Bounty From the Force: Star Wars on DVD

By Jonathon Berohn

Well, let’s see. It’s only been what…27 years since Star Wars first burst into theaters? That seems about the right time for bringing it out on DVD…if you like to cruelly torture Star Wars fans, anyway.  Yes, after literally decades, the original 3 Star Wars movies are finally out on DVD (OK, maybe that’s a bit of hyperbole, there haven’t been DVDs for decades, but it sure seems like it).  And as trite and clichéd as it sounds, the new 4 disc DVD collection is worth the wait (of course, what choice do we really have, but I digress…)

The Movies

By now all of us who weren’t born under rocks know the movies inside and out.  Seeing them digitally restored to their full beauty is quite compelling.  Notice I didn’t say original beauty.  That’s the one main problem with this DVD collection.  The movies have not only been remastered, but also re-edited.  That means not only have some new digital effects found their way into the film, but entire scenes have popped up.  In many cases this works out well enough.  The Jaba the Hutt scene in the original Star Wars (disturbingly now called “A New Hope”) adds some nice background, and the new and improved Death Star explosion is pretty cool.

Some of the other additions, though, are downright bad.  For example, no longer does Han Solo coolly blow Greedo away in the opening cantina shot.  He now, as a politically correct smuggler, waits for Greedo to fire first (and miss improbably wildly).  Worst of all, though, is the sudden transformation of Anakin Skywalker’s spirit at the end of “Return of the Jedi.”  Suddenly, in a shameless bit of marketing, Anakin is no longer the actor who portrays Darth Vader in the previous scene, but the actor who portrays Anakin in the new movies.  And really—we don’t need any more reminders of that.

The Extras

As I said, the reason for buying this box set is for the movies—even with the distasteful revisions they really are must-sees.  The extras, though, are fairly interesting, too.  The documentary on the movies is quite informative, and the game and movie trailers perfectly timed to get us ready for movie III, due out this spring.