I read an article recently talking about how they "cheated" in that scene, using a laser blast flare to hide the transition from matte painting to model. If you look closely you can catch it, but it still looks fantastic.
@@mergeads Harmy just took the Blu-Rays and made some changes to the contrast, in some shots. Other shots you can see Harmy and the Blu-Rays are practically identical, so lots of people did hardest work for him.
@@gotworc no harmy edition has much better colors than the Blu-Ray version The Blu-Ray version looks terribly dark in some scenes and the new X-Wing shots look terribly fake
My absolute favorite scene from any movie in the history of cinema. That first shot of the X-wings descending after Red Leader says they're going to draw fire gives me chills every time, no matter what version.
For all the shit this movie got in the special edition. It's nice to see how little was actually changed in this battle. I remember seeing it knowing something was different but didn't know what. I actually like the Special Edition of this battle more. It just seems to make the ships a little more maneuverable and fluid in a few shots, and makes a couple abrupt camera changes flow together better. For Instance when Wedge saves Luke He just kinda appears in front of the Tie Fighter. But in the Special Edition you can see him moving in from the background and makes it come in at that same angle making the shots flow together a little better.
In my opinion I feel like most are okay changes(or great in the case of the launch sequence) the only one I think is noticeably worse at actually evoking what was intended in the scene is the one where Biggs is being saved by Luke. Because in the original the intention is that the TIE is under and behind him which makes him not being able to see it make way more sense than in the SE where with just a quick glance back he'd be able to see it.
Re-watching this scene knowing that the guy who was preparing to fire the Death Star laser was stalling the whole time sends chills down my spine. Bless that man.
Ironic is he was saving time so the rebels would destroy the Death Star...After all, it's the same guy who fired at Alderaan causing billions of death...
It’s not about which version looks better. It’s about the fact that you shouldn’t edit an already finished and released movie and than just go and try to erase the original version from existence! This movie didn’t win its academy award for outstanding visual effects for some cheap CG effects somebody edited in 20 years later. The original effects inspired thousands and thousands of young and enthusiastic film makers and are part of film history for that matter and therefore should be way more easily accessible to the public than they currently are!
How did they erase the original version from existence, it's still the same fucking movie either way lol. Name me one enhancement that changed the entire story and outcome of the film? I can't think of one. I honestly don't see any huge difference in either version except one has prettier effects than the other, that's it! It didn't change the structure of the film at all and it's still a great film. People are over exaggerating. This may sound blasphemous to overly biased SW fans but.....the Blu Rays are the best home versions to have IMO. Yes, there's some stupid added shit but only a few and doesn't change the overall experience of the film. So now this great film is a piece of shit just because they added a few things here and there? That's silly.
Dallas Kinard Ironically, Lucas has been quoted to being against changing past films to fit today's standards. This was during the '80s, before the Special Editions came out.
The reason the despecialized edition killed the magenta tones so well is that the colours were based off of an original technicolour print, not the GOUT dvd.
Though I’m leaning towards the original and despecialized versions, that first shot of the x-wings and y-wings taking off look great in the special adition
Just watched “A New Hope” on Disney+ and aside from the many changes they’ve done over the years to the film… I just noticed that in the scene of Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon surprise return, when Vader’s Tie Advanced Fighter begins spinning away after his Tie Fighter wingman bumps him in a panic, they removed Darth Vader’s frantic breathing sound. I don’t know why. In this video upload, the moment is at 11:56-11:57. You can hear Vader because the audio soundtracks here of all versions are all being played. But zero in on the Disney+ version, the breathing is gone. I have no idea why they removed it. My brain immediately picked it up, having grown up with the films most of my life.
Harmys version bottom right is far superior. The blue ray has a blue tinge over everything and lack of detail because of this color timing. Harmy has not only restored the original color timing but also made colours warmer and more vibrant which means you can see the detail more. Skin tones have improved too
some changes are good some are bad. in 1977 I was not born yet. I was born 5 years later. I saw the original version before seeing the special edition. but here is the thing I don't think they should have used CG to create the effects they should have reshot models. they could have done that. and it would have fit in a lot better. the sense of movement was there in the original shots of the ti-fighters? SP? in the cockpit shots, the ships are veering to the left and right. but on the outside shot due to movement issues they were almost static with moving cameras. with modern robotics, they could have programmed in the flight path and filmed in real time the shot they wanted. the result would be some fans would claim they had better-unused footage. CGI is cheap looking and doesn't age well. where models will always have a lasting look!
I kinda like the the static look alittle bit more the limitations of the time makes space feel more vast like the original ice cave scene in empire just because you can add doesn't mean you should.
Damn it’s very impressive that in 1977, they managed to make a super realistic scene without using any CGI… They only made it by using little plastic models and blue screen tricks!! Awesome!! 🗿
It mostly looks the best here. You can tell the bottom right just used the Blu-Ray except where there was a change, which was like 2 seconds out of this whole video.
Christus Regnet there are a ton of new digital shots in the SE (2011). Definitely not just two seconds of the sequence. And the 2011 has awful color grading. (Fortunately the 2019 release fixed this, though it added "Maclunkey" in the Greedo scene.)
GalaxyDogenut OLD the only way to get that would be to recomposite every VFX element from the original camera negatives. With digital compositing, you don’t have to worry about the ships disappearing. Or, what Adywan did was he digitally inserted the missing ships into the shot using the original elements.
To be honest with my friends and family and all other fans in the world, I feel nostalgic over the original battle with the models on wire and everything.
Harmy's is amazing. I love how I keep dling all these different fan versions, but haven't quite decided on which is "best". As it is though, Harmy's wins for most authentic and the best at KILLING all the fucking magenta.
I remember when seeing this at a young age, when my mom and dad showed me and my siblings the trilogy (Keep in mind, they were the 1995 pre-Special Edition VHS release). And when Luke is in the X-Wing and he's flying down the Death Star trench, I was just shaking, I was so excited. And I never seen my brother and sister so excited, and I never seen my mom and dad so excited since they first saw it back in 1977. And when Han swooped in and Luke blew up the Death Star, we all screamed in joy.
Honestly? I prefer the special edition. I like the improved shots, it makes the whole Saga feel like one big production. While I don’t care for the visual technical look of the blu ray or 4K, I don’t mind the added CGI except in a few cases(ROTJ song)
I know this opinion may come across as unpopular, but I think the added CGI shots of the X-Wings and TIE Fighters in the Battle of Yavin are legitimate improvements over the original. I totally get why some people would prefer the original shots from 1977 and that is totally your opinion. But I always thought the 1977 shots looked a bit too static and uneventful. Especially in comparison to the phenomenal astroid chase sequence from Empire Strikes Back. I get it was the late 1970s and ILM was still fairly new, but they don't hold up in my eyes and unfortunately date the film. In comparison to Empire and Return of the Jedi. The Special Edition fortunately has some fantastic CGI shots of the X-wings flying around and making those manoeuvres. I'll even say the CGI still looks pretty good even today. One of the few added CGI for the Special editions that looks good.
how dare the lucas fixed that amazing fault in the special edition. i mean lucas is destroying our childhood by changing everything. this is what crazy star wars purists think about the OT.
Murtaza Rizvi Come on, fixing errors like disappearing Y-wing fighters isn’t a bad thing. It’s nice to go back and fix some minor continuity errors like that. Heck, if I were to do the Special Editions, I’d keep the static models, but still fix the disappearing Y-wings.
Imagine cringing at your own family for not knowing that the movies were edited... you must be a joy to be around The movies WERE ahead of their time, the special editions doesnt change that
I wouldn't regret getting them, they were rip offs anyways just to milk some more cash. The quality is terrible(the VHS/LDs look better actually!), the transfers are non anamorphic and will look like shit on your 16x9 tv. I don't get why everyone want's those crappy repackaged 2006 DVDs. People are too obsessed with the Special Editions IMO.
Here's one thing that gets me. When Wedge is hit, he's able to fly harmlessly away. While other fighters go down and crash...or explode in midair. Actually, there's another thing that's been getting me for years. Darth Vader was *LOCKED ON* Luke and fired *BEFORE* Han destroyed one of Vader's co-pilot TIE fighters. Yet, Luke was not hit. No matter how many times I see it, I still don't get it.
if you watch Vader's lasers, once they're locked on they seem to track from left to right, as though correcting for the movement of the x-wing. I guess they hadn't traced Luke before Vader was knocked out of combat.
"In the original 1977 version+Harmy's Despecialized edition, the scene where Red Leader was saying on comlink And in person, there was a dialogue problem with Red Leader's voice of him saying "Stay there. I just lost my stubborn engine! Get set up for your attack run."
The thing I really don't like about this scene is the fact that there were a lot of shots that a lot of people worked hard on and our gone from the scene.But the fact remains that Lucas made the Special Editions and I would be fine with that if he didn't make sure people couldn't get the theatrical version. But now we can.Well I don't know about you but Iam gonna buy the 2006 bonus version.
I'm torn here between 2006 and Harmy's. 2006 has the best colour, but it's a bit blurred. Harmy's is Tarkin-Hair-Detailed, but in borrowing from the Special Edition Blu Ray it's inadvertently picked up the ugly blue tint. I think Martin has the right idea here on ranking them, though I'm tempted to put blu-ray ahead of SSE if only because the latter doesn't even show the ships at the start.
I think it's just the Special Edition itself. Especially the 2004 one which I think is the 2011 Blu-ray as well. The 2006 Bonus DVD is the original theatrical version in 1977.
I thought it was much more intense how it showed the fighters eerily approaching from behind, thrusters burning. Instead of the cheesy 360-view of the re-release.
I like how whenever I watch this scene & all of the other movies (FYI I love the Prequels, & the Special Edition on Blu-Ray & I just experienced the Original Trilogy in the Non Special Edition version my mom bought for me on VHS from a thrift store for $3. The VHS box set was from 1995. So the only things that were changed were the titles. Other than that, it was original. #Hanshot1st) I find myself humming along to the music.
Anyone else notice that in the Special Edition, the Death Star already has direct line-of-sight on the Rebel base moon at the very beginning? The Rebel fighters have the moon directly behind them, the camera pans to follow their movement, and you see that they have the Death Star directly in front of them. If the fighters turn to follow the curvature of the planet at all, they do so very little. So the DS either has LOS already, or will have it in much less time than is shown in the movie.
Huh. I never noticed until now. At 4:27 one of the ships flying downward just sorta disappears before it goes off the bottom of the screen fully. Maybe it's just late and my eyes are messing with me...
All the small details, like the light source moving across the interior cockpit shots. Or the in the dive into the trench, in POV the ship settles and stabilizes after the high speed dive. Has any noticed… “The guns, they’ve stopped” sounds like Jeff Goldblume
Fan edits are the absolute best editions, but it's important to preserve the original SSE with all its humanizing flaws and artifacts. George Lucas is chasing the dragon of perfectionism, and tarnishing his own legacy in the process. Art can transcend even its own creator's vision, in ways they never intended but which make it all the better. George is far from the worst when it comes to external meddling to the detriment of artistic integrity - indeed, his own perfectionism arose from a paranoid fear of executive meddling, but in many ways he missed the point and became his own antithesis, and he's too stubborn to own up to it. Star Wars, ironically, is a story of a fallen father's redemption. George unfortunately seems bitter to the very end that his "baby" diverged from him, uncorrupted by the dark temptations that consumed and destroyed him. He can still save his legacy and reputation if he swallows his pride, admits he was wrong, and released the original unaltered trilogy so many know and love in spite of supposed "flaws". The question is, will he or won't he?
Lucasfilm likes to do changes to the movies; they should do the changes that *WE CARE ABOUT,* like digitally re-compositing R2-D2, so they can fix his panels, recoloring them from black to blue. *IN EVERY FRAME!!!!*
I like the colours the best especially having it like creamy instead of white (Blu-ray & Harmy's) of the buttons in the control room after the Millennium Falcon, Keyan, Wedge and Luke pull away.
I guess this comes from the fact that I wasn't around before the special editions were released, but honestly some of the recreated shots are still pretty decent.
The Rebels avenged their deaths through the destruction of the Death Star. Rogue One did not die in vain, but sacrificed their lives for the cause of freedom.
No one gives a shit if you thought the CGI in the X-Wings scenes is better, one because it doesn't matter, Two, that wasn't what people saw and lost their minds over in 1977, this movie shouldn't be ''updated'' to please teenagers that have an attention span that can only be measured in nanoseconds, this is a movie released in 1977 and should look and feel like one.
Not a fan of all of Lucas' updates, but some changes are necessary to maintain a new audience. Not everyone was around in '77. I'm not dissing the original effects by any means, but not everyone is going to be into them. I'm alright with some of the explosions being touched up. SOME stuff just looked better updated. I thought Rogue One did a good job of honoring the 70s aesthetics. All the computer screen graphics were taken right from the original trilogy.
Well that's the thing, none of the updates are worth it, making the film HD and look/sound good is more than enough for most films, we only think so for Star Wars because the Special Editions happened in the first place, besides, there's nothing wrong with showing people how cheap Star Wars looked back in the day, it's just a movie.
What if a New Hope got remade? We know it was a low budget movie But using modern tech and more money they could make a super epic remake of a New Hope I don't want Empire and Return to get remade, those ones had big budgets when they were made But i wonder if Lucas had an idea and it couldn't have been made because of money restrictions
The problem is that they’re so hard to see. I have really good vision and usually can see things from great distances, even the details of some things at that distance, but even I can barely make out the X and Y-wings. And you say the X-wings are fast? They move so slow though in most of their shots, special edition or original theatrical version.
At 0:43, the LaserDisc version would show the S-Foils opening, but the camera would move slightly to the left, eventually showing the Death Star (of which was originally cut off.)
As much as I hate most changes brought by the SE/DVD/Blu-ray releases in general, Biggs' dogfight segment with Luke adds so much speed and fluidity to the scene that I find the original scene hard to watch. The Battle of Yavin is probably the sequence that benefited the best from Lucas' touch-ups (and, in my opinion, where the most justified). Why the Blu-Ray release didn't include the original footages in any way, shape or form will forever anger me however.
Ene Star Wars often did have that overall slight blue / grey tint, even on the VHS copies, and especially noticeable in the space battles and Death Star exteriors etc. On first glance, I quite liked the SSE version, but the skin tones are oversaturated, and the contrast too high, so the shadow detail often gets crushed. Harmy's version definitely looks closer to the colours and skin tones of the VHS, and the best Laserdisc versions. It also still retains the detail, and has good contrast balance, without crushing the black levels etc. On some scenes, like the X-Wind pilots' faces, the shadow detail just gets crushed on the SSE version. SO much magenta on the Blu Ray version. I forgot quite how bad it is. lol
eg. pause at 6:33 and look at the black levels of SSE vs Harmy. The SSE version just has a bit too much contrast. Also look at the darker colour detail on the right arm of his boiler suit - the other versions show the detail there, but SSE kind of merges it into an all-orange blob. I must admit though, I'm not singling out the SSE version at all, because both Harmy's and SSE still look way better than the others. The Blu Ray version has far worse issues with colour timing, skin tones, and black levels than even most of the older transfers. I personally think Harmy should be offered a job in Hollywood as a film restorer and colour timing artist (or whatever they are called. lol)
Ngl I prefer the remastered edition of this fight because the ships feel more like ships rather than mini models. That isn’t to say the original isn’t good- I think it is also good in its own right. I just feel the remasters are better in this case 🤷♂️
Whenever I would play Rogue leader, I'd always try to go shot for shot in the movie playing the level even going as far as to turn off the targeting computer when Obi wan's voice showed up. Rogue leader was such a good game
While I think the originals should be easily available, I really don't understand why some people claim they're somehow superior to the special editions. As far as I'm concerned, almost every change is either an improvement, or is something where I don't care either way.
This is my problem with the Despecialized Edition; it kind of throws out the baby with the bathwater. I understand removing things like Greedo shooting first or the horrible CGI Jabba, but actual improvements like the enhanced shots of the Falcon leaving Mos Eisley or the enhanced Yavin scenes should get a pass in my book. Maybe I'm not a "true Star Wars fan," but I think the CGI genuinely adds to the movie in places, not least when those cardboard cutouts from the throne room scene were replaced with real people.
The Despecialized Editions are exactly what I want out of my OT experience, but that doesn't make me any more of a "true Star Wars fan" than you. That type of gatekeeping in communities upsets me. To me, Star Wars fans are Star Wars fans, no matter what edits they like or what they think of every movie in the saga, even if I'd disagree. The reason I enjoy the Despecialized Editions (as well as the GOUT for my phone, where I don't want to allocate that much storage to movies) isn't nostalgia, as I'm younger and grew up with the Special Editions, but out of appreciation for the work of the original production, and the desire to truly see the "original" trilogy. I want to see them as they were when they first came out, when my parents saw them, and when the world originally fell in love with them. I dislike most of the changes made to the films in the Special Editions now that I'm older, but I do acknowledge that there are some additions that are arguably genuine improvements. The new Emperor hologram from ESB always comes to mind. Even still, I simply prefer to see them as close to their original forms as is possible. I think it's fine that Lucas changed them, and that some people like those changes, but I also think people like me should be able to watch the original versions - even if Lucas unfortunately doesn't want us to.
Dominick Zuber I totally get wanting to see the movies as they originally were, kind of like the art is in a purer form. There's just this unfortunate idea that it's cool to hate on the special editions and/or the prequels, and a lot of people kind of jump on the hate bandwagon.
themetalstickman I'd probably be in that camp even if I'd like to deny being a part of the bandwagon. As with the Special Editions, I definitely wouldn't say that the Prequels are 100% terrible, but it is my opinion that they're more bad than good. Even so, I still tend to watch through them every so often, just not as much as the OT. Arguing over or discussing the PT and Special Editions can get me riled up if someone acts too much like their opinion of Star Wars is the only "correct" opinion, admittedly especially so if it's one I disagree with, but I still generally try to remain civil about what is at least partly a matter of taste.
Fair comments made man! i myself enjoy the Despecialized Edition and new Silver Screen Editions of Star Wars to be HD scaled versions of the movie i knew and loved since childhood which haven't gotten that official release yet. And they represent the films as they were originally released at a time when technology was like that. But i also greatly enjoy and appreciate the Adywan Revisited versions as the logical updates of Sci-Fi/Fantasy movies given that special edition treatment too however. We live in a age where the majority of Science fiction films have more than one version anyways so i really don't see what all the arguing is about. uptight types can't let it go. Fans have bloody restored these SW movie not Lucasfilm. And even if they were to do so now, because of the internet many fans out there have many versions to toy around with to their liking. whatever version of Star Wars is what's considered th most enjoyable cut or version to see whether it be the original 1977 one which the Despecialized or Silver Screen fan-made Editions have given us all, the 1997 official special edition version or the fan made Adywan Revisited cut. Star Wars has become what you'll make of it. We're all spoil for choices now with multiple Star Wars editions, so why all the bloody arguing. When most of us ain't homeless and have a; house, car, computer don't have the problems somebody in a third world country has. there's much less to complain about geeez!.
SwenglishGamer not necessarily. For instance, I grew up with the special editions. ESB and ROTJ are totally fine both ways, but watching the original version of ANH now is (for me) an inferior viewing experience. Some people just don't have the same nostalgia filter as others
as a kid i find the visual effects in 70's version very interesting, im not saying its better than blu ray version, also i experience vhs movies, i wish i have the star wars vhs movies
Mason Kent McCleary That seemed to be quite common with effects back then. A lot of the mattes were hand drawn / rotoscoped of course, and it was sometimes just easier to not have certain elements overlapping the edges of the prints perhaps? Or, even more likely in the case of A New Hope - they often had to eek out the very last frames of many shots so they could make the edit flow nicely. If you've watched "Empire Of Dreams", it explains that the first edits were apparently pretty terrible, hence why they brought in the two other editors (Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew) to do their best at fixing things, and a superb job they did. Obviously the new effects work (and sheer number of shots) on SW was unprecedented too, so we can forgive the few errors and rushed shots. That's exactly what makes Star Wars for me, and why I think Harmy and others are doing great work. I was 16 when I saw the SE Trilogy at the cinema in 1997, and didn't really mind most of the changes back then (apart from the silly CGI Sy Snootles thing. lol) But now I look back and cringe at most of the CGI additions and edits, as I'm in the camp that believes that Star Wars was a definite thing of it's time, and should be experienced for what it was. ie. still WAY ahead of it's time in style, effects, and storytelling, but with a very unique charm that not many movies have matched before or since. I do personally think that fixes such as making the cockpits nontransparent, removing the most obvious dirt from the film, and restoring the original colour correction are definitely welcomed though, even if the resulting image is a bit more pristine than what it was in 1977. Most people these days at least expect the best possible transfer, what with 4K TVs etc. Here's another random effects / editing "glitch" that you can never unsee btw - In Ghostbusters, when Slimer is flying around the chandelier, he disappears one frame before the cut. :p Oh, and in Titan AE, just after "Wake Angels" scene, there's a shot of the main characters, but looking through the window of the ship - I noticed that the starfield reflected in the window has most of the texture missing. Obviously lots more where those came from, but now you'll always notice those, ha. :p
Where does the light come from though? It's a spaceship, it comes from inside the ship, so it's behind rather than lateral, so the special and gout actually get that better
I felt sorry the deaths of: Red 6, Gold Leader, Gold Five, Red 10, Red Leader, and Red 3. Along withJyn, Cassian, Bodhi, K-2SO, Chirrut, and all other rebel characters on the ground, in the air or space (in Rogue One). But It's good and I'm glad that their deaths were not invain.
The Blu-Ray version didn't really add anything in this segment except for the color tint and resolution. The changes in CGI came from the Special Edition releases.
*Nope. I like the special edition better. The CGI isn't "distracting"* You like the CGI Rontas in George's 97 SE version, over some minor digital tweaking for colour correction and picture sharping in either the Revivisted, Despecialized or Silver Screen fan-made Editions of Star Wars?! Okay, but i guess and take it the rest of us will more than enjoy seeing a CGI Tie Fighter intro in the Revisited version than seeing badly CGI'ed Rontas in Mos Eisley, Han's weird neck twist when Greedo shoots at him, intelligent and barely noticeable fixes and Vader Vs Obi Wan spruced up with slight frame edits etc.
I agree the SE of the Death Star assault is way better.....sorry folks. Let's face it, the '77 version of that scene looks dated as hell and looks it's age.....that is NOT a good thing. Yeah, the Jabba scene is dumb and the original Greedo scene was better but the other changes didn't hurt the movie or story at all. What is the big fucking deal?
The 77 version of the film looks "dated" not because of the effects but because it was shot in the style of the time, with much less camera movement. If you think that is bad, I feel sorry for you.
I don’t understand how anyone can think the addition of those digital shots ruins the film, the original looks clunky and rigid, the 2011 is the best in my opinion
I don't think I'd say they "ruin" the film, but they do alter it. Obviously that CGI was not done in 1977. I'd have no problem with it if the theatrical and special editions were both fully available in maximum quality. In response, I turn to 4k77, D+77, and despecialized, but the Disney Plus version is fully available too.
![ORIGINAL Battle of Yavin | Star Wars (1977) [DeEd, Blu-ray, GOUT, SSE]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
