Engage the Rebels

If you agree with my thought's below (that I posted yesterday), please sign this petition.

I'm sorry to have reduced myself to this, really, but I need to write a post about the Star Wars DVD release that got announced today. It's a shame because, a) it's whiny and lame, b) some of you might be laboring under the mistaken impression that I'm too cool to care about the new DVD release that got announced today, c) People are posting about it all over the web already, and d) it shouldn't need to be said. Unfortunately it does need to be said:

What the fuck is wrong with George Lucas? He is the legal custodian (in the copyright sense) of more childhood movie dreams than any man on the planet and it seems he not only that he doesn't give a shit, but that he gets some kind of vindictive pleasure out of dissapointing the very fans that made him rich. I'm referring, of course, to the decision that was announced to release on the "special edition" cuts of the original Star Wars Trilogy on DVD as opposed to the versions that we all enjoyed as kids. That the new versions are inferior in nearly every way is well established and entirely ancillary. These DVDs will (or at least should) serve as a historical record of what it meant to enjoy those movies at the time when they were released in theaters.

There are very few reasons to make changes to a movie years after the fact, including:

1. Preservation: - Film stock is a precarious and sometimes flammable medium and it is in a constant state of degradation over time. Often it's lost entirely so by all means, protect it. Clean the dirt off it, remove scratches, correct color fading, and get the static off the soundtrack. There are a ton of films out there that have benefitted dramatically from this kind of attention, see Vertigo, Citizen Kane, or anything from The Criterion Collection for some superb examples.

2. Censorship - Did the ratings board chop your movie up at the box office? Then go ahead and restore the original vision on DVD.

3. Multiple versions: - Often movies are changed to suit particular marketplaces so that Once Upon a Time in America and The Good the Bad and the Ugly both premiered in American theaters at a running time significantly shorter than their European releases. In each case footage was intelligently restored to realize the directors original film as closely as possible. In the case of The Good the Bad and the Ugly they even had Eli Wallach and Clint Eastwood do original voicedubbing for the restored scenes since the dialogue never existed in English before (as is the case with many Italian films, the original production was filmed without sound and all voices were dubbed in later).

4. Mutilation - Some of the best films of all time have been wrested from the control of their directors and mutilated in the editing room. Orson Welles lost control of The Magnificent Ambersons and never regained it. Touch of Evil was also wrested from his control, restored to its original form only after his death. Restoring lost footage in these cases makes eminent sense (although the changes should be explained in the discs packaging and where possible both versions should be included).

So where does Lucas fit into this? He doesn't. He had creative control when the films were made the first time around. At the very least he could follow the example set by others who have revisited their works after they've reached theaters. Both Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg had at least the decency to make available the theatrical cuts of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and ET respectively. Each release at least paid some respect the fans whose adoration made the franchises such a success.