Lucas’ Star Wars
Lately there has been much fan-fare, bordering on verbal rioting, about the changes that George Lucas has decided to make to his original classic Star Wars theatrical release, for the new Star Wars trilogy DVD box set. I’m here to side with George’s decisions, and say why none of us should even open our mouths about it.
Hard work pays off
Circa 1974-75 when George Lucas, an aspiring young director, was just finishing his second major film and was putting the finishing touches on an idea had had for his third. He knew the idea he had was far fetched, slightly out of the box, and a hard-sell. Most of you reading this, myself included, were not even born yet. Never once, did Mr. Lucas call my parents, and ask what their, yet unborn, son’s opinion was about a particular piece of his, now legendary, script. He didn’t want my advice then, and I’m sure not about to give it now.
George Lucas, in a stroke of pure genius (and some would say luck), owns Star Wars and the merchandising rights for it. If you get the chance to watch “Empire of Dreams”, which is on the bonus disc included with the Star Wars Trilogy DVD box set, I suggest you take it. It will explain, in length and great detail, why movies like Jurassic Park, Titanic and Finding Nemo were even possible - and are such box office legends.
Getting back to the subject, and to put it bluntly, George Lucas own Star Wars and you don’t. If he wanted to put Howard The Duck into the Cantina scene, he could have. But he didn’t. He made logical changes, not to the script, but to the final product. I’ve read a few reviews about these changes, and most say that the changes that have been made are ok, but they’d like to see a release of the original trilogy released on DVD. Although I can see the point that’s trying to be made, I can tell you that it’s probably falling on deaf ears.
When Lucas made these films, he was working with a time and budget constraint, various union issues, technology draw backs and inexperience. To put it simply, he had nothing going for him - only against. Yet, the films which were released to theaters (only 300 or so), they were a modern marvel of cinematic achievement. They showed the industry, and the world, what was possible to put on film, and it sparked one of the largest box office successes of all time. Yet, Lucas was not overwhelmed with happiness at the end result. He knew that if you took time, money and technology out of the equation - he’d be able to do better.
It would be almost 20 years before he thought he had what he needed to realize his vision. In 1997 Lucas and company released Special Editions of the Star Wars classic films to a whole new generation on the big screen. Featuring slight enhancements and error corrections, these Special Editions allowed Lucas to bolster the interest in these films with a whole new generation of people - just prior to a prequel-trilogy release. This guy knows what he’s doing, whether you agree with his choices or not.
Now, in 2004, with technology at the forefront of movie-making (with Lucas’ help), he was able to again revisit his classic trilogy, make some minor - but logical - adjustments, and release them on a non-degrading format of DVD. This coming just prior to the final installment of a 6 film mega-movie classic being released to theaters in May 2005.
These changes are warranted, shut up
Although each list of changes to this release of the classic trilogy that I’ve been able to find has been somewhat incomplete, I can say that each change that I’ve seen has been extremely logical. Sound and picture technologies since the 70’s have, in part due to Lucas and his companies, advanced countless fold - which makes the choice to upgrade (remaster) both of these a logical and unavoidable choice.
As far as the other, slightly more noticeable, changes which Lucas has decided to make - I feel that they are logical and unavoidable as well. How are they unavoidable? The main people to notice these changes, which not so coincidentally are the one’s up-in-arms, are Star Wars geeks - like myself. However, I wonder what their position would be if some of these changes were not made. They’d probably be barking just as loudly if these changes were not made, as they are now.
Let’s take 1 major change as an example. At the end of Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi - Anakin Skywalker dies and shortly thereafter returns as a “luminous being”. In the classic trilogy, Anakin Skywalker is represented by the actor which played him at the very end of the film when Luke takes off his helmet, David Prowse. In the new DVD release, Anakin is played by Hayden Christensen, who plays the younger Anakin in Episodes II and III.
This is a fairly major change - and since it effects the very ending of the movie - one that many will notice. However, this change was not only logical, it was unavoidable. If Lucas had decided not to make this change, the same people complaining about it now - would be the ones complaining about it not being done. Any Star Wars fan will tell you - that the last time Anakin was a Jedi - or was “Anakin” at all - it was just before he’d decided to turn to the Dark Side of the Force. Some would argue that his final act of heroism, killing the Emporer and saving Luke, would have been enough to solidify a return to the good side. However, it would seem unlikely that one would be able to flip flop between the two opposing forces so easily. This change was a logical and welcomed choice.
If you don’t like this, or any of the other changes, you can go suck an egg. Or, better yet, take the energy you’d expend in complaining about it, and write your own classic box office hit, have it be popular for more then 25 years, remake and reinvent it with a second-generation of movie goers - and make slight adjustments to the visuals only to have morons like yourself complain about them. This leads me to the reason behind the title of this post, George Lucas invented Star Wars, and subsequently owns it - whatever changes he makes to his own work is out of your control. He’s had huge success without the use of your opinions in the past, and he will do so again.
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