The obvious - its his product..

That's the only real sin he has committed in my opinion. Not making the original versions widely available. He can release future special editions where he turns all the characters into gungans for all I care. Just make the original films that deeply affected modern culture widely available.

*This* is the biggest lynch-pin to this entire debate, and it isn't examined enough, in my opinion.

Fans don't mind that Lucas tweaked the film, and created a (perceived) inferior Director's Cut version... fans are annoyed that this is the *only* version available. Had he approached this like any other home media release, and included the director's cut as an alternate version on the same disc... everyone would have been thrilled.

- Jon

"He wasn't the creator. He may have come up with the idea and invented most of the story, but like any movie, it was collaboration with a lot of people that got the job done.

As whiny as the fans get, the best point someone made was that the special editions are tossing away the hard work of past special effects crew."

And the fact that he didn't direct Episodes V and VI are key to this as well. He was so disheartened over THX and American Graffiti, that they weren't his visions even though he was the director, and then he goes and does the same thing to two other directors. He may not even owe bringing the unaltered editions back from the dead for the fans, but he owes it to all the people who worked on them.

If Richard Marquand wanted Vader to yell, "Nooo!" at the end of Jedi, I'm pretty sure he would have done it.

--Anyone who still has faith in humanity has never been to the imdb boards.--

The "real" star wars movies (thr original) were clearly his creation. Other people were contract workers who fulfilled their duties, and were paid and creditted. They agreed to give their work to lucas, and he changed it. (I agree that his changes are stupid but it was still his call.)

What came later--for instance, the books--were done with his blessing but was done mostly with other people's input. Ironically his later works were less his creations.

Quotes from George Lucas on altering films:

People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians, and if the laws of the United States continue to condone this behavior, history will surely classify us as a barbaric society. The preservation of our cultural heritage may not seem to be as politically sensitive an issue as "when life begins" or "when it should be appropriately terminated," but it is important because it goes to the heart of what sets mankind apart. Creative expression is at the core of our humanness. Art is a distinctly human endeavor. We must have respect for it if we are to have any respect for the human race.

These current defacements are just the beginning. Today, engineers with their computers can add color to black-and-white movies, change the soundtrack, speed up the pace, and add or subtract material to the philosophical tastes of the copyright holder. Tommorrow, more advanced technology will be able to replace actors with "fresher faces," or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actor's lips to match. It will soon be possible to create a new "original" negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires. The copyright holders, so far, have not been completely diligent in preserving the original negatives of films they control. In order to reconstruct old negatives, many archivists have had to go to Eastern bloc countries where American films have been better preserved.

In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be "replaced" by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten."

"The public's interest is ultimately dominant over all other interests. And the proof of that is that even a copyright law only permits the creators and their estate a limited amount of time to enjoy the economic fruits of that work."


Of course, Lucas defenders will be quick to claim that he was talking about studio execs and not a film's director, but these quotes CONTAIN NO SUCH QUALIFIER.

The man reeks of hypocrisy and inconsistency.