From time to time, I will dig out my bonus DVD of the original version of STAR WARS, which was sold for a limited time with the SPECIAL EDITION from 1977.
I suppose everyone who saw this film back on its’ original release has a memory of it, but mine extends to the cinema I saw it in, where I sat, how much a ticket was (55p for a child in an Odeon in 1978), as well as what unspooled on that huge screen when I sat down for the first time during Spring Half Term in February 1978.
Anyone who has only witnessed the prequels from 1999 – 2005 or the last three films from 2015 – 2019 probably might only know the backstory and probably only saw the SPECIAL EDITION TRILOGY in 1997 at best. STAR WARS was not only a blockbuster, but a cinematic revolution that has helped mould so many films on all levels in terms of their influence and their presentation.
How many of us have seen a recent big-screen release with a THX logo on the end credits and the mega-busting Marvel MCU has had ILM FX on its’ books. Not bad for an independently-created odyssey that was purely designed for the original version, but which expanded as the film – and its’ legacy – got bigger.
There’s no need for me to focus on the plot or the virtues of performance, as those have been written about in countless books and umpteen biographies that tell their own story, especially the JW Rinzler volume, THE MAKING OF STAR WARS, the definitive account of the film’s creation, production challenges and eventual Summer 1977 triumph.
Watching that bonus DVD on occasions, as I do from time to time, I still marvel at the triumph of editing and the fact that the effects, whilst primitive by today’s standards, still have some virtue in their presentation.
It still is one of the encompassing and engrossing experiences, making us believe that we were on these locations in a galaxy far, far away, rather than a studio North of London, or in a Tunisian Desert or Guatemala. For all the criticisms and disappointments that people have felt from some of the nine films over the last forty-plus years, it is still well worth, regardless of how many times you’ve bored your family with it at the height of those original early screenings, having a look if you can get hold of the 2-Disc DVD that contains the original version as the bonus.
Hope – or is that A NEW HOPE – springs eternal for a proper HD reissue of the original version.