible to make the guess in Phantom Menace if you pay close attention to the balcony on which Sidious/Maul have their conversation and recognize it as the same as the one outside Palaptine’s windows but most people probably wouldn’t notice that. Although, there is the somewhat obvious pan to Palpatine when Mace Windu and Yoda discuss the Sith. But maybe it’s only obvious becuase of what I already know).
Darn it, now where’s that memory eraser!
Funny you mention the pod race, because while my husband likes Phantom Menace he actually hates the pod race. I don’t have strong feelings towards it one way or the other. It’s fun but not my favorite.
Yes, I meant original trilogy.
I love the little jokes and in references scattered throughout it, and its just a fun race, and the side characters are great. The Tusken Raiders taking potshots at the racers still makes me laugh out loud.
So, I have to ask, because I think this is the more interesting question – did your daughter expect Anakin to be redeemed once she realized it truly was Luke’s father and that he had once been good?
Because, I actually remember being shocked (in a good way, and it made for a very satisfying movie experience) while watching Return of the Jedi for the first time and Vader saved Luke’s life. I guess in retrospect maybe it was obvious even just from watching the original trilogy, but I just wasn’t expecting it. I figured Luke would have to defeat him. In fact, there was a point where I actually thought Luke would die and Leia would have to somehow save the day. At any rate, I’m glad something shocked me, because I actually got spoiled about Luke’s parentage the day I was going to see Empire Strikes Back. :P (Yes, I know it’s ridiculous I made it to the age of 14 without even knowing that until then). To which I replied, “Oh, let me guess, and is Leia Luke’s sister or something?”. Doh!
But…the Rister/Machete order might telegraph a little more that he will be redeemed and that the Anakin’s story is following an arc, although I suppose you could also interpret it as a straight up tragedy for Anakin and still be surprised when he’s redeemed.
I think Machete order gets you ROOTING for the redemption, where before, it just didn’t enter your mind. But I don’t think it ruins the moment when Darth Vader throws the Emperor down the shaft. And it only increases the emotional impact of Vader asking Luke to remove his helmet so he can see Luke through his own eyes.
It also adds significantly more impact to Luke saying ” I can still sense the good in you,” because we, unlike Luke, have SEEN the good in him. Not only that, we understand better that Obi-wan and Yoda ALSO witnessed the good in him, but ultimately reject him as unredeemable. We ALSO understand THAT better because… Obi-wan saw the recording of Anakin slaughtering the younglings.
So many feels :)
@19: Does the Blu-ray ruin the moment where Darth Vader throws the Emperor down the shaft though?
Is there a version that combines the updated special effects of the Special Edition (like the wampa and the sarlacc) with the original story detail and atmosphere of Original Edition (Like han shooting first and the silent fall mentioned)
I didn’t notice, because I was mostly watching my daughter… I haven’t watched it other than with her on the Blu-ray edition. There are a lot of things about the re-edits going all the way back to the ’97 special editions that I think lessen the emotional impact of the films. They added 12 minutes of new scoring to Empire, all of which was horrible, and in the worst places. There is no sense of taste or subtlety to these re-edits. I think George Lucas never actually left the early 70s.
Oh… my… God…
I just finished the uncut fan version of A New Hope… there were many times I laughed at the ingenious fan interpretations of their fifteen seconds of fame (is this the new version of everyone having their fifteen minutes of fame???), then there were a few times I was totally grossed out and couldn’t understand why those parts were even used as a part of the film, but overall I was entertained and amazed at the result of the fan-film. I kept thinking “holy copyright Batman” but apparently Lucas and company are fine with the film being posted on YouTube.
Now I need to check some of the other links!
Just a quick correction:
Nah, these predate any such battle. DVD wasn’t released until 1995, and these came out in 1993. Laserdisk was created in 1978, and is (generally) an inferior format to DVD; see this comparison. (Laserdisk does have some advantages as an analog format, such as not being prone to any sorts of digital distortion, compression artifacts, etc. But, it also has a generally lower fidelity).