Why, it's
ApRiL fOoL's DaY, everybody! And how better to honor this day than to cover a film I never otherwise would... the least exotic film I could possibly think of: a
Star Wars. Except, I could never bring myself to tackle one of the prequels, so how about something slightly less irony poisoned? I'm thinking
George Lucas's original
Star Wars (later retitled
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1981, but you all know I'm not a fan of revisionism, so we'll stick to its proper title) from 1977, a film which, honestly, I still get a kick out of and keep in my pretentious physical media collection. The "Definitive" laserdisc edition, of course.
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a very Special episode.
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Why? Look, I don't think anybody on Earth who could possibly give a
fig about Star Wars needs me to explain how Lucas Lucas'd the original
trilogy in 1997 by re-editing and tampering with his most famous films
(though not
just
these) with goofy early CGI effects and awkward inserts. All art is
subjective, but it's as close to objective as any stance can be that he
made them worse. He dubbed them the "Special Editions," but he also
made them the default version in practically every home video release.
The last, best release before this blasphemy were the special edition
1993 laserdiscs, in the hefty "Definitive Collection" boxed set. So
collectors like myself still grip them tightly while most modern fans
who care enough to stick to the originals have been relegated to
pirating. Now, it is true that the original "non-special edition"
versions were
released on DVD in 2006, in a limited edition set that included both
versions of all three films. Ideally, all things being equal and
readily available, that's the official release I'd actually recommend
(as of this writing, there's one used copy for sale on Amazon for
$170). But the transfers were just non-anamorphic
ports of the laserdisc masters, so I never felt it was worth
double-dipping. Let's take a look!
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| 1) 1993 Fox LD, 2) 2004 Fox DVD, 3) 2011 Fox BD, 4) 2020 Fox UHD. |
I've said this before, but
it's been a while since I've done a laserdisc, so here's a quick
reminder. All the other discs are digital and can be ripped directly to
one's computer for accuracy. But laserdiscs are analog, so I have to
import them through old school cables and are therefore a little less
technically accurate (I'd say they appear less washed out on my
television). And of course UHD shots with HDR like these are standard
def tone-mapped conversions of their HD originals, so bear that in mind
when comparing these screenshots.
So, the framing and aspect ratio are essentially the same, but not perfectly. The laserdisc is 2.33:1, the DVD is 2.34:1, the BD is precisely 2.35:1 and then the UHD is wider still at 2.39:1. So we keep gaining extra, barely perceivable slivers. Of course the boost in clarity is more significant, especially going from laserdisc to DVD, analog stipulation or no. These being
Star Wars products, you could predict that film grain is light even on the UHD. But it is pretty much all there to be made out once you reach the HD editions, and the colors look both deepest and the most natural in 4k (plus a bit warmer), which is surely the least, or at least the most delicately, tinkered with master to date. Oh, and for you frame-loving freaks out there, yes the laserdisc is in CAV.
The laserdisc features the audio in a nice bold, surround 4.1 track with optional English closed captioning. The DVD translates that to 5.1 Dolby EX with optional English subtitles, plus a 2.0 track, with additional French and Spanish dubs. The BD then kicks that up to a 6.1 DTS-HD track with optional English subs, plus French, Spanish and Portuguese dubs, an English descriptive track and a slew of foreign language subtitles, specifically: Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. And finally, the UHD makes it an English Dolby Atmos mix with optional English subtitles, plus French, Japanese and Spanish dubs, an English descriptive track, and
scales down the foreign subs to just French, Japanese and Spanish.
Not that the Definitive laserdiscs were perfect, even for their day - check out
this excellent documentation of every minute flaw in the whole set - but they did give us some very satisfying special features. Chief among them were commentary tracks for each film. In the case of
Star Wars 1, this featured effects artist
Ken Ralston, concept designer
Ralph McQuarrie, Lucas, effects artist
Dennis Muren and puppeteer/ voice artist
Frank Oz, though even with the four of them, it's fairly sparse. Each film also had a final chapter with video supplements. So for the original, we got trailers, a gallery of concept art with explanatory voice-over by McQuarrie and an on-camera interview with George Lucas. It also included a 16-page booklet and a big hardcover book, all packaged in an impressively solid, black case.
Unfortunately, the DVD drops all of that, and replaces it only with a new commentary, this time more lively, by Lucas,
sound designer
Ben Burtt, Murren and
Carrie Fisher, though in both cases, they're not all sitting together but edited individually into the track. Just a commentary is pretty light for such a mega-movie like this in the heyday of DVD, but if you bought it in a complete trilogy boxed set, you would've also gotten a fourth Bonus Material DVD, with a lot of additional material. Primarily, it featured a massive two and a half hour retrospective documentary covering all three films. Then there are three featurettes, roughly fifteen minutes each, focusing on smaller details (i.e. the history of the lightsaber). There's a massive collection of trailers and TV spots, a couple galleries, an Easter Egg gag reel, and two promos for the prequels and a prequel-based video game.
The blu-ray keeps the DVD commentary and also brings back the laserdisc one. It also came with three bonus discs if you bought a whole six-film set (the originals and prequels), one of which just relates to the prequels, but the other two is jam-packed with featurettes, interviews, the documentary (now split into three parts for each film), deleted scenes, and just about everything you could want. The UHD includes both commentaries and most of the short stuff from the blu-ray bonus discs, but not the full-length documentary. So hang onto your blu-ray sets even if you're updating.
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the story of a boy, a girl and an X-Box.
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Supposedly,
Disney is restoring the original, non-special edition for a theatrical
release in 2027, its fiftieth anniversary. No word of a physical
release yet, but they'd finally get me to double-dip if they did it. I
guess you could say I feel... a new hope. 😜
