Despite the fact that ‘Star Wars’ is one of the most iconic
franchises of all time, one could say that its fan-base has had it rough for
quite a few years. And for the record no, I’m not referring to the prequels at
the moment. I’m actually referring to probably the most controversial aspect of
the ‘Star Wars’ franchise; the numerous changes that series creator George
Lucas has made to the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy. Now there have been some
cases where films have been altered in subsequent home video releases, usually
to fix a mistake or two within the film. But in the case of ‘Star Wars’, that’s
not the reasoning for these changes. Instead, it’s because Lucas, who in 2004
claimed that the original trilogy of films only represented about 20-35% of his
original vision, made these changes in order to make the films look the way he
wanted them. To do this, he utilized new technology that he didn’t have back
when the films were first being made due to the limitations at the time in
regards to visual effects. However, pretty much all of these changes have been
universally criticized by ‘Star Wars’ fans who believe that the films were
great as they originally are. But at this time, despite rumors that Disney is planning
to release the unedited cuts of the films on Blu-Ray, it’s unclear whether or
not we’ll ever see those original cuts of the films again. Today, on Rhode
Island Movie Corner, I’ll be looking at some of these changes. For the record I
won’t be discussing every single change made and will instead be focusing on
the most controversial of changes. Basically that is because each major home
video release of the films since 1997 have had one extremely controversial
change. So let’s get started…
1997- SPECIAL EDITION: ‘HAN SHOT FIRST’
It all began in 1997, two years before the release of
‘Episode I’, when it was announced that the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy would
be re-released in theaters in honor of the first film’s 20th
Anniversary. Little did fans know that this would be the start of what would
cause them nothing but frustration for years to come. Lucas spent about $10
million, $3 million to work on the audio, $2 million to work on ‘A New Hope’,
and $2.5 million each for ‘Empire’ and ‘Jedi’, on editing the films, adding in
some new scenes and most notably a whole bunch of new CGI visuals, including
some replacements of the original special-effects work done for the film. But
the one change that attracted the most controversy, one that is arguably still
the most infamous change in franchise history, occurs in ‘A New Hope’ during
the scene where Han Solo is approached by the bounty hunter Greedo, who is
looking for him on orders from crime lord Jabba the Hutt, who put a bounty of
Solo’s head after an incident where he had to drop some cargo that he had been
smuggling for Jabba in order to avoid being captured by the Empire. Ultimately
though, Han ends up shooting Greedo before he gets a chance to kill him. You
all know the controversy surrounding this scene, which has resulted in the
iconic phrase; ‘Han Shot First’.
The original cut of ‘Star Wars’ made it very clear that Han
was the one who shot first and was also the only one of the two who fired any
shots. However, the ‘Special Edition’ changed it up so that it was now Greedo
who shot first. A shot was inserted where Greedo is shown firing at Han, who
‘avoids’ it by moving his head (this is done via CGI, by the way) to the right.
He then fires at Greedo, and the scene of course ends the same way it did before.
Looking at the shot in slow-motion, you can definitely notice the rather
laughable work done to make Han ‘avoid’ the shot. Thankfully, subsequent
releases have altered up this scene some more so that it doesn’t look as bad as
it did the first time it was edited. Still though, these altered cuts to the
scene still have Greedo fire a shot at Han. The only major difference is that in
the 2004 DVD release, the timing of the shots was altered to make it look like
Han and Greedo were firing at the same time, still maintaining that Greedo
fired a shot which Han avoids. The 2011 Blu-Ray release shortened up the shot
by a few more frames.
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| Harrison Ford's response to a question on Reddit asking him about the whole 'Who Shot First?' debate |
So why did George Lucas do this? According to him, it was
because he felt that having Han shoot first would make him out to be a
cold-blooded killer. But really, I think it’s safe to say we all know that this
wasn’t necessary. Despite being the only one who fired a shot in that scene
originally, Han of course became a highly beloved character in the franchise. So
clearly the fact that he fired first didn’t result in him becoming a completely
unlikable character. And really, can you blame him for shooting Greedo in that
scene? I mean otherwise Greedo was going to kill him; he didn’t really have a
choice. Recently, Lucas revised his original statement on the scene by
asserting that Greedo DID shoot first but because of the fact that the scene
had primarily been done in close-ups, it was confusing as to what really
happened. That reasoning does make a little more sense, though it’s worth
noting that he also stated that it was the audience who wanted Han to be a
‘cold-blooded killer’ and drafts of the original script don’t mention Greedo
shooting at Han in the scene. Needless to say, this edit attracted a lot of
attention… but it was only the beginning.
2004- DVD RELEASE- ANAKIN’S GHOST
Two years after the initial release of the ‘Star Wars’
trilogy on DVD, another DVD release came out with a special bonus; a bonus disc
for each film that had the ‘original’ versions of the films. However, this came
at a price because the original cuts of the films were of fairly low quality.
They were produced from the transfers used for the 1993 Laserdisc releases; as
a result, the video transfers were in letterbox format and there were plenty of
video errors such as low contrast and motion smearing. Needless to say, it was
clear that there wasn’t really that much effort put into bringing the original
cuts of the films to DVD, the one thing that fans were yearning for since 1997.
But as for the main DVD versions of the films, they were given the re-mastering
treatment… and once again more changes were made to the films. Along with the
aforementioned editing of the ‘Han/Greedo’ scene, there were also some
additions to keep the films closer to the then currently running prequel
trilogy in terms of continuity. In the scene where Vader talks to the Emperor,
Ian McDiarmid replaces the original ‘actor’ who played the Emperor (who was
actually makeup Rick Baker’s wife Elaine with chimp eyes superimposed on her face
with voice dubbing from Clive Revill). And Boba Fett is now voiced by Temuera
Morrison, who played Boba’s father Jango Fett in ‘Attack of the Clones’.
And then you have the addition of young Anakin Skywalker,
Hayden Christensen, in ‘Return of the Jedi’. This occurs during the final scene
of the film when Luke sees the force ghosts of Obi-Wan, Yoda, and his father.
Originally, Anakin was portrayed, when he was unmasked, by Sebastian Shaw, who
again appeared as a Force Ghost. But then, in the 2004 DVD release, his image
was replaced with Christensen’s. Apparently the reason for this was because
this was supposed to represent the last time that Anakin was a good guy before
he became Darth Vader. However, in reality, it would make much more sense to
have him look the way he did when he died. Plus, as some have already pointed
out, the fact that Christensen obviously looks much different than Shaw should
cause some confusion in regards to the scene because Luke shouldn’t recognize
who the person standing with Obi-Wan and Yoda is, even if he’s his father. But
the big problem with this scene is that it’s just insulting to Sebastian Shaw,
who passed away a decade earlier. Just another bone-headed decision on Lucas’
part which, like with the ‘Han/Greedo’ scene, has a really flimsy excuse for
being done.
2011- BLU-RAY RELEASE- DARTH VADER ‘NO!!!’
And now we come to the change that quite frankly pissed me
off the most. For the most part, I’m not too upset about the changes made to
the original ‘Star Wars’ films. Yes a lot of them are rather stupid and make no
sense in terms of why Lucas made these changes. But because I’m not really a
die-hard ‘Star Wars’ fan, they don’t bother me that much. But then came the
2011 Blu-Ray release of the ‘Star Wars’ saga. Of course there were more changes
to the original films, like a weird addition of rocks in front of R2-D2 when
he’s hiding in an cave from the Tusken Raiders (seriously from the way it looks
you’ll wonder how he even got in there in the first place) and the addition of
eyelids for the Jawas in ‘Return of the Jedi’ so that they now blink, which
from what I hear was supposed to be a part of the overall design for the
creatures but was abandoned for looking unsatisfactory. But the one change made
that drives me crazy, and I’m sure the same can be said for the rest of you
folks as well, occurs during the climactic sequence in the Death Star II when
Vader sacrifices himself to save Luke by throwing the Emperor down the pit.
Originally, Vader said nothing during the scene but now he first says ‘no’
while watching the Emperor torture Luke and then yells ‘No!’ as he grabs the
Emperor.
Where do I begin with this? First of all, more so than any
of the other changes, this ruins the emotional impact of this scene. Vader may
not have originally said anything during the scene but he didn’t need to. We
could see it perfectly well through the way he watched this whole situation
unfold that he was about to sacrifice his own life to save the life of his son.
Second of all, now we unfortunately had to relive the infamous moment in
‘Episode III’ when Vader, after learning from the Emperor that Padme died in
childbirth, screams “NOOOO!!!” For the record, I’m not really as bothered by
that scene as others may be but now that it’s been brought into one of the best
scenes of the film series, I have to admit now I’m a little annoyed at it
because it led to this frigging change. Like I said, all of the other changes
made to the films… they don’t really bother me that much. But this one is
inexcusable. I’m pretty certain that Lucas has not made any comment on why he
made this change but even if he ever does, that excuse does nothing to hide the
fact that this is, without a doubt, the absolute worse of the ‘Star Wars’
Special Edition Changes. Yep, it’s worse than ‘Han Shot First’ and it’s worse
than ‘Young Anakin’ in ‘Return of the Jedi’.
As I conclude this post, I want to talk about the main
reason as to why these changes bug me. It’s not really about what the changes
were. Aside from the aforementioned ‘No!’ scene in ‘Return of the Jedi’, I’m not
really that bothered by things like ‘Greedo Shot First’ or the CGI additions.
It’s more because of one simple fact. And that is George Lucas’ insistence that
these newer cuts of the original trilogy are the ‘correct’ versions of the
films. The last time the original, unaltered cuts of the films was properly
released to home video… was in 1995, back when VHS was still relevant (Hell, I
still have them). But since 1997, we’ve had to deal with these newer cuts of
the films every time the series moves to a new media format. They did re-release
the original cuts of the films back in 2006 but as I noted earlier, it seems
like minimal effort was made to bring them to DVD as shown by their poor quality.
And while I hear that some people did make bootleg copies of the films in their
original form, I’m not really looking to watch them ‘that way’. So why do I
bring all of this up? Well, guess which franchise allows its fans to re-watch
its content the way it was originally made, even when it too made some modern
updates?
That’s right, it’s the other big space-themed franchise with
‘Star’ in the title, ‘Star Trek’. In 2006, ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’
made its official debut in HD along with updated CGI visuals. But when the
series was released to Blu-Ray starting in 2009, ‘Trek’ fans were allowed to do
something that, at this time, ‘Wars’ fans can’t. They could view all of the
episodes in either the original or updated format. CBS didn’t restrict them
from watching the original cuts of the episode if they didn’t want to watch the
updated version, unlike ‘Star Wars’. And that’s my problem with this whole
‘Special Edition’ nonsense. Despite the fact that a lot of people grew up with
‘Star Wars’ via the original cuts of the original trilogy, for almost two
decades now they’ve had to see their beloved films get modern updates that they
didn’t want with no real way of seeing the original cuts of the films in a
proper release. Seriously, why is it so hard to just re-master the old cuts of
the films and polish them up, not Lucas’ way of ‘polishing it up’ for the
record, so that they could be put on Blu-Ray? That way, ‘Star Wars’ fans all
over the world can finally be reunited with their beloved trilogy the way it
was originally presented and quite frankly how it should be.
Check back next week for Part 3 of this Month-long ‘Star
Wars’ celebration as I get a bit controversial as I discuss the ‘Star Wars’
prequel trilogy.
