(9/5/2004) George Lucas: rightful owner or revisionist douchebag? I can understand both sides of this debate, which will probably still be going on long after anyone who reads this review is dead. I'm one of those kids who grew up in the late 80's and 90's, spending nearly every Sunday watching one Star Wars program or another, be it the movies or the "Droids" cartoon or whatever. I and a crapload of other people have certain special memories attached to each Star Wars film.

But then on the flip side, I also understand George Lucas's feeling that, since he created these things, he can do whatever the hell he wants to. Any creative person needs to have the right to alter their creations as they see fit. If Da Vinci sprang back to life and wiped the smile off the "Mona Lisa", who'd contradict him?

However, I'm not saying that George Lucas is right; far from it, he's dead wrong. But it's not because of the alteration of the original movies; it's because of his thick-headed (and, frankly, financially idiotic) unwillingness to make the original versions available, his refusal to give the audience a simple choice. This power-mad thing he's had going on since 1997--"These are the only versions of the Star Wars movies now, and you'll watch 'em and LIKE 'em"--is incredibly unappealing. There's no reason for this squabble to even be going on, especially when the movies are now coming out on DVD.

The release of the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD could have been satisfying to both the filmmakers and the original fans; anyone who doubts that can just take a look back at the big box set release of last year, the Alien Quadrilogy. Each one of those 4 films was released with both the original theatrical version, PLUS either a director/producer's cut, PLUS a ton of extras! Ol' George should take a cue from his buddies at 20th Century Fox to see how a good DVD package is put together.

***(And while I'm on the subject, a side note about 20th Century Fox: WHY are they copying the design of Paramount's "Indiana Jones" set? I know it's Lucasfilm and all that and they have final say, but c'mon Fox, show some muscle. Paramount is practically at the bottom of the DVD food chain; they should be cribbing from Fox instead of the other way around. I hate that "4th bonus disc" stuff... basically it's a cleverly camouflaged way of skimping on extras. I know that by putting all the extras on one disc, it makes the audio/video quality on the film DVDs better by saving disc space. But still, I'd rather have some good solid film-specific extras on each DVD than get a few more lines of resolution in the picture. )***

Anyway, the only reason Lucas does this kind of stuff is because he knows he can get away with it; that no matter what he does, the old fans will still hang around for the most part. Does anyone really believe that an old-guard Star Wars fan won't watch this DVD release at least once? I, for one, probably won't buy it, but I'll definitely rent it or borrow it from a friend that has it... and so will continue my emotional & financial puppet dance, with Lucas's fingers holding the strings.

Either watch it, or don't. Really, what else can you do?

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Created May 05, 2009 at 10:01pm • Submit your own review...