Attention should be paid to this question of our soul, and not simply to accounting procedures. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten. Today, engineers with their computers can add color to black-and-white movies, change the soundtrack, speed up the pace, and add or subtract material to the philosophical tastes of the copyright holder. People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians. In 2004, Lucas supervised a director's cut of THX 1138, restoring the picture while adding some modern special effects. The restored cut of American Graffiti was released theatrically in 1978 this was altered for 1998 DVD with a computer-generated (CGI) change to the opening shot. įollowing the success of Star Wars, in 1977, Lucas's original version of THX 1138 was theatrically released. Universal Pictures had his subsequent film, American Graffiti (1973), edited to remove a couple of minutes. His first feature, THX 1138 (1971), had five minutes removed by Warner Bros. Prior to making Star Wars, franchise creator George Lucas experienced dissatisfaction with the re-editing by studios of both of the films he had directed. More changes were made to the films for their Blu-ray release in 2011 and for their 4K Ultra HD release in 2019.Īlthough some critics felt that many smaller changes were improvements, innocuous, or understandable, most larger changes were received negatively by fans and critics-particularly those made to the original trilogy. Additional notable changes were made when the original trilogy was released on DVD in 2004, in an attempt to create more consistency with the prequel trilogy. These changes were largely made as visual effects tests for the forthcoming prequel films, demonstrating the possibilities of computer-generated imagery (CGI). The first substantial changes were made in 1997 with the release of a Special Edition remaster in commemoration of the franchise's twentieth anniversary. Dissatisfied with the original theatrical cuts of the original Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, creator George Lucas altered the films in ways that were ostensibly not initially possible, primarily due to limitations of time, budget, and technology. Though changes were also made to the prequel trilogy, the original trilogy saw the most alteration. The 2004 DVD release replaced his appearance as a Force spirit with Hayden Christensen (below), who played the character in the prequels.Ĭhanges in Star Wars re-releases vary from minor differences in color timing, audio mixing, and take choices to major insertions of new visual effects, additions of characters and dialogue, scene expansions, and replacement of original cast members with newer ones. The original theatrical release of Return of the Jedi features Sebastian Shaw as Anakin Skywalker (above left).

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