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10/11/2004: "I've never seen Star Wars"

Listening to: S.P.O.C.K. - A Piece of the Action (disc 2)
Current mood: sleep-glutted

Something occured to me this morning just after I woke up. I was thinking about the recent release of the the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD, and the two Stormtroopers in front of the local Circuit City encouraging people to buy said DVDs. I was wondering how they justify deep within their geek hearts the fact that Lucas is gradually destroying the movies that they obviously loved enough that they've built their own costumes and props and enjoy prancing around in them (they were appearently part of some kind of Star Wars costume club). That's when it hit me: I have never seen the original Star Wars trilogy.

Oh, I mean, I've watched Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi more times than I care to know, but I was watching them on VHS, which, for most of the history of the format, and definitly for me, meant Pan-and-Scan. Other than very dim memories of seeing Jedi in the theatre (since that was '83, I must have been about 4), I never saw the widescreen version until the Special Edition came out in theatres. I remember just being kind of amazed at things like set design and the fact that yes, actually wait there are sand people down there, I can see one of them now. That was way cooler than ridiculous crap like Han talking to Jabba, Biggs showing up, or (anger) the removal of Oola's dance number. It also occurs to me on writing this that that was also the last time I watched any of the original trilogy. Maybe SE just left a bad taste in my mouth. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, however, I do happen to have in digital format a rip of the widescreen THX Laserdisc version of the film, ready to burn onto DVD. Considering the fact that I own the Original Trilogy Box Set, the THX Box Set, and at least one SE Box Set (I only bought the first one, the others just somehow ended up with my videos after various roommates), I think that even the more stringent copyright folk would have to consider that format shifting. This is making me think that one of these days when Lynnea's busy with school and I'm left home alone all night, I need to sit down and watch Star Wars for the first time to see if I can remember why I like it so much.




 
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