How hard is it to find the original 1977 Star Wars?

boing
21

Exactly. I’m in the same generational boat as the article’s author–a wide-eyed kid in 1997 watching the Special Edition in theaters. I was no less of a fan for having been born a couple decades too late, but tell that to the old guard squawking about heresy.

I spent the next fifteen years in a trivia arms race trying to prove myself worthy, before I realized I just didn’t care. Now I stand as an embittered husk of a fan who’d rather not even bring up Star Wars because everyone’s so damn stupid about it.

22

If it is the Definitive Collection with a book then it was more like $250 new. I bought it back then, on lay away, so I’d have the best copy of Star Wars possible for that time.

However, it isn’t technically the 1977 release. There are a few very minor changes they made in the 80s that are on this version too.

Also they did port these to DVD like 5 years ago or so. Those discs are kinda expensive an Amazon, and people gripe they don’t fit right on their newer wide screen TVs.

23

So, which version was it that I watched on TV in the eighties?

24

I like the original ones better, too. I have them on VHS and DVD. On the DVD, you have to dig really far into the menu system to get them.

25

see that’s what happens when you go to the dark side, your soul dies. kids, beware.

26

Seriously they’ve been fiddled with so constantly that you had to pretty much be alive in 1977 and have seen it in the theater at release. It’s not really something you could have controlled.

I was 4 in 1977. If my dad hadn’t been a huge geek I wouldn’t have seen it then either.

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27

Here is a list of all the changes.

There are a couple lines I always wondered why they didn’t fix in the special edition. “Look sir droids.” Needs a comma or two. “Look, sir, droids.” And in ESB “Imperial troops have entered the base” is said with no panic or search of urgency.

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28

You know what’s funny: I’m a volunteer at a museum that has a Star Wars exhibit. I get little kids telling me that they’re the biggest Star Wars fan and what do I even mean I haven’t seen all of Clone Wars??? I had an 8 year old tell me that one of our Jedi were holding the wrong lightsaber - Luminaria Unduli is apparently holding Kit Fisto’s weapon.

These kids are lesser fans than I am? I don’t think so!

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29

Some hardcore fan Sean Hutchison is, just writing off the LD and VHS “because no sane person has a laserdisc player these days”.

The 1995 THX widescreen laser-disc is what I would choose as being the closest legal high-quality way to approximate what was seen in the 1977/1981 theatrical releases. But Sean cheaps out.

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30

I have copies on VHS that my brother made from LD back in the early 90’s of all 3 originals. I still watch them regularly.

I wish I would’ve taken better care of them - my copy of ESB has a section of tape from Luke’s time on Dagobah that got chewed up by a crappy VHS player and I’ve currently misplaced my RoTJ.

31

The original theatrical release (unless there was a weird cut for TV?). Lucas recut and remastered all three in… the 90s, I guess it was… for a theatrical re-release. I don’t think anything had been changed before that.

32

High quality? With the non-anamorphic widescreen, you’re looking at, what, 275-300 lines of resolution? I was fortunate enough to get to see an extremely rare 70mm print (with archaic but delightfully warm 5-track mag sound) in college. It was pretty beat up, but it felt like magic.

33

I was in jr high in 77 and I saw it in the theater 7 times. I have not really seen it since, except portions and clips online.

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34

The 1987 “red label” VHS tapes are pretty close to the original (or so I’m told.)

You know, you can buy a working VHS machine at your local thrift shop for under $10. . . talk about being “cheap.”

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35

Pshhh. If he didn’t see it in a theater when it first came out, feet dangling and mouth agape, then he’s not a real fan.

36

Dude’s lack of dedication is pretty disturbing.

How big a star wars fan could you really be and not know about the 2006 DVD? 30 seconds of googling will find it.

Only interesting bit in the article is the information that LucasArts aggressively sucks up any film copies of the movies when they surface. That’s kind of a dick move and I didn’t know about it.

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37

IIRC, they actually started modifying Star Wars while it was still in theaters for it’s original theatrical release.

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38

Let’s face it, the original theatrical releases aren’t even consistent with each other, holding them up as canon is pretty silly. Do you think Lucas envisioned Luke and Leia as siblings when they kissed in TESB? And don’t even get me started on Kenobi’s mealy mouth rationalization of his lie to Luke, back on Tatooine, before Lucas decided to make Vader a daddy.

What really blew my mind back then, was seeing the Ralph McQuarry paintings that showed Kenobi surviving to the throne room awards ceremony, and Luke as a girl! I’m far more interested in the versions that could have been but weren’t, than figuring out which of Lucas’ retcons to swallow.

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39

Why, then, don’t audiences accept an updated Star Wars like a new Macbeth

yeah, that’d go over well…

NB: yes, I know that’s Hamlet, not MacBeth.

40

I just now noticed the irony that he frets about his nerd cred with star wars, but writes off bit torrent as some kind of Deep Web black magic. Nerd cred busted.

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