A couple of days ago I read onTheForce.Net (http://theforce.net) that the original Star Wars trilogy was being "replaced" by Lucasfilm Ltd. with the jazzed-up special editions. The original versions of Episodes 4,5 and 6 will not be sold or screened ever again, and Lucasfilm denies that they ever even existed.

I feel as though a part of my childhood has been ripped from my body.

Keep you Star Wars VHS boxed sets boys and girls. They are soon to be collector's items.

dear god, now my children will never know what it is like to watch a land speeder hover on a big blob of vasaline

What about when they redo them in 40 years time.
(CAlifornian job anyone?)

That really sucks but there are still the VHS tapes of the original floating around and i have a feeling p2p will make sure they can be aquired. True, the quality will be crap but at least Lucas can't erase it from history completely.

I also suspect he will be suprised by the backlash from this and when the sales of his "remastered" DVD version doesn't sell as good as he hoped im sure he will rethink this course.

I haven't seen people this pissed about messing with a classic since New Coke hit the shelves and we all remember how long that lasted.

woo we have a couple of those. we do have one very watched original boxed set but the second i think is remastered. we got it when episode 1 came out.

There are some good quality laser discs of the original three out there and sooner or later some enterprising pirate will transfer them to dvd. If it's out there it will eventually show up.

Personally, I don't have much objection to the "special editions", other than the whole "Greedo shoots first" debacle.

barsoom

LASER! i forgot about those, good point.

Its not that i hate the re-mastered stuff, its just that i personally enjoy the originals better and it bugs me that Lucas is trying to eliminate them altogether. Can you imagine if people went in and started adding motion blur and CGI characters to a Ray Harryhausen flick and then destroyed the originals? SACRILEGE!

I read somewhere (CHUD.com i think) that there is a big screening of the most influential movies, 1 per decade and starwars is the one chosen for the 70's. This is the real kicker, Lucas won't allow them to show the original ... at a screening honouring his creation ... among the most important films in history! How fucked up is that? How can he hate THE movie that not only launched his career but changed the way movies are made? It's one of the most beloved movies ever for god's sake!

It's his flick and he can alter it how ever he wants but he should at least make the first versions available to those of us who love it.

Sorry for the rant, it just bugs me.