{"id":1496,"date":"2008-08-06T14:54:34","date_gmt":"2008-08-06T14:54:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2008-08-06T14:54:34","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T14:54:34","slug":"im_not_the_only_one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2008\/08\/06\/im_not_the_only_one\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m Not the Only One…"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while since I last addressed the matter of Star Wars<\/i> on DVD — specifically, George Lucas’ stubborn and frustrating determination that the general public will never again see the pre-1997, unrevised (which, by the way, is quite a different animal from unrestored<\/i>) editions of the classic original trilogy in any kind of high-quality video format.<\/p>\n

For those of you who may have only recently joined us, let me state for the record that I am not<\/i> one of these “George Lucas raped my childhood” types. I didn’t think the prequels were all that<\/i> bad, Jar-Jar Binks is not<\/i> the end of western civilization, and I don’t even begrudge George becoming very, very wealthy by exploiting the devotion of his fans. After all, nobody held a blaster to our heads and forced<\/i> us to buy yet another box set of the same damn movies we already own five copies of, and it’s not like Lucasfilm is the only company guilty of practicing the “double-dip” marketing strategy<\/a>. Hell, I don’t even particularly mind that he chose to use our beloved franchise as a test platform for his ideas about digital filmmaking — which I suspect was his true (and probably only) interest in revisiting Star Wars<\/i> all along — and I also forgive him the sin of not being the man he was 35 years ago. People age<\/i>, and their thinking about a lot of things changes along the way, and sometimes their skills decline, too. That’s life.<\/p>\n

But the one thing I can’t<\/i> forgive is The Great Flanneled One’s zeal to suppress the earlier, more significant editions of three of the most important movies of the last 50 years.*<\/a> It wasn’t the Special Editions that changed everything for Hollywood, and I don’t understand George’s lack of respect for film history, if not for his own fans (I’m the first to admit that hard-core fans can sometimes be pretty damn annoying). Even so, his position on Star Wars<\/i> is downright hypocritical given his support for film preservation in general; he’s been quoted as saying that he’s concerned about saving the films he watched when he was young. Just not the films people of my generation watched when we<\/i> were young, apparently.<\/p>\n

But don’t take my rant for it. Consider this lengthy but well-reasoned op-ed<\/a> that outlines the history of the situation and makes a passionate argument on behalf of both old-school fanboys and general cinephiles (I count myself as both, incidentally). The following point, in particular, is the thing I wish we could somehow get through George’s thick skull:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Lucas\u2019 preference [for the revised versions] and some sort of \u201cauteur\u201d argument is not even really what the issue is about; it\u2019s a strawman defense. No one ever has suggested that the Special Edition — Lucas\u2019 \u201cDirector\u2019s Version\u201d — be suppressed, or replaced. That a filmmaker gets to re-shape their film the way they want is a great privilege that every director should enjoy, and no one should deny Lucas this. The issue is: releasing the original does not nullify the director\u2019s cut. Everyone would have treated the Special Edition as the final artistic statement of the director.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Just like no one ignores the Final Cut of BLADE RUNNER just because the theatrical cut is on video, and no one feels that the director\u2019s cut of BRAZIL is nullified by the existence of the shortened \u201cLove Conquers All\u201d version. When Orson Welles\u2019 TOUCH OF EVIL comes out in a deluxe edition later this year it will contain both the reconstructed director\u2019s cut that Welles had prepared as well as the important theatrical release. Historical posterity is important — it is important that students of film and audiences interested in history be able to see what films were like at the time they were actually made, and for audiences to continue to enjoy and watch them.
\n. . .
\nWhile the \u201cSpecial Editions\u201d are the same basic films, they do not in any way represent the look or experience of their original groundbreaking releases. This is an important issue in contemporary cinema, especially because, unlike any other films of historical significance that have not been restored (I actually can\u2019t think of any\u2014DVD has offered remarkable historic preservation of all the major classics), they are not being withheld due to neglect by the studio but due to a crusade of deliberate revisionism. In my opinion, this suppression of some of the cinema\u2019s classics represents one of the most heinous crimes against the medium, and one that people should take very seriously.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hear, hear. I’ve made these same basic points many times, but I think this does a better job of it than I ever have.
\nNow, anyone have any ideas on how we could find George’s private e-mail address and spam him silly with copies of this article until he finally reads it and understands our perspective?<\/p>\n

<\/a>* (Yes, you read that correctly: I believe the original trilogy, and the very first Star Wars<\/i> in particular, are the most influential films of the latter half of the 20th Century. I can’t think of any other single film that had that kind of impact on the way movies are made, marketed, released, and exhibited, or on what kinds<\/i> of movies are made, or that made such a strong contribution to popular culture and to the English language. Try and come up with a stronger example. Go on, I’ll wait…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while since I last addressed the matter of Star Wars on DVD — specifically, George Lucas’ stubborn and frustrating determination that the general public will never again see the pre-1997, unrevised (which, by the way, is quite a different animal from unrestored) editions of the classic original trilogy in any kind of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-star-wars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}