All About the Star Wars!

Anyone who’s been following this blog since inception is no doubt aware that an earlier post discussed Petr Harmy’s attempt at restoring the original Star Wars films for an audience who didn’t grow up with them. It still sounds like a dream come true, but I’ve since discovered that it requires downloading a patch onto the store-bought movies. Essentially, it’s extra work, and it’s risky. Not to mention that Disney’s most-likely caught on. No amount of hesitation can be accurately put to words here.

Regardless, it’s incredibly noble. The authenticity of the original Star Wars films has been game since the late-90’s, when George Lucas re-released them in an “updated format” for the original film’s 20th anniversary. It’s no surprise that fans didn’t react kindly, but this became commonplace for the next two-plus decades. Whenever a new release was made available, it was guaranteed to be full of edits, updates and changes. If there ever was someone more-famously associated with the phrase “death of the author”, it was George Lucas.

What makes this complicated is when it impacts people like me. See, I was born in 1990. I was -13 years old when Star Wars Ep. IV: A New Hope debuted, and I grew up in a decade where its impact was already felt. By the time I could walk and talk, the films had already been re-released on VHS. My earliest memory with Star Wars was seeing Star Wars Ep. I: The Phantom Menace in theatres for a friend’s 9th birthday. So while technically a fan, I was a late-fan.

Being able to watch unaltered versions of the original films has always been a pipe-dream. True, I watched the movies in high school, but I didn’t properly appreciate them and the versions were probably altered. What I’m referring to, however, is enjoying these movies, uncut, as an adult. I want to see Han shoot first. I want to witness the ugly deformity that was Emperor Palpatine pre-Ian McDiarmid getting the role. And I want to see Darth Vader throw Palpatine off a ledge anticlimactically without shouting “No!” I want to see all of that.

But I can’t. And this frustrates me to no end. It’s not like I don’t know what happens, I’ve seen bits-and-pieces of the films on YouTube, so why can’t I? Why must the rights-holders to these movies be so petty? What gives?

I can live with people trashing The Prequels at this point, as every possible argument has been posited. I can also live with videos nitpicking the Special Editions, as they all have validity. But it sucks that I can’t see the unaltered versions of three classics in 2019. It sucks because it’s petty, and it sucks because it excludes me from an important part of Star Wars discourse.

I’ve wanted it for so long that it’s not even funny. When Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, a part of me hoped that I’d be able to see my dream come true. It never happened. And when Disney purchased 21st Century Fox, regardless of my thoughts on that deal, a part of me hoped again that I’d be able to see my dream come true. That never happened either. In the end, I’ve been left frustrated for a good part of two decades. I’m beginning to wonder if it’ll happen at all.

I wouldn’t be as annoyed if reality weren’t such a mess right now. But it is. Corporations are looting the Earth, people are dying and politicians aren’t caring. Considering The UN’s scary prognosis about the state of climate change, that I can’t experience a sliver of joy because movie companies are being jerks angers me. Then again, welcome to real-life?

So Disney, Lucasfilm, Turner Classics, George Lucas, or whomever it is I have to ask this to: please let it happen. Please put aside your egos and let me watch The Original Trilogy the way it was intended. I don’t care how, via digital or physical, let me enjoy that one sliver of pleasure before I die. It’s been 42 years since the original debuted in theatres. That’s more than long enough.

I’m sure you’d also make lots of people really happy. Star Wars is a lucrative IP right now, especially with it being owned by Disney. It’s cool to like the franchise again, and its movies are consistently breaking box-office records. If the uncut, unaltered versions of the original films came out now, people would eat them up like the world was ending tomorrow. That the higher-ups are sitting on gold out of spite is infuriating. And don’t the higher-ups like gold? Isn’t that their bread-and-butter?

Finally, some parting words to those who hate Disney and wish it’d burn: don’t be this way. Don’t let your frustrations with how the company’s run become a sticking point for not letting people be able to watch these movies legally and uncut. Yes, it sucks that Disney’s absorbing everything and violating anti-trust laws. And yes, it’s bad for creativity. But as we’ve seen through the recent Spider-Man debacle, this sort of squabbling hurts consumers the most. And is it really that big a crime to want to see the unaltered versions of The Original Trilogy? Is that an unreasonable request?