Saturday, October 02, 2004
Star Warped
I am altering the trilogy again. Pray I don’t alter it any further.
Kristin says I have been obsessing about this, but I thought I would get my points down, one last time, for anyone that wants to read them.
The Star Wars DVDs were just released. And Lucas once again has decided to change and alter the films, like he did for the special edition, but this time to make them more consistent with the new prequel trilogy. This includes dubbing over Boba Fett’s voice, digitally inserting Ian McDiarmid over the actor who played the Emperor in Empire, and replacing the ghost of Anakin Skywalker at the end of Return of the Jedi with Hayden Christianson.
I recognize the artistic reasons Lucas did this, and I am all for him wanting to make his films as he sees them. What I do object to is his altering the story, and then acting as if his originals no longer matter or have no inherent worth. He knows says the original theatrical releases should be considered rough cuts, and that he mostly dissatisfied with them. Currently he has no plans to release them on DVD, and considers that case closed. His belief that the current films is evident in the advertising for the DVDs, which claims these are the original classics.
The thing is, the original films have inherent worth as a historical and cultural work of art. It is important to retain them as the originally were, because they were a watershed moment for the film industry and special effects as we know them today. In deciding they have no value and discarding them, Lucas is going against a personal cause he does support – the preservation of film as culture and art. Others recognize this – the last VHS set that included the unaltered films now sells on eBay for upwards of $120-$150 dollars, which is an astonishing price for a film on a format that is rapidly becoming obsolete.
Even more disturbing to me are the fans that openly support the changes and deride the films that existed before. Some even advocate further changes in the future, including removing the puppet Yoda for the CGI one in Empire and Return of the Jedi. Which to me would be anathema. As my coworker Allan said, “There is more humanity in Frank Oz’s hand than a computer program can ever hope to achieve.”
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