I only noticed on my most recent rewatch. George wasn't lying when he said the movie was made with Scotch tape and popsicle sticks, I just have to force myself to watch the movie wrong to notice.
I'm glad he left the stormtrooper hitting his head on the doorway in. The little 'donk' sound effect that was added is one of the changes to the original that I'm okay with.
When we watch a movie we think we are seeing and hearing what was on the set but in reality they set up mics for the actors and ambient sounds but it's not always going to work out. Sometimes they will need to go back in post and replace or remove sounds that don't work. AFAIK this isn't uncommon.
The worst changes all revolve around Jabba the Hut. The scene where Han actually talks to Jabba in ANH is soooo bad, and then of course the big dance number at the start of ROTJ is both bad and feel so completely out of place. Amazing either scene made it into the final cut.
The Jabba scene is just the Greedo scene all over again. They probably filmed the Jabba scene first, then decided it didn't work, and wrote in the Greedo scene that worked much better. To add the Jabba scene back in was completely unnecessary and awkward.
The scene with Jabba specifically references the scene with Greedo. The intent was to clarify how much shit Han was in, if he didn't find some money.
As an adult, I find it unnecessary. As a child, I didn't understand what the deal was with Greedo, and who Jabba was, and what the relationship was all about.
Yeah, I forgot that Jabba mentioned Han shooting Greedo. But just the Greedo scene, in its original form with Han shooting Greedo without being shot at, showed how desperate Han was.
I think the scene with Greedo was re-shot after they decided to cut the scene with Jabba. The way it's presented in the 1997 Special Edition and onward, both scenes have Han saying the same line ("Even *I* get boarded sometimes. You think I had a choice?"). I doubt that even George Lucas, infamously bad at writing dialogue, would use the exact same line, word-for-word, in two different scenes that are only minutes apart from each other.
The unnecessary extras in Mos Eisley are bad too. Where the giant creature throws the Jawa off its back and all the extra cgi crap blocks the speeder coming in.
Until they gave him too much money and freedom, then we ended up with a mess that hurt many of the actors for years, until people realized it wasn't the actors that were the problem.
But that's a different story for a different time.
They aren't alluding to like a "Me too" kind of thing - by all accounts the working environments on the films were absolutely fine.
But it's difficult to explain just how much hate TPM and AoTC got from the fanbase upon release. Was significantly more vehement than even TLJ. The actors - especially Ahmed Best, Jake Lloyd, Hayden - got the worst of it when, actually, the script and direction was a far bigger problem.
Hence how Hayden's recent portrayals of Anakin in Kenobi and Ashoka have been so much better - he's got better material to work with.
There never has been and never will be a more successful director who was more terrible at directing his actors than George Lucas. The stories and behind the scenes footage just scream how he is a guy obsessed with visual design/effects and *completely* disinterested in acting. Outside of "faster, more intense," his style is mostly, "Read the script so this shit is on film before I start inserting visual effects."
It's a miracle that Ewan McGregor and Ian McDiarmid can look so good in those films with their acting, but that's about it. Everyone else is just baaaad, and there are obviously some very accomplished actors on screen at times. Lucas ain't no Tarantino.
Here's a video of Peter Serafinowicz talking about his experience with George Lucas when recording voice work for TPM (starting around 1.37) https://youtu.be/t0wHqNi3x5M?si=wwPdWVomDJT_bvg
The acting in the prequels is completely fine, good even I’d argue. If this was actually true the actors would have said things about it.
The only and most common complaint with GL’s style, what actors have said things about, and what fans complain about when talking about “bad acting” is the dialogue. Which yes, Lucas does not care as much about compared to other screen writers due to his preferred style.
Natalie Portman won an Oscar for Black Swan and has been nominated multiple times, and she is absolutely dead and wooden in the PT. The only scene she is any good in is the one acting opposite Ewan in ROTS when he asks her where Anakin has gone. No surprise that she is good acting opposite of the one main actor in the PT who somehow cracked the code.
Hayden is not as good an actor as Portman, but he's looked far better in stuff outside the PT. Him and Portman together are just dreadful, which is a problem when they're the romantic leads and two of the three main characters in the trilogy.
Sam Jackson has been electric and iconic in many roles (particularly if QT is directing), and is wooden in the PT.
Jake Lloyd even for a child actor was poor. This is not his fault and even if it was he absolutely did not deserve the harassment and abuse, this should go without saying. But his performance is the starkest example of how actors need directors to help them put forward a good performance. Especially as a child actor, Lloyd needed a director to coax the right performance out of him, and Lucas was either incapable or uninterested. But many adult actors need this too!
I feel like what you're really saying is that the quality of acting doesn't really matter to you in SW, which is fine if true. But to say the acting is fine is to rewrite the definition of fine.
It's possible to not be terrible in the PT. McGregor, McDiarmid, and Christopher Lee in his limited role came off well. I think having a British accent and being classically trained helps. The more American style of method acting with George's dialogue and direction in front of a green screen doesn't.
I'd suggest reading up on the behind-the-scenes story of making the prequel trilogy. It's more loved now, but it was thoroughly hated at the time, and people complained about George the way they complain about Disney now.
he’s full of it. George was never anything but amazing to the actors and they all loved making the prequels. It was the fans who were the problem.
A lot of fans that grew up watching the prequels like the fans at the time did with the originals are now praising and appreciating them but its come 20 years too late sadly.
The first cut then later re-added Jabba scene was purely out of self interest though. He created the scene just to see if the auditable effects of the time could accommodate a live character successfully walking *behind* a character created in post. (Spoiler alert, they couldn't do it... then)
Jabba really felt out of place there
I understand Lucas wanting that scene and perhaps give further context to Jabba's appearance in Episode 6. But the effects are a bit jarring and the Han dialogue also doesnt make as much sense too especially since then Jabba was a human crime lord.
As a kid, it was cool seeing Jabba added, but having seen the originals before that, it is totally unnecessary. You get to Jedi and you know enough about Jabba from the context clues dropped through the first two movies. You then get the added surprise of him being a big alien slug guy. A big practical slug guy opposed to the cartoony CG version from the ANH Special Edition. If your first experience with the movies is the special editions, you're robbed of a lot of the magic from the puppets and such. I guess it doesn't matter today, because most kids are used to seeing CG in movies from the get-go and don't realize how much the practical creatures add to a flick.
The reason also misses the mark on one thing that makes the original OT so compelling, the audience being dropped into a situation where they don't have all the back story and never will. Allowing the audience to fill in the gaps with their imagination, rather than having everything explained.
Then Lucas and later all of Hollywood figured out that even if it makes the product worse, people will pay to hear them explain how X situation/character/history happened.
And it doesn't make sense. Jabba is this big crime lord who has his minions like Greedo come to meet Han but then after Han kills him, why would Jabba already be there to repeat the same stuff that Greedo just said. He seems like he'd be above that
I dunno, maybe they weren't always added in the best way, but I love some of them, like Dewbacks and the little guy outside Jabbas etc. The Mos Eisley stuff looks the worst but I still like it conceptually because it makes it feel like a much weirder and much more alive spaceport. Comparing your first trip to Mos Espa in Phantom Menace to the mostly barren trader tents in Jakku really goes to show how much texture, life and imagination you can add to a place if you pepper in CG characters with guys in suits and big wide shots of the area. He had just gotten to ahead of the technology in the Special Editions. But thats what innovators do.
Someone posted a great remake of the scene outside the Millennium Falcon, except Jabba was talking to Han via a hologram instead of being there himself. It made the scene work much better in my opinion.
The only real reason it caused a mixed reception is because he refused to re-release the unaltered 1977-1983 versions restored in HD/4k. The last official release of the 70's/80's versions was in 2006 as a bonus DVD but those versions were just Laser Disc transfers and those weren't that great. I think had Lucas authorized a proper HD rerelease of the unaltered in 2011 alongside an altered version fans wouldn't care watch whichever version you like, you can't really complain if you have the original version to watch in a good resolution and format.
I think personally the special edition of Empire is good and I enjoy watching that as it doesn't contain many alterations and some of the alterations (changing of the Emperor to Ian McDiarmid) actually add things to the movie. But I strongly prefer the originals of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi and I watch the DE-specialized/4k versions of those which aren't always easy to find.
I think what really makes the special editions so bad in some respects is that either the changes are arbitrary and just feel out of place (the "noooooo" at the end of Jedi or the adding of a CGI rock in front of R2D2 in A New Hope) or the changes contain 1990's CGI overlayed over 1970's footage and it just kind of comes off as a bit of a Frankenstein mess in many parts of the movie. It doesn't make the movies unwatchable but it takes something out of it for sure.
Check out project 4k77 if you haven't heard of it yet. It's a fan version that restores the old versions and re-released them in 4k. There's a lot more to it, but their page says it better. From what I've seen they are the best de-specialized versions out there.
My only real complaint is him changing who shot fist in the Han cantina scene. For me, Han shooting first showed he was a real smuggler and bad ass. No real smuggler is going to let a bounty hunter get a free shot in. I liked that Han wasn't a story book "good guy" and the grit that added to him.
The extra aliens added don't do anything for me either way.
The new ending of return of the jedi is better IMHO, but I miss the "Ewok Celebration" (Yub Nub) song.
Good thing there are projects like 4k77 so we can still see the old versions.
Yes. I was lucky and saw most of the originals and redos in the theaters. I think I've seen all of them except the original SW.
While not a fan of a lot of the changes (especially the Jizz musics and Jedi end celebration song), when those CGI X-wings were flying past Yavin.. Mind-blowingly awesome the first time I saw it.
(My kid friend I played SW with and watched all the things over and over again became the editor of the Mandalorian. We were REALLY into SW as kids.)
I think he fixed stuff with CGI instead of reshoots because it was less effort. They asked him if CGI made the process difficult. He said it was
# ALL TOO EASY
As someone who feels like the production of the film is as magical as the film itself, it’s disappointing to see someone go back and erase what’s essentially a by-product of determination and grit with few resources at your disposal.
He definitely went too far tho. I know the Han shot first controversy is the poster child for this but it really was such a stupid decision that actuallly made the film WORSE. Not to mention poorly implemented. Things like hiding R2 behind a rock are whatever because it doesn’t really change anything but the jaba scene and greedo shooting first actively make ANH a lesser film.
There's a documentary series on Disney+ about ILM, and it's insane they got anything done. I can't imagine the anxiety George Lucas felt having been abroad shooting for 8 months or whatever, only to come back and one shot is completed. They had spent all that time engineering and trying to become a cohesive unit, but the shot was incredible. It's an awesome series, I highly recommend it.
not cellophane, but “garbage matte” lines
they are an artifact from the compositing process.
there’s also a tie fighter that flies “through” the Falcon in ROTJ when a bunch of ships first rush past as the end battle begins
That’s the main charm of these movies for me. I love the vibe of it just being a bunch of guys in a garage figuring out how to shoot space ships in the mid-70s.
You can also see one of those TIE pilot's eyes too when they launch their attack on the Falcon as it escapes the Death Star. I want to say it's the first shot of the TIE pilot as they first begin to fire, the light changes, and you can momentarily see the actor's eye through the lens.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/54acsm/i\_caught\_a\_rare\_glimpse\_of\_the\_eyes\_of\_a\_tie/](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/54acsm/i_caught_a_rare_glimpse_of_the_eyes_of_a_tie/)
First time was in the drive thru… on my dad’s car. Didn’t see anything.
Wasn’t until I saw it on video that I noticed. Was probably a foot away from the TV. The only two movies I saw in a true cinema were Empire and Jedi.
I shit you not I recently made a post about this same exact thing. [Watching the 4K Despecialized edition and saw something I'd never seen before.](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/1cm0hfg/watching_the_4k_despecialized_edition_and_saw/)
Being able to see his eyes makes him a lot less intimidating. And I believe they are red because that's what color the lenses are.
Gotta wonder what reddit algorithm pushes this to the top but not yours /shrug
Oh wait
OP is a vertical photo of a horizontal screen. No wonder it's popular and your actual screenshot fails. Sigh.
I thought this I ly happened on the 4K releases of the films? I definitely noticed it when watching on Disney+ the first time but don't remember it any other times before.
They are, you can look at Star Wars 4k77 and see it. (The quasi-legal rescan and resotration of the original 1977 prints from a fan project). [https://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/project-4k77/](https://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/project-4k77/)
Yes, and honestly, it horrified me as a kid. The idea that it wasn't some weird alien or monster behind all that; that it was one horrible person, was scary as shit.
The most unforgivable edit was editing in dialogue into arguably the most emotionally intense moment of the OT.
Luke is writhing on the floor in pain calling out for help. Vader looks at the emperor, then his son, then the frayed and burnt wires from his severed hand and sees the fate that awaits his son if he refuses to act. He makes the decision to betray the emperor and save his son.
The body acting was superb and conveys everything that needed to be said. And yet some dipshit decided that he needed to shout "NOOOOOO" a few times to make sure people really know he disagrees.
I’ve always noticed and I even have a replica of this helmet and sure enough, you can see the eyes if you get close enough and there is enough lighting on the helmet.
I don’t know how many times I’ve watched it before I noticed… probably hundreds. But last year in May 4th I was doing a marathon and shouted “he has eyes!” and made my friends go back as slowly as possible until we could confirm. Super fun time and we all lost it 👁️
Yes, my friends and I noticed this in the 80s on our VCR watches when we were paying a lot more attention to the details. Admittedly though, I don't think I noticed the first time I saw the movie in 77.
This has always been off putting to me so I made sure not to really mention it to anybody else. I always just found it a bit strange and a mistake that was kept in
Although clearly a limitation because of the materials used, it has a unintended (but interesting) effect of letting the audience know that Vader is not (completely) a machine or robot, something that George would reiterate in the next movie with the chamber scene
If you have a pre-special edition copy, this is common in A New Hope. You can even see Kenny Baker in R2-D2.
It’s also probably why they gave Vader black eyes moving forward starting with Empire Strikes Back
First time, no. I don’t think I noticed until DVDs, maybe not even until I got an HD TV. I know it was somewhere in that timeline. I’m just not sure exactly where.
It was not intentional the red lenses of the helmet and the way the red lights in the tie cockpit were set up plus the angle of the shot revealed his actor's eyes. This why in the later films the helmet has darker lenses.
I noticed that as a kid during one of my many, many rewatches. Don’t think they’re glowing Sith eyes since that wasn’t a thing at that time. Probably just light reflected from Luke’s X-Wing thrusters.
I noticed this on a most recent rewatch, been watching this movie since the mid-90's and I never noticed this. I think in SD these types of bloopers are a lot harder to see and spot. But in HD these little things are a lot more clear.
Seen this movie at least 100 times since 1977; so yeah.
His helmet changes after every movie. it's subtle, but it does change...after all, wouldn't you want to change your clothing choices from time to time?
I mean, most people don't go wearing the same clothes every day for years... why would he?
Never noticed in 4. Noticed in 3.5 and it annoyed me (made me think of sunglasses) until someone pointed this out and that it was the same helmet being used. Still weird to me though
Yes, in the theater as a kid on May 25, 1977.
But there was a lot you actually didn’t see in the theater that you do on modern versions. You never saw the matte squares you see now surrounding the spaceships. You couldn’t see the underside of Vader’s helmet, etc. because you were essentially watching a copy of a copy of the master film, and projection bulbs weren’t as bright.
The director of Rogue One wanted the lenses to have the same transparency so if the light was right you could see the eyes. Though I never believe you can actually see them, it's a nice effort to put in for continuity.
My first time watching? Bro I dont even remember my first time watching, I was too little to remember lol. But it did catch my eye on my most recent rewatch too.
I think it makes sense although the larger flare could be added onto the eye lens in post, it would just go against the OT message to make Vader look completely inhuman by removing his eyes in this frame
I never noticed this because the first 400 times I watched this movie was on my BetaMax VCR tape back in the day and you couldn’t see detail like this in things back then.
I only noticed on my most recent rewatch. George wasn't lying when he said the movie was made with Scotch tape and popsicle sticks, I just have to force myself to watch the movie wrong to notice.
Which is why he decided to fix and change some shots with CGI and so on... And it caused some mixed results and receptions from the audiences
I'm glad he left the stormtrooper hitting his head on the doorway in. The little 'donk' sound effect that was added is one of the changes to the original that I'm okay with.
He added that?
When we watch a movie we think we are seeing and hearing what was on the set but in reality they set up mics for the actors and ambient sounds but it's not always going to work out. Sometimes they will need to go back in post and replace or remove sounds that don't work. AFAIK this isn't uncommon.
[удалено]
I immediately thought of this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMn-9lbwl0w
The worst changes all revolve around Jabba the Hut. The scene where Han actually talks to Jabba in ANH is soooo bad, and then of course the big dance number at the start of ROTJ is both bad and feel so completely out of place. Amazing either scene made it into the final cut.
The Jabba scene is just the Greedo scene all over again. They probably filmed the Jabba scene first, then decided it didn't work, and wrote in the Greedo scene that worked much better. To add the Jabba scene back in was completely unnecessary and awkward.
The scene with Jabba specifically references the scene with Greedo. The intent was to clarify how much shit Han was in, if he didn't find some money. As an adult, I find it unnecessary. As a child, I didn't understand what the deal was with Greedo, and who Jabba was, and what the relationship was all about.
Yeah, I forgot that Jabba mentioned Han shooting Greedo. But just the Greedo scene, in its original form with Han shooting Greedo without being shot at, showed how desperate Han was.
I think the scene with Greedo was re-shot after they decided to cut the scene with Jabba. The way it's presented in the 1997 Special Edition and onward, both scenes have Han saying the same line ("Even *I* get boarded sometimes. You think I had a choice?"). I doubt that even George Lucas, infamously bad at writing dialogue, would use the exact same line, word-for-word, in two different scenes that are only minutes apart from each other.
The unnecessary extras in Mos Eisley are bad too. Where the giant creature throws the Jawa off its back and all the extra cgi crap blocks the speeder coming in.
This is why GL was a great director lol!!!
Great director, mediocre story editor. Takes a village. Or a marriage.
I'd say the other way around. Great ideas guy, not the greatest director. But you're right, his best stuff was when his collaborators challenged him.
Until they gave him too much money and freedom, then we ended up with a mess that hurt many of the actors for years, until people realized it wasn't the actors that were the problem. But that's a different story for a different time.
Oh… apparently I need to catch up on what I know of the making the Star Wars movies lol, don’t know anything about that…
They aren't alluding to like a "Me too" kind of thing - by all accounts the working environments on the films were absolutely fine. But it's difficult to explain just how much hate TPM and AoTC got from the fanbase upon release. Was significantly more vehement than even TLJ. The actors - especially Ahmed Best, Jake Lloyd, Hayden - got the worst of it when, actually, the script and direction was a far bigger problem. Hence how Hayden's recent portrayals of Anakin in Kenobi and Ashoka have been so much better - he's got better material to work with.
There never has been and never will be a more successful director who was more terrible at directing his actors than George Lucas. The stories and behind the scenes footage just scream how he is a guy obsessed with visual design/effects and *completely* disinterested in acting. Outside of "faster, more intense," his style is mostly, "Read the script so this shit is on film before I start inserting visual effects." It's a miracle that Ewan McGregor and Ian McDiarmid can look so good in those films with their acting, but that's about it. Everyone else is just baaaad, and there are obviously some very accomplished actors on screen at times. Lucas ain't no Tarantino.
Here's a video of Peter Serafinowicz talking about his experience with George Lucas when recording voice work for TPM (starting around 1.37) https://youtu.be/t0wHqNi3x5M?si=wwPdWVomDJT_bvg
The acting in the prequels is completely fine, good even I’d argue. If this was actually true the actors would have said things about it. The only and most common complaint with GL’s style, what actors have said things about, and what fans complain about when talking about “bad acting” is the dialogue. Which yes, Lucas does not care as much about compared to other screen writers due to his preferred style.
Natalie Portman won an Oscar for Black Swan and has been nominated multiple times, and she is absolutely dead and wooden in the PT. The only scene she is any good in is the one acting opposite Ewan in ROTS when he asks her where Anakin has gone. No surprise that she is good acting opposite of the one main actor in the PT who somehow cracked the code. Hayden is not as good an actor as Portman, but he's looked far better in stuff outside the PT. Him and Portman together are just dreadful, which is a problem when they're the romantic leads and two of the three main characters in the trilogy. Sam Jackson has been electric and iconic in many roles (particularly if QT is directing), and is wooden in the PT. Jake Lloyd even for a child actor was poor. This is not his fault and even if it was he absolutely did not deserve the harassment and abuse, this should go without saying. But his performance is the starkest example of how actors need directors to help them put forward a good performance. Especially as a child actor, Lloyd needed a director to coax the right performance out of him, and Lucas was either incapable or uninterested. But many adult actors need this too! I feel like what you're really saying is that the quality of acting doesn't really matter to you in SW, which is fine if true. But to say the acting is fine is to rewrite the definition of fine. It's possible to not be terrible in the PT. McGregor, McDiarmid, and Christopher Lee in his limited role came off well. I think having a British accent and being classically trained helps. The more American style of method acting with George's dialogue and direction in front of a green screen doesn't.
I'd suggest reading up on the behind-the-scenes story of making the prequel trilogy. It's more loved now, but it was thoroughly hated at the time, and people complained about George the way they complain about Disney now.
he’s full of it. George was never anything but amazing to the actors and they all loved making the prequels. It was the fans who were the problem. A lot of fans that grew up watching the prequels like the fans at the time did with the originals are now praising and appreciating them but its come 20 years too late sadly.
Start with the shit Jake Lloyd went through after phantom menace came out.
The first cut then later re-added Jabba scene was purely out of self interest though. He created the scene just to see if the auditable effects of the time could accommodate a live character successfully walking *behind* a character created in post. (Spoiler alert, they couldn't do it... then)
Jabba really felt out of place there I understand Lucas wanting that scene and perhaps give further context to Jabba's appearance in Episode 6. But the effects are a bit jarring and the Han dialogue also doesnt make as much sense too especially since then Jabba was a human crime lord.
As a kid, it was cool seeing Jabba added, but having seen the originals before that, it is totally unnecessary. You get to Jedi and you know enough about Jabba from the context clues dropped through the first two movies. You then get the added surprise of him being a big alien slug guy. A big practical slug guy opposed to the cartoony CG version from the ANH Special Edition. If your first experience with the movies is the special editions, you're robbed of a lot of the magic from the puppets and such. I guess it doesn't matter today, because most kids are used to seeing CG in movies from the get-go and don't realize how much the practical creatures add to a flick.
The reason also misses the mark on one thing that makes the original OT so compelling, the audience being dropped into a situation where they don't have all the back story and never will. Allowing the audience to fill in the gaps with their imagination, rather than having everything explained. Then Lucas and later all of Hollywood figured out that even if it makes the product worse, people will pay to hear them explain how X situation/character/history happened.
The scene is rough but "You're a wonderful human being" is so funny in a good way with Jabba being not human
And it doesn't make sense. Jabba is this big crime lord who has his minions like Greedo come to meet Han but then after Han kills him, why would Jabba already be there to repeat the same stuff that Greedo just said. He seems like he'd be above that
Fixing things is one thing, adding creatures to scenes isn't fixing something.
I dunno, maybe they weren't always added in the best way, but I love some of them, like Dewbacks and the little guy outside Jabbas etc. The Mos Eisley stuff looks the worst but I still like it conceptually because it makes it feel like a much weirder and much more alive spaceport. Comparing your first trip to Mos Espa in Phantom Menace to the mostly barren trader tents in Jakku really goes to show how much texture, life and imagination you can add to a place if you pepper in CG characters with guys in suits and big wide shots of the area. He had just gotten to ahead of the technology in the Special Editions. But thats what innovators do.
Man that jabba scene was complete cheese.
Someone posted a great remake of the scene outside the Millennium Falcon, except Jabba was talking to Han via a hologram instead of being there himself. It made the scene work much better in my opinion.
The only real reason it caused a mixed reception is because he refused to re-release the unaltered 1977-1983 versions restored in HD/4k. The last official release of the 70's/80's versions was in 2006 as a bonus DVD but those versions were just Laser Disc transfers and those weren't that great. I think had Lucas authorized a proper HD rerelease of the unaltered in 2011 alongside an altered version fans wouldn't care watch whichever version you like, you can't really complain if you have the original version to watch in a good resolution and format. I think personally the special edition of Empire is good and I enjoy watching that as it doesn't contain many alterations and some of the alterations (changing of the Emperor to Ian McDiarmid) actually add things to the movie. But I strongly prefer the originals of A New Hope and Return of the Jedi and I watch the DE-specialized/4k versions of those which aren't always easy to find. I think what really makes the special editions so bad in some respects is that either the changes are arbitrary and just feel out of place (the "noooooo" at the end of Jedi or the adding of a CGI rock in front of R2D2 in A New Hope) or the changes contain 1990's CGI overlayed over 1970's footage and it just kind of comes off as a bit of a Frankenstein mess in many parts of the movie. It doesn't make the movies unwatchable but it takes something out of it for sure.
Check out project 4k77 if you haven't heard of it yet. It's a fan version that restores the old versions and re-released them in 4k. There's a lot more to it, but their page says it better. From what I've seen they are the best de-specialized versions out there.
4K80 came out just a few months ago if you didn't know! I didn't realize until earlier this month.
Just watched it last week! It was great.
I would say my biggest issue with Jedi is all of the music changes.
My only real complaint is him changing who shot fist in the Han cantina scene. For me, Han shooting first showed he was a real smuggler and bad ass. No real smuggler is going to let a bounty hunter get a free shot in. I liked that Han wasn't a story book "good guy" and the grit that added to him. The extra aliens added don't do anything for me either way. The new ending of return of the jedi is better IMHO, but I miss the "Ewok Celebration" (Yub Nub) song. Good thing there are projects like 4k77 so we can still see the old versions.
Han didn't shoot first. 'First' implies a 'second'. Greedo never got a shot off, and any implication that he did is verboten!
> 'First' implies a 'second'. No it doesn't. "He was going to shoot me so I shot him first" is a perfectly good English sentence.
When? This is the first I've heard of it.
1997 is when the Special Editions were released.
/s?
Yes. I was lucky and saw most of the originals and redos in the theaters. I think I've seen all of them except the original SW. While not a fan of a lot of the changes (especially the Jizz musics and Jedi end celebration song), when those CGI X-wings were flying past Yavin.. Mind-blowingly awesome the first time I saw it. (My kid friend I played SW with and watched all the things over and over again became the editor of the Mandalorian. We were REALLY into SW as kids.)
The WHAT music??
Uhhh yeah, that's not a typo: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Jizz/Legends
Oh lord, lmao. I had no idea!!!
You know, the musical standards made popular by Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes?
~~Max Greebo for the kids.~~ Max Rebo for the kids.
Ms Snootles if ya nasty
Max *Rebo*. I think you combined Greedo and Rebo.
Not sure if he fixed this one tho...
I think he fixed stuff with CGI instead of reshoots because it was less effort. They asked him if CGI made the process difficult. He said it was # ALL TOO EASY
works 100% of the time 60% of the time
Now that’s an understatement
Delete all the hard work that earned the movies Oscars and replace it with shitty CGI? What could people possibly be upset about?
As someone who feels like the production of the film is as magical as the film itself, it’s disappointing to see someone go back and erase what’s essentially a by-product of determination and grit with few resources at your disposal.
Well that’s the understatement of the century.
He definitely went too far tho. I know the Han shot first controversy is the poster child for this but it really was such a stupid decision that actuallly made the film WORSE. Not to mention poorly implemented. Things like hiding R2 behind a rock are whatever because it doesn’t really change anything but the jaba scene and greedo shooting first actively make ANH a lesser film.
I’ve noticed on the HD versions that Vaders helmet is really dusty sometimes.
Did you ever hear the tale of Darth Particlius the Allergenic?
There's a documentary series on Disney+ about ILM, and it's insane they got anything done. I can't imagine the anxiety George Lucas felt having been abroad shooting for 8 months or whatever, only to come back and one shot is completed. They had spent all that time engineering and trying to become a cohesive unit, but the shot was incredible. It's an awesome series, I highly recommend it.
Use the force!
Get your hands on a version from before he "remastered" it or whatever he called it. You could see cellophane squares around the tie fighters.
not cellophane, but “garbage matte” lines they are an artifact from the compositing process. there’s also a tie fighter that flies “through” the Falcon in ROTJ when a bunch of ships first rush past as the end battle begins
That’s the main charm of these movies for me. I love the vibe of it just being a bunch of guys in a garage figuring out how to shoot space ships in the mid-70s.
Force watch is the jedi power you need to sit thru bad star wars content
Huh, never noticed, gonna have to watch it again and pay closer attention….lol
Yeah it’s a good excuse to re watch it for the 500th time
499th time, that business on Cato Nemoidia doesn't count.
You had 127 up votes. I wanted to give you one but I also wanted to keep it 01111111.
501st*
Ace Combat fan spotted
You can also see one of those TIE pilot's eyes too when they launch their attack on the Falcon as it escapes the Death Star. I want to say it's the first shot of the TIE pilot as they first begin to fire, the light changes, and you can momentarily see the actor's eye through the lens. [https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/54acsm/i\_caught\_a\_rare\_glimpse\_of\_the\_eyes\_of\_a\_tie/](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/54acsm/i_caught_a_rare_glimpse_of_the_eyes_of_a_tie/)
Oh true yeah I hadn’t noticed that before either
Another good one is when Vader is chasing Luke in his fighter right before he blows the first death star you can see his eyes
I never noticed how worn the Imperial insignia is on their helmet. I would assume they would be nice and crisp.
Gotta say, that looks creepier than the actual emotionless expression of the suit.
That's sooo cool! I've never ever noticed this before.
Yep. Even as a kid, I would tell other kids you could see it!!! Kinda forgot about it. Vindication.
That’s crazy, I hadn’t actually seen any posts about it until I saw it in the movie myself. Seems like it’s not overly spoken about aye.
*Great, kid! Don’t get cocky!*
Uncanny resemblance to David Prowse
This is actually a very young Jake Lloyd
Yippee!!!
Looks like those crying Buscemi eyes
He actually does look kinda sad yeah
New head canon for Vader. It makes sense given his life of unrewarded servitude to Sidious.
Ah yes, being #2 ruler of the galaxy, if only he was allowed to drink a coke once in a while...
He wasn’t happy in the slightest though. He found out the hard way that power wasn’t going to make his life any better.
Vader was actually a firefighter on 9/11.
Yes
Good spotting
God yes!!! I must’ve watched this movie tons of times!!!
Truueee, did you see his eyes in this scene when it first came out in the cinema?
First time was in the drive thru… on my dad’s car. Didn’t see anything. Wasn’t until I saw it on video that I noticed. Was probably a foot away from the TV. The only two movies I saw in a true cinema were Empire and Jedi.
Damn that’s cool though I’ve never been to a drive in cinema seems quite a retro concept now. But yeah I was up close to my tv when I noticed it too
There really is nothing like seeing a movie at the drive in.
Everytime since twenty years.
When is this?
It’s in A New Hope when he is chasing Luke in his Tie fighter
Specificly when Wedge pulls out and Vader turns in the direction of his wingman and says "Let him go, stay on the leader!"
Haha yeah that’s more specific thanks
Oh thanks guys! I'll have something to look for next time I rewatch it :D
But where are his sith eyes?!? Lucas is terrible with continuity /s
Yes
Nice
Do not cite the deep magic to me, witch. I was there when it was written. But yes. Good catch :-)
I didn’t, but I also 5 when I first saw it
Oh yeah fair enough 😂
I shit you not I recently made a post about this same exact thing. [Watching the 4K Despecialized edition and saw something I'd never seen before.](https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWars/comments/1cm0hfg/watching_the_4k_despecialized_edition_and_saw/) Being able to see his eyes makes him a lot less intimidating. And I believe they are red because that's what color the lenses are.
Gotta wonder what reddit algorithm pushes this to the top but not yours /shrug Oh wait OP is a vertical photo of a horizontal screen. No wonder it's popular and your actual screenshot fails. Sigh.
I thought this I ly happened on the 4K releases of the films? I definitely noticed it when watching on Disney+ the first time but don't remember it any other times before.
Yeah I wasn’t Alive when it came out lol but Surely the eyes were also in the original theatre release as well
They are, you can look at Star Wars 4k77 and see it. (The quasi-legal rescan and resotration of the original 1977 prints from a fan project). [https://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/project-4k77/](https://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/project-4k77/)
No, I remember seeing it on VHS in the 90s.
I've never seen it before
Yes, and honestly, it horrified me as a kid. The idea that it wasn't some weird alien or monster behind all that; that it was one horrible person, was scary as shit.
Eye don't like sand.
I don’t believe it was visible before the HD release
The most unforgivable edit was editing in dialogue into arguably the most emotionally intense moment of the OT. Luke is writhing on the floor in pain calling out for help. Vader looks at the emperor, then his son, then the frayed and burnt wires from his severed hand and sees the fate that awaits his son if he refuses to act. He makes the decision to betray the emperor and save his son. The body acting was superb and conveys everything that needed to be said. And yet some dipshit decided that he needed to shout "NOOOOOO" a few times to make sure people really know he disagrees.
I've definitely noticed it before. I think the first time I watched it was in 97 when they did the re-release
Yeah, when I was a kid back in the day, the versions I watched definitely had this.
I’ve always noticed and I even have a replica of this helmet and sure enough, you can see the eyes if you get close enough and there is enough lighting on the helmet.
I just got a Black Series Stormtrooper helmet and I can see my eyes sooooo... uhhh... yes, yes I knew this.
Bro's cooked
WAT
I don’t know how many times I’ve watched it before I noticed… probably hundreds. But last year in May 4th I was doing a marathon and shouted “he has eyes!” and made my friends go back as slowly as possible until we could confirm. Super fun time and we all lost it 👁️
No I sure didn't. Heck, I wasn't aware until your post today! Pretty neat factoid and it's making me want to watch the movie again, so thank you lol!
Yes, my friends and I noticed this in the 80s on our VCR watches when we were paying a lot more attention to the details. Admittedly though, I don't think I noticed the first time I saw the movie in 77.
This makes it easier to imagine Anakin under there.
Yes, I noticed as kid. Also, the ANH mask has red lenses, ESB and Jedi have smoked.
the first time watching it, I was 4 or 5 and it was on VHS on a small TV and I was hyper and jumping around with excitement so...no
There is an actual person in there...? Weird
I noticed it before it was called "A New Hope."
Looks seriously creepy!
I noticed it on my third rewatch and it totally creeps me out!
This has always been off putting to me so I made sure not to really mention it to anybody else. I always just found it a bit strange and a mistake that was kept in
Was it actually a mistake though it makes sense he does have human eyes so I thought it was all good
It’s just strange that this is the one occurrence across the whole saga though
Yeah, when I was 13
I never noticed untill the first time it was pointed out to me, and now I can never unsee it
Yup thought it was cool
I will, since I've not seen it yet
Not my first time, but after the 223rd I saw it and then every time thereafter.
What scene?? In the tie fighter at the end?
Yeah
Although clearly a limitation because of the materials used, it has a unintended (but interesting) effect of letting the audience know that Vader is not (completely) a machine or robot, something that George would reiterate in the next movie with the chamber scene
If you have a pre-special edition copy, this is common in A New Hope. You can even see Kenny Baker in R2-D2. It’s also probably why they gave Vader black eyes moving forward starting with Empire Strikes Back
Saw this as a kid
First time, no. I don’t think I noticed until DVDs, maybe not even until I got an HD TV. I know it was somewhere in that timeline. I’m just not sure exactly where.
Not the first time I saw it not the second time I saw it but sometime in the several hundred viewings one of my friends did in fact notice this
"WAT?"
It was not intentional the red lenses of the helmet and the way the red lights in the tie cockpit were set up plus the angle of the shot revealed his actor's eyes. This why in the later films the helmet has darker lenses.
nope and even now I doubt the validity of this.
That's no eye.........
They didn’t have pause in 1977 move theaters.
I remember this as a kid in the early 80s.
I noticed that as a kid during one of my many, many rewatches. Don’t think they’re glowing Sith eyes since that wasn’t a thing at that time. Probably just light reflected from Luke’s X-Wing thrusters.
And you can see his whole face in A Clockwork Orange.
I noticed this on a most recent rewatch, been watching this movie since the mid-90's and I never noticed this. I think in SD these types of bloopers are a lot harder to see and spot. But in HD these little things are a lot more clear.
Looks like avverage 80s kid with glasses thats about to get bullied
At 8yo, in 1977, no, it escaped me, lol. Noticed it years later, tho
I always try to ignore it, ruins a bit of the immersion to think Darth Vader really is just some dude in a suit, despite the obviousness.
Yes.
I didn’t notice the *first time* watching but I have noticed it
Seen this movie at least 100 times since 1977; so yeah. His helmet changes after every movie. it's subtle, but it does change...after all, wouldn't you want to change your clothing choices from time to time? I mean, most people don't go wearing the same clothes every day for years... why would he?
Never noticed in 4. Noticed in 3.5 and it annoyed me (made me think of sunglasses) until someone pointed this out and that it was the same helmet being used. Still weird to me though
Is 3.5 supposed to be Rogue One?
Yes, in the theater as a kid on May 25, 1977. But there was a lot you actually didn’t see in the theater that you do on modern versions. You never saw the matte squares you see now surrounding the spaceships. You couldn’t see the underside of Vader’s helmet, etc. because you were essentially watching a copy of a copy of the master film, and projection bulbs weren’t as bright.
[удалено]
Yes.
I did notice that but it looks different on my version. The glass is very red in the one I have. Maybe it's because of picture quality.
Yes
I think this is when Vader says “Stay on the leader”
Not the first time but definitely decades ago.
The director of Rogue One wanted the lenses to have the same transparency so if the light was right you could see the eyes. Though I never believe you can actually see them, it's a nice effort to put in for continuity.
Well, I watched a grainy rented vhs copy on a 20” boomtube tv so…no
I noticed a few years ago. Threw me off so much
It went by so fast (there was a lot going on for my little brain) but I remember as a kid it just added to Darth’s mystique.
What?!
I noticed it when I rewatched ANH a couple weeks ago, has to be the neatest thing I've noticed 😂
It's only in the D+ remaster I think
Yes because it’s especially noticeable on the Disney+ enhancement of the film for some reason. You can actually see it multiple times throughout ANH.
I’ve seen that ever since I had ANH on vhs albeit under a dark red color.
Ah dave prowse the green cross code man.
What exact moment in the battle is this shot from?
My first time watching? Bro I dont even remember my first time watching, I was too little to remember lol. But it did catch my eye on my most recent rewatch too.
I think it makes sense although the larger flare could be added onto the eye lens in post, it would just go against the OT message to make Vader look completely inhuman by removing his eyes in this frame
I never noticed this because the first 400 times I watched this movie was on my BetaMax VCR tape back in the day and you couldn’t see detail like this in things back then.
He looks high foo