Was I privileged to watch this one first?

Rating: 10/10 (31 January 2009)

The first time I got to set my eyes on this movie, back in 2000, was on an old TV record that we had somewhere here... I didn't know what to expect. The only thing that I'd ever seen of Star Wars was a vague memory of Yoda that was invoked by the word 'yoga' and I believe a poster of The Phantom Menace, so I didn't really know much about this franchise. So I placed the record into the VCR and started watching...and I was blown away.
I watched the opening crawl before being introduced to my first Star Destroyers, and I must say...I found this introduction to be pretty interesting. The pacing, overall, was pretty good, especially for the start of a science-fiction film. (even though it's actually a space opera, but who cares...)
So I got to see the main character getting into trouble with an ice monster that seemed to be looking for food, and found it..then shots of the other main characters who seemed to be worried about the main character, and were discussing some other business as well... After some of that business, we got to see a pretty large-scale ground battle which had some interesting stop-motion animation which deemed to be pretty effective for a movie of the early '80s, and at times looked rather advanced to execute. The special effects were great, overall, for a movie from around the time of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
After a while, the main characters split up and meet differing situations, before eventually both facing peril, both eventually managing to get out of this, but then, near the end of the movie, all being trapped in the same location, just in very different spots.
What I really liked about the film, however, was this sense of isolation. An ice planet almost devoid of life, a forest planet with barely anyone to talk to, a lonely cave...I feel that this had an interesting influence on the perception of the interaction between some of the characters.
The Han/Leia romance was one thing that kind of interested me due to the characters being of totally opposite personalities and origins, and the R2-D2/C3PO conversations...
Now the personality of Darth Vader in this film was also to my liking. He very plainly didn't care how many admirals and captains he killed...after he needed them no further, or felt they had failed him, he disposed of them like they were nothing. What made this a bit funny, however, was how nobody seemed to care much if one of these persons was killed. I guess that's what they were used to.
Some characters return, some characters are new, and some characters have been disposed of. Grand Moff Tarkin couldn't hold Vader to his leash anymore, so Vader could do as he wanted to whomever he felt fit, and he held an iron hand within the division of the Empire that he controlled.
This film also marks the first brief appearance of the personage named 'The Emperor' back then, who would later be replaced by a different actor who would play in a few more Star Wars movies. After finishing this TV record, I eventually got hold of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and the Special Editions of the original trilogy on VHS. Some changes in these versions were crappy, some weren't that bad. However I don't get why some lines had to be replaced in the Special Editions and the later 2004 Special Editions.
Otherwise the only big change in the 1997 Special Edition seemed to be a more fleshed-out scene of the ice monster somewhere near the beginning of the film.
After watching the Special Edition Empire Strikes Back and the rest of the originals in that version for quite a few years, I kind of went silent on Star Wars...until the release of Revenge of the Sith, and then, after that, again.. Then in 2007 I got a box of the Original Trilogy for Christmas.. And the alterations in that box were a bit more than I could bear.
They replaced the conversation between Darth Vader and the Emperor with the actor that acted as the Emperor in the later movies, which sounded pretty consistent to do, but the make-up and lighting of that version was screwed up, they changed the dialog for some reason.. The original Emperor's projection had a face that was kept in the dark, and the 2004 DVD version's face was partially kept in the light and leaning backwards. Also, colouring issues were present at certain times.
Well...after that I got the soundtracks and then The Force Unleashed, somewhere during 2008. And then I found the original version of this movie on DVD, as well as STAR WARS and Return of the Jedi...and I decided to buy those versions, because I was tired of seeing an altered version of a classic that made it look as though it wasn't made in the '80s, when in fact it was. It would seem I prefer the unaltered version over any others, no matter how badly they try to soup it up. Thank you, George Lucas, for helping me turn back and look for the original version.