“Whatever, you know you're going to buy it anyway."
I've heard this phrase reverberate through dozens of articles and discussions about the Star Wars Blu Ray announcement, where to no one's surprise, it was revealed that only the Special Editions of the Original Trilogy would be included on the set, despite pretty much everyone in that fandom spending the last ten years bleating about how badly Lucas seemed to have missed the boat when it came to "upgrading" his films with new (at the time) technology.
All of a sudden, Han Solo doesn't draw first, there's random Jawa humor, Luke screams like a girl, and Darth Vader shows that evil really is the way to go by getting to spend eternity as a young surfer looking dude, instead of a doddering old codger. Nobody liked these revisions, and for good reasons--the updated special effects felt like a step backwards from the ingenuity of the original's, pacing for the "new scenes" throws sections of the film off balance, and it gave the films the feeling of being overcooked, leathery and full of gristle. Not to mention that as much as people hated the Ewoks, cutting away to four or five faceless city celebrations across the galaxy set to what can only be described as theme music for the Rainforest Cafe, was so, so, so much worse. That might just be me, though--fuck you, I love Yub Nub.
We wanted the movies as we remembered them--as they were released, and the banging of that drum hasn't ceased even after Lucasfilm issued the non-special-editioned versions as a bonus feature in 2005. Why? Because the transfer was sub-Laserdisc quality, with a Dolby 2.0 sound mix that sounded fifteen years old. This would not do! So the hope of hopes began to emerge, that Lucas, having finished the whole saga, would finally release a comprehensive and HD-quality box set that had everything a Star Wars fan could want...and the Holiday Special.
And like anyone over the age of 12 and a good grasp on the timeline of events could have predicted, today that announcement never came. Six films, only three of them good, only half being released as they were shown theatrically, and the two ratios sadly don't match up. And you know what? If that's what Lucas wants to release, then that's his prerogative. He views the original theatricals to be inferior products, then OK. He can release them in an edition where Hayden Christiansen has been grafted onto everyone's face and I still couldn't fault him because they're his films. He made them, he owns the rights, he can do with them as he pleases. I just won't buy them.
Man, that's simple. "Can't get the proper release? Won't buy it." I do that for films that don't yet have proper anamorphic or aspect ratio or transfers available, and really, I don't view this lack of being able to get what I really want as any different. Charade floundered about for years with a truly horrendous full screen, dirty print transfer DVD, until Criterion came in and saved it. That's when, and only when, I ponied up. The history of the DVD medium is filled with countless examples; Star Wars, apart from having what's quickly becoming the most material-oriented fandom out there, is no different. There's just more people wanting the originals than there were people yearning for a proper widescreen release of Charly Varrick, so it takes on the appearance of a bigger deal. All this isn't to say that I don't approve of people expressing their displeasure that the originals won't be available yet again--probably wondering why anyone's surprised or even bothering getting upset anymore, but I get it. I was also displeased, just not enough to let it wreck my day. Not in a week where the world lost Pete Postlethwaite.
But amidst the back-and-forth as to what it was about the Special Editions people didn't like, I kept hearing a phrase, that phrase from the beginning: "All this arguing is pointless. You know you're going to buy it anyway." Thing is by and large that sentiment is correct. Despite the fact that by this point everyone knows the story of how hard the original trilogy was to complete, to the point where I'm surprised no one has published a book on what the day-to-day catering menu was on set, I hear "I'll buy it for the special features." Or "I'll buy it just so I'll have it in HD." And the one I hate hearing the most, "I'll buy it because I'm a completionist."
It's that last reasoning that has befuddled me for a while. I just don't understand. If you don't like the way a release is being handled to the point where you feel the film being released has been compromised, don't buy it. And outside of the hardcore fandoms, like the two Stars (Trek and Wars), that seems to be the golden rule. Once you cross that set of jagged rocks into Fandomorder, you find senselessness there that does not sleep. There's some sort of mental switch that goes "Aw, shit, son, it says Star Wars, I gotta have it." So they shell out for mediocre product, then upon purchase and consumption, proceed to go back to the war drums demanding and rallying for a better release, a more hopeful tomorrow, even though we all know it'll never come. And then the people who don't care if the Werewolf in Mos Eisly has been digitally replaced with an alien with a chronic case of the Tentacle Face look at the ones complaining, and they say "Whatever, you know you're going to buy it."
Bizarrely, it's not like the people awash in this land can't see the forest for the trees. When New Line said that they were releasing Lord of the Rings on Blu, but only the theatricals, by and large sales weren’t terribly large. If you didn’t mind the theatricals you probably picked them up, but even Peter Jackson said the set wasn’t good enough and to probably save your cash. People did, and we all know it’s only a matter of time before the real super-y-duper box set gets a proper release.
What it really all comes down to is that I don't get the idea that if you look at a package for a film and determined that the package isn't up to snuff, you're going to end up buying it anyway. You know that the presentation will only frustrate and annoy you, and is that any way to spend your money and time?
Since I was 14, I have purchased Ghostbusters on every format from VHS through Blu-Ray. Except UMD, since I never had a PSP to play it on and that just seemed silly. But VHS, widescreen VHS, DVD, Blu Ray, I've followed it time and again. Why? Because if you know me, you know that I have a deep rooted, genetic level love for the film. I make time to go to revival screenings. I have an original theatrical poster framed in my living room. But my love doesn't extend to Ghostbusters II. It's not a particularly good movie; as a sequel it's kind of a disaster. I don't care to own it, so I don't. I don't enjoy it, so I don't own it. I don't enjoy the Special Edition-ing of Star Wars, so I don't watch them, and I don't own them. I promise you can make it through tomorrow too.
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