Star Wars DVDs

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arcticfox2005

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This is truly general, so I hope someone can help. I recently bought two multi-disk DVD packages of Star Wars from WalMart (Blu Ray). I have not watched any of them yet, But over the weekend a friend told me that Episodes IV, V, and VI came out before Episodes I,II, and III.
I checked the copyright dates and she was right - IV ('77), V ('80), VI ('83), I ('99), II ('02), III ('05).

I: The Phantom Menace; II: Attack of the Clones; III: Revenge of the Sith; IV: A New Hope; V: The Empire Strikes Back; VI: Return of the Jedi

So, the question is: Do we watch them in Episode Order (I, II, III, IV, V, VI ) or in chronological order (IV, V, VI, I, II, III)?

Thanks,
Bill
 
Ohhh thats a tough decision. If you want the story line correct then I'd watch them in order by number. The old ones are the best though.
 
Chronological order is the way most fans would watch them.
 
George Lucas did StarWars Ep IV- A New Hope, first because he thought it had the best story line to sell the studio on making it.

Episode order will take you though the entire saga in a sequential timeline.

If you watch them the way they were made, IV, V, VI, I, II, III you will see Darth Vader, then the prequels showing you how he became Darth Vader, etc.

When I took my niece & nephew to see Ep 1-Phantom Menace, they kept asking questions like where's Darth Vader, Skywalker, etc, because they knew StarWars, and the right characters weren't in it.
 
Lucas planned the movies as a trilogy of trilogies.    It was to be an national epic myth for Americans on the scale of the Iliad and Odyssey and the Indian Ramayana and Mahabharata.  Tolkien did the same thing for the English with the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

For whatever reason, Lucas started with IV.  As it turned out, this was a brilliant place to start, it established the premise and its universe as a part of the build up of the epic's plot.  The Hero starts as a farm lad in a hardscrabble landscape, not unlike Nevada or Arizona and takes him out into the fearful universe of the Empire.    By its end, the public was ready for the rest of the trilogy and for the apotheosis of the Hero. 

See it which ever way you would,  1, 2, 3 and then 3, 4, 5 or the reverse the way the rest of us did.  After all the Odyssey is perfectly readable buy itself or in conjunction with the Iliad before or after -- as the rest of us did.


One thing you might do first tho is to pick up a copy of Joseph Campbell's, The Hero With a Thousand Faces. [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces ]  I suspect that both Lucas and Tolkien read it.

 
If you watch them in the story order (4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3) the story makes a lot more sense.

If you watch them in release order you get to watch the progress of special effects over the years.

When the original Star Wars was made digital effects did not exist. By the 6th episode Lucas was able to use some primitive digital special effects. By the time the last one was made (3) he had hundreds of digital special effects shots. It was due to his pioneering efforts in the area of digital special effects that the state of the art is where it is today. He was the one that first conceived of an entire movie done digitally.  Of course Hollywood laughed at him, but the rest is history.
 
Read E.E. Doc Smith's books if you want some of the space odyssey books that influenced Lucas.

And I still say watch them in the order they were filmed. Watch the newer ones first and when you get to episode IV (the first one filmed), you'll be disappointed in the quality of the special effects.
 
I think I'm one of the only people in the universe to have seen the movies in true original order 1-6 ... at least among those of my generation who grew up with the original 4-5-6 trilogy.  I just was never "into" them as a kid.  I saw "Phantom Menace" (episode 1) when it came out in the theater in 1999, then the others as they were released.  Then my wife rented the original trilogy and I watched those.  Now my 7yo is a Star Wars nut and so I've seen them all about a hundred times.  ;)  Funny how some things go!

I still don't honestly think the movies are all that great.  There are lots of better movies/series out there with far less following.  Episode 1 is my favorite.
 
scottydl,
  What is it with 5-7 year old boys and Star Wars? My son is 7 now but was 5 when we got episode IV from Netflix and he was hooked. (Oddly enough none of us had ever seen any of them.) We then did watch all in filmed order but now of course he has the entire set and the whole family can quote almost any line from any of them. I also agree that there are better movies but there is something with these that has made them iconic and enjoyable.
  I think I have finally gotten my son to realize that being a Jedi Knight is going to be a tough career choice and maybe he needs to study math a little harder too just as a backup plan.

Kip
 
Movin On said:
What is it with 5-7 year old boys and Star Wars? My son is 7 now but was 5 when we got episode IV from Netflix and he was hooked.
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You are not kidding!  SW is the franchise that won't die, as this whole new generation are becoming superfans at a pretty young age now.  Plus the whole "Lego Star Wars" movement, which is its own creation that is giving Legos a whole new themed life too.  We have the Lego SW Complete Saga video game that covers all 6 movies, and I seriously learned more about all the various episodes/storylines from watching my son play the video game than I ever did from watching the movies... and we're talking about animated "Lego" guys doing all the acting!  Pretty funny stuff.
 
scottydl said:
  We have the Lego SW Complete Saga video game that covers all 6 movies, and I seriously learned more about all the various episodes/storylines from watching my son play the video game than I ever did from watching the movies... and we're talking about animated "Lego" guys doing all the acting!  Pretty funny stuff.
Click to expand...

Yep, we have a couple of the Star Wars Lego video games I think it's on the Wii and a couple Batman Lego ones also. The boy used to ask me to play with him but I just kept slowing him down and getting him killed so he quit asking.....  :p  The only thing I can play well is GT5 with a wheel and pedal and old school Mario Bros. and Wii sports stuff. I didn't think I was old yet but I found out that I am.
 
We have all of them.  As for order of watching... I watch which-ever one I can find when I'm in the mood for Star Wars!  Think we have all of them on DVD now, good thing, the VHS versions round here are bout wore out... So are the players, but we still use them!
 
jje1960 said:
the VHS versions round here are bout wore out... So are the players, but we still use them!
Click to expand...

I haven't had a working VCR around the house in several years now.  Last time I dug one out to watch some old VHS tape, the player was DOA.  :-\  I can't see the benefit in buying another one.

I believe the Star Wars Blu-rays have been out for 2-3 years now, and next (no doubt) is the 3D version since Episode 1 was just back in theaters in 3D.  I can see them doing Ep. 1-3 but I'm not sure if it would even be possible to remaster Ep. 4-6 in 3D without basically changing them to digital movies.
 
Star Wars in HD format was out three years ago but the Blu ray versions were only released last September. In order to make episodes 4-6 into 3-D it would require the same work that was done to Titanic. For Titanic Cameron hired a company to convert every frame to 3-D. Cost them $18 million and it took them 60 months. The results are stunning and they will have no trouble recouping their $18 million. I think that all 6 of the Star Wars will be out in 3-D in the next few years.
 
That was our "boys night out" a few weeks ago. My son (7 yo) and I went to the 3D Star Wars at the theater. He knows em all but I figured this would be his chance to see it on the big screen. We went to a late viewing and there were only a few other people there so we ate way too much popcorn, got perfect seats and had a blast! A good memory for the future.

I will say while the 3D was good I expected this episode would be great with the pod races. I was thinking it would put you "right there" but it didn't really. After the movie thinking about it I can see why, the original wasn't filmed for that effect or from that perspective. The shots were all from above, outside the pod racer. So I have my doubts how good some older re3d movies will be. But even with that I'm sure the next 5 will get our money also, me and the boy will be there together.
 
I think Mel Brooks as Yogurt in Space Balls said it best " The search for more money"  ;D
 
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