star wars de specialied

hornetstinger · 12 Jan 2020 at 13:08

Can you buy star wars new hope, empire, jedi, on a sort of de-specaliised edition? On Blu-ray

Han fires first
No cg female singer
No jabba cgi

The only changes I like are the emperor hologram from new version (original is different actor and looks different) and maybe panning shots.

I've been watching the new star trek this remastered with new cgi and that's the sort of thing I like, updated but without cgi bouncing character bouncing around Kirk singing and being stupid.

Bickaxe · 12 Jan 2020 at 15:13

I think the theatrical versions were released as an extra on a special set of DVDs maybe 15 years ago ... Will have to check my dads collection when I'm home at some point

Greboth · 12 Jan 2020 at 19:13

Legitimatly - No. Actually - Yes.

There's been a number of fan versions of the OT though obviously none are official so you're looking at downloading them. The best I think is Harmy's release - which IIRC is 720p (though might be 1080p) and you can buy disc versions of this on auction sites. The other good version is Project 4K77, Project 4K80 and Project 4K83 for the respective films. Last time I checked only 4K77 and 4K83 were released but 4K80 should be soon I think. All of these are from taken from the theatrical release films so they suffer with some colour balance issues, quite grainy/noisey in places etc. though there are de-noised versions out there but they come with their own problems. I know fo the 4k project, they release the 4k version as is and a de-noised version so you can take your pick,

Rofflay · 12 Jan 2020 at 19:15

I wonder what the 4k UHD will be i see Amazon have the box set of skywalker saga for £180...

Gerard · 12 Jan 2020 at 20:19

Theres been talk that some of the changes Lucas made with the special editions permanently changed the film print so no way of removing some of the changes. Disney would have cranked out unaltered blu ray versions by now otherwise I would guess.

Ninco! · 12 Jan 2020 at 21:15

As far as I know, the original unadultered Star Wars trilogy DVD's was released as part of the 30 year anniversary back in 2006.

They were released as a limited edition DVD release which included the original theatrical release as well as the enhanced (1997) versions. I hated pretty much all the '97 changes (Sarlaac pit/CGI Jabba etc.).

To me, this set is the holy grail Star Wars films; they are the movies I saw at the cinema. I no longer care for future films - okay, one exception Rogue One. The later revisions and films added nothing to the originals, only deminish the legacy.

There are the original versions online based on the Laserdisk version, which improve the picture (no changes but clean up the image).

Squark · 12 Jan 2020 at 21:32

The worst change of all imo is the removal of sebastian shaw as a force ghost to be replaced by Hayden Christensen, an absolute travesty which makes no thematic sense. The first time I saw that, a friend and I let out a loud shout.

The other changes, while generally needless, I can live with.

Greboth · 13 Jan 2020 at 10:11

Ninco! said:
There are the original versions online based on the Laserdisk version, which improve the picture (no changes but clean up the image).

That might be true for some but not all as the 2 I recommend above don’t.

I can’t remember all the sources used but I know most of Harmy’s comes from the bluray release. And the Project 4K is mostly taken from a scanned 35mm film. Both use other sources though so there probably is some Laserdisk in them.

MookJong · 13 Jan 2020 at 11:13

Harmy's despecilized version is sometime on eBay. I have mentioned it many times on these boards in the past and it never got much comment.

I obtained a copy and it is the only version of Star Wars I watch. My wife had never really seen the trilogy but this is the version I showed her before we went to see the force awakens. She really loved it but didn't like TFA at all which I thought was highly interesting.

If you are not keen on the prequel trilogy then the ending of ROTJ with the real Anakin Skywalker is a must. This is the version I saw in the cinema as a child so the update was sacrilege.

One thing that nobody mentioned is that the colour grade is messed up on many of the releases including the Blu Rays, Harmey put the colours back exactly as they should look.