Star Wars Special Edition Memories

[krpalmer]

In pondering why I'm as interested in this year (and this day for Star Wars itself) being the tenth anniversary of the Special Editions as I am in it being the thirtieth anniversary of Star Wars itself, I've come up with the idea that it might be in part because I can remember seeing them in the movie theatre much better than I can remember my first viewing. (I'm pretty sure now that it was in 1981, and it obviously had some sort of effect on me, but most of the details now seem vague.) People at my university residence college organised a group trip, and we travelled to downtown Waterloo the Saturday evening after Friday opening night to a big theatre, not classically antique in any sense of design but not subdivided into multiple screens either. (I think it closed a few years later.) There was a considerable lineup outside to get in, and a packed house inside (although I recall only two people noticeable in costume in the entire crowd). The trailer for the Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi Special Editions was a perfect lead-in, just seeing the opening crawl in full frame was interesting and somehow rewarding in itself, and it was entertaining to see both the changes I was expecting and the ones that surprised me (among them the new establishing shot of Ben's hut and Biggs's appearance on Yavin IV, even if that's left me wondering over the years if it somehow required knowledge of the novelisations to grasp at once, whereas it might have been possible before to ignore a line or two of dialogue and see Biggs as just one more generic Rebel pilot)... and yet, the obvious shared good feelings of that evening can seem to me in retrospect to be a last moment of tranquility. As with Attack of the Clones, I want to scream at people, "You liked it!..."

The Special Editions may have played an important role in making visual works mutable, but they also seem to have raised "original" versions to a perfect fetish among too many fans and fannish commentators. I suppose there are changes and then there are changes, but it seems that whenever people don't like a change, they blame George Lucas, and if they do like a change, they gloat about how much better it is than George Lucas's... every single time. Be it an anime series DVD, a "recreated scene" from the original King Kong, or a new syndicated run for the original Star Trek, somebody is sure to get in another kick at George Lucas... and to make matters worse, I find no variety to the complaints. Everyone seems obsessed with the cantina shootout.

I happened to read about that change before seeing the movie... and, unthinkably enough, my reaction was more or less "Well, my getting upset won't make any difference." As early as coming back from the Empire Strikes Back Special Edition, I heard someone else complaining about it, but didn't bother to bring up my bizarre philosophy... in retrospect, I can wonder if I should have. It may be, though, that as with The Phantom Menace itself, the sheer overemphasis has managed to kill off any potential negative reactions that may have been my own. All I knew was that I didn't want to be like those people who were making themselves miserable... and through the process, I wound up some time later, when watching the Vintage Edition, convinced that it's quite possible to interpret it as establishing Greedo as an immediate threat. In that case, all the ranting and raving about how George Lucas had "wimped out" collapsed into a simple use of possibly strong methods to remove an ambiguous interpretation. I suppose the Special Edition could leave the suspicion that both duelists seem off their game, but the DVD version, to me, eliminates those complaints and leaves at most an aesthetic criticism... not that anybody seemed to notice in their blind ritual chanting, which can finally leave me with the odd suspicion that it reduces the only reason to watch the entire trilogy to seeing one single moment out of it. Then, at about the same time, I had the odd thought that Han's being able to dodge a blaster shot would have only added to his reputation in the first place, which didn't make me any less annoyed.

Of course, overemphasis on a scene that seems to me a little too easy to avoid just by glancing away or even closing one's eyes for five seconds does mean that not many people complain any more about how they can't bear to see computer-generated effects, can't cope with the different sound mix, or just find the whole thing pointless anyway, and perhaps that's a good thing. In rewatching the DVD this weekend in preparation for the anniversary, I wondered uneasily at times if it's now easier for me to watch the new Star Wars movies than the old, the miasma that surrounds them simpler for me to shrug off. In watching the Vintage Editions, though, I went from an initial conviction that things couldn't be that different to a surprising yet strong feeling that the old optical compositing resulted in an appreciably diminished experience for me. With going back less of an option, going forward doesn't seem quite as hard.

Comments

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I'm just about to post my own short take on the Special Editions. You're right about a lot of the reasons why some fans were unhappy with them. I'll add that the crux of the Han Shot First Controversy isn't just that the sacred and holy ANH was defiled by changes, but that this particular alteration changed their belief as to who Han was. In the '90s, Han was viewed as an antihero and that made him "cool." The shootout scene in the cantina was often mentioned as a "cool" scene because it showed how ruthless and coldblooded Han could be. George Lucas didn't want Han to be perceived that way, so he made Greedo shoot first in order to make audiences understand Han was threatened. I always got that impression from the film, so I didn't think it was really necessary, but I guess Lucas wanted it very clear Han was, for all of his flaws, not Boba Fett's twin brother. You can argue the scene looked awkward--I think it was improved in the DVD version--but it didn't turn Han into Pollyanna either. Han needed to be freed from his cynicism and learn that there are ideas and friends worth fighting for, not that he was some murderer who needed to aim his blaster at the right people for a change.

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

A lot of reasons for why people objected seemed to slosh around, but the one you gave seems well worth making the revision for in the first place. The only problem, of course, is that people were already pretty attached to the dark interpretation... Maybe, over the years, the specifics blurred to the point where "change" simply became unthinkable.

[(Anonymous)]

I actually talk about the fan reaction to changes in the SE vs. ST remastered in my first blog: http://blogs.starwars.com/tragiclove/1

When considering the reviews you posted, I really have to wonder how much of this venom directed towards the SE and Prequels is simply bandwagon-hopping. Look at SE box office sales, as well as the record-breaking sales of TPM on home video (5 million on VHS in 48 hours; 2.2 million in the first week for the DVD release, which at that time was an all-time record). I really don't see as many people hating these films as the critics want us to believe. Last time I checked, people don't spend money to own a film that they believe to be a cinematic abomination.

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

I've spent a little time contemplating the mute witness of box-office receipts and sales against the snowballing effect of people convincing themselves they indeed disliked something and repeating it every chance they get, and at times I reach the ambiguous feeling that it's better for me to hold my reactions to something to myself than to risk seeing them collide with the reactions of others, and that "fandom" isn't about enjoying something, but about commiserating with others about how it just doesn't live up to your expectations... While I can suppose some people may just respond with "Who says the masses know quality when they see it?", I'm not sure that works when you're trying to compare the successful first Star Wars trilogy against the successful Special Editions and second trilogy. In any case, while I don't have an official site account, I'll be interested in seeing what else you might post there.