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Harmy’s Star Wars Restoration: May 25th Matters

Okay, laser brains. While all you heretics were out there waving your lightsabers on May 4th, strutting your fandom for Star Wars Day (“May the Fourth be with you,” har har), the Jedi hermits among us continued to quietly stroke our beards and shepherd the wisdom that true Star Wars Day is May 25th – the anniversary of the film’s opening in 1977.

That is, when we weren’t indulging our Dark Sides by ranting about the corruption of the series, even at the hands of its own creator, in epic Facebook screeds.

You may recall my lamenting the numerous post-“Special Edition” incarnations of the original trilogy (released 1977-83), as George Lucas continued to tinker in his digital keep, even as he denied us pristine restorations of the films’ theatrical cuts. These have been withheld by Lucasfilm, despite enormous demand, as its mad emperor continued to overthink and perform unnecessary surgeries on his creations, like some misguided Hawthornian scientist, who would sacrifice beauty in a quest for “perfection.” Instead of, you know, just making more movies.

With the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, some have nurtured a new hope that its current owners, in a rare moment of grace (albeit motivated by the promise of massive sales), might release restorations in time for Star Wars’ 50th anniversary in 2027 – in the process, redeeming Lucas and allowing him to join Obi-Wan and Yoda in Force heaven.

In the meantime, the thought did occur to me that, while an authorized Disney release would be wonderful, there actually has been a rebel movement among diehard fans and guerilla restorationists, who have taken matters into their own hands to return “Star Wars” to its original glory. This ragtag band has been overseen by Petr Harmáček, an English teacher from the Czech Republic, who goes by the handle Harmy. Harmy has made it his mission to undertake private restorations of the original “Star Wars” trilogy, drawing from all available sources.

Keep in mind, this is in flagrant disregard of George Lucas’ wishes. While Harmy’s “Despecialized Edition” is available for download on the internet, he has so far avoided prosecution and his work has received no legal challenges, since he has charged no fee for his work and has managed to walk a razor’s edge between “fair use” and copyright infringement. You can read more about him and his cause here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmy%27s_Despecialized_Edition

Then you can savor the fruit of his labor, getting as close as possible to the experience of seeing the film as it was released on May 25, 1977. Ideally, you should also have decent playback equipment. Best of all would be to download the file for yourself from a reputable site. Did I mention, it’s free? Also, use the Force to blot out all unhelpful memories of anything that came after to desensitize us and diminish our pleasure.

https://archive.org/details/star.-wars.-1977.-despecialized.-720p.x-264.-ac-3.5.1

You know it’s an upside-down universe when it falls to somebody named Harmy to do goody.

Why is it so important? Watch this video (also by Harmy) and learn for yourself.

May the Force be with you. Happy Orthodox Star Wars Day. “Star Wars,” 45 years-old today.

May 25, 2022
Star Wars Radio Talk with Captain Phil

After reading yesterday’s panegyric and screed about the rise and fall of Skywalker, Phil Merkel invited me on to his radio show, Captain Phil’s Planet, to continue in that vein this afternoon, beginning around 3:40 EDT.

There will be about a half-hour of jawboning about Jawas and tunes from Tatooine, as Cap and I travel back to our collective youth, a long time ago in a galaxy far, far way, to reminisce about what it was like to see “Star Wars” in the theater in 1977.

Tune in to WUSB, the radio station of Stony Brook University, at wusb.fm. To hear the stream, click on the silver WUSB player button at the upper left-hand side of the page.

See you there, dorks!

https://www.wusb.fm/

PHOTO: To give you an idea of what you’re in for, these guys were way cooler than us

May 5, 2022
Star Wars Day: Remembering the 1977 Magic

“Star Wars” opened on May 25, 1977. Yet today is celebrated as “Star Wars Day.” Why? Because of a stupid pun: May the Fourth be with you.

I can get behind that.

The young will never truly understand what it was like to experience “Star Wars” in a theater for the first time back then. Standing in enormous lines. Not being able to get in. An absorbed audience without cell phones. No vacuous tabloid entertainment “news” prior to the feature. 45 years ago, before the lights went down and the trailers started, you had the conversation of your family or friends.

Then the 20th Century Fox Fanfare. The peculiar text “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” The brash appearance of the film’s title – STAR WARS – receding into space. The opening crawl. The enormity of the first star destroyer. The richly-imagined creatures and lived-in locations. The jump to light speed. The grappling hook swing across a yawning chasm. The light saber duel. The extraterrestrial dogfights and dizzying race to destroy the Death Star. And of course, the exhilarating, exuberant, totally transporting music.

In 1977, not only was “Star Wars” sensorially thrilling, but the overall experience resonated. It was clearly-told, cleanly-executed, and deeply satisfying, and viewers left the theater glowing.

Whether or not it was intended to be so, the film was a brilliant piece of postmodernism. Everything about it was fresh, yet comfortingly familiar, with elements of the western, the swashbuckler, the war movie, the matinee serial, the samurai chanbara, and whatever else George Lucas may have picked up from film school and a lifetime of going to the movies.

Likewise, John Williams’ score was like an ice cream soda, with dollops assimilated from English and Russian classics of the western canon, topped by a schlag of Austro-German Romanticism.

“Star Wars” mania swelled like an overstuffed Shmoo to dominate pop culture. But in 1977 it was all brand-new, and the merchandizing had to scramble to catch up. At first, there was the novelization and the Marvel comics and some t-shirts, and that was about it. Kenner, the toy company, was caught totally off-guard and unable to meet the demand for action figures in time for Christmas. Anybody else remember the Early Bird Certificate Package? At Christmas 1978, they were still struggling to keep up.

For better or worse, “Star Wars” changed movies and merchandizing, and the relationship between the two, forever.

Alas, in 2022, the magic has long since faded. There’s little nutritional value in the devouring of one’s own tail (or tale) and, decades later, the franchise, like an enormous ouroboros, has lost most of its vitality.

Furthermore, you can’t even see the original movie anymore, or rather the theatrical cut, thanks to years of Lucas’ digital retrofitting. Here’s hoping that someday Disney allocates some of its profits to removing the “overpainting,” as it were, so that the film can again be experienced as it was originally shown.

Lucas has been steadfast in insisting that his revisions comprise a definitive version, yet he continued to tinker right up until the time it left his hands. He even went so far as to claim that the source material was so degraded by then that such a restoration would be impossible.

Yet the theatrical cuts were selected by the Library of Congress National Film Registry for preservation as being “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.” Lucas tried to offer his retooled versions in place of the originals, and the library said no thanks. So the theatrical cuts are out there, folks. I just hope somebody’s taking care of them.

Long live “Star Wars” (the original), and may Disney do everything in its power to restore the 1977-83 trilogy to its original brilliance. At this stage in the decline of the franchise, I would venture to guess, it would generate more revenue than to produce another substandard movie. Then, to promote the reissue on home video, why not rerelease the original trilogy in theaters? There would be three generations of “Star Wars” fans lining up to see it.

Don’t let J.J. Abrams get you down. The Force is still strong with this one.

Happy Star Wars Day!

A face-melting side-by-side comparison (still not comprehensive) of Lucas’ alterations to “Star Wars”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J09VSUHZDLc

May 4, 2022
NJ Concerts Star Wars Williams Korngold

Here’s a link to a cleaner, more readable facsimile of my article in this week’s U.S. 1 newspaper.

All-John Williams, performed by the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic Orchestra – with Jonathan Wintringham the soloist in the saxophone concerto “Escapades,” after “Catch Me If You Can” – at the Trenton War Memorial this Saturday at 7:30 pm. Daniel Spalding conducts.

Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto at the Princeton Symphony Orchestra – with Stefan Jackiw the soloist – at Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium on May 7 & 8. Rossen Milanov conducts.

Williams’ score to “Star Wars,” performed by the New Jersey Symphony, with the film, at the State Theatre in New Brunswick on May 12. (Additional performances at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank on May 13 and New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on May 14.) Constantine Kitsopoulos conducts.

Reel music is real music! Read all about it here:

https://www.communitynews.org/princetoninfo/eeditions/page-page-10/page_f0b402cd-d18f-5a99-a5fc-eeee5d595098.html

April 21, 2022
William Walton: Star Wars Inspiration

Today is the 120th anniversary of the birth of Sir William Walton. Walton is perhaps best remembered for his coronation marches and film scores, but he also wrote operas, symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and choral works.

Sadly, these days, we don’t seem to encounter these much in concert anymore, at least in the U.S., which is a great pity, since Walton was an impeccable craftsman and his music often quite inspirational.

Be that as it may, his influence has been felt by just about anyone who’s ever gone to the movies since 1977. That’s the year John Williams married Walton’s heroic sound to George Lucas’ vision of a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.

Walton’s concert music may have fallen out of fashion, but Williams would have never become the household name he has without having assimilated his marches, harmonies, and orchestrations. When André Previn first heard Williams conduct his music to “Star Wars,” he could hardly contain his glee, exclaiming, “Why, it’s Willie Walton!”

Hear for yourself…

“Star Wars” throne room – from the one-minute mark, pure Walton:

What Walton cooked up for the Queen in 1953 – there’s a proto-“Star Wars” moment about two minutes in, but do listen to the whole thing:

This is what he composed for her dad in 1937:

For Olivier’s film of “Richard III”

“Belshazzar’s Feast”: “Praise Ye!”

“Belshazzar’s Feast”: “Alleluia”

In 1966, Previn himself laid down what is considered the benchmark recording of Walton’s Symphony No. 1. It’s possible he managed to surpass it with this explosive performance with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1970:

Happy birthday, Sir William Walton!

PHOTO: Walton (right) with Previn, his champion

March 29, 2022

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