Star Wars HD or Blu-Ray? Nope. Holding Back Hurts Everyone.

Ralph McQuarrie's Concept Art For Darth Vader And Luke Starkiller

In the Eighties and Nineties, Disney was notorious for its “vault”.  The business strategy behind this was well known.  Release the movies for a limited time every seven or eight years to get people to rush out to buy them.  It was fairly dickish – a crass money-making scheme that from the House of Mouse, the Happiest Place On Earth.  Now, in the era of Blu-Ray, there are two standouts who maintain an iron grip on movies that the viewing public demands.

The chief offender is, of course, George Lucas.  During the DVD days, Lucasfilm, Ltd. released all of the prequels in several editions and then moved onto releasing and re-releasing the Original Trilogy Special Editions.  The worst was when Lucasfilm released the Special Editions in a box set featuring classic poster art from the Original Trilogy without a single mention that it was, in fact, the Special Editions.  For the less hard-core out there, there is SWOTSE (Star Wars Original Trilogy Special Edition) and there is SWOOT (Star Wars Original Original Trilogy).  What is the difference between SWOTSE and SWOOT?  In SWOOT, Han shoots first.

Star Wars has always been a technology driver.  In 1992, Star Wars was released on LaserDisc to rave reviews.  Critics could not believe the detail or the sound quality.  One review raved about being able to hear the creaking of the leather of Darth Vader’s gloves.  That year also saw the release of Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut.  Between these two Laserdiscs, people saw the shift to digital video.  People wanted Dolby Surround Sound and letterboxing and directors’ cuts.

Lucas is also the progenitor of THX (named of course for THX-1138), the gold standard of audio and visual fidelity.  In the Nineties, if you were going to see a movie in the theatre, you’d want to be in the one that was THX-Certified.  To this day, DVDs come with THX optimizers.  Star Wars was the first movie to get the THX treatment.  In 1997, Lucasfilm released Star Wars on VHS and LaserDisc after being cleaned and optimized with THX.  Again, this was a blockbuster seller.  It was also the last time for seven years that Lucas would release SWOOT.

In 2001, when DVD was starting to get some momentum, Lucas released Episode I on DVD.  Again, it sold like hotcakes.  And in each year following, the prequels were released and sold well.  Finally, in 2004, Lucas released SWOTSE three times – first with the Special Edition poster art; then with the classic poster art; and, finally with SWOOT on “Bonus Discs”.  The shame of it was that SWOOT was neither anamorphic (meaning you had to manually adjust your DVD or television settings) nor was it in Dolby 5.1 Surround.  In fact, it was just a dub from the 1997 SWOOT LaserDisc.

2004 was the last release of SWOOT. And of course, 2006 saw the beginning of the Format War between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.  Two years later, the Format War was over and Blu-Ray came out on top.

Now, in 2010, there is no SWOOT on Blu-Ray.  There is no Star Wars on Blu-Ray at all.  And, four years after Blu-Ray really started, it is being threatened by digital download and streaming HD.

I mentioned two holdouts.  The other is The Lord Of The Rings.  When LOTR came out on DVD, Peter Jackson made it clear to fans that there would be two releases: the theatrical versions and the extended versions.  There was hope.  Here was a sci-fi director who was up front about what versions would come out and when they would.  And, in 2006, LOTR was available in HD-DVD.  Which was good even if the format failed.  Now, after four years, the Blu-Ray versions of the theatrical releases will be available.  But what about the Blu-Ray versions of the extended editions?  There is no release information beyond “maybe 2011 or 2012.”  And there is no release information at all about the Blu-Ray versions of the Star Wars saga.

I’m not sure about the prudence of holding out.  Both Star Wars and LOTR drive the technology of movies.  Episode I was the first movie to be screened in digital projection.  If they’re released, they will sell and sell well.  But the window is closing.  With things like FIOS opening up the digital pipeline to homes and sites like Hulu and Netflix streaming media, physical media will start to wane.  I know there’s a difference between the streaming HD version of LOST and the Blu-Ray version of LOST.  But how many people will plonk down money for the physical Blu-Ray copy of Star Wars and LOTR once there is the streaming On-Demand version?

To put this in perspective (and I know that anecdotal evidence is the worst), having watched LOST on streaming HD, I then bought the Blu-Ray versions.  I wanted better visual quality and better skipping forward and backward.  That, however, is because streaming HD is still in its childhood.  When FIOS takes off and bandwidth opens up, this might not be the case.  Within several years’ time, there may be no discernible difference between streaming HD and Blu-Ray.

To Lucas, Jackson, and Lucasfilm, Ltd. and New Line, I say this:

Strike while Blu-Ray still has noticeable advantages over streaming HD.  Release Star Wars and the extended versions of Lord Of The Rings on Blu-Ray.

It may be your only hope.