Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi (Special Edition) (1997) Review

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(More customer reviews)This could very easily be an ecstatic 5-star review. The original, unaltered Star Wars trilogy, finally on DVD with no droid & alien cartoon antics, no Hayden Christensen's face on Sebastian Shaw's body, no videogame-quality Jabba the Hutt, the original Academy Award-winning special effects, the music we remember... This should be a red-letter DVD release for Star Wars fans. Sadly, it is not.
Here's why you should boycott this release:
1. The picture & sound are intentionally presented in mediocre quality. These DVD's are transferred from the exact same videotape used to create the laserdisc release in 1993. That means a non-anamorphic, muddy, letterboxed picture that will have to be zoomed in to fill widescreen TVs or computer monitors. Lucasfilm refuses to fulfill the basic minimum standards of a current DVD release and make a new transfer. The quality of this DVD presentation will not live up to that of such timeless classics as Caddyshack II & Ishtar.
2. It's overpriced. If Lucasfilm is only willing to toss out these beloved films in this shoddy version, and they are unwilling to spend any time or money at all on their release, that is their right. They should charge accordingly. As bootleg-quality laserdisc transfers, these DVD's should sell for $5-$10, tops. Incredibly, Lucasfilm is charging $90 retail for these three movies! That's almost twice the cost of the (still available) box set with the exact same Special Edition discs!
They're trying to justify the cost by bundling the unaltered movies (the only reason to buy this version) with the Special Edition movies, but they must know it's a sham. Anybody who is willing to pay $90 ($60 @ Amazon) for the Special Edition DVD's has already bought the existing box sets. The Special Edition discs in this set are a complete waste of plastic, and they do not justify the outrageous cost.
If, for some reason, you have not yet purchased Star Wars on DVD, this set may be an adequate value. For anyone else, this set plus the existing box set you already have will run you a total of $160 retail ($110 @ Amazon). Is that a fair price to pay for an intentionally mediocre release of the movie that made Lucas' empire possible? Is it right to release this classic piece of cinematic history with picture and sound quality far below the latest releases of Buckaroo Banzai or Barbarella? I'll leave that for you to decide.

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