Director's Cut WORSE than the original: (SPOILERS)

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

"Star Wars", now Episode IV: A New Hope (I hate even the name revisionism).

I think there were two sets of changes, the first the accompanied the rerelease, including the title change and change in the opening crawl text, and some CGI animated scenes particularly around Mos Eisley spaceport, miscellaneous animated figures, womp rats, storm troopers riding big lizards etc.

I personally didn't feel these scenes added anything at all to the film and in fact clashed a bit with the lower tech look of the old movie.

The thing that PO'ed me the most aside from the change in the opening crawl text was the cantina scene. If you remember the way it went down in the original, Han Solo is leaving the cantina having just made a deal with Obi Wan and Luke to carry the droids. Greedo the bounty hunter stops him and forces him to sit back down, at gunpoint. They discuss Han's debt to Jabba while Han surreptitiously readies his blaster under the table. Greedo discusses confiscating Han's ship, Han says "over my dead body", then Greedo says something to the effect of "that's the idea" and Han blasts him from below the table, leaving a smoking Greedo slumped over the table. Then Han flips the barkeep a coin ("sorry about the mess") while walking, slowly, out of the bar while the band continues to play.

In the DVD release, the scene is altered to make sure to show Greedo "shooting first" so that Han would not be blasting a guy who wasn't already shooting. In an interview, George Lucas said that basically he was "correcting" the original, because Han shooting Greedo in this way was not consistent with his being a good and admirable character, someone to emulate.



Well why the hell did he write and shoot the scene this way in the first place?! Obviously because it was a cool scene that worked, and was entirely consistent with the pirate character of Solo dealing with treacherous scum on a daily basis. I remember this as a great scene in a movie packed with memorable scenes. Really got a rise out of me and the rest of the audience when we originally saw it. I only wish that people like Lucas remembered what they were thinking and feeling when they originally wrote this stuff...

(I haven't seen it but I understand that the DVD release of "E.T." changed a scene where the space suited NASA dudes closed in on E.T. at Elliott's house, and were holding guns, the guns changed to walkie talkies because the guns were too scary for little kids or something. That's exactly the point! The scene is scary! When the gov't dudes come to imprison and experiment on your space dudes, they come with guns AND walkie talkies! The dudes with walkie talkies coordinate the gun guys! Anyway, I've heard that the original E.T. is available as well as this version, but not in the case of "Star Wars".)

[SkipNewarkDE]

1. Episode IV Title - SPOILERS

Just a heads up, this title has been THE title of the movie since, I believe, its first re-release, when Empire Strikes Back was in production 25 years ago.

The Han Solo shoots first thing kind of irked me, but what the hell, it is his movie, let him do with it what he will. One thing of note... in the theatrical release of the special editions, they had done a computer animated Jabba in a restored scene... This animation was redone for the DVD release, making the character look a bit closer to what Jabba looked like in the prequel animation.

There are other changes he has made, ie. replacing the Emperor in the second movie (who appeared in hologram, and looked different from Palpatine) with a hologram of the guy who played him in all of the other movies. This was a change made FOR the DVD release. I actually liked that he did this, as it is a bit jarring to watch the movies and see the character look and sound differently in that movie. The enhancements to Empire included opening up Cloud City with computer animation, which was kind of welcome, as I was always bothered by the closed-in nature of cloud city... didn't seem like a city to me. They also fixed a bunch of compositing problems in Empire with the ships on light backgrounds in the snow battle scene, as well as some cockpit shots, and problems with Luke hanging under the city at the end.

In Jedi, there were a slew of VERY welcome changes. That Ewok song at the end in the original version was horrible, as was the scene in Jabba's palace with the dancing girl and the really bad puppet singing. They got rid of that horrible song which didn't age well, and replaced it with a kick-ass big-band brassy number that was great. They also punched up the Sarlaac pit, making the monster look a bit more menacing than a hemorrhoid in the sand. But the best thing they did was fixed the entire ending with the Ewok celebration, which was juvenile and irritating in the original version. There wasn't the emotional gravity of what they had just done carried by this silly ending. So they changed the music to get rid of the high-pitched yub-nub crap, and put in good music, and a montage of celebrations across the galaxy. Perfect.

He also replaces Sebastion Shaw at one point with Haydn Christiansen who is playing the young Darth Vader prior to his fall.

Say what you will about Lucas tinkering with his movies. The fact is that this is one long movie, or story, and a work in progress, and his vision. He had this idea of how he wanted to make the movie and was stymied by the technology. The refresh makes the whole series a more consistent package for future generations.

[ET Awful]

2. Hooray for Skip, someone who recognizes that not only are the

changes not really harmful to the movie, but are good in many ways. It's George's universe, it's his story, and it's his decision what he wants to do with it.

If he materially changed the story, I might complain. . .say he made Boba Fett be Hans father out of a cross-species relationship with Akbar's niece, I might be upset :) But if it doesn't materially alter the story, go for it :)

[Love Bug]

3. Re: Episode IV title

I believe the first Star Wars movie has always been titled "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the crawl. It created a lot of discussion and head-scratching at first, then Lucas explained he was inspired by the old movie serials, like Flash Gordon.

[SkipNewarkDE]

5. Close...

In the very FIRST release, no, there was no episode number. Fox wouldn't let him do it, and he figured it would bomb, anyway, so he would never get to make the other ones. He wanted to do it, because, as in the Indiana Jones movies, he wanted to give the audience the feeling of being dropped into the middle of a movie... Notice how he never stops to explain anything about the world, and how it works, unlike most other sci-fi movies that had come before, that spend an inordinate time with gee, isn't this cool, look this is how we do THIS..

[Gildor Inglorion]

4. Hayden Christensen is splendid!

I'm glad Lucas replaced Sebastion Shaw with him. That shot just about ruined Episode VI for me when I first saw it. Anakin Skywalker minus the Darth Vader helmet looked EXACTLY like the Tin Man from The Wizard of Oz, only "peeled." *ugh* As to the rest, I totally agree; it's George Lucas's story. Let him do with it as he will. I just wish he'd make the final three episodes as originally promised.

[Mike Daniels]

6. Yeah, but Han wasn't a good or nobel character at the beginning

He was a smuggler for hire who's only concern was his own welfare.

Consequently, "shoot first" would have been totally within the character's makeup at that stage in the film.

Like you said, it's Lucas's movie...let him do what he wants with it.

I'm no drooling purist/fan boy, however, Lucas's revisionistic take on Han Solo's character is totally inconsistent with the role Han played until the very end of part 4.