Path: nntp-server.caltech.edu!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!csn!news.uwyo.edu!rtravsky
From: rtravsky@news.uwyo.edu (Rich Travsky)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Subject: Re: Part IV: A NEW HOPE (was Re: Raiders)
Message-ID: <1993May24.075834.639@news.uwyo.edu>
Date: 24 May 93 07:58:34 MDT
References: <17MAY199323581126@rosie.uh.edu> <1993May21.224305.29628@scott.skidmore.edu> <C7Hw0z.1KB@chinet.chinet.com> <1993May24.003344.22325@thelema.uucp>
Distribution: world
Organization: Banzai Institute
Lines: 49

In article <1993May24.003344.22325@thelema.uucp>, wjr@thelema.uucp
   (Bill Richard) writes:
> In article <C7Hw0z.1KB@chinet.chinet.com> dhartung@chinet.chinet.com
  (Dan Hartung) writes:
>>jholstei@scott.skidmore.edu (jeremy holstein) writes:
>>>st1lv@rosie.uh.edu (McLeod, Stephen) writes:
>>>                                     ^^^^^
>>>> directors or someone takes the opportunity for a final edit when videos are
>>>> released. Another excellent example of this is "Star Wars IV??? a new HOPE??"
>>>> Not the version *I* saw.  Must be nice to edit "history" this way.
>>>
>>>No, it's ALWAYS been Part IV: A NEW HOPE.  I remember thinking that
>>>strange when I saw it the first time back in 1978.
>>>If you need evidence, download the shooting script from Wpi.wpi.edu.
>>
>>I am one of the many who positively would have remembered such a thing,
>>and I distinctly recall seeing it for the first time in the theatrical
>>rerelease.  NOT in the original release.
> 
> And I am one of the people who saw SW in its original theatrical
> release (several times) and positively remember seeing the Pt.IV:ANH
> bit and wondering about it until I read about Lucas' nine part plot
> outline. In fact I have not seen SW in complete form since then,
> neither the theatrical re-release or on video, so I would have no
> later source for a false memory.
> [...]
No no no. The "new hope" jazz was not in the original release. SW was
originally intended to be a one film deal (tho Lucas hoped for more
than this) as it had trouble getting accepted by the studios. Shot on
a $10 million budget, with some of the editing was done in the Lucas' 
living room (something like that), Lucas did not know at the time of
release if there'd be another. SW was a sleeper, taking some time to
become any kind of a phenomenom. The original theatre release, which
I saw at Denver's Cooper Cinerama, did _not_ contain the new hope 
business. This came out in a re-release prior to ESB, after SW had
become a hit and he (Lucas) had to clout to do things more to his
liking.

Think about it: WHY would anyone have _started_ with episode FOUR, instead
of episode ONE???

(BTW: SW is listed in Maltin's as having been a 1977 release, so if you
saw it in '78, it had already been for a while.)

+---------+    Richard Travsky   RTRAVSKY @ UWYO . EDU
|         |    Division  of  Information  Technology
|     U W |    University of Wyoming   (307) 766 - 3663 / 3668
|      *  |    "Wyoming is the capital of Denver." - a tourist
+---------+    "One of those square states." - another tourist