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Chris Richard

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Aug 2, 2024, 10:38:57 PM8/2/24

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This is a reconstruction of the 1977 theatrical version of STAR WARS. The original shots were painstakingly restored using various sources (listed below) and the film received an extensive shot by shot colour correction based on a fade free 1977 I.B. Technicolor Print.
The remastered (v2.0) version represented a significant improvement in picture quality over the earlier version.

Version v2.5 offers few more little tweaks to the picture and contains an unprecedented number of audio options, including lossless DTS-HD tracks for the original mixes, an isolated score, four different commentary tracks and dubbing tracks in ten different languages and dialects.

EDIT: Y'know, as surprisingly close as Harmy has come to a flawless restoration even down to the details, I've had a change of heart on this issue and wouldn't mind any matte lines or other warts to be restored. :)

In STAR WARS, just like in Empire, I will be leaving most of the recomposited shots alone, unless there are other changes in the shot, such as noticeably repositioning the elements. I tested replacing the recomposited lightsabres but it didn't work very well, so I'll only colour correct them to fix stuff like Obi-Wan's sabre being purple in some shots and so on.

Can't wait for you to complete ANH Harmy. Your ESB is the definitive version hands down. I know you had mentioned that there were a couple of explosions etc. that didn't match the theatrical release, but I watched the thing all the way through and I didn't notice anything. The picture quality is unreal, and the whole thing appears seamless to me. Your ESB makes all other versions seem really gay by comparison, I'm sure the same will be true for ANH and Jedi.

Also for returning the cell block scene to original. It's a change that could be left in, because it doesn't really "change" the picture.. but going for the way it looked, but not for the faults (like mattelines), gives us the original version in the best possible way! So again, I'm really looking foreward to this one!

"I will laugh my ass off a hundred years from now when the only version of STARWARS people remember are harmys despecialized editions. They will project it on a 20' by 40' screen with perfect quality."

Wow Harmy! That cell block clip and the clip of the binary sunset are awesome. I'm glad you're despecializing Star Wars again. Hopefully, if you've got either DJ's or OmegaMattman's upconversions, you'll make a result that will blow us away more than your latest version of ESB Despecialized.

I started a thread about these a few years back that is now archived, you can see it here. -attn-star-wars-fans-these-are-the-versions-youve-been-looking-for-screened-behind-the-scenes-of-harmys-star-wars-despecialized-editions/

This is a meticulous shot by shot recreation of the original theatrical release, a fan edit by a guy known as Harmy. He uses various sources, from different official releases of the movies to custom built mattes to "despecialize" the special editions and restore the movies to their original glory. It is as close as you will ever get to a blu ray quality version of the original without all the special edition terrible CGI revisions, until and unless Lucas decides to stop playing with our emotions.

Lucas had a great overall concept/vision, but he's a gawdawful director and a bad filmmaker. It's no coincidence that by far the best of all the SW movies Empire Strikes Back is the one he was least involved with.

The only issue I had with the special editions was Han not shooting first. The other stuff was not that big a deal IMO. That being said, I will buy the original versions when they come out. I will not forsake the others though. Too many people had their childhood ruined by Star Wars. I don't get it.

That was certainly the worst, but not the only issue, for me. I think my biggest problem with most of the other stuff is that it was done poorly. If you're going to do it, the goal should be that the CGI would be so crisp it would fit seamlessly into the movie. They failed miserably. The CGI is terrible, looks fake, and sticks out like a sore thumb. It's distracting, and with rare exception either adds nothing or is a net negative (I do like the extra footage of the hoth ice cave monster though). I had an earlier version of Harmy's despecialized, and these are what I watch. The specialized dvds gather dust.

The reason they wouldn't is that it would be an extraordinarily expensive and time-consuming undertaking, unless the Lucasfilm PR folks were not being entirely truthful around the time of the DVD box sets some 8-10 years ago. Then, they said the negatives of the movies were permanently altered for the creation of the Special Editions, and existing prints of the first versions were in very poor condition.

So I guess either they've been hard at work on doing a great job of it and spending a lot of money, which would be awesome, or what they release will be the same crappy laserdisc version you can buy for $50 on Amazon where space looks brown, or the rumors aren't exactly true.

I watched a video showing what went into this. It was an amazing amount of work piecing together frames from multiple sources. Then color correcting every thing and up-scaling some of the elements that were not available in HD. All for just the love of the film.