Blu-ray Review: Star Wars (Episodes IV - VI)

[arad]

The May 25, 1977 theatrical debut of Star Wars - on a scant 32 screens across America - was destined to change the face of cinema forever. An instant classic and an unparalleled box office success, the rousing \"space opera\" was equal parts fairy tale, western, 1930s serial and special effects extravaganza, with roots in mythologies from cultures around the world. From the mind of visionary writer/director George Lucas, the epic space fantasy introduced the mystical Force into the cultural vocabulary, as well as iconic characters such as evil Darth Vader, idealistic Luke Skywalker, feisty Princess Leia, lovable scoundrel Han Solo and wise Obi-Wan Kenobi. Since its 1977 debut, Star Wars has continued to grow, its lush narrative expanding from modest beginnings into an epic, six-film Saga chronicling the fall and redemption of The Chosen One, Anakin Skywalker.


Watching the original trilogy is like hanging out with old friends. It makes it hard to look at these films objectively, but I do look at the movies differently now that I’m an adult. The Star Wars movies are not deep thinking films with something important to say. They’re simply large scale action adventure stories set in space. Where these movie shine is the unique world Lucas has invented, cool looking costumes, and a charismatic cast. These movies made Harrison Ford an instant star. His portrayal of the charming reluctant hero is legendary, and having a princess that can be just as tough as the boys is genius.

Watching these films on Blu-ray...

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[GiovannaVisconti]

"Somehow it captures a child’s imagination and feeds it fantasy and heroism. It can also remind an adult what it was like to be a kid."

I would say that stimulating a child's imagination and "feeding it fantasy and heroism" is having something fairly important to say...not to mention possibly reawakening adults to those things.

[tnsprin]

You appear to have left in the cast for I - III in your review of episodes IV - VI

[jigeddybob]

Good review, except for the use of "loose" instead of "lose" in the paragraph above the special features heading, this word was also misspelled/misused in the other Star Wars Trilogy review and I thought it was just a typo, but here it is again, and it just drives me nuts. It makes the incorrect usage/spelling look legitimate to those who don't know the difference and seems to be done so much over the internet that it needs to be nipped in the bud before all that is seen everywhere on the internet is some sort of texting lazy-spell. Also, "their" is used incorrectly instead of "there" in the last paragraph of the review. It's a case of words not caught by spell-check because there are words that are spelled that way, but those aren't the correct usages for those words. I'm sure in the interest of professionalism they will be changed if the author sees the comment.

One just has to wonder what kind of self-delusion Lucas is under when he keeps fiddling with the films, doing the exact thing that he gave a speech against earlier, and tries to mislead the people who make his business possible by telling them that the original versions aren't available. Reasonable directors like Ridley Scott made all the versions of Blade Runner available (even ones that weren't made for release, like the test-edit edition) on the appropriate sets, and you just don't get the impression that Scott is squatting on a pile of negatives like a mother hen waiting for them to hatch into the perfect versions. And he's said that he thinks that Blade Runner may wind up being his best film, so it's obvious it has great importance for him. He fixed some editing and continuity goofs that were overlooked in the ultimate cut version, but left the others just as they were except for the greatly-appreciated new 4K or 8K resolution (don't remember which) transfers. The new Star Wars sets didn't even get that, reusing transfers from several years ago.

It's nice to have them available on Blu-Ray, but damn, I've had HD recordings of them off satellite for years, you'd think they would do a new state-of-the-art transfer at the industry standard for popular films, really, for customers paying full price. That's just having respect for your customer. Just one reason why I buy these things used in cases like this.

[Shane]

Good review, except for the use of "loose" instead of "lose" in the paragraph above the special features heading, this word was also misspelled/misused in the other Star Wars Trilogy review and I thought it was just a typo, but here it is again, and it just drives me nuts.

Corrected.

Also, "their" is used incorrectly instead of "there" in the last paragraph of the review.

Corrected.

Thank you for pointing these out!

- Shane