I think they're stupid, but that's not really the point. My greatest displeasure from this whole ordeal is that there is quite simply -nothing- that I can do about it. I want to watch Star Wars in high definition. If I want to do so, I must give George my money. Every time this happens I run into this problem. And this is why George doesn't care. There's tremendous fan outrage every time he tinkers with the Original movies or makes a new movie that people don't like, but guess what? Everyone (including me) still fills his pockets with infinity billion dollars and the cycle continues on. There's no alternative to Star Wars. This isn't a, "computer manufacturer A has upset me for the last time, so I'm switching to computer manufacturer B" sort of situation.
There's really nothing similar to the sort of thing that George has been doing to Star Wars over the years either. It's fascinating, really. The only thing that comes to mind is the 20th Anniversary Edition of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. For those who don't know what happened, a number of "politically correct" edits were made to the film upon it's release. The changes were mostly improving special effects with more modern technology. The most controversial change however, was digitally replacing the guns carried by federal agents with the far less threatening walkie-talkies because the original seen bothered Spielberg. And who can blame him, right? We wouldn't want to teach our children that federal agents carry guns. The difference of course is that Spielberg realizes that enough was enough. Here's Steven on the digital alteration of movies:
"If 1941 comes on Blu-Ray I’m not going to go back and take the wires out because the Blu-Ray will bring the wires out that are guiding the airplane down Hollywood Blvd. At this point right now I think letting movies exist in the era, with all the flaws and all of the flourishes, is a wonderful way to mark time and mark history....George [Lucas] goes his own way and I respect him for it, but my new philosophy on this is to let sleeping dogs lie."I'm glad at least Mr. Spielberg feels this way. I wish he would lock his friend George in a room until he agrees. But when it comes down to it, they're George's movies and he can do whatever he wants to them. When the movies are released on the next format, more changes will probably happen until 20 versions down the line George will re-release the the original theatrical versions and they will be totally unrecognizable to those poor future audiences, with the layers of digital retouching finally peeled back.
Until then, George will get my Blu-ray money. And starting next year, George will get my money for Star Wars in 3D. Because I love Star Wars too much to ever say no.
Some Notes: The above Spielberg block-quote is from an article over on Ain't It Cool News which you can find in it's entirety right over here. Star Wars will be available on Blu-ray disc on September 16, 2011 and will be available in separate Original and Prequel trilogy box sets, or a Complete Saga boxed set. Finally I commend myself for using the word 'forced' in the opening paragraph and not making a Force pun. Hah, Force Pun would be the worst Force power ever.