"Utinii!" Rewatching Star Wars

[roseembolism]

Tonight RxM and I sat down and watched the Star Wars DVD I acquired a few months back, which had the original, unaltered theatrical release of Star Wars.  I had been putting off watching it, because I was afraid that the film that literally redefined my life wouldn't stand up to the test of time.  Interestingly enough, it stands up very well.  Sure it's hokey, but with the perspective of time, I can appreciate the pulp influences in the action and dialog (Leah actually sounds very 1930s-ish in tone and voice, come to think of it).  The plotting and pacing is very tight and spare; thinking about it, I can really not think of any scene that would need to be either cut down or substantially altered.

What was fascinating to me is that even in the era of CGI effects, the 1977 effects largely stood up to modern work; models, mattes, and rubber masks still work as well in nearly all the situations that CGI is now put to.  It was also apparent that the extra CGI that the newer versions of Star Wars really didn't add anything. think that's partially because they had a "good enough" attitude- Mos Isley for example, didn't need anything more added to it to give the impression of a run-down, seedy starport.  The masks and puppets of the aliens in the bar were enough to give the feeling of a worderfully diverse and exotic universe.

There's a tendency for artists in general to go back and redo their works when they have additional experience, time or resources to do so.  In some cases this is definitely warrented, but it's also worthwhile to preserve earlier, worthwhile versions, and to know when a film is complete enough.  I can't really think of anything that the later versions add to this film, and given a choice between showing my niece the original or the expanded edition, I would go for the original.  

I came away from this film thinking that there's a lesson in this for all artists in any medium I think.  I also ended up thinking I really REALLY want to see this good DVD version of Star Wars on a big projection screen, someplace where we could listen to that incredible Williams soundtrack on surround-sound speakers.


 

Comments

[silverstreak.livejournal.com]

The mattes they used would leave behind tell-tale signs, especially in the space scenes. On the original release, when the TIE fighters went by you could see a slightly lighter "box" area around them as compared to the rest of the background.

But otherwise you are correct. The techniques they used then were the basis of almost all movie effects since and was the origin of ILM so, yeah. I still enjoy watching them myself. You can watch episode V and VI and see the progression of how much better the effects are just in those two sequals.

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

I'm actually not sure how much more noticable the lighter boxes are on the TIE fighters are, compared to the signs of artificiality CGI still leaves. More noticable to me is that the motions of the spaceships were designed for the big screen, so they poke along and seem very crowded together on a TV.

I did notice the effects work improved over the movies, but I think that was somewhat tangental to the actual quality of the films. There's a point where the effects work is "good enough", and the rest has to depend on the writer..