I'm going to see The Force Awakens later today. But before that, I did a little backtracking and watched the original trilogy, but not in the normal fashion.
I remember watching a copy of the first edition of Star Wars in the early eighties on Betamax. That was quite an experience for me (of course, being a young kid helped a bit). Ever since then (and ever since viewing the Special Editions an endless number of times) I've been trying to watch the original series of films. Up until a few years ago the only versions of the film available were Laserdisc transfers of the film as well as a 2006 DVD bonus release. The quality of the films are standard definition and there's a lot of detail lost, a far cry from the Blu Ray versions of the Special Editions.
Remember in the last piece that fans have gone as far as to edit or alter the movies? Enter the Despecialized Editions. This is a fan driven project to restore the original theatrical versions of the movies in HD. It's a huge gray area as far as legality is concerned, but it's also preservation of cultural heritagee.
The restoration job upscales footage, color corrects, rotoscopes and removes all the special effects included for the Special Edition of the movie, and the final product is amazing. Their sources include Laserdisc transfers of the film, the Blu-ray release, and even several rare prints of the original 1977 film. See for yourself in the video below:
As far as the movies are concerned, they are still a great way to spend 6 hours or so of your time, and a great way to relive the original trilogy before watching The Force Awakens.
The restoration project is still ongoing; Episode IV is now at version 2.5, Episode V at version 2.0, and Episode VI at version 1.0.
So I'm all set. Watch out in a few hours as the review embargo is lifted just as I watch the seventh film in the Star Wars saga. Stay tuned.
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