An Evening of Star Wars

Warning! Spoilers Ahead!

January 31st, 1997, was a day that many Star Wars fans had been waiting for. Not only did this day present many of us with the opportunity to see Star Wars: A New Hope on the big screen for the first time, but it also saw the premiere of the Special Edition of Star Wars. This new print features better sound, extra scenes, and upgraded special effects. So, what was last Friday like?

You may have noticed it yourself. The classes seemed just a tad smaller that day. Sure, Friday classes are never full, but there were just enough people missing that you could tell something was up. You see, if you wanted good seats for the 7:00pm show, you'd better be in line by 1:00pm, or else know someone who will be.

Star Wars was not showing at the King's College theatre, but at the Hyland, which is just a bit further down King and north at Ontario St. Unlike King's College, the manager of the Hyland would not allow you to get a refund on tickets already purchased. When a member of our party cancelled a couple of hours before the show, we weren't able to get rid of the extra ticket. This manager should learn a thing or two about customer service.

There is only one theatre at the Hyland, and it's a big one. The seats filled very fast, and the curtains opened at 7:05pm. We were first greeted by a Sprite commercial, and then a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming animated film by Fox, Anastasia. Next was a trailer for Volcano, which splashed the catchphrase ``The coast is toast'' one word at a time, with special emphasis on the word ``toast'', prompting one moviegoer to say ``They should have called it Toast!'' We then saw a very brief teaser for Jurassic Park: The Lost World, which only contained a few shots of a T-Rex. Following that was a trailer for the action-comedy Men In Black, and another volcano flick, Dante's Peak.

At that point we finally got the Feature Presentation clip, followed by the Twentieth Century Fox and LucasFilm logos. But instead of starting Star Wars, we got trailers for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. From what the trailer showed, it looks like we get to see more of the snow monster in Empire, and the pit in the desert in Jedi has been replaced with what looks like Audrey-II from Little Shop of Horrors.

And finally, we got to see Star Wars itself. There were only two new scenes added to the film. The infamous Jabba the Hutt scene, with a CGI Jabba that looks very fake. Some moviegoers speculated that what we saw was supposed to be a hologram projection, but Han steps on Jabba during the scene. Once of the biggest cheers of the evening was for Boba Fett's cameo at the end of that scene. I felt that the scene wasn't really necessary for the plot; it has almost identical dialogue to the scene with Han and Greedo just minutes before, and Jabba seems too forgiving.

The other added scene took place just before the attack on the Death Star. Biggs catches up with Luke as they get ready to board their X-Wings. There were other Biggs scenes filmed in 1976/77 that could have been added as well, but they only added this one back in.

The other changes to the film are improved sound and visual effects. In the sound department, LucasFilm outdid themselves. The sound, music, and sound effects are crisp and sound great. Most of the extra and enhanced visual effects are great as well. We see more of Mos Eisley, the Death Star attack looks fantastic, and when Han runs into some Storm Troopers inside the Death Star, it's just fall-down funny. What's surprising is what ILM didn't change. The lightsabres still lose their colour occasionally, the technical readouts are still VIC-20 in appearance, and the creature in the garbage compactor is still the same silly eyeball and tube.

The most controversial change of all is the Han/Greedo scene in the Cantina Bar. Originally, Han either fires first, or Greedo and Han fire near simultaneously, depending on who you ask. But in the new version, Greedo fires first, at point blank range, and misses! Then, Han fires. Apparently, Lucas wanted to show that this was self-defence. But the way it appears on screen is absurd. Greedo missed Han at point blank range? The blast itself misses by at least a foot. Some fans are also upset at the change in Han's character. They liked that Han fired first, in order to save his life. Han knows that if he waits for Greedo to fire first, that it would be too late, so Han takes the initiative, and fires first.

Amazingly, Entertainment Weekly called this one of the big risks of 1997. But the Special Edition of Star Wars: A New Hope managed to pull in $36.2 million over its first weekend. It could easily reach $100 million for the rerelease.

See you at The Empire Strikes Back!

CAS