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Star Wars - Limited Edition
Feb. 8th, 2014 03:38 amIn a discussion of laserdiscs a couple of days ago I mentioned that while the laserdisc of Star Wars was (for a long time) the only way to see the original film without "improvements," there had been one DVD release. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nojay asked for more details:
Star Wars A New Hope Limited Edition
Bar code 5039036028288
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Wars-IV-Limited-Edition/dp/B000FMH8UI
Mine has a cover sticker (not shown on the picture on Amazon) that reads "Limited Time Only Includes The Digitally Remastered Movie Plus the Original Theatrical Version"
Disk 1 is the new "improved" version with various commentaries.
On disc 2 you get the "Original Theatrical Version" which is fairly obviously a transfer from laserdisc - it's letterboxed 4:3 format. The quality is quite good, they've obviously gone to some trouble to clean it up, but that's what it is. The title is given as "Star Wars" not "A New Hope" and Han shoots first. It's also four minutes shorter because there's no CGI Jabba, no fireworks parties, etc.
Considering how easy it would have been to upscale this to the width of a 6:9 screen it's fairly obvious that Lucas really doesn't want people to prefer the original version. But he's the director, I guess he gets to make that call.
There are similar sets for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
nojay asked for more details:Star Wars A New Hope Limited Edition
Bar code 5039036028288
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Star-Wars-IV-Limited-Edition/dp/B000FMH8UI
Mine has a cover sticker (not shown on the picture on Amazon) that reads "Limited Time Only Includes The Digitally Remastered Movie Plus the Original Theatrical Version"
Disk 1 is the new "improved" version with various commentaries.
On disc 2 you get the "Original Theatrical Version" which is fairly obviously a transfer from laserdisc - it's letterboxed 4:3 format. The quality is quite good, they've obviously gone to some trouble to clean it up, but that's what it is. The title is given as "Star Wars" not "A New Hope" and Han shoots first. It's also four minutes shorter because there's no CGI Jabba, no fireworks parties, etc.
Considering how easy it would have been to upscale this to the width of a 6:9 screen it's fairly obvious that Lucas really doesn't want people to prefer the original version. But he's the director, I guess he gets to make that call.
There are similar sets for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
