Ever seen the original Star Wars trilogy? Which versions? Multiple new “official” editions of the films have emerged since 1997, with the original films as seen in the 70s and 80s left without any official release. The work of tracking all these changes and preserving the originals has largely fallen to fans, one of whom, Drew Stewart, runs Star Wars Visual Comparisons, a compendium of every visual alteration to the original trilogy. Drew dropped by to talk about how and why all this happened to Star Wars, and how communities rise up when studios fail to protect the legacy of their films.
In this episode, we discuss:
The history of Star Wars Special Editions, and their changes both big and small.
Theories on possible ulterior motives for each new edition’s changes.
How fan communities develop and take extraordinary measures to preserve films.
The ethics of preservation — who is responsible to preserve which versions of these films?
Lots of nerdy stuff. It’s a Star Wars-focused episode of a granular podcast about film technique and theory, you know exactly what you’re getting into.
Maclunkey!
Additional Resources:
Star Wars Visual Comparisons - Links to Drew’s collection of thousands of visual changes in the original Star Wars trilogy. This stuff can be amazing to sift through, especially if you’re not familiar with the changes. They’re also frequently posted on the Twitter account.
Drew’s article for Wired - More or less a manifesto for releasing the original original trilogy, it also serves as a great (and thorough) primer for people new to the issues of the “Special Editions”.
One of Drew’s many visual comparisons, this one between the original 1977 film and the 2011 blu-ray. Rocks have been put in front of R2D2, on one hand helping him hide from Tusken Raiders but on the other raising the question of how the heck he got in there.
A funny gif that demonstrates how these changes can damage the narrative logic of the films — in the original film, the rebel base is not visible behind the ships as they fly to attack the Death Star. But in the special edition, the Death Star has a clear shot at it, draining the tension from the climactic battle.
About Drew Stewart
Drew was born into Star Wars; his mother saw Return of the Jedi in theaters while pregnant with him and he has never let go. He is the curator of @StarWarsVisComp where he and his friend Greg Harbin track and comment on every visual change made to the Star Wars Trilogy over the years. He wrote an article on the Star Wars Special Editions that was published on WIRED.com. Drew currently lives in Knoxville, TN, where he works in IT by day but in Star Wars minutiae by night.
