The Dark Side

This month, all of the Star Wars films, both the original trilogy and the newer prequel trilogy, will finally be released on Blu-ray for the first time. But with each round of releasing the films onto a new format, from VHS to DVD to Blu-ray, George Lucas uses it as an opportunity/excuse to mess with the original versions and add more unnecessary shit in and make minor changes throughout.

And oh boy, has he added another slew of misguided alterations this time around. From even more updated CGI effects, to new, useless dialogue, many fans and general film buffs are quite peeved that Lucas just can't seem to leave well enough alone. Why does he continue to do it? Maybe he's a perfectionist and wants to get some things done right that he he couldn't the first time around, or second time, or third. Maybe it's simply because he has too much time and money on his hands now and likes to irritate his fan base.

Regardless, none of his additional changes to the films over the years have ever been an actual improvement. If anything, they are either shrug-worthy or so horribly ill-advised that every fan's heart breaks at the sight of the original versions being tainted even further.

All of this is greatly ironic to me, for in 1988, George Lucas apparently made a speech to Congress about films needing to be federally protected from being altered after time. He said, "People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians." But wait, isn't that exactly what he's been doing all these years with his films, and has done again just now? It's amazing how some people can change so quickly into a hypocrite.

Although, while his speech was in fact aimed more toward outside, dark forces tampering with other people's works of art, rather than a person just messing with their own work, that doesn't necessarily make his pattern of destructive alterations okay. It should apply to all artists, regardless of whether or not it's their own work.

And that brings up the argument of how one really determines whose work it is. In the film industry, which is a collaborative effort amongst many creators, it is difficult to pin down true ownership. The majority of the time though, it's the director who obtains the role of being a film's owner by default. So then by that traditional standard, can The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi be considered George Lucas's work, since he didn't direct nor even write the screenplay for either film? The Empire Strikes Back (the best film in the series) was actually directed by Irvin Kershner, and Richard Marquand directed Jedi, with Lawrence Kasdan writing the screenplay for both of those sequels.

With film, you can hardly ever claim something to be just your own. It belongs to everyone that had a creative hand in bringing the vision to completion. And in the case of a series like Star Wars, the films also belong to each and every fan, not just one egotistical person. 

Now, I understand the desire to want to go back to a past project and tweak it, but I guarantee you, as imperfect as one may think the original is, making "improvements" will never make it better or make things feel finally complete. Obviously, George Lucas foolishly thinks otherwise.