Star Wars - Episode IV, A New Hope (Special Edition) | Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford

Star Wars - Episode IV, A New Hope (Special Edition) | Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford | "A New Hope" could possibly be the best of the six.

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Star Wars - Episod...

	Star Wars - Episode IV, A New Hope (Special Edition) Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford 20th Century Fox, 1997 average customer review:based on 807 reviews view larger image
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Great for 4:3 owning Star Wars purists.

If you own an ordinary TV and love the original untouched Star Wars pick up this DVD. The quality of the original feature included as a bonus disc, was to my eyes, on my 20 inch screen, excellent. The absence of CGI enhancement or the glossy sheen of contemporary movies is, to me, a positive. I'm very happy with these original films (I also bought the other two, Empire And Jedi, at Big W). The 3 films cost me 48 Australian dollars. I agree Lucas has handled the original series contemptuously given many aficionados have widescreens, but I and many others do not.

Given the bad reviews, I was expecting the original feature to be woefully hazy and grainy, but it is sharp and clear as any original TV broadcast, if not a little better (and of course in the original theatre widescreen ratio - no cropping to fit the TV screen). Also you can have subtitles on the original feature - which filled in a lot of dialogue I missed and was really good to comprehend the entire movie for the first time. The subtitles also elegantly appear below the frame of the movie in the black area rather than within film's frames themselves.

I'm very very happy with this purchase and would like to now buy the original posters of the original movies, and in my universe pretend like the prequels never existed in this galaxy or any other. Of course I am more tolerant than most fans cos I didn't bother buying the CGI messed up new editions, that are also included here, earlier. Lucas will probably mess up the originals once again with CGI "fixing" if these originals are remastered and released on HD-DVD, so I am happy to have this version.

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"A New Hope" could possibly be the best of the six.

I am currently in the proccess of re-watching all six of the Star Wars movies on DVD, once per week. After finishing up with the prequils, I have just started with the classic original trilogy that I grew up watching in movie theatres.

"A New Hope" could possibly be the best of the six. In this movie, we get to meet the second generation of Star Wars characters, who, by the way, are much more interesting than those of the first generation. The tension between Luke (the innocent farm boy) and Han Solo (The gambler and smuggler) and the sometimes pompous, sarcastic and spunky Princess Liea, gives the movie a certain edge that lack in the prequils. The droids, C3PO and R2D2, are funnier in that they are something of a robotic "Laurel and Hardy". Ben Kenobi is now more of an old sage, with a sense of humor and his juxtoposition to the unbelieving Han Solo is also quite interesting. The actors who play C3PO, R2D2 and Chewbacca do an excellent job "acting through thier masks". Case in point: After Ben Kenobi's death; R2D2 gives a subtle twist of the head as he produces a faint robotic moan.

When I first saw these movies I was compelled, as I am today, by the whole Jedi philosophy. The action in the movie is also outstanding as are the non-CGI special effects. I actually think that the ABSENCE of CGI aliens actually adds to the authenticity of the Sandpeople, Jawas, Cantina Bar Band and patrons.

In this DVD version I noticed some new scenes where some of the large reptillian creatures snd Jabba the Hutt may have been CGI, but I am not sure. Anyway, the new scenes are only a very small part of the movie, that do not really take or add anything from the original.

Granted, I like the prequils just for documenting the history of the first generation of chracters, but episode IV is where all the fun begins and the groundwork is created to making the next installment (Episode V: Empire Strikes Back) a near-religious experience.

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Thank you, George, for the "bonus feature"

The second disc of traditionally throwaway "bonus features", in this case is the ORIGINAL theatrical release of "Star Wars" (and NOT "A New Hope"), and is the sole reason for anyone to buy this DVD. So incredibly superior to the "Special Edition", the same care and attention should have been made to this material as the main feature.

From the opening crawl on, I was brought right back to 1977 again. CG effects have no place in this film.

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