oh joy, another SW scam

So I'm sure you've read the news too. It's all over the blogdom. Here's the story from eonline:

"Star Wars" on DVD, Again... For the First Time
by Joal Ryan
May 4, 2006, 7:20 PM PT

Star Wars fan Philip Wise has purchased a home-video copy of George Lucas' seminal sci-fi film six times--"seven, including the Beta edition"--and he's not done yet. Because Lucas isn't done yet.

Repeatedly released in various formats during the past 29 years, the 1977 theatrical version of Lucas' Star Wars will be issued on home video again, but for the first time on DVD, on Sept. 12, LucasFilm announced Thursday.

The theatrical versions of 1980's The Empire Strikes Back and 1983's Return of the Jedi, Star Wars' companion movies from the original trilogy, also will make their DVD debuts on that date.

Thus far, only Lucas' recut and digitally repopulated "special edition" versions of the three trailblazing films have been available on DVD.

link via eonline

I'd like to make a confession.

I haven't seen any of the crappy new Star Wars' with Samuel Jackson and double sided light sabers and CGI.  I had no interest then, and I have no interest now.  I know I'm in the minority.  I don't care.  Hear me out.

Like many 30ish quasi-geeks, I mark Star Wars as one of my pivotal moments as a kid.  It was the first "adult movie" I ever went to see in the movie theater; it was the first time I ever had a crush on a movie star (Carrie Fisher); it was the first time I realized that imagination could be magnified to an operatic level.  I saw the first three and enjoyed each one more than the last.  I was a huge fan.  I had sticker books and the 45 with the Star Wars theme.  I had a plastic light saber.  I even made the mistake of talking my mom into letting me get Star Wars sneakers (and that was when I learned that kids can be really mean).  Star Wars, I daresay, helped to forge me as a kid.  It gave me the power to trust my imagination.

For that reason, I didn't want to sully my memories by revisiting the series with computer generated characters and a redacted tone that did not match my memory.  I decided to pass on watching any of the "New Star Wars" movies.  I didn't, and don't care about them.

On top of that, I was insulted when George Lucas shit all over my memories by refusing (until now) to release the versions that meant so much to me.  He betrayed my trust in him as a filmmaker by abandoning his vision for a newer, blander, PCer vision.  He tried to rewrite my history as he sought to cleanse his.  Unforgivable.  Not one more penny will I give to this man and his franchise.  My memories of the first three and what they meant to me then are intact, with or without another marketing ploy to separate me from my money.

So yeah, I know I'm being irrational.  I know some people might think it's sacreligious to trash the Star Wars Empire.  I don't care.  I'm over it.  I'm over Lucas.  And I'm not interested.