STAR WARS WARS

We have already established that I am a dork. Part of what that usually entails is an avid love of Star Wars and this is certainly the case for me. I should clarify, however. I love the original Star Wars movies. I love the universe in which they're set, and much of the lore that has been developed for that universe. I love Episode III and tolerate Episodes I and II (while loving the fight scenes found therein). I do not, however, love the remakes of the originals. I would go so far as to say I dislike, perhaps even disdain the remakes.

Honestly, that may have more to do with the historical context of the originals in my life than any real difference in quality. How would I feel if I had seen the remakes first? Hard to say. In any case, I didn't. I saw the originals first. I grew up with them. So naturally I'm inclined to prefer them.

Those of you who follow geek news know where I'm going with this. For the rest of you, here are the relevant facts (with my opinion strewn about liberally amongst them).

George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, has claimed that the remakes are what he intended all along. When the state of the art in filmmaking caught up to his original vision, he finished off what he had started. In his mind, then (and this theory leaves out various cynical marketing considerations) the remakes ARE the movies while the originals are merely a poor first draft. With this in mind, he has steadfastly refused for years to release the original version on DVD (with the deterioration of VHS and laserdiscs, this means that viewable copies of the originals are slowly vanishing and would not be replaced). He vowed he never would, much to the disappointment of the hardcore fans.

These are the people who drove the juggernaut of demand that kept the license alive and flourishing, that allowed Lucas to create the remakes and the prequels in the first place. Their discontent with the remakes is not malice, it's the result of loving a thing for fifteen years. We're talking about CHERISHED movies. What Lucas has been doing (and the geeks are not going to like this analogy) is like taking a favored stuff animal away from a child and telling them they must play with the new one. The new one is just not the same. This isn't the velveteen rabbit, we're not talking about the scarlet fever here. There's no reason "for our own good" to have to take this cherished thing away from us. So, for years many of the fans have been crying out for Lucas to make the originals available.

Now, finally, George Lucas has agreed to release the originals on DVD. Yay, right? Well, not really. See, he hasn't really changed his position on the situation. He does not care for the originals, does not want them out there, and is not putting much effort into doing so. he claims to have "taped over" the original masters (he cut them up in the process of creating the remakes). Therefore, to make this DVD release, he is essentially copying over the laserdisc version. It's not going to be cleaned up, it's not going to be surround sound (which is odd, because the originals were). It's not going to be anamorphic widescreen (which means more to people who own or plan to own a widescreen TV than the rest of us). And, most insulting of all, it's not going to be available without strings - namely an attached copy of the remakes.

That's right - the originals can ONLY be purchased in a bundled pack with the remakes (this setup is actually described as a remake DVD with "bonus material" on the official announcement). This is odd when you consider two things: those of us who WANT the remakes already have them. Those of us who don't want the remakes, you know, don't want the remakes. So by releasing the originals only in a boxed set, Lucas is punishing the loyal fans who support the remakes by making them purchase them again, and he's pissing off the people who are already irritated by making them purchase the very movies that irritated them in the first place.

It's a good deal less odd when you consider two other forces: marketing and ego. In terms of marketing, Lucas has found a way to sell people something they either don't need or don't want. In other words, he has found a way to sell something that would not sell otherwise. From an ego standpoint (and because I fall into the irritated column, I'm going with this as my prime thesis), George Lucas has found a way to keep the "old" version from ever outselling his precious "new" version. Or, in a twist on the same premise, he has found a way to sabotage the sales of the originals and thus "prove" that nobody really wanted them in the first place.

I'm generally inclined to give people the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps too often. In this case, though, I'm having a hard time. I have a hard time believing he could not find a higher quality source, that he could not provide appropriate sound (this is not even the THX remastered sound that came out on VHS), that cleaning up the image would be terribly difficult (one columnist pointed to the recent OZ rerelease as an example of what could be done on that front). And I really can't believe, even for marketing reasons, that it is really necessary to bundle the originals with the remakes. Maybe George Lucas honestly does not understand the desire for the originals (bonus materials?!?!), but this whole operation smacks too much of a stubborn ego reluctant to admit error for me to really believe that.

George Lucas may have been a force for good in this universe once, but he has fallen far. Maybe he'll change his mind. Maybe this is a stopgap measure until the next generation of media arrives (there are signs DVD is about to be surpassed) and he can do it right. Maybe his son will grow up to become a Jedi and redeem the father who has turned to the dark side. That would be nice.