The moment has come...

[John McClane 1]

...finally the Italian TV has decided to put the Star Wars films on TV in prime time.

I never see a SW film, and now I don't have excuses to miss them.

Right now, I see that only the first two are sheduled on the tv guide magazine (but the third will be on the next week, obviously):

Tuesday, Jan. 4th: Star Wars (don't call it A New Hope...)

Friday, Jan. 7th: The Empire Strikes Back

I think next Monday or Tuesday there'll be Return of the Jedi, too.

All the films are the 1997's Special Editions.

I don't know why it's been a lot of years they don't put this trilogy on TV...I mean, the Indiana Jones trilogy is on TV in prime time at least one time in a year. (Last night, 31th December, there was The Last Crusade...)

[Morlock 11]

Nice.

All the films are the 1997's Special Editions.  

Don't you mean

All the films are the 1997's Special Editions.  

?

[Lurker 5]

It's nice that you'll finally get to see them.

All the films are the 1997's Special Editions.  

That's nothing to smile about.

Neil

[John McClane 1]

Well, probably the original versions are better, who knows...but it's the first time for me, so whatever...

And the DVD version are different then the 1997 versions?

[Morlock 11]

Yes. Avoid them at all costs. Those DVDs are terrible in just about every respect.

[John McClane 1]

Yes. Avoid them at all costs. Those DVDs are terrible in just about every respect.

Even the bonus DVD is bad? The Indy bonus DVD was great.

So I will get the VHS then...

And why these 1997 SE are so bad compared to the original versions? Which changes were made? Restored audio and video, or they just put in some deleted scene?

[Morlock 11]

The bonus DVD is indeed bad. That documentry is only mildly interesting, mostly fluff, and the Williams segment is IMO the greatest insult Lucas or Lucasfilm have done to JW. It's out right shameful.

[John McClane 1]

Damn. For what I've read on this site in the last months, I knew that those DVDs were bad, but now I know I don't have to buy them!!

The Williams segment in the Indy DVDs was short, but good. He and Spielberg were whistling the Raiders March to show howw the theme was born!

[Morlock 11]

The Indy segment was 3 times longer than the SW one.

[John McClane 1]

Who produced the DVDs (Lucas?) must really hate our Johnny then...

[diskobolus 3]

Tuesday, Jan. 4th: Star Wars (don't call it A New Hope...)

I will, and do, and have, and there's nothing you can do about it.

[John McClane 1]

It's not that we have to talk about this again

[Romão 2,274]

Don't worry, Tommy, if you watch the SE, you'll watch the same movies with excellent sound a picture quality. And the DVd's are great also.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

It's great that you can finally watch them on TV, but I hope it'll be widescreen versions. You have not seen the Star Wars trilogy until you've seen them in full glorious Panavision format.

[Miz 139]

It's great that you can finally watch them on TV, but I hope it'll be widescreen versions. You have not seen the Star Wars trilogy until you've seen them in full glorious Panavision format.

I think this is all that really matters. People can whine about some CGI changes, but for those that want good picture quality and an end to pan-and-scan viewing, the DVDs are A Good Buy. But I doubt they'll show widescreen on TV - they didn't when they showed the trilogy in the UK this week. :roll:

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

I don't see it happening either. I know some foreign countries are more fortunate than we in Holland with widescreen broadcasts, though.

But then, when the Indy movies were shown on the BBC last year, they were cropped to 4:3, while these days the BBC usually crops to 16:9. That's not the complete frame, but it's still better than foolscreen.

[Kendal_Ozzel 36]

Yes. Avoid them at all costs. Those DVDs are terrible in just about every respect.

Oh come on. Lowry's restoration job is nothing short of amazing. The documentary is at least "good". The lack of deleted scenes is disappointing, as is the fact that ILM didn't get to finish all the touch ups after Lowry was done. If you don't like the fact that Lucas is still tweaking the films, that's your opinion. (However, let's not go there. That horse has been beaten into nothingness.) But to suggest "avoiding them at all costs" is...well, silly.

[King Mark 3,631]

Yes. Avoid them at all costs. Those DVDs are terrible in just about every respect.

Time for me to step in.

The DVD's are just fine.You get the clearest picture your ever going to see the Star Wars films in,and since you never saw the SW films,the slight color adjustments won't be of a concern to you.And as for the added 1997 special effects,I for one feel it makes the movies better,if you don't look at it through a film historian/conservationnist/purist point of view.

K.M.

[John Crichton 4]

Hoo boy, here we go again.... :roll:

Glad to see you're finally going to see these great movies TJ. And then you can finally wade in to the Star Wars...er....Wars.

John- fan of the DVDs, fan of the SEs, fan of Star Wars

[Dean1700 4]

Ok I'll fess up. As much a fan of Star Wars as I am I have not committed myself to getting the DVD's and in all probability never will. I have seen the films and their quality which is exceptional but have no want to buy them.

[Morlock 11]

The DVD's are just fine.You get the clearest picture your ever going to see the Star Wars films in,and since you never saw the SW films,the slight color adjustments won't be of a concern to you.And as for the added 1997 special effects,I for one feel it makes the movies better,if you don't look at it through a film historian/conservationnist/purist point of view.

The picture was better without the hue (the SE looked better). And the added SFX look like added SFX. They stick out like a sore thumb. Every single scene added since 1983 is totaly unnecassery, and takes a few minutes to readjust to the rest of the movie. The original versions are so vivacious- they may have rougher effects, but you see a color and a joy in every scene. The new picture sucks so much life from it- it literaly looks like someone drained blood from this picture. The movies are a far better experience before any changes made.

And I dare anyone to say that that Documentry treated JW's contribution to the movie with the respect due. Almost as ridicules as the Goldsmith section on Star Trek:TMP, where you'd think they were talking about a so so composer providing an adequate score by the skin of his teeth.

[Halloran 0]

I love the ORIGINAL trilogy(1977, 1980 & 1983), and i hate George Lucas

[John Crichton 4]

I love the ORIGINAL trilogy(1977, 1980 & 1983), and i hate George Lucas

You do realize that the Original Trilogy would not exist if it weren't for George Lucas? :?

[King Mark 3,631]

Ok I'll fess up. As much a fan of Star Wars as I am I have not committed myself to getting the DVD's and in all probability never will. I have seen the films and their quality which is exceptional but have no want to buy them.

Me neither.I,ve rented them.Now I'm OK for 5 years.I don't think I can sit through Jedi another time though.

K.M.Who needs a set of ESB only.

[John McClane 1]

John Crichton is right...we could hate Lucas for the way he treats JW music and for some other, but NO Lucas means:

- No Star Wars;

- No Indiana Jones (oh my God...my life would be somehow different without that man with the hat...);

- No LucasArts (so NO MONKEY ISLAND!!!) <-----

(BTW, no Indy games, no Day of the Tentacle, no Sam & Max...you get the idea)

Now King Mark...

Well, first I see the films, then if I'll like them, I want them at home.

I know I will love them, because everybody loves Star Wars, so why shouldn't I?!?

The problems are with the DVDs.

I see a lot of SW fans here were disappointed with the DVD box-set release.

I still don't know the Originals (77-80-83), so that mean I don't know the differences.

Since I don't know the differences, it shouldn't bug me to have on DVD something different to what I saw 1 time on TV.

I know buying the DVDs means have perfect video and perfect audio, but it's also true that the score has been ruined in some scene.

That's a BIG problem for me, because I'm interested in SW just for the score.

Yeah, I know the story of the films, and I know a bit the characters, but I'm interested in see them mostly because they're scored by Williams.

I still don't know what to do.

I don't even know if the store near me has the old films on VHS, but VHS are something I don't really wanna buy, because the score might be original and good, but the audio and the video quality are a lot worst than the DVDs

And Marc, the Italian TV will put on the 4:3 foolscreen (i loved that pun!) version. We can't pretend more. Italian TV sucks. That's why I'm here every evening!

May the force be with me.

End of the post.

Smnol.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

And Marc, I think the Italian TV will put on the 4:3 foolscreen (i loved that pun!) version.

Alas, such are the ways of things. But seriously, after seeing this, you should check out the films in widescreen. The framing on particularly eps IV and V is excellent, and are really clearly designed for the big screen. VI not so much IMO, but you should see it in widescreen anyway.

[John McClane 1]

I know Marc.

Everytime on TV there's a film that I got on DVD, it's funny about how lame is the TV quality.

I don't know in the other countries, but the Italian TV is still in mono! :oops:

As I said before, I saw a part of The Last Crusade on Dec. 30th (last night, last year!) and in mono you can't realize how good is the score.

Maybe that's a reason of why Italians are not great score lovers.

We have a small soundtracks-section in the stores. I have a lot of problem to find the scores I wanna buy. (if someone remember, when I register here, under the avatar I wrote "Location: Italy (where it's hard to find JW music) instead of the actual "The canyon of the crescent moon"). It's just an example, but I still didn't found "The Terminal" here. Luckily I bought it in NYC!

We have a Virgin Megastore, but it's in Milan, which means 250 Km from my home!

I'm not sure if there is a Virgin in Rome, but Rome is more than 400 Km...

I don't know why, but I'm going off-topic. I think I'm a dickhead for posting this.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Mono? Are you sure you don't just have a mono TV? If this is true, that's really the stupidest thing I've heard.

And I'm glad to see you're among the luckily ever-growing group of knowledgeables who realize that widescreen is the only way to go. I still have my old Pan & Scan VHS copies of the Indy trilogy, and looking at it now, I realize even more how horrible the pan & scan is.

For instance, during Raiders, I never understood who was laughing when the Ark was opened, and we saw there's nothing in it. The laughter came from somewhere off camera. But in widescreen, the frame opens up to the sides, and we actually see that it's Toht who stands laughing behind Belloq and Dittrich.

You'll also notice what looks like a continuity glitch during the briefing scene early in the film. The government guy sitting on camera right (good cop) is talking, then the other guy (grumpy cop) takes over, and we go to a shot of him on the 4:3 version. When the angle returns to the first guy, he suddenly has a piece of paper lying in front of him. One might think he could've gotten it from somewhere while the other guy was talking, and that is actually what happens. The full widescreen frame has both of them sitting next of each other in frame the entire time. When grumpy cop takes over, the first guy grabs his bag and digs out the paper. There's some soft foley you clearly notice when you see it happening, but it's soft enough not to be picked up when it's happening out of frame (not by me anyway).

Excuse me for rambling on about this, I'm just a rather obsessed with the horrors of Pan & Scam.

- Marc

[diskobolus 3]

It's not that we have to talk about this again  

Oh please. You wrote it in the first post of this thread. :roll:

[John McClane 1]

No Marc, I don't have a mono TV, it's the Italian TV that is still in mono. I'm not talking of the digital ppv, just the regular free TV.

We have the public TV (RAI) which is in stereo. I know RAI 1 and RAI 2 are in stereo, but ALL the other channels are in mono.

The films will be on RAI 3. I'm not sure if it's a stereo channel...

I also noticed the Raiders thing.

BTW diskobolus, that's an old and very boring story. I don't wanna talk again about that. There used to be entire thread here only for that. You can search then, bump them, and continue your story there.

You can call it Star Wars or Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but for me it's not important at all.

Someone might prefer Star Wars, because that's the original title, but in the saga it remains the 4th episode.

[Henry B 50]

TJ, if you've never seen the original versions, then don't worry about it. The SE and DVD versions of Star Wars are still great movies...just not...great movies. I think you'd have to be familiar with the originals to recognize the flaws in the new versions.

Ok I'll fess up. As much a fan of Star Wars as I am I have not committed myself to getting the DVD's and in all probability never will. I have seen the films and their quality which is exceptional but have no want to buy them.

Same here...I didn't buy the DVDs, and I didn't ask for them for Christmas. Conversely, I'm not looking into buying the originals on VHS or bootleg DVD on eBay. I just don't care anymore...sure, I like the Star Wars movies, but not fanatically. It's only the soundtracks that I really love.

[John Crichton 4]

Marc fulfilled his purpose in life when he coined the term "foolscreen". I use it whenever appropriate now.

[King Mark 3,631]

It's hard to believe that a JWfan has never seen the SW trilogy.

K.M.

[QMM 4]

I've never seen the originals banghead

[King Mark 3,631]

The 1977-83 original originals,the 1997 original trilogy S.E. or the DVD original Trilogy?

K.M.

[diskobolus 3]

Tuesday, Jan. 4th: Star Wars (don't call it A New Hope...)

You can call it Star Wars or Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but for me it's not important at all.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hypocrisy

[JoeinAR 1,949]

Quote:

Tuesday, Jan. 4th: Star Wars (don't call it A New Hope...)  

I will, and do, and have, and there's nothing you can do about it.  

L

People can whine about some CGI changes, but for those that want good picture quality and an end to pan-and-scan viewing, the DVDs are A Good Buy.

really how do you explain this then?

[King Mark 3,631]

I wonder who buys the Fullscreen

K.M.Who bought the E.T. Fullscreen DVD by mistake.

[John Crichton 4]

People who just haven't been educated as to the difference, or the "I hate those black bars" crowd, which fortunately gets smaller and smaller all the time. I tried to have a conversation with my aunt about this over Christmas (her family's collection is a strange mix of both fool and widescreen) and got nowhere.

John- who's fortunately never accidently bought a foolscreen DVD.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

The Star Wars DVDs are fine. They're the only way I'll be able to see the films (in whatever shape or form) in the best format available.

I wouldn't call Empire of Dreams just fluff, because most of the stuff in it I didn't know before.

[Mr. Breathmask 555]

Luckily over here, there are hardly any fullscreen editions. The Star Wars trilogy, the Indy trilogy, the LotR trilogy, E.T., they all came out in widescreen only (on DVD that is, VHS was naturally still fullscreen). Only big movies that have come out in fullscreen on DVD that I know of are HP1 and HP2. HP3 was only widescreen.

- Marc

[Elmo Lewis 6]

Ok I'll fess up. As much a fan of Star Wars as I am I have not committed myself to getting the DVD's and in all probability never will. I have seen the films and their quality which is exceptional but have no want to buy them.

Same here...I didn't buy the DVDs, and I didn't ask for them for Christmas. Conversely, I'm not looking into buying the originals on VHS or bootleg DVD on eBay. I just don't care anymore...sure, I like the Star Wars movies, but not fanatically. It's only the soundtracks that I really love.

I couldn't agree more with you two.

[sfrosa 0]

Can you be serious?

Yes, the audio problems on "A New Hope" are inexcusable, and the color "enhancement" is a bit much, but the idea that these DVDs are crap, to the extent that someone who wants to see Star Wars should purchase the VHS versions, is ridiculous. These are the best presentations of the Star Wars films EVER. I understand that people have problems with the special editions, but my Definitive Edition Laserdiscs look awful in comparison.

As far as the bonus disc, it's equal to or better than the Indiana Jones bonus material. I certainly wouldn't describe it as fluff. It spends most of its running time laying out how the movies, especially the first one, were on the brink of disaster throughout their productions. I've seen plenty of Star Wars documentaries that revolve around the special effects, so it was nice to see something that went a little deeper into the actual production.

I hold John Williams in the highest regard, as, I'm sure, do most of the people on this board. I would love to see a good thirty minutes to an hour devoted to the music of Star Wars on one of these DVDs. It hasn't happened yet, but I think that's because there needs to be a strong concept for it first, where the music is the documentary's sole focus.

On a related note, it seems to me that the absolute hatred of Lucas on these boards comes not only from his tinkering with the films, but from his perceived slights against John Williams. Lucas has made it clear in the past, as he does again on the DVD bonus disc, that working with John Williams was the best part of Star Wars. Whenever he talks about "Johnny", he gushes with praise. Lucas has made some choices that, from a musical perspective, are boneheaded. A lot of these are directly related to the other most hated man in Williams fandom; sound editor Ben Burtt. Spoiler for the poster who hasn't seen the films yet - (He wanted the final confrontation between Vader and Luke to be sound effects only!) In the end, however, they're all collaborating to make the film as good as it can be. John Williams would not be working with Lucas if he felt his scores were being butchered.

[John McClane 1]

TJ, if you've never seen the original versions, then don't worry about it. The SE and DVD versions of Star Wars are still great movies...just not...great movies. I think you'd have to be familiar with the originals to recognize the flaws in the new versions.

That's the point. That's why I used the " " in the first post when I said the TV will show the 1997's SE.

I don't know the '77-'83 trilogy, so I thought it will be cool to see the same films with improved audio and video quality.

It's hard to believe that a  JWfan has never seen the SW trilogy.

I know Mark this is something unbelievable, but what can I do if the TV doesn't show these films?

I don't wanna buy a 4 DVDs box-set for something I never see.

[Halloran 0]

I love the ORIGINAL trilogy(1977, 1980 & 1983), and i hate George Lucas

You do realize that the Original Trilogy would not exist if it weren't for George Lucas? :?

Of course... But a lot of fans of star wars hates George Lucas, i´m not the only one

[Romão 2,274]

I agree Lucas has made some questionable choices in his career, and by I have a profound admiration for the man and his body of work. I owe him a lot.

[John McClane 1]

Again, hating the creator of Star Wars, Indian Jones and the LucasArts is something totally wrong.

I owe him a lot too, Merkel. One of the reason is represented by your avatar, another reason by mine.

[QMM 4]

The 1977-83 original originals,the 1997 original trilogy S.E. or the DVD original Trilogy?

K.M.

1977-83 original originals

Max

[Dean1700 4]

The 1977-83 original originals,the 1997 original trilogy S.E. or the DVD original Trilogy?

K.M.

We all know about the infamous Han/Greedo confrontation and how there is now three different versions of it but has anyone else realised there is another scene that was altered again for the DVD's?

I am talking about the scene where Luke, Ben and the Droids are entering Mos Eisley in the speeder. In the 1977 version the speeder zooms over the top of the camera. In 1997 this was upgraded to look "better". For the DVD the speeder now zooms in from the LEFT!

WHAT THE ???????

[Dean1700 4]

I love the ORIGINAL trilogy(1977, 1980 & 1983), and i hate George Lucas

You do realize that the Original Trilogy would not exist if it weren't for George Lucas? :?

Of course... But a lot of fans of star wars hates George Lucas, i´m not the only one

I don't hate George Lucas but I disappointed with what he has done and the changes he has made. Sure. We can argue this until the cows come home but hell, if he is going to make changes to Star Wars why stop there. Lets pull out the 1933 King Kong and replace that crappy looking plasticine Kong with a brand new state-of-the-art digital cgi beast.

It will still be the same movie right?