The
Star Wars saga created by George Lucas, has left an everlasting mark on history
for film and adventure with its prodigious success from the very beginning.
From 1977 through to 1983, the original three films were made and released into
the world, which are today known as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, (1977)
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Star Wars: Episode VI
- Return of the Jedi, (1983) with their titles aligning them self-alongside the
subsequently made prequel trilogy, created in 1999 through to 2005. While a
noticeably long gap in time stood between the original trilogy and the prequel
trilogy’s release, Lucas spent some of this time making alterations to the
originals, to re-release them in 1997 to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Star
Wars.
The classic films were remastered through their sound, visuals and special effects to get a grasp on modernity and solidify a slightly more believable universe for the viewers to witness on screen. While most older movies might not look “perfect” to a modern audience, it can be highly debatable whether the need to update to polish or “get with the times” is actually necessary. “Eye popping special effects are all well and good, but they don’t make a film. And including them certainly doesn’t improve an already existing film.” (Cornish, 2011) The originals don’t exactly look or sound terrible at all, and the high success from the films at the time really should show a validation for where they stand. The plummeting impact it had on the world lied with the creativity of the story, characters and magnificent universe, which at the end of the day will always be the main thing that allows a huge fan base will originate from.
While there isn’t really anything wrong with having more smoother audio and clearer definition on the screen, this isn’t where Lucas drew the line when remastering these films. In some parts of them, lines of characters would be changed, more camera shots would be added, actors on screen would be replaced, special effects would be updated with something visually different, which ultimately changes scenes and is then beyond the point of just polishing them. It is true that most of the changes made in the films were minor, which raises the question of was it really needed? Although despite this, there has been a lot of discussions and controversy that escalated from little alterations, having a massive effect on people. An example of this, is the debate regarding “who shot first?” out of Han Solo and Greedo in the first Star Wars film. The scene involves the encounter of the two characters in the cantina, while Greedo points a gun at Solo but in result gets shot by him instead. In the original version, it appears that Han draws his gun on Greedo and shoots him, catching him completely off guard before he gets the chance to shoot. Then when the film was re-released in 1997, the scene was edited so that Greedo fires his gun first, missed Han and then Han shoots Greedo in self-defence.
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| Figure. 1. Star Wars movie poster. |
The classic films were remastered through their sound, visuals and special effects to get a grasp on modernity and solidify a slightly more believable universe for the viewers to witness on screen. While most older movies might not look “perfect” to a modern audience, it can be highly debatable whether the need to update to polish or “get with the times” is actually necessary. “Eye popping special effects are all well and good, but they don’t make a film. And including them certainly doesn’t improve an already existing film.” (Cornish, 2011) The originals don’t exactly look or sound terrible at all, and the high success from the films at the time really should show a validation for where they stand. The plummeting impact it had on the world lied with the creativity of the story, characters and magnificent universe, which at the end of the day will always be the main thing that allows a huge fan base will originate from.
While there isn’t really anything wrong with having more smoother audio and clearer definition on the screen, this isn’t where Lucas drew the line when remastering these films. In some parts of them, lines of characters would be changed, more camera shots would be added, actors on screen would be replaced, special effects would be updated with something visually different, which ultimately changes scenes and is then beyond the point of just polishing them. It is true that most of the changes made in the films were minor, which raises the question of was it really needed? Although despite this, there has been a lot of discussions and controversy that escalated from little alterations, having a massive effect on people. An example of this, is the debate regarding “who shot first?” out of Han Solo and Greedo in the first Star Wars film. The scene involves the encounter of the two characters in the cantina, while Greedo points a gun at Solo but in result gets shot by him instead. In the original version, it appears that Han draws his gun on Greedo and shoots him, catching him completely off guard before he gets the chance to shoot. Then when the film was re-released in 1997, the scene was edited so that Greedo fires his gun first, missed Han and then Han shoots Greedo in self-defence.
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| Figure. 2. Star Wars movie still. |
While this small change doesn’t effect either of the characters’ fate, it can really change the character perception of Han Solo. If someone has only watched the newer version, they are more likely to see Han as an honourable hero, whereas if they’ve watched the classic they are more likely to see him as more of a sly and deceitful vigilante. It is no surprise that this decision received a lot of overwhelming backlash, as the portrayal of characters is very important. Having the creator introduce Han Solo as more innocent and honest twenty years later, causes a lot of confusion as to why he portrayed his character as someone who has more personality depth and flaws beforehand. Ultimately, the script has been tampered with which results in a totally different way the audience view a main character. If these changes were made before the film was ever realised, then it probably wouldn’t matter at all, but the film already existed to the public eye before the change, so taking a risk like that was bound to create a great amount of displeasure. “Ever since George Lucas made an attempt to improve on perfection by creating the Special Editions of the original Star Wars trilogy, he successfully made more enemies than friends.” (Libbey, 2015)
George Lucas has said that Han shooting first ran against the character’s principles. Twenty years after the film was originally made, it’s a bit late to swap this around. Fans have watched it, they’ve perceived Han Solo’s character as rebellious and shifty, while have subconsciously accepted that that’s what he’s like. For Lucas to change a character’s ways and intentions twenty years on, is like trying to cause the audience to look at this character from a completely new perspective, as if everything they believed and thought about this character was a lie. From the outrage that the decision caused, it’s not even a question about who owns the film in this case. The viewers do. Of course they do, if they didn’t then they’d have more acceptance regarding the creator’s wishes and just let be. The majority of audiences won’t consider or care about the personal connection and ownership between a writer and their work, as they’re watching it for their own personal connection and enjoyment. Naturally, successes like these are for the rest of the world, not for the creator anymore. The moment Lucas released the original trilogy was the moment that the story’s ownership was passed onto its audience. Maybe George Lucas didn’t fully consider this (or maybe he just didn’t care) when re-editing the films, but by this point it’s clear that he no longer owned the film or its story, as the fans had become so attached to what they originally saw after the first release, and their opinions are so outnumbering that it takes ownership of the films they first fell in love with.
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| Figure. 3. Star Wars movie still comparison. |
During an interview with George Lucas he says “it wasn’t finished to the level that I’d want it to be finished.” (Lucas, 2009) This is the reason he said he wanted to go back and change things for, so that he could perfect it in his eyes and eventually get it looking to the standard that he had originally imagined it at. In 1977 the capabilities of CGI was much more limited than it was twenty years later, but with the budget and resources that were available at the time he created Star Wars and it rocketed through the roof, but it’s clear that to Lucas, he wasn’t fully satisfied. He later goes on to say in the interview “this is a great chance for me to experiment with the new technology.” (Lucas, 2009) Now while he had the right to make whatever adjustments he wished to make, maybe it would have been better for him to “experiment with the new technology” on a film that hasn’t already been released. Star Wars (like all huge blockbusters) shouldn’t be experimented on after it’s already been released to the public. It is too big to be experimented on, it’s not what you’re supposed to experiment on. Now while he might not have meant playing around with the newer technology and using the films as a CGI playground, just have a look at this example. (See Fig. 3.) The image shows a scene still with Han Solo and stormtroopers on the Death Star, the first one is the original, which has a handful of stormtroopers facing Han. The bottom one has a ridiculously higher amount of stormtroopers on screen. There is also the change of background, but that isn’t as much of an issue. The updated version looks over the top with the amount of stormtroopers there, it looks like they’ve been copied and pasted all over the screen which goes back to the topic of Lucas experimenting with the technology. The problem here is that the original picture is more believable than the remastered one. Sure, the screen quality looks cleaner but the unrealistic amount of stormtroopers take something away from the original scene. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with the amount of stormtroopers in the original version, it seems like the right amount! Whereas the re-edited version looks like George Lucas got excited about the more modern technology and went over the top with it just because he could. Again, it doesn’t affect the fate of characters or their journey, but it’s an example of a supposed improvement that is actually not an improvement at all.
As many changes as there were, Star Wars is still a highly popular and loved saga that will never fade. Even though alterations provoked a huge amount of the audience, the story remained the same which is what really matters. George Lucas may have overstepped, but they were his films to touch, even if the ownership of the films shifted to the fans from the moment he first released it to them.
Illustrations List
Figure. 1. Britt R, Star Wars movie poster. https://www.inverse.com/article/43533-star-wars-a-new-hope-title-change-episode-iv-1981-1977
(Accessed
24/09/18)
Figure. 2. Rainaldi A, Star Wars movie still. https://popculturalstudies.wordpress.com/2017/11/28/han-shot-first-is-important-not-for-the-reason-you-think/
(Accessed
24/09/18)
Figure. 3. FUCHSBAU, Stars Wars movie still comparison. http://wssrmnn.net/index.php/2017/02/06/original-star-wars-trilogy-changes/
(Accessed
24/09/18)
Bibliography
Cornish
J. (2011) http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/star-wars/17281/the-10-worst-crimes-against-the-original-star-wars-trilogy
(Accessed
23/09/18)
Libbey
D. (2015) https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Ends-Star-Wars-Han-Shot-First-Debate-Once-All-115797.html
(Accessed 24/09/18)
Lucas G. (2009) https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Ends-Star-Wars-Han-Shot-First-Debate-Once-All-115797.html
(Accessed 23/09/18)
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