Before the onslaught of the love them or hate them Prequels, I recall that wonderful and nostalgic brief period in 1996-1997 when the world received the return of the STAR WARS Original Trilogy, restored and souped up with CG and other then digital trickery as THE SPECIAL EDITIONS, with bated breath and a great euphoria of excitement and joy that, after twenty years, it was finally coming back to the cinemas. STAR WARS destiny had come full circle, returning to the big screen where it rightfully belonged, and it looked like it was now never going to go away into limbo ever again, and we were all happy for that. Since the original releases, however, and going into the 2000's, there has been an upsurge in fan grumblings and moans about the changes made to Lucas's new visions of the film (some opinions I fully agree with: I always consider that Han shot first! It's in the original scripts!), as well as anger and frustration at the lack of Anamorphic versions of the original unaltered, pre-SPECIAL EDITIONS, being being released on DVD and, so far, Blu-ray, and a general mild but growing dissent, criticism and hatred of the SPECIAL EDITIONs in all forms, especially with the further changes made to them with the first DVD releases of the Trilogy in 2004. It seems that Lucas, considering the most recent versions of the Original Trilogy to be definitive in his eyes (surely until the Blu-rays in September!), can't win any artistic respect these days with a lot of the fans whatever he does linked to the originals.
With next year being the fifteenth anniversary of THE SPECIAL EDITIONS, I thought it might be nice, instead of talking about the things that don't work (as everyone else seems to do online), for AFICIONADO to do an occasional series on the moments, large or small, considered improvements by Lucas to the films, that do actually work and which should be applauded and appreciated, starting off with this terrific image of the Rebel X and Y-wing fighters in space heading towards the Death Star. This new shot is great (I love the original 1977 scenes, too) and I particularly liked the faster movements of the ships and the camera panning with them, adding to the excitement of the film's final decisive conflict.
Look for more great SPECIAL EDITION shots in the not too distant future...
10 Star Wars Changes That Were Completely Justified - YouTube
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