The NEW Star Wars on DVD thread

[ewilen]

Evil mod mind trick..............

Only works on weakminded fools...

It's obvious to me that the original two movies in their original versions have a more mature cinematic sensibility. But a lot of people either don't care because it's genre stuff (this arguably includes Rober Ebert, given his review of Phantom Menace), or approach the whole thing from the kickass fanboy/continuity nerd perspective.

The original Star Wars was a pastiche or "loving parody" of earlier works from Saturday afternoon serials to Golden Age of Science Fiction space opera, Westerns, and Kurosawa, all informed by the literary/anthropological theories of Joseph Campbell. As such it stood by itself and really didn't need a sequel or continuity at all--in fact, the film works in large part because of what it leaves out, alluding only to a vague background which is left to the viewer's imagination.

The Empire Strikes Back was a partially successful effort at capitalizing on Star Wars by developing a continuity. It managed to be a good film by growing up with the audience and taking some chances. Return of the Jedi was just a formulaic potboiler designed to tie up the loose ends, and as such it would never be able to stand on its own.

RotJ recycled a great deal of the original film instead of developing new ideas, and indeed crossed the line between comic relief and kiddifying the story. Also, by making the emperor a "Force wizard" instead of a mundane tyrant, the film shrank Darth Vader's role. In fact, the entire story shrank, and continued to do so in the first prequel (which is where I got off): from now on, everything that goes on in the universe revolves around Darth Vader, his family, and The Force. All the mysterious or allusive background elements in Star Wars, from C3PO to Jabba, are incestuously tied together. (Kind of like what almost happened between Luke and his sister.) Lucas doesn't try to conceive of anything new or fresh; for the most part, he just fills in the blanks with whatever's most conveniently at hand.

But there is really no point in arguing this stuff with Max or A1. I have a feeling that A1 is just trying to get under Hurin's skin anyway; and as for Max, he's made clear that he prefers to view Star Wars as a bit of escapist fluff. So, having gone off on this topic, I'm just going to add the banal Internet catchall disclaimer: IMO, and move on.

[Hurin]

Only works on weakminded fools... 

You rock ewilen. How'd you get it back?

Personally, I'd go up and edit your post back to the way it was. . . but I'm anal like that. Then Max can reply as he intended, and I can delete my "WTF?" post. . . and then. . . oh well. . . whatever.

Late Edit: Seriously though, Max has my permission (as if he needed it) to delete any of my posts related to the accidental deletion if he just wants to clean up this mess by restoring Ewilen's original post and deleting all the confusing junk that came after.

H

Edited September 28, 2004 by Hurin

[ewilen]

I stretched out with my feelings...and hit the "Back" button....

[Radd]

Impressive.

Most impressive.

[Agent ONE]

Waiting for a workstation backup to finish at work before I can do anything productive. So I thought I'd find this dead horse and beat it a bit more.

The timeline and/or Lucas Suck-o-meter as measured by pointless stupid kiddie things, prat-falls, and other lame attempts at pedestrian humor. Color-coded for severity!

Green: Actually works as humor without necessarily being directed at kids. Often dialogue-driven and believable.

Orange: Funny. But seems a bit contrived and/or forced. In the end, not bad.

Red: Obviously directed at children. Kids love it. Adults squirm.

SW Episode IV: A New Hope

• R2-D2/C-3P0.
  
• Han and Luke acting all polite and/or confused as stormtroopers.
  
• Banter between Han and Leia.
  
• Banter between Han and Luke regarding Leia.
  
• Chewbacca screams at "mouse droid" then laughs.
  
• C-3P0: "Listen to them! They're dying R2! Curse my metal body, I wasn't fast enough!"
  

SW Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

• Han and Leia banter/flirting: "You didn't see us alone in the south passage. She expressed her true feeling for me."
  
• Han: "Laugh it up fuzzball."
  
• C-3P0's antics (getting left behind, interrupting Han and Leia, various idiotic behavior)
  
• Yoda's harmless idiot routine while he tests Luke's patience.
  

SW Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi

• Burping toad creature eating mouse creature.
  
• Jabba knocking Threepio down.
  
• Boba Fett's accidental death at the hands of a befuddled Han.
  
• Burping Sarlaac Pit.
  
• Wicket (ewok) hitting self in head with sling.
  
• Han trying to blow out the torch with his breathe.
  
• Ewok/Chewbacca making "Tarzan" scream as they swing onto AT-ST.
  
• Ewok taking a speeder bike and diverting the guard at the bunker.
  
• Ewok celebration at the end.
  
• Ewoks in general. Thus, mangling the final 1/3 of the film.
  

SW Episode I: The Phantom Menace

• Each and every thing Jar-Jar Binks does. The sole reason he's in the film.
  
• One of the main characters is a kid. Who, incidentally, saves the day largely by accident.
  

I can't say much more about ep1 because I've only seen it twice and that was years ago. But, to me, it represents everything that went wrong with Lucas's "vision" in Jedi to the Nth degree.

SW Episode II: Attack of the Clones

• 3P0's antics during/after his head is replaced in the droid manufacturing factory. Might as well have been watching The Three Stooges.
  

Only saw this once. So I'm sure I'm missing more ham-fisted attempts at comedy and/or reaching out to kids.

Now, of course, consider that he retroactively went back and put a lot more of the "red"-type stuff from the latter three movies into the first two movies that lacked them. . . and you just might start to figure out why some people who don't like the latter three movies very much are a bit bitter about things. For the life of me, I can't understand how someone can look at all of the Star Wars movies and declare that they are equally catering to a child's sensibilities. Hell, some of the TV and trailer spots even marketed ANH as a romance!

I almost included the Indiana Jones movies in this list. But tying them into this debate requires more verbage and the arugment is less easily made via a chart. Suffice it to say that Indiana Jones goes from being a dark anti-hero with intelligent friends to being a total Daddy's boy whose idiotic friends merely surround him for moronic comic relief. And, note that these changes take place in the Indiana Jones series at the same time as the Star Wars series (After The Empire Strikes Back and Raiders of the Lost Ark). Oh, did I mention that he had a daughter at about this time?

Yes, it was incredibly anal of me to create this list. But, to be honest, I'm a bit tired of the dismissive: "They're all the same. . . They're all for kids. . .You're perceptions of them are tainted by nostalgia" line of argument that merely asserts this without backing it up. If that were true, I'd have grown up and become disappointed with all the Star Wars films, not just Jedi.

H

You make good points.

Nobody can argue that Jar-Jar exists only to please sissy little panty-waste M7 fans... But you left tons of stuff out. There was pleanty of adult dialogue in ROTJ. It was not for little kids.

Phantom Menace was mared by Jar-Jar but other than that it was just like the other 3 SW movies. And AOTC was to par with the rest.

When making comparisons the way you did you can't just pick the stuff that bothers you.

And so you know.. All the stuff that bothered you I totally agree with, I just think in comparison to the rest of the film(s) its trivial.

[Hurin]

There was pleanty of adult dialogue in ROTJ.  It was not for little kids. . .

That list is not intended to illustrate "adult dialogue" content of each movie. It merely includes all the attempts at humor in each movie that I could come up with while sitting here in my office and not actually able to watch the movies. That's why I'm open to anyone adding anything to that list that I may have over-looked. But, though the color-coding of each item is totally subjective, If you (or anyone else) can come up with other humorous moments that could be argued to be "red" that took place in ANH or ESB, I'd be happy to hear and/or add them to the list. But I really don't think anything as egregious as those kid-oriented/"red" items in Jedi (and later) exist in the prior two films.

When making comparisons the way you did you can't just pick the stuff that bothers you.

If certain types of things "bother me", and I'm attempting to point out that they are a lot more prevalent in one movie versus its predecessors, that seems like exactly what I should do to make my point.

It's not like I'm making the argument that Jedi consisted only of those things I listed there. Nor am I asserting by that list that there was no adult dialogue.

Phantom Menace was mared by Jar-Jar but other than that it was just like the other 3 SW movies.

Well, I'd disagree. The kid bouncing around throughout the movie and saving the day by accident, etc. The Trade Federation leaders and their "are you brain-dead?" dialogue. And so on. . . To me it's just a totally different atmosphere from beginning to end. But, obviously, others' mileage may vary.

And AOTC was to par with the rest.

Well, I'll grant that it's much closer to the original two than was ep1. And almost reaches RotJ's level. But, based on my view of Jedi, that's not saying much.

Really, between my little anal-retentive (and very subjective) chart. . . and ewilen's post, I think all of this has been covered. And I'm not sure that there's anywhere left to go here other than just agreeing to disagree.

And so you know.. All the stuff that bothered you I totally agree with, I just think in comparison to the rest of the film(s) its trivial.

That's cool. I see the increasingly prevalent "red" stuff as overtly symptomatic of the overall changed tone of the films and the franchise. You seem to see them more as abberations with no signifigant meaning or effect on the rest of the films as a whole. I guess that's where we part ways.

Best Regards,

H

Edited September 28, 2004 by Hurin

[Guppy]

I bought the dvds yesterday and watched A New Hope. First of all Brilliant. Magic. I felt like a little kid again.

And just to chime in on the audio problems, for about 7 or 8 mins just before the goodies arrive at yavin to after where they take off to attack the deathstar, there is no music score at all. When the fighters lauch, the big fanfare shold be pumping, but all I could hear was engine SFX.

And during the battle, a few times the music fades down so low you can barely hear it. It's not just anal fanboy gripes, it's really noticeable.

But apart from that it was magic. I had my 5.1 surround cranked and I got chills all the way through. The vision was perfect too, no glitches.

PS - and one other thing.. is it just me, or the bit where obiwan rescues luke from the sandpeople, did they change the sound effect he makes to scare them off? it used to sound like a animal like scream, and now it sounds like a police car siren.

PPS - all the matte effects were cleaned up, but there was one that made me laugh.. the bit where luke and han are in the Falcon's gun turrets shooting at the tie fighters, there's one shot of a tie fighter flying across the screen from right to left with a huge square matte 'halo' that follows its movement. How did they EVER miss that one when remastering the film??

[Noriko Takaya]

PS - and one other thing.. is it just me, or the bit where obiwan rescues luke from the sandpeople, did they change the sound effect he makes to scare them off? it used to sound like a animal like scream, and now it sounds like a police car siren.

Yes, they did change the sound effect of the krayt dragon's call Obi-wan used to scare off the Tusken Raiders.

[Amped]

I picked up those boots that Keith mentioned earlier in this thread... and they are damn fine!

Nice packaging, excellent sound quality, and clean video... a tad soft, but then this is pre-uber restoration. The static menu screens could've been a bit better, but they work well and all the extras offa the LD definitive Collection appear to be present, spread out across all three DVDs. No video hiccups from flipping the laser discs... they've made a seamless viewing, as far as I can tell. I'd be curious to view the original laser disc source side-by-side with these boots on a good home entertainment system to see how they compare. For boots, color me very impressed.

I am entirely content in that I now have a nice looking DVD copy of the OT without all the added gobbledy-gook GL has felt compelled to add on. Mainly I like 'em since there's none of the new changes that'd jar me out of enjoying the experience of viewing these cinematic treasures as I remember and love 'em.

Sitting here watching these flix in their original glory, I too feel like a kid again!

Edited September 28, 2004 by Amped

[Max Jenius]

So Hurin is the leading authority on what is kiddy and what is not? I mean honestly, you want people to back up a freakin opinion? Why? That's pointless, you're just going to do what you've done the whooooole thread.... if I really wanted to, I could probably go through and pick out the things that I think are for kids and categorize them etc... but its not really worth my time. (Not implying that's what you did)

3PO being stupid and saying "Oh god they're dying!" is pretty kiddy to me... yet you have it down as working for you? Right now... back that up for me... prove to me that its funny, like you want me to prove the movie was for kids...

Ok... I'll prove it somewhat... Action figures. Remember the stupid looking toys with the pull -out sabers? Another realm where Lucas was an early adopter, if not a pioneer. Additionally, weren't they even less tolerant of people owning toys past the age of 12? So who would they be marketing these things to? Hmmm...

But, that's not definitive. When it comes to opinions, I could care less what you have in green, red, blue, orange, yellow, purple, etc..... (hadda get all the lightsaber colors in there) ... all that matters is that I understand what you think. I'm cool with it, people are just more particular about some things over others... its no sweat off my back really. In the end, all you're saying is "this is my opinion, and this is why I think so" just like everyone else.

Anyway... to quote the first post;

Only post in here to comment on these DVDs. If you don't like the Prequels, feel that George Lucas has "raped your childhood," or if you're just a whiny attention whore, post your thoughts in the other threads. Keep it on topic. Offenders will be summarily locked in a room with Carrot Top while he re-enacts his repitoire of "Dial Down the Middle" commercials.

[Hurin]

I mean honestly, you want people to back up a freakin opinion? Why? That's pointless

Most discussion is about opinion and the marshalling of facts to support it. So, really, I'm at a loss here.

3PO being stupid and saying "Oh god they're dying!" is pretty kiddy to me... yet you have it down as working for you? Right now... back that up for me

Nothing in this scene is furry and wretchedly "cute" in the glassy-eyed, fuzzy sense. Nothing falls down. Nothing burps. Nothing is really unbelievable or contrived about it. . . it's funny and yet it works because it fits with the character and doesn't make you think: "Oh puh-leaze. . . that would never happen and it's just there for a contrived laugh."

That's how I read it. Really, if you don't see a difference in degree there between that and an ewok hitting itself in the face with its sling, we're just operating in different worlds.

Ok... I'll prove it somewhat... Action figures. Remember the stupid looking toys with the pull -out sabers? Another realm where Lucas was an early adopter, if not a pioneer. Additionally, weren't they even less tolerant of people owning toys past the age of 12? So who would they be marketing these things to? Hmmm...

As I (and others) have said again and again, a movie can be appealing to kids without making adults wretch. You can write a movie where teenagers and young adults will think it's very cool while kids will scream for toys based on it. I don't see where toys being made available for a movie make it a movie "made for kids." Especially because, as you said, there was no knowledge that merchandising and toy sales were going to be as huge for this movie as it was. The toy sales were a suprise and the line was quickly expanded. But, to say that Lucas wrote Star Wars in hopes of making millions on toy sales is contrary to the facts. Indeed, according to every interview I've ever heard him give (and in this case, I believe him), he expected Star Wars to be a miserable failure. Hard to sell toy for a miserable failure.

But, that's not definitive. When it comes to opinions, I could care less what you have in green, red, blue, orange, yellow, purple, etc..... its no sweat off my back really. In the end, all you're saying is "this is my opinion, and this is why I think so" just like everyone else.

Yes, that's all I'm saying. And I made the chart to better illustrate my point to those who claim there is no difference in tone and intended audience between the movies. Apparently, it hasn't convinced you. But there's no harm in trying as long as we keep it civil.

Anyway... to quote the first post;

Only post in here to comment on these DVDs. If you don't like the Prequels, feel that George Lucas has "raped your childhood," or if you're just a whiny attention whore, post your thoughts in the other threads. Keep it on topic. Offenders will be summarily locked in a room with Carrot Top while he re-enacts his repitoire of "Dial Down the Middle" commercials.

Okay. Fair enough. I'll quit now. But I hope you don't mind that I addressed those things above since you pretty directly addressed me and asked direct questions before saying this.

Best Regards,

H

[Graham]

Heh, I'm sure this is old news to some of you SW fans, but I just read the 8 page online Greedo Shoots First comic. Quite relavent to this thread.

Great stuff and really made me laugh, especially the Emperor's line on page # 7, regarding Greedo's marksmanship. Classic stuff.

Graham

[eugimon]

heh... there are quite a few star wars comics that poke fun at some of the obvious stuff in star wars... there's a great one where tarkin is selling the death star to the emperor... and the emperor asks about why the tractor beam controls are located in one spot... why the lack of guard rails... etc.

[zeo-mare]

cool comic graham, you were right about the greedo's markmanship line very funny stuff

[Mr March]

Oh my gawd...

[ComicKaze]

Just to add another twist to this discussion. By digitally re-animating the lightsaber blades, Lucas has obliterated the original, hand-drawn lightsaber blade effects created by Nelson Shin...

Who later became the producer/director for The Transformers and whose company animated the Simpsons and who died of Food Poisoning.

Edited October 4, 2004 by ComicKaze

[Guppy]

Just to add another twist to this discussion. By digitally re-animating the lightsaber blades, Lucas has obliterated the original, hand-drawn lightsaber blade effects created by Nelson Shin...

Who later became the producer/director for The Transformers and whose company animated the Simpsons and who died of Food Poisoning.

Was he writing the 'Fugu' fish episode of the Simpsons around the time he had food poisoning? sorry, tasteless joke. (oops, further pun not intended)

[Graham]

Finally got round to watching ANH & ESB over the weekend. It was great to see them again.

The problems with the music or lack of it during the Death Star battle in ANH didn't bother me too much as I had to have the volume turned way down anyway, so as not to wake the baby

The whole Greedo shoots at the same time thing was pitiful. What was GL thinking? What is so wrong with having Han shoot first, it's totally in line with his character as a rogue and smuggler.

The blue door on the escape pod also bugged me. What was the reason for this?

Hated that they changed Boba Fetts voice. His origianal voice was far more menacing. I can't stand his new Kiwi accent (no offences to Kiwi's).

Graham

[Apollo Leader]

I've only had the chance to watch A New Hope so far. My one negative comment is in the scene where the Millenium Falcon has escaped the Death Star and is being persued by Tie Fighters... throughout the fight, there are these very annoying green and red tinge boxes that enclose the Tie Fighters especially when doing rolls. I know this was where the Tie Fighters and their movements were super imposed, but I thought Lucasfilm would have surely cleaned that up by now.

Other then that, it was awesome to watch and hear it in all its DVD glory.

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... oh yeah, Lucas raped my childhood! (Just joking, Max!)

[GobotFool]

Are their any easter eggs on the DVD's? If so where are they?

[Gaijin]

The blue door on the escape pod also bugged me. What was the reason for this?

The "original" special editions had the blue door too. The laser disc rips have that same blue door...it's just a LOT more noticable now with the cleaned up picture.,..either that...they made it even more noticable, but the same blue oval on the pod is there in the "first" special editions".

[Mercurial Morpheus]

Here's a cool site. A guy is remastering the DVD to make it look like the original release. He also is correcting to saturation errors that are in it. Pretty cool stuff.

Star Wars Legacy Edition

[Hubert]

I ve bought the dvd set and I saw ANH yesterday, it was a long long time i havent seen ...

About the image, there are the red box around tie-fighter which are boring, and mostly and the beginning in the sand with r2d2, there s some blue in the sand :/, i have to see it again but it looks strange.

Almost at the end, leila and one guy are speaking, when the guy speaks the brightness is too high whereas with leila it s dark.

it s few details but it was a little disturbing

About the sound, when people are speaking sometimes the sound is very clear, sometimes it's with "room effect" :/, maybe it's because I heard it with headphone

Anyways it was a good moment and I dont mind what is added, what is deleted ... in spite of sfx made with computer get old faster than classical Ray Harryhausen style sfx in my opinion. (muppets dont have radiosity problem)

Also, I dont find ANH better or worse than episode 1

[JsARCLIGHT]

(Shameless plug)

I'm selling my SW DVDs already... bought em, watched em, ditching em. Posted them in the for sale forum for those who are interested. Price is negotiable, send me a PM if interested.

(Back on topic)

I think while I was enjoying seeing the movies for the first time in such clarity I was simultaneously put off by all the changes in the movies. People like my wife did not notice them as they have not seen the movies ten billion times like I have but is it wrong for me to have this feeling of "oh great, another change?" every time I saw something different? I can understand using the excuse of "Technology was not available in the '70s to tell the story he wanted to tell" but the subtle dialogue and context changes really start to bother me after a while. Things like changes in the Stormtrooper dialogue and even sometimes the voice actors (the blast door sequence is the most glaring, what are we too stupid to "get the joke" and Lucas had to add more dialogue?) and the addition of "explanatory" dialogue (like C3PO's explanation of how to shut down the tractor beam) just made me feel so "dumb" watching the movies again... as if GL thought I could not figure out what was going on.

[GRAND CANNON]

Here's a cool site. A guy is remastering the DVD to make it look like the original release. He also is correcting to saturation errors that are in it. Pretty cool stuff.

Star Wars Legacy Edition

Damn. He's "handpainting' scenes to resemble the OT?

Bless you , laddie.........Bless you!!!!

[bsu legato]

Things like changes in the Stormtrooper dialogue and even sometimes the voice actors (the blast door sequence is the most glaring, what are we too stupid to "get the joke" and Lucas had to add more dialogue?) and the addition of "explanatory" dialogue (like C3PO's explanation of how to shut down the tractor beam) just made me feel so "dumb" watching the movies again... as if GL thought I could not figure out what was going on.

Erm....those bits were always there. I know we've discussed this before on MW, but the tractor beam dialog as well as the "Close the blast door" have been around since 1977, but only in certain audio mixes (I belive they're from the 70mm prints). The reason so many people don't remember them is that they were not used in the mixes for the old HVS tapes we watched thru the 80's and 90's.

from davisdvd.com, regarding the 1985 VHS release, which most of us have probably owned at one point or another

This release is a little-known milestone in the history of Star Wars. When Fox decided to digitally remaster the audio track for this re-release, sound designer Ben Burtt asked to be involved. What Burtt actually ended up doing was that he created an entirely new sound mix for the film. So in reality, the audio for this video release is the fourth official Star Wars audio mix (following the three original theatrical mixes - see the first entry at the top of this page). Among the clean up and digital repairs, some interesting new changes were added. These include sweetened sound effects, new stereo'd effects (Jawa voices after Artoo's capture) and, most noticeably, the addition of C-3PO's line in the Death Star ("The tractor beam is coupled to the main reactor in seven locations. A power loss at one of the terminals will allow the ship to leave"). This new sound mix was used for every subsequent video release until the 1993 THX "Definitive Collection" remastering  [ Very Special Thanks to David C. Fein for this important revelation ]

and the "Definitive" Laser Disc collection that so many seem to hold up as the "original" verison of the trilogy

For this edition, sound designer Ben Burtt supervised the creation of a new sound mix - the fifth official Star Wars audio mix. As usual, the giveaway to this being a new audio mix is C-3PO's "tractor beam" dialogue (which is now missing again). One drawback to this CAV set is that the first film suffers from too much noise reduction (for an example of this see Luke's lightsaber during his training with the remote onboard the Millennium Falcon). This problem was fixed with the subsequent CLV release

Edited October 5, 2004 by bsu legato

[the white drew carey]

Here's a cool site. A guy is remastering the DVD to make it look like the original release. He also is correcting to saturation errors that are in it. Pretty cool stuff.

Star Wars Legacy Edition

Personally, I feel hes putting a bit too much effort into the project, but who am I to criticize?

I'll still probably buy one of his "Han Shot First" shirts, though.

[Drad]

I think they should've fixed the lightsabers in ANH only. The lightsabers in TESB and ROTJ looked just fine to me. Better than the funny pink and baby blue that we see in some shots, now.

[JsARCLIGHT]

Erm....those bits were always there. I know we've discussed this before on MW, but the tractor beam dialog as well as the "Close the blast door" have been around since 1977, but only in certain audio mixes (I belive they're from the 70mm prints). The reason so many people don't remember them is that they were not used in the mixes for the old HVS tapes we watched thru the 80's and 90's.

Well call me behind the times then because I never remembered either of those dialogue moments in the original movie... why is it that the voice for the storm trooper is so different then? You'd think they would have used the same "trooper" voice actor that they used for all the other takes.

Edit: and I guess I should also point out that I have seen umpteen different VHS incarnations, the original laserdiscs and a few of the bootleg DVDs and the only places I noticed both those dialogues appear where in the newer SE tapes and DVDs. I even recall seeing ANH four times in the theaters back when it first came out and I don't remember either of those audio moments... even though I was 7 or 8 at the time I clearly remember seeing the movie before it was called ANH and to the best of my damaged memory those two audio clips were not in the movie then... and if they were would this not be the first instance of GL "altering" the movies and in respect prove that he has always altered the movies?

Edited October 6, 2004 by JsARCLIGHT

[bsu legato]

Well call me behind the times then because I never remembered either of those dialogue moments in the original movie... why is it that the voice for the storm trooper is so different then? You'd think they would have used the same "trooper" voice actor that they used for all the other takes.

Whichever take it originally came from, it was the same mix used to create my "Story of Star Wars" LP, which has been in my posession since 1977. *shrugs*

[JsARCLIGHT]

This is going to sound like a stupid suggestion but do you suppose they added those audio tracks for the LP release because you could not see what was going on and those scenes needed the extra "redundancy" put into them and then at some later point to keep consistency they were edited into the movie?

[bsu legato]

This is going to sound like a stupid suggestion but do you suppose they added those audio tracks for the LP release because you could not see what was going on and those scenes needed the extra "redundancy" put into them and then at some later point to keep consistency they were edited into the movie?

I considered that, but there's too much evidence to the contrary. All I know is that if you just google "Star Wars" and "Close the balst doors" you'll find all kinds of articles and message board topics discussing this very thing. Some folks remember it, others deny it ever existed until the'97 SE's. Apparently it even appeared in some '93 special about Lucas and SW.

There was undenaibly at least three different mixes of ANH back in '77. That much is documented fact. Whether or not the "blast doors" line along with threepio's additional lines about the tractor beam were there to begin with, only Ben Burtt knows for certain.

[JsARCLIGHT]

I'm willing to believe those lines could have been added to the edited theatrical version when SW got all the ANH stuff put on the front end of it... the first time I ever saw that was on my first VHS release of the movie that I got for my birthday with my first VCR back in '83.

[Radd]

For what it's worth, I'm fairly certain those lines were there long before the Special Editions. Though I don't know if I remember them from the VHS copies of the movies I had bought (before the final release of the unedited versions), or from the versions I'd taped off of HBO and Showtime.

[Max Jenius]

Isn't this thread about the DVDs Drad?