Today is the 29th anniversary of the release of Star Wars, an event responsible for the loss of one-third of my disposable income over the course of my lifetime. One bit of Star Wars merchandise I am unlikely to buy is this year’s release of the original trilogy. This is the first time the three movies have been released individually on DVD – they’ve been available in a 4-disc set since 2004, and a 3-disc set (minus the bonus feature disc from the previous set) since last year. I have the 2004 set, and there appear to be two differences between the movie discs from my set and this upcoming release:
1) The new discs have much snazzier packaging, with photo montages that are based on classic movie posters.
2) The new discs have an extra disc with the original theatrical versions of the movies bundled with them.
Now, at the moment, a lot of home theater fans are understandably upset that this extra disc isn’t going to be in anamorphic widescreen. (If you don’t know what that means, you can head over to The Digital Bits. If you have a widescreen TV, this is significant. If you don’t, probably not quite so much.) It’s a fascinating difference in perspectives, really. Lucasfilm is treating the theatrical cuts like a throw-on bonus feature. The fans are saying “That’s the only reason we would want to buy the thing in the first place!
But that’s not the reason I’m probably going to skip this. No, for me, the key is that whole “29th anniversary” thing. I will be utterly shocked if there’s not a huge set out next year for the 30th anniversary, with more behind the scenes and documentary extras. And I am just not going to buy the same movies three times in as many years. I just don’t have that much plasma to sell.