NotTV: Print of pre-enhancement "Star Wars Episode 4" found

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Bob Jersey

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Jun 16, 2025, 10:27:00 PM6/16/25
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And screened at a British Film Institute event, hosted by Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy, who said that the flick and its exhibition were "not illegal"... but one reporter who might not have been around for the original, thought it was just as bad as what George did to it later...
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Adam Bowie

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Jun 17, 2025, 5:35:35 AM6/17/25
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It should be said that this isn't really a long-lost print. It just hasn't been seen in a long time, and that's a different thing. It sits in the British Film Institute's archive, which is a vast collection of loads of films and television and is essentially the national archive of audio and video fare. They've been hosting a festival called "Film on Film" which presents films actually projected on celluloid, when so much of what we get now is digital projection. 

Anyway, here's a video of Kathleen Kennedy in conversation introducing the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLtfTrI8qRo (Gutted I didn't go to this)

And from the original continuity script taken during a BFI Archive tour a few years ago...

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Dave Sikula

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Jun 18, 2025, 12:06:53 AM6/18/25
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Saw it a while back and realized it's just not a very good movie.

--Dave Sikula

Tom Wolper

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Jun 18, 2025, 10:19:35 AM6/18/25
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Specifically the pre-enhanced version or the movie in general?

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Jim Ellwanger

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Jun 18, 2025, 12:30:50 PM6/18/25
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HOW long have you been on this list reading Dave's curmudgeonly contrarian opinions?


Tom Wolper

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Jun 18, 2025, 1:05:13 PM6/18/25
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I’ve met Dave in person and I respect his opinions even when I don’t agree with them. Dave’s contrarian takes are based on more than spleen or provocation and I want to see if there’s a discussion to be had.

Last year when I realized I had no need for Disney+ I took 9 days and watched the 9 Star Wars movies just to check them off the list. My take on the original (or ep. 4 for the purists) is that Lucas wanted to make a fun adventure film and didn’t care if the mythology or plot made any sense. Just get the characters into and out of danger and lead up to the big battle scene. And going back to my question to Dave there was something charming about how primitive the effects were.

When the movie first came out the kid who lived across the street from me and was a high school senior told me he saw the film 4 times in its first week. I saw it later and was nowhere near as impressed. I wouldn’t dispute Dave saying it’s not a good movie but I’d like him to back that up. I don’t know of many movies that had that effect on their audiences.

Dave Sikula

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Jun 18, 2025, 10:52:18 PM6/18/25
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The movie in general. It's cobbled together from better pictures and, frankly, mostly poorly-acted. It was something in 1977, but I don't think it aged well.

--Dave Sikula

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Tom Wolper

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Jun 19, 2025, 10:00:33 AM6/19/25
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I agree with this. Very few young people would have had access to the movies Lucas copied from. In the seventies you had to live in a city big enough to have art theaters to know that the light saber fights came from samurai movies. It took me 30 years from the time I saw Star Wars to find Hidden Fortress.

Ironically the actors in the third trilogy were immeasurably better than in the first but the budget and changes in film production had them doing their scenes in front of a green screen and it lost the fun factor of the early movies.

Tom Wolper

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Jun 19, 2025, 11:09:55 AM6/19/25
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I forgot to add this:

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