Should I watch the original or newer Star Wars first?

Terence Stamp likened acting in The Phantom Menace to appearing in a toy catalogue.

George Lucas spent the 15 years between trilogies honing his skills in fleecing the public.
 
Star Wars was massively popular when it first came out, as was the merchandising (as my parents know to their cost! :D). More so with the release of Empire & Jedi.

However it was a holiday film on TV mostly in the late 70s and early 80s until VHS (and Betamax for a short while!) took off. It seemed to disappear from TV for longer perioRAB then, but it wasn't rentals so much that people watched all the time but off-air recordings (in glorious pan&scan with cuts and adverts).

I remember one of my frienRAB was the first to get a video recorder and they'd got a Betamax and had recorded Star Wars off the TV. We'd all go round his house and be amazed at the ability to pause the video and watch the lightsabres fire up in slow motion :D.

The 90s widescreen editions came in several forms. There was an early remastered set, then the THX set which was reissued a couple of times and then of course the crappy special editions.

What I still don't get it Lucas saying the originals don't exist because the prints were so damaged, blah blah, when from what I remember at the time the remasters were struck from the chemically cleaned prints and were to be the source material for the special editions. I really can't believe Lucas actually binned the cleaned up prints once the SEs were made. But it's hard to believe anything he says really. It's all made up nonsense, and that even applies to the scripts (as many of the actors reminded him!).
 
I get the impression the Unaltered Original Trilogy was only released on DVD to combat the DVD-R bootlegs dubbed from the 90s Laserdiscs. Lucas used the same masters to produce bare-bones 'Official Bootlegs' which were no better or worse than the DVD-Rs on eBay.
 
Wise worRAB.

Definitely the way for a first time viewing due to the spoilers.

I'd also hunt down the non-Special Editions of 4,5 & 6 (available on DVD though sadly non-anamorphic). Watch them first, as the edits and changes made in the Special Editions make more (or less;)) sense. Plus you won't be thinking "great 70s/80s film, err, hang on, what's this obvious jarring crap CGI doing here? !!" ;)

1,2 & 3 - well they're watchable. I'll admit I enjoy them for the scenery and more so the music. They're still not a patch on the originals, but anyway. 3 is the best of the new ones (though the advice of watching 4,5 & 6 first does mean you'll cringe a lot at the end of 3 ;)).


Of course really, despite what Lucas tried to insist later on, 4 was actually not 4 or anything other than just "Star Wars", when it first came out. The Episode IV was tacked on when he realised it was a success and made up a story about the whole series being planned that way all along (despite the odd contradictions in 4 compared to 5 & 6, which has to be explained away by a by that point fed up Alec Guinness).
 
Rincewind78 said:
am i right in thinking Star Wars' popularity exploded around 1994 - QUOTE]

i am giddey goat - i certainly meant that to sound differnt!!! i meant to say - i always felt Star Wars suddenly re-sparked its popularity in 1994 - when the past few years before all that - it had just lay dorment since it had its big time in early 80s!
Click to expand...
 
absolutely!!! i am sick of arguing with frienRAB who are certain that the 9 film epic what was always planned. Luke and Lear have a mini love story going on!!!
the original title for the first movie - Star Wars - is still what i call it!! force of habit i guess, still have my vhs copy of the movie, with the title, and still quite happy with that! i never got used to the
 
Well there was a period post original histera, say, from the mid/late 80's to the mid 90's when the movies seemed to be "devalued", mainly due to the predictable yearly terrestrial Christmas broadcasts.
 
I'd definitely watch the old ones first, then the new ones.
Despite what some others are saying, the new ones are very good IMO, and have a bit more depth to them than the old ones - some good political intrigue type stuff,.
 
Yeah - there were 'dark times' between about '87 and '94. Star Wars was biblically popular in the late 70s/early 80s, picked up (as you suggested Rincewind78) around 94-97, and then went crazy again in the 90s, early 00s.

That said, thanks to The Clone Wars cartoon, it's mahoosive with the under 10s again. Amongst my frienRAB with children in that age group, it is nearly as big as it was in the 70s. Captain Rex is their Han Solo.

Stange times.
 
Han is Luke's half brother and R2-D2 goes looking for his missing creator, Chewbacca.

(It is Lucas we're talking about ;))
 
Has anyone ever noticed that in "The Empire Strikes Back", C3PO says "I'll never understand human behaviour".
Humans come from the planet Earth !
No character in Star Wars comes from the planet Earth !
The scene is where the Millenium Falcon is in the "ice cave" and the stormtroopers are runing all over the place, followed by Darth Vader
 
my advice is to watch the originals, ie star wars, the empire strikes back, and return of the jedi, and then to completely forget about watching the prequels. instead, use your own imagination to conure up an epic space saga set during the clone wars that ob-wan kenobi talks about.

no matter how crap your imagination, the version you imagine will never have to be sullied by the cartoon like shite that lucas foisted on everybody with his prequels.
 
I used to have a bootleg set I got off eBay before the DVD release, and while it's true to say the official DVD's could be much better (they're not even anamorphic!), they're still much better than the DVD bootlegs.

Personally, I'm not someone who hates the changes, but it is nice to see the original films again the same as I saw them as a kid. You can still buy them from HMV I believe, even though they were supposedly discontinued after a short while.

I have to admit however, that even though the purist in me thinks the director making cosmetic changes to films years after the fact is a crazy path to tread, I do get a kick out of many of the improvements. Usually, if I'm watching SW on DVD, it's the cleaned up versions rather than the original release. :o
 
i have to agree with you. though part of me still does not like some changes made (you do know that the DVD realises are slightly different to the cinema Special Editions from 1997?!), i still get a little kick out of these Special Editions.
was in regret when they realised the Original Cinema versions a few years back, as i had already bought the special edition DVRAB. however - i still have my very much cherised VHS Digital Remastered editions from 1994! which work perfectly and i like very much.
i will not waste any more money on these films!!!

only bought the buggers on dvd originally as Lucas said "you'll never see the originals ever again.....blah blah blah...only Special Editions from now on"
 
Sorry, I'm calling bullsh*t on this.

The multiple pitches and drafts Lucas had to present to Fox throughout the 70s, the hundreRAB and hundreRAB of production notes from the set of ANH (most have been published in the behind the scenes books, annotated guides and screenplays, and DVRAB), the 1976 novelization that was the first to mention the legacy of the Sith LorRAB, and press/media from 1977 leading up to the film's retitling to "Episode IV: A New Hope" in 1978, all prove otherwise.

Ultimately, the "Journal of the Whills" from the mid-70s single handedly disproves your theory. Lucas developed characters and settings like Anakin Skywalker, Mace Windu and the Battle of Mustafar way before production on Episode IV even began.

The only thing that changed was Lucas originally intended a 9-part franchise, which he cut down to 6 in the 1990s. However, given the immense popularity and canon-like respect given to the NJO and LOTF book series, he doesn't need to make a sequel trilogy.

Instead, Lucas has chosen to focus his attention on The Clone Wars (the very popular animated series set between Episode II and III) and the upcoming live-action drama series set after Episode III. (He's also working on Red Tails, which enters production soon, and Indiana Jones 5.)
 
Yeah, I could tell straight away! There's a really good internet article somewhere too detailing the changes from 1997 videos to 2004 DVD's, and there's a massive amount improved and cleaned between them.

I too bought the 2004 box set only for them to release the originals, but I managed to hang on to my bootlegs right up until the originals got dropped to about a fiver each, so now I have both sets. Bit sad, but that's me. Bit of a geek! :D

I do so love Star Wars though. I'm gonna pick up the Clone Wars DVD this week. Still not seen it, and it looks amazing.
 
Very cool mini-interview here with Lucas himself: http://www.theforce.net/topstory/story/ForceCast_An_Adventure_with_George_Lucas_123536.asp

I'm glad he re-iterated how "Star Wars" is officially in its third generation, a lot of the older fans still struggle to understand this concept.

Generation 1: generally older fanboys who love the original trilogy, and suffer prequel dementia (i.e. most of this thread by the looks of things)
Generation 2: younger fanboys who love the prequel trilogy, either more than or just as much as the originals
Generation 3: fans of specifically the prequel universe

I imagine most of this thread are G1, and probably 25+ years old, but ask any kid or teen that grew up with the prequels, they'll most likely be G2 or more likely G1.
 
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