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If there was ever a film that needed no introduction, it
would have to be STAR WARS. Is there anyone on the planet
who hasn't hear of the exploits of Luke Skywalker, Princess
Leia and Han Solo? I doubt it, so there really isn't much
for me to add to the mounts of print, television and other
media that has already dissected the STAR WARS saga to death.
I suppose the only real talking point left is over the new
"souped up" special editions, put together by George
Lucas in the late 90's to fully realize the vision he felt
he was unable to adequately convey via the limited state of
special effects in the late 70's.
By now, you've heard the endless debates over the ethical
dilemma of changing a classic, and you probably have formed
your own opinion on whether or not Jabba The Hutt looks fake,
it is lame that Greedo fires first, or if the dogfight dynamics
of the climatic battle scenes were improved or diminished
by the new CGI trickery that Lucas could command. I'll just
say that I think the new special editions diminish the original's
charm a bit, and the new effects are not only often fake-looking,
but actually cause the reverse of the effect that Lucas intended.
Instead of acting as a bridge to the CGI-laden THE PHANTOM
MENACE, these new editions actual date the first three films
even more, as the CGI effects only serve to underline the
passage of time between the new and the old footage. Perhaps
Lucas would have been better often making THE PHANTOM MENACE
match the old films rather than the other way around.
Anyway, I suppose the most obvious question here is "why
is DVDFILE reviewing a bootleg, anyway?" Quite a valid
and important question, and the answer is quite simple. Whenever
a studio, company or individual holds back a highly-desired
and requested title, especially one with such a rabid fan
base as the Star Wars films, the demand for bootlegs only
increases and many consumers feel compelled to contemplate
buing "illicit" material rather than wait for the
official releases (if they ever come). Whether that is right
or wrong is up for debate. But, as we are a consumer site,
when we received copies of the STAR WARS films on DVD anonymously,
we decided to let readers know what they are missing, or in
most cases (like this one, I believe), what they are not.
While bootlegs often hold out the promise of great riches,
they can often just be empty promises in the end. So let's
take a look at the infamous STAR WARS bootleg DVD.
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Notice the "burned in" subtitles
that often intrude upon the image
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Video: How Does The Disc Look?
Laughably, the box states the DVD is a coproduction between
Columbia, Paramount and Warner, but not 20th Century Fox!
Who writes these things? You'd at least think they could be
consistent, but never mind. The source is obviously Fox's
STAR WARS TRILOGY SPECIAL EDITION laserdisc release; in fact,
it is so obvious because we are even treated to the THX Laserdisc
logo at the beginning of the film! But, shockingly, there
are no FBI warnings. Imagine that!
I've never heard of this "distributor" First Look
before, but if they are going to bootleg material, they need
a few more pointers. I guess as far as bootlegs go, this is
pretty good. The most noticeable "tip off" that
this isn't exactly an official release are both the Chinese
subtitles in the bottom letterbox bar, as well as English
subtitles at the top. Both are permanently "burned in"
so they can't be disabled, and when there are actual English
subtitles (i.e., when an alien talks), the Chinese subtitles
are burned in over the English ones! Clearly a straight-from-laserdisc
dub.
The aspect ratio is also a little off, looking to be framed
at 2.20:1 instead of the full 2.35:1. While black level is
very good, the image is overall too dark. Contrast is also
overdone and noticeably cramping detail. Since the disc is
not anamorphic, there are noticeable "jaggies" and
while the laserdisc release just might well be the best transfer
that format has ever seen, the colors have been muted in the
conversion and there is noticeable "blooming" at
the edges, dot crawl and smearing. Shadow detail is also poor,
and there are artifacts aplenty. Apparently, they didn't spend
too much time on the authoring of this one!
Clearly, if you own the laserdisc, the only benefit with
this bootleg is the lack of disc flipping. But, even that
is negligible, as the side breaks have been edited poorly,
with a line of dialogue being chopped off in the process.
While again very good for a bootleg, the larger your screen,
the more noticeable and distracting the myriad picture flaws
will become.
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More poor detail, smudginess and artifacts,
though black level and colors are good
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Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?
I was also disappointed by the audio. Presented in separate
English 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo Dolby tracks, the 5.1 mix is overly
pumped up in the surrounds and the front seemingly compressed,
for very limited frequency range resulting in a horribly flat
presentation. Imaging thus becomes very poor, and it sounded
like one big, muffled speaker in the front and overly loud
surrounds in the back. Dialogue thus is often hard to discern,
and you'd do better to try and sync up your 5.1 laserdisc
to this instead!
The 2.0 mix is an improvement. While obviously there is no
surround activity or spatial separation, the frequency range
is better, as is the base. Still, there still is much muffling
of the sound, some hiss and a general lack of dynamics to
the conversion. While neither track is particularly, good,
I'd have to give the nod to the 2.0 (not that that is saying
much!)
Supplements: What Goodies Are There?
Aside from laughably bad "production notes," which
consists solely of a single page synopsis of the plot (complete
with bad English translation), there is the original making-of
featurette from the laserdisc which features George Lucas
and friends discussing the "groundbreaking" new
special effects and how "real" the new Jabba looks.
I sometimes wonder what side of the camera the Jar Jar is
working over there. But my favorite line was from our friend
Rick McCallum, who proclaims that the original storytelling
in STAR WARS was "compromised" by the antiquated
special effects techniques. Funny, I thought all you need
to tell a good story is decent plotting, strong characters
and a healthy imagination (oh, well, what do I know?) Strangely,
though, even with all these new tools at his disposal, Mr.
Lucas still managed to make the worst film of his career with
THE PHANTOM MENACE, and despite all these resources and a
much larger budget, I have yet to meet a single person who
thinks EPISODE I is better than the "antiquated"
A NEW HOPE. Go figure.
Parting Thoughts
Quite simply, while good as far as bootlegs are concerned, this
can't hold a candle to even a decent non-anamorphic DVD transfer
made legitimately. The sound is also weak, though I did give a
half point extra for supplements just because of the laugh factor
of the production notes. Since a overall value rating isn't really
appropriate without a price, I'd have to say if you own the Special
Edition laserdiscs, you ain't missing a thing. If you don't, hopefully
someday soon Lucasfilm will consider finally supporting the finest
in home video and audio available, so you won't even have to waste
another single moment contemplating whether or not to spend your
money on these inferior copies.
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