Author, ex-reserve soldier and private contractor, and part-time voice actor. I like making documentaries too.
I do 'The Civil War: Wild West Edition' on RU-vid. www.youtube.com/@civilwarwildwest
I'm also cohost of Latin Libertarians & Libertarios Hispanos with Martha Bueno. twitter.com/LibertariosHis1
I'm a former volunteer/interpreter at the Citizens Embassy of Venezuela in the US. www.embajadavenezolana.org (archive)
I was also a volunteer at the Supreme Tribunal of Justice of Venezuela - Remnant (TSJ in Exile after the Dec. 2019 judicial coup). www.tsjvenezuela.org (archive)
I occasionally tell war stories on RU-vid about the dirty war in Venezuela. www.youtube.com/@venezuelaexplained2030
This channel is a taste of the many interesting things I do for work and for fun.
*** The views expressed on this channel's content are those of a private citizen. Everything I say here is mine alone to own up to. Welcome to my channel!
It is just a really bad copy of the 1997 edit of the Special Edition. You would have been better off with any other release on VHS, or Laserdisc. But yeah, other than bootlegs if you were looking for a compact release that was digital this was the early go to.
I have no objection with Lucas changing the films to fit the storyline as it evolved, and to enhance the effects. I have no objection to the altered versions being the canonical versions of the films. I DO object to the audience’s freedom of choice being taken away, and the historical revisionism of iconic films which deserve preservation in their original form. I DO object to the awful picture/sound quality on the DVDs/Blu-Rays/4Ks, which the fanmade bootlegs outclass in every single way. I DO object to being told that the movies we fell in love with and which were marketed and released as finished products are now considered “rough drafts” and have been locked away in a vault in favor of drab, dull, and dreary 4Ks with all of the alterations.
Until one day (hopefully) the original versions will be released officially on Blu Ray, we should just stick with Harmy’s Despecialized Edition. I’m happy to have those burned onto Blu Ray discs so I can watch them on my high default TV set. The picture and sound qualities are just great 👍 😌 😊!
I have no issues with the official releases from Disney/Lucasfilm. What I do have an issue with is that they are basically gatekeeping the original theatrical cuts. But thanks to Harmy and Team Negative and the Despecialized Edition and Project 4K trilogies, official releases of the theatrical cuts aren’t too important.
2019 4K versions for the win! They are the last OFFICIAL (changed) versions we'll see, George is done meddling and Disney won't (or legally can't) change his movies. They are the FINAL CUT, the DEFINITIVE Star Wars.. .. "Macklunkey" and all. GET OVER IT! ✌️
It is highly annoying that there isn't one first time reactor on RU-vid that doesn't watch the original unaltered versions of the original trilogy. And because of what Lucas, Disney, and Kathleen Kennedy did to the Star Wars legacy that carelessly will never release the originals, this new generation - including the reactors - are ignorant of it. Plus, they have yet to truly see the Star Wars trilogy until they see the unaltered originals.
SW 2006 is actually a facsimile they spliced on the 1977 crawl onto the 1993 video master with the 1993 audio mix. 1977 SW has never been on home video. It's been bootlegged and traded as a tape and scanned from 35mm prints by fans, Lucas hasn't released it in 40 years.
Ha! Sweet summer child most of us SW original trilogy fans already have the Despecialized editions, and have had them for quite some time, sorry if GL was able to steal your memories and have only watche the Special Editions since their release, and the lack of """officality""" won't take away the image quality those Despecialzed editions got... so those jackasses can keep fightng tooth and nail, we don't need their "macklonky" crap.
A couple of minor - often missed - changes that irk me slightly from the Empire Strikes Back special editions. 1) The Joke about R2 not tasting so good when the water monster (a dragonsnake I think) tried to eat R2 on Dagobah but then spits him out. After R2 is spat out, Luke picks him up and used to say something like "Good thing you don't taste very good." However, that has now been changed to something bland like "You're lucky to get out of there." I heard that the explanation was that they were re-doing the sound and the "new" dialogue was from an alternative take with better sound quality, but I prefer the dark(ish) humour of the original. 2) Darth Vader is nowhere near as angry after his fight with Luke. After confronting his son, and his son deciding to take a huge fall rather than join Vader, the Dark Lord used to command "Bring my shuttle." His tone was angry and frustrated. He had just had the traumatic experience of meeting his son for the first time, being rejected and - although he won the fight - losing the prize of Luke joining with him. Apparently they thought it was confusing that Vader was talking about his shuttle, and then was seen on his star destroyer. So they decided to insert a few clips of the shuttle going from Bespin and arriving on the Executor to make it very clear that his shuttle was the ship used to take him from one location to the other, and that the star destroyer was not his shuttle. I don't have a huge problem with the inserted scenes (though, arguably, they do break the pace of the Falcon's escape from Cloud City and I don't really see why the original was considered confusing). However, the emotion in James Earl Jones' voice when he says "Bring me my shuttle" has been replaced with a much more even and matter-of-fact tone when he utters the new (IMO unnecessarily explanatory) line "Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival." So, in my opinion, we have lost some of the depth of emotion that Vader felt about the outcome of his fight with Luke.
Another pointless scene from George that drags the movie for no reason, I think the «Bring my shuttle » scene was perfect ! Even at 8 years old in 1980, there was never any confusion in the theater about Vader being suddenly on the star destroyer's bridge. At the time, we we're all convinced that Vader's shuttle was a Tie Advanced x1 starfighter and that he took it back to the imperial star destroyer. It just made sense.
Adding CGI backgrounds to Cloud City and other such atmospheric changes still hold up but man, a lot of the character designs just do not at all. A great special edition would be a 0.5, keeping the stuff that adds depth, ditching the janky CGI characters/animals especially the band in Jabba's palace.
Most of the cloud city stuff works. There's just that one shot where the main group, led by Lando, are running around the corner in what was a white corridor (just after R2D2 passes by). They tried to open it up to look more expansive, rather than the claustrophobic corridor, but with the "natural" orange light spilling through from outside, they really struggled to get the colour matching on the characters right and it's very obvious that something is wrong.
What about when Han was a green alien called Jabba the Hut. A character based on Tars Tarkas Jeddak of Thark. In one of George's screenplays. I doubt Harrison would have played that.
Lucas since the 1990s has been overly enamored with technology, and he added that Jabba scene because he had old footage that he could now add a CGI Jabba to, and the fact that he could do it overrode the question of whether he should do it. Not only was stepping on Jabba's tail ridiculous, he's supposed to be a fearsome gangster that Solo owes money to, but the scene adds nothing to the narrative of the film.
I think they should have had Jabba turn in such a way that Han could have avoided his tail. Jabba could easily have pivoted round so that his tail was out of the way. Also, they should have cut the dialogue with Han calling him a "wonderful Human Being." Keeping that line in was stupid.
They should have not even called the human looking aliens "human beings" at all. Remember, this is set in another galaxy, a long time ago. They are all aliens.
Officially no, but fans have remastered the movies themselves. Most people know of 4K77, 4K80 and 4K83. and if they did not hear of those they probably heard of Harmy Despecialized. I have most of the laserdiscs. I have the limited edition DVD both NTSC and PAL. I'm covered, and George isn't coming to my house to take my movie away. I even have 3 copies of the Special Edition Laserdisc the 1997 US, 1997 Japan, and 2000 Japan release. I have the 4K releases. I probably never have to buy them again.
