The cinematic event of the 90's for me wasn't Jurassic Park, or The Matrix, or even Independence Day. It was the re-release of the original Star Wars trilogy, granted with updated special effects. The chance to see the three classic films on the big screen again led me and tons of others to stand in a long line at the movie theater like it was 1977 all over again.
It was a thrill to view these movies "as they were meant to be seen" again, even though the added special effects seemed just OK to me. The only added scene with punch for me personally was a chance to watch the Jabba The Hutt scene in its entirety after decades of seeing just still pictures (even if it had the most jarring new effect with Han Solo "stepping" on Jabba's tail.) While the rest of the new effects (like the Death Star battle) were spiffy it was hard not to miss the old scenes that had been committed to memory.
I can't claim to be a total purist and hate the special editions, it's just a shame that Star Wars became like a scab that George Lucas couldn't stop picking. Particularly after the prequel trilogy, the original films got more revisions than a bill through Congress. Just the same, the 90s would have been a bit duller without the re release of these incredible films.
3 comments:
I admit that I have not seen the original ones during their time (though hubby did) so it was definitely hubby that pulled me to the first days of opening (we did a midnight showing for one of them the others we waited a couple days). He said that I had to see it in the movie theater. The major problem with me was the fact that they replaced the original ewok song.. I HATED HATED HATED the new one.. for Empire Strikes back we had a group of uber geeks who clapped during the whole opening credits.. they soon cooled down.. thank God.. but it was nice to see them in the theater.
I forgot about the change of song to the new age muzak at the end of Return Of The Jedi. That was a WTF? moment for audiences everywhere. Just like the revised version of the Jabba band (don't recall the name)- they didn't look like muppets anymore and I think sang a longer song but was that an added bonus?
And there was stuff that I wished were added, like Luke hanging out with Biggs on Tattoine (been a long time, I think I misspelled the planet name) or R2D2 fighting a snow creature on Hoth. But knowing how George Lucas works it will probably be in a revised edition some day.
Geeks clapping thru the entire credits? That sounds PAINFUL! We're all here to enjoy the movie, it's great if you want to applaud the 2nd unit photographer but he can't hear you from the movie theater.
Clapping during OPENING credits.. yeah.. though when the movie started they died down... they were too busy going "ooooh...".. like they've never seen it before.. LOL!! ROFL about the 2nd unit photographer :)
Also didn't mention that I loved your analogy of Star Wars being the scab that Lucas just can't stop picking at.. LOL
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