Star Wars Returns to Theaters…In 2027

[Cephus]

I honestly don't care. I grew up watching grainy VHS and old movies. I care about the content, not the visuals. I would much rather watch all the matte lines and the film grain, in mono, to get Han shooting first and zero CGI. It doesn't bother me one bit to have it look old, because all media is a product of its time.

 

[Gregatron]

This is where I dig my heels in and disagree with a lot of fans of originality.

The visibly-obvious garbage mattes in the DVD/Blu-Ray releases are NOT original to the movie. They are a by-product of later video equipment, which raises the image contrast higher than it ever was during a theater viewing.

Those matte boxes bother me because the movie DID NOT look like that in theaters in 1977. Removing the boxes would RESTORE the original appearance (when it's viewed on modern video equipment).

I'm only saying that they shouldn't be digitally removed, not that they should be glaringly visible.

Many earlier home video transfers were too bright, and made them stick out.

 

[blewis17]

This is where I dig my heels in and disagree with a lot of fans of originality.

The visibly-obvious garbage mattes in the DVD/Blu-Ray releases are NOT original to the movie. They are a by-product of later video equipment, which raises the image contrast higher than it ever was during a theater viewing.

Those matte boxes bother me because the movie DID NOT look like that in theaters in 1977. Removing the boxes would RESTORE the original appearance (when it's viewed on modern video equipment).

While I think the matte lines around the ships should remain as they were in 1977, I specifically remember NEVER seeing blocky garbage mattes like that in the theater, for any of the 3 original trilogy films. Like you said, maybe something with the black levels when you convert from film to another medium?

 

[Captain Dunsel]

You know guys and gals…Han didn’t actually shoot first.

Han is the only one who fired a shot…poor Greedo never got a shot off.

 

[Gregatron]

You know guys and gals…Han didn’t actually shoot first.

Han is the only one who fired a shot…poor Greedo never got a shot off.

And the retcon that "it was always intended that they both shoot" is demonstrably not true. The script, novelization, and Marvel Comics adaptation all have Han shooting ONLY.

His line, "Yes, I'll bet you have." is a dark joke, because he's about to shoot Greedo from under the table.

Lucas obviously rethought the casual violence of this scene 20 years later, and after becoming a father.

Just as he also trimmed frames from the shots of the uniformed Imperial officers being shot by Luke and Han aboard the Death Star so as not to linger on the violence.

 

[batguy]

The ILM guys have talked about the garbage matte boxes before. That stuff is more visible on the home video releases because of the medium. Showing anything in a theater on film gives you less deep blacks.

ILM relied on space backgrounds to hide some of their compositing sins. That's why they were groaning when George wanted to do the ESB Hoth battle against bright/white scenery.

When the Laserdisc came out they mentioned trying to get the "levels" down to reduce the compositing evidence. They talked about how the previous home video releases had made that stuff look too bright.



IMO they should digitally tone-down the appearance of the matte boxes. It's not a change, it's bringing the movie back closer to the original.

Originality is a nice goal but it's not a practical rule. It's never 100% original unless you use a film projector and a Scotchlite screen.

Heck, the 1990s salvaging job with the film negatives . . . that already made the ANH image quality better than it originally was. The prints that people actually watched in 1970s movie theaters looked like crap compared to our standards. When fans call for an original version now, they don't want originality, they want some kind of hyper-original version with higher image quality. But that brings out more compositing flaws as a side effect.