I don't think it qualifies as "censorship" when the creator of something makes the decision to alter it. The problem here is the philosophy that a work of art is never "finished" or that movies are like bonsai trees... or something like that. Each time a movie is re-released, these people want it to be as attractive as possible to the people who are paying money to see it today... as if those people had never seen it before or as if they haven't seen it enough times on video to really remember every detail. Some people will see the new version (having never seen any version on the big screen) and they'll be convinced that some new detail was added... only to go home and see the old video again and realize it was always there.

Guys like Lucas, Spielberg, Donner and Cameron will always give us excuses like "This is the way I always wanted the movie to be" or "We would have done it this way if we'd had the money/technology back then." So long as we're just viewers rather than producer/directors, I guess we can't change such thinking. Wouldn't it be a gas if one of these special editions were a box office flop? But... that's just dreaming.

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Some people will see the new version (having never seen any version on the big screen) and they'll be convinced that some new detail was added... only to go home and see the old video again and realize it was always there.

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I've noticed this before. The first time I saw "Star Wars" on the big screen in 1997, I went home and checked all sorts of details on the video, thinking that many things weren't as I remembered them, just to find that nearly all of them were the same. The same happened with "Grease" when I saw its rerelease a few years back.

Evans

That will probably never happen, because I don't see people like Tom Green re-editing movies like "Freddy Got Fingered" saying "this is the way I intended it to be". Even after he "fixed it", still no one would go to see it (and for good reason). The studios will only green-light very popular movies in the first place.

Universal must really be leaning on theaters to open this re-release of E.T. It breaks in as many theaters as Blade II with just as many prints.

According to speilberg, he we never happy with that terrorist line in the first place, and had always intended to cut it, but never got around to it until a few years ago when it was getting to a re release on video.

The 1999 video release of ET has the line gone. This backs up speilbergs claim to his side of the story, and he never made a deal of it then because it was a personal thing to him to have it removed. he never was going to make any deal of this until some internet site made more of it than there was, and like all of us, didnt do any research, or even think to take old man spielberg at his word.

If anyone gets the DVD of _USED CARS_ (a great movie, I might add) the comentary track is excellent. On of the things that Robert Zemeckis brings up is that films mark a place in time and should NOT be recut later and he has no intention of doing so. One thing to note is that Steven Spielberg was an executive producer on _USED CARS_. Aparantly there are several high-profile film makers that have this philosophy, I'm happy to say. Apparently Mr. Lucas and Mr. Spielberg do not agree.

Steve

Oh, James went and edited his post, so now I look like an idiot.

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I will say this though: The print looked stunningly good. My jaw about dropped. The remastered digital sound was also very clean and dynamic. Everyone's been debating about the aspect ratio. One way or the other, it looked like it was being shown at 1.85 in this theater.

I think that the owner losing any and all rights to the original is a good idea, but only if you attach a few riders to the idea...

...a period of time must pass after the release of an altered version before the original can be up for grabs... say one to five years...

...revenues must still be paid to the original holder, but the original holder would lose all rights other than that. As close to public domain as you get while still maintaining ownership.

Some films can really benefit from touchups. But thats it, touchups. I do not agree with changing lines, context, whatever...

CASE IN POINT.

EMPIRE STRIKES BACK... a very critical and crucial line towards the end was replaced for the special edition, completely ruining the mood...

... Darth Vader has just watch his son drop to what could be his death... he walks away surrounded by his guards.. in the original he says "Bring my shuttle"... it is short, deep, and angry. It sets a tone for the fact that anakin is still in there somewhere. BUT... in the special edition, the line is changed to "Alert my shuttle craft and inform my destroyer that we will be departing" or something like that. THe line was said as if he didnt give a rats ass, as if he just had a great pizza with beer and needed to get to the bathroom, but not in a real hurry to do so.

WHY WHY WHY???

I want the original on DVD and screw these special editions. Damn them, damn them all to hell!!!! Can you imaging Charlton Hestons planet of the apes being re edited to remove the guns and putting in walkie talkies? I think even ol chucky there would get it much sooner when he saw the motorola logos. You think he would have gotten it with the remmington rifles the apes were using. Or the fact that he was in lake powell.

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