Extra, Extra!: Disney to Release The Unaltered Star Wars Trilogy on BluRay

In which I report on the latest in entertainment news.

Ever since Disney bought out Lucasfilm, we all knew that it was only a matter of time before this happened.  Star Wars is worth too much money to too many people to allow this to slip by.  According to multiple reports that hit the internet late last week, Disney will release the original cut of the original Star Wars trilogy on BluRay sometime before Star Wars: The Force Awakens' December 18th theatrical release.  Now that's what I call one Hell of a marketing tie-in!

Ever since George Lucas took it upon himself to "improve" the decades old trilogy, the franchise has been mired with controversy.  Die-hard fans hated all of the changes made to the movies that they had devoted their child and adulthoods to.  Most infamously, Lucas re-edited A New Hope so that in Han's famous confrontation with the alien bounty hunter Greedo - a scene which tells us so much about the lovable rogue's character - Greedo shoots at Han first.  While later releases had the two firing at the same time, fans still famously insisted that "Han shot first."

After that and other changes were made to A New Hope, Lucas cut down on the alterations to the classic films.  The Empire Strikes Back included hardly any altered material, while Return of the Jedi limited itself largely to the end scenes, where it tied into the content of the prequel trilogies.  This included replacing Sebastian Shaw as the ghost of Anakin Skywalker with Hayden Christiansen and showing the planets Coruscant and Naboo celebrating the fall of the Empire.

While I definitely appreciated the improved visual quality of the films, Lucas' tampering with them - especially when there was no alternative to the "improved" editions - illustrates the risks of messing with beloved classics: people care.  They invest their time and energy into these films and are understandably upset when they can only see bastardized versions of them at home and can only share those innately "wrong" cuts with their children and family members who never had the opportunity to see the original versions.  And yes, while I actually like the changes that they made to Return of the Jedi, I've always had to close my eyes when Han squares off against Greedo in Mos Eisley.

This will mark the first time that the original versions of Star Wars were made available on BluRay.  And discounting a poor quality transfer as part of the special features on  a limited edition DVD set, this is the first time that they'll be made available on any of the modern home video formats.  And regardless of whether or not I already own the current BluRay version of the films (I do), I'll be first in line to get the real Star Wars when they do come out.

So the next time that you hear somebody rail against corporate greed, just remind that that greed is good.  Greed works.  Disney's greed is the only reason why we're getting Star Wars - the real, unmolested Star Wars - on BluRay sometime this year.

So which of the original Star Wars trilogy films is your favorite?

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