Misc: The Star Wars Trilogy : The Special Edition
Shane Burridge
(Review written after the 1997 premieres of all three films)
It's surprising to me just how popular George Lucas' space fantasy has
remained. Twenty years after its release STAR WARS took the number three spot
on a comprehensive Australian survey of the most popular movies of all time,
proving that the responsive chord it struck with audiences in 1977 was still
resonating well beyond the US. The 1997 repackaging of the trilogy for cinemas
became an interesting event on a number of levels. Firstly (and most
positively) it popularized the argument chanted by film buffs since VCRS first
made their way into our homes: that films should be seen on cinema screens and
not television screens (and even better, the astounding success of the Special
Edition prompted a resurgence of restored classics, even though a number of
them were irrelevant "director's cuts").
Secondly, it proved quite explosively that the cinema of one's childhood can --
and does -- take on mythic proportions. The re-released trilogy played to
theaters filled with parents taking their children to see the films that they
themselves had seen as children; to pass on the legend first-hand; to whisper
reverently that these were the films that had dominated a genre and a
generation; to ensure that a new generation would be witness to a Second Coming
of popular culture.
But thirdly, there is the downside (or should that be Dark Side). As
influential as the first STAR WARS film was, its effects were not all positive.
The success of Lucas' film (back-to-back with Spielberg's CLOSE
ENCOUNTERS) may have ushered in a new era and standard of visual effects
technology and cinema sound systems, but it also brought with it the
unfortunate phenomenon of saturation merchandising. Albums, T-shirts, posters,
action figures, comics, key rings, lunchboxes, toys, models, coloring
books...nothing was left untouched. STAR WARS ripoffs abounded internationally
both in cinema and television (one of the first off the space junkwagon was
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA -- please pause and think about how truly awful that title
is). We can't blame Lucas for this as he would never have predicted how
explosive the hype would have become, but it's less easy to forgive him the
second time around. His tampering with the original prints, which resulted in
much-publicized new footage and enhanced effects, reverberated ominously
throughout the film community. Even before the Special Edition hit the
multiplexes Spielberg was already toying with the idea of re-releasing his
blockbuster JAWS with a new digitally-generated shark grafted on to the
original print. For film enthusiasts this is the most unspeakable of horrors
-- compared to the advent of something like colorization, ．special editions'
spell the beginnings of a type of insidious cinematic cleansing. This idea
could be glimpsed as far back as JURASSIC PARK. Like everybody else who'd seen
that film in 1993 I was stunned by the new plateau that visual effects had
reached, but mere hours afterwards my enthusiasm and high hopes for what the
future of movies might bring were overshadowed by darker thoughts. If it were
possible to re-animate dead saurians, might not the same be true for long-dead
human beings? Suddenly I saw the likes of Monroe and Bogart appearing in their
first movie together. The idea was intriguing, and a little disturbing.
The following year saw the release of FORREST GUMP and we watched JFK and John
Lennon resurrected and interacting with Tom Hanks. Uh oh.
Lucas may have finally released his films the way he envisaged them, but it
remains to be seen whether the long-term effects will be healthy. The original
STAR WARS may now be supplanted and gone forever to a generation who will never
see it in a cinema again. Being the first of the three, it was subject to the
most "enhancement", mostly by way of cleaned-up effects and visual extras added
to the background of existing footage. In the long term, this updated first
chapter (or fourth, if you want to be picky) works -- the gap in technology
between it and its more polished sequels is less noticeable, giving the whole
the appearance of a more tightly unified trilogy. For my money THE EMPIRE
STRIKES BACK (the least tampered with of the three) is still the best in the
series: a darker, more stylish film with spectacular sets and interesting
character development. RETURN OF THE JEDI revisits the gung-ho heroics of the
first film and adds a new finale which is more significant that the simple
tree-top celebrations of the original version.
Shortly after the release of the Special Edition Lucas began work on the new
STAR WARS films -- Chapters One, Two and Three. With moviegoers' interest in
his story rekindled, STAR WARS fandom quickly re-established the hype,
speculation and anticipation that had become an integral part of the original
trilogy. I don't deny that these are classic films that deserve to be seen in
crowded theatres, but it could be argued that with his cannily-timed re-release
George Lucas was more interested in pulling off the biggest marketing promo of
all time.
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