There is a recent and disturbing trend in American cinema in which the directors of classic films feel the apparently insuppressible need to revisit and re-edit their most beloved and heralded works in a misguided attempt to "update" them for a newer audience. The principle perpetrators in this movement are George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. They have an uncanny propensity for "bestowing" upon the American public a bevy of re-edited, re-issued, reduxed -- call them what you will -- versions of their movies.
This makes me angry -- very angry. I grew up with films like "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "E.T.," "Star Wars" and the like. They were the most defining movies of my childhood -- movies that captivated my imagination and enchanted me. I feel that I am not alone in this respect. I simply cannot be the only person who was profoundly affected by these films and is upset to see them tampered with.
The first of the most flagrant examples of this is the re-release of "E.T." featuring a "new, totally awesome, super-cool" completely CGI version of the alien and the replacement of all guns carried by law enforcement personnel with walkie-talkies. Sweet! What a charming and heart-rending movie like "E.T." really needed was to be touched up with CGI so it can look sleek, modern and totally soul-less. Even better -- at least with this new super-cool version, future generations will never be able to see "E.T." as it was originally shown to audiences. Instead they have a version that has been specially tailored for them, as if they would be unable to appreciate the original. However, the "improvements" made to "E.T." are but a drop of water in the ocean compared to the abuse that George Lucas has perpetrated against one of the watershed achievements in American and international cinema -- "Star Wars." "Star Wars" has succeeded so monumentally because it draws on and channels the myths and legends that form the basis of human society and which extend thousands of years back through time. The fact that its appeal is so widespread should have served as an indication to Lucas that perhaps it was something not to be tampered with. It is impossible to improve upon perfection. Apparently the message was not received.
Go to your local movie store and look for a DVD of "Star Wars." You will find that the only version available is the Special Edition -- touched up to visually and content-wise correspond to the lousy prequels (themselves full of passages that contradict the original trilogy). Some of the "super-sweet" additions include cheesy rings emerging from anything that explodes, touched-up special effects -- space effects looked as good as they probably ever will in the 1980s -- an extended interaction between Darth Vader and the Emperor, which all but reveals the cliffhanger ending of the second part of the series, a music video in Jabba's palace that will make you boot harder than you ever have after a night of rage, and a re-cut finale that inserts fake-looking shots of other planets from the series and substitutes that whining pretty-boy Hayden Christensen for the original actor portraying Anakin Skywalker's ghost.
While this may seem trivial to many people, it is anything but. Additions such as those described above do more than fundamentally alter a film so that future generations cannot enjoy it. They destroy the film as a historical artifact. Imagine what the Coliseum would look like if we rebuilt it every 100 years. It would be just another stadium. How would Shakespeare read if the language was updated and the characters modernized?
Students and casual viewers of movies alike will not be able to analyze or experience what special effects looked like in the 1970s or 1980s. The spirit and atmosphere of the movies are lost -- replaced by animation that only makes the films look contrived rather than more advanced or appropriate for our times. In days of yore, audiences could view a battle in space or a stunning landscape in a movie and wonder to themselves, "How did they do that?" These re-issued versions remove this profound sense of awe from the movie going experience. Instead of feeling awed by the movie, we merely stare, unfazed, at the screen with the knowledge that some computer jockey merely clicked a mouse to create the vapid effects we see before us.
I, for one, am taking action against this travesty of American film. I will not stand for it. To this end, I have just recently purchased on E-bay an original, unaltered VHS copy of the Star Wars trilogy which I will one day show to my children so that they may experience it as I have.
Furthermore, they will not have any knowledge that those god-awful prequels even existed. They will not be spoiled by the rampant, unnecessary use of CGI that is so pervasive in modern filmmaking. Preserving the art that had a meaningful impact on me is something that I take seriously -- even if the artists themselves don't. If I must track down similar formats for other classic movies, then so be it. A classic is a classic and it is therefore timeless, meaning its appeal and its virtues are unaffected by the passage of time. It is unfortunate that some of the most visionary directors of our times do not see this the same way.
