4k77 Internet Archive

1 view

Skip to first unread message

Eustolia Pennycuff

unread,

Aug 3, 2024, 4:50:39 PM8/3/24

to downperhico

You can go directly to the screenshots, if you want to. However, I STRONGLY advise you to read the preface, because you have to be 100% aware of certain things, before you go ahead and try to find and get the original version of Star Wars!

Now, I mostly like the Special Editions, the issue with A New Hope is, that some of the CGI is really, really dated, and that we need a special special edition with new CGI. The CGI has not aged well in certain parts, mostly Mos Eisley. But seeing the cut Jabba scene, or the scene with Biggs is certainly very interesting as well, even if the scene with Jabba looks terrible.

The official Blu-Ray is usually very dark, it also has a blue tinge. Now the all new 4K Disney+ versions correct that and I think they come closest to looking like the Despecialized Edition at the bottom. The 4k77 version in the middle is usually the brightest, and also somewhat less saturated than the Despecialized Edition. It can also be really grainy in certain scenes, but that is just what it was like back in 1977. And you absolutely have to look at the full resolution version to see all the differences!

The 4k77 version in the middle looks the best here, even if the highlights may be somewhat bright, but skin tone is great and the corridor of the Tantive IV looks very neutral. Again, you can see that the Blu-Ray looks rather underwhelming, in comparison. Look how dark the Imperial Officer behind Vader is and how great his skin tone looks in the 4k77 version. The Despecialized Edition usually falls somewhere inbetween the two.

This is down to taste. Do you like the very neutral approach of the Blu-Ray, the very warm looking 4k77 version or the inbetween version of the Despecialized Edition? Once more the Blu-Ray is the darkest version here.

The 4K77 version looks best, to my eyes. Great skin tones, the scene is much brighter overall and not so gloomy. However, the Despecialized Edition is a bit more vibrant, C-3PO is really golden here, the 4k77 version can look a bit faded in places. The Blu-Ray is much too dark again. Crushing shadows.

The 4k77 version is really very bright here. The Despecialized Edition is certainly looking better. The original Mos Eisley matte painting is not that great though, it looks like chicken scratches and the Special Edition Mos Eisley overview looks much more realistic.

Our heroes on the Millennium Falcon. The Blu-Ray looks really bad in comparison and the 4K77 version has certainly a great vintage look, this is what movies shot on film in the 1970s looked like. As is usually the case the Despecialized Edition tries to provide a good compromise between old and new and also looks a lot better than the Blu-Ray.

Seeing that many motion controlled shots of space ship models back in 1977 was exciting. And it still looks reasonably good today. The CGI version from the Special Edition looks fine, but you can see that the CGI has aged and everything looks a bit artificial. The Despecialized Edition looks more vibrant here, but both fan edits are very close.

Sadly, this is the only and best way in 2019 for fans to experience the original version of Star Wars. The 2006 DVDs are terrible, and VHS copies are even worse. It would be preferable if Disney released the original cuts on Disney+ and on Blu-Ray. But that will probably not happen any time soon. Maybe never.

But if you are willing to accept that downloading a movie is not exactly legal, then you can watch the original Star Wars, warts and all, in glorious 4K even today! But you need a fast internet connection, the download size is several gigabytes! The 4K version is more than 70GB, the Full HD version is still more than 40GB, the Despecialized Edition of Star Wars is 20GB.

If you want to know more, you can go to the project homepages/forums! There you will find a lot more background info and info about the sources used for the edits! What you will not find there are download links.

So, what do you think of the fan edits? Do you happen to have a copy? Which one do you prefer? Do you know of other fan edits of note that should be worth mentioning? What is your stance on fan edits in general, given the fact that downloading the edits is entering a very, very dark grey legal zone, if not outright illegal zone?