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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7886863" data-attributes="member: 4937">I don't know that it was saved in the edit quite as much as is commonly claimed, but I do agree that Lucas needs to collaborate to make up for some of his short comings. As much as I appreciate the sentiment of the people who want a despecialized edition that is true to the original Oscar winning movie, 'Star Wars' (A New Hope) was the one movie that was significantly improved by the special edition in most respects, and that includes better editing. After watching the special edition of 'A New Hope' in the theater, my wife said that for the first time she really understood the movie and didn't just feel like it was mostly random collection of scenes barely connected to each other. There is still not an edit of 'Star Wars' (A New Hope) that I feel best frames the movie, as a lot of what was cut is necessary character building and only survives the process because ultimately we don't view 'Star Wars' as a stand alone movie, but only itself a first act in a longer drama. Every movie is finalized and hopefully improved "in the edit". There are always things that you discover don't work as well, scenes you realize don't add a lot, and perhaps more to the point the edit gives you the ability to decide how to tell and in what order different scenes of simultaneous action. 'Star Wars' is not unique in this. 'Star Wars' did not go from being a really bad film to a great film in the edit. The people that push that viewpoint are unsurprisingly film editors, who have a passion for their craft. While the cut did improve 'Star Wars' and reduce some unnecessary bloat, it also IMO left the actual story more disjointed than Lucas's original vision. Some of what was cut comes back in the special edition and the result is IMO a better film. It would be even a better film if the introduction to Biggs was retained, as an additional scene between Luke cleaning the droids and then returning to find that R2 has run away. That is, Luke needs to go to "Toshi Station to pick up some power converters".Edit or not, "Star Wars" is still a masterpiece of plotting with brilliantly written individual scenes.  Consider the really deft introductions we get to C3P0 and R2D2, and the deft introduction we have to Darth Vader and to some extent Leia.  Very few movies invest you so quickly in characters.   The handling of these character introductions are just ingenious, and comparable to say the brilliant introductions to character in "Guardians of the Galaxy" which similarly needs to muster a diverse cast of characters for an ensemble film in a hurry without killing the pace of the movie.  Some of the dialogue is cornball, sure, but it's also often funny and often fits the 'farm boy' character that is Luke.   Mostly what the editing does in 'A New Hope' is improve your ability to stay emotionally invested in the story. By improving the continuity of the story arc that you are currently following, it's a little less confusing when you switch to a different one, and the role that the other story line has in relation to the first is clearer. What I think you are doing in citing the myth that Star Wars was saved in the edit rather than just incrementally improved, is explaining yet another of the movie making myths that informed the production of the sequel trilogy. By having this myth in mind that this masterpiece was junk that was saved in the edit, it basically kept them from believing that they were making a pile of crap. Flaws in the script and the production were handwaved away as things that they'd just fix in the edit. And while there are things that can be fixed in the edit, the sort of fundamental problems that the sequel trilogy movies have are not those sort of things.</blockquote>

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