Art Preservation and Star Wars

If you're a nerd, you may already be aware of the fiasco surrounding the latest re-re-re-release of the classic Star Wars trilogy, where George Lucas inserted more revamped effects and sound clips, including blinking Ewoks. Personally, I'm pretty much done discussing Star Wars - the original trilogy is a great cultural artifact that doesn't hold up to modern scrutiny, the fans are overly possessive, and the creators totally incapable of recapturing their earlier glory no matter how hard they try.

I have no grudges - although I may have once or twice demanded that George Lucas return the childhood he stole from me. In jest, of course. I don't want that childhood back (Could I have Richie Rich's instead?).

All the hubbub surrounding George Lucas RUINING THINGS FOREVER did, in fact, churn up one interesting treasure in its wake: an excerpt from an address George Lucas gave before congress in 1988. I'm including the segment I found most interesting below, for those too lazy to click on one more hyperlink. The quote is all Lucas; the bold print all mine.

A copyright is held in trust by its owner until it ultimately reverts to public domain. American works of art belong to the American public; they are part of our cultural history.

People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians, and if the laws of the United States continue to condone this behavior, history will surely classify us as a barbaric society. The preservation of our cultural heritage may not seem to be as politically sensitive an issue as "when life begins" or "when it should be appropriately terminated," but it is important because it goes to the heart of what sets mankind apart. Creative expression is at the core of our humanness. Art is a distinctly human endeavor. We must have respect for it if we are to have any respect for the human race.

These current defacements are just the beginning. Today, engineers with their computers can add color to black-and-white movies, change the soundtrack, speed up the pace, and add or subtract material to the philosophical tastes of the copyright holder. Tommorrow, more advanced technology will be able to replace actors with "fresher faces," or alter dialogue and change the movement of the actor's lips to match. It will soon be possible to create a new "original" negative with whatever changes or alterations the copyright holder of the moment desires. The copyright holders, so far, have not been completely diligent in preserving the original negatives of films they control. In order to reconstruct old negatives, many archivists have had to go to Eastern bloc countries where American films have been better preserved.

In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be "replaced" by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten.

...

Attention should be paid to this question of our soul, and not simply to accounting procedures. Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself.

I hope you have the courage to lead America in acknowledging the importance of American art to the human race, and accord the proper protection for the creators of that art as it is accorded them in much of the rest of the world communities.

I'm reminded of an experience from a couple of years ago at Salt Lake City's Organ Loft, where old silent films are showed while a live organist accompanies. Normally, the Organ Loft is a fun little dip into history - you get the feel for how the old Chaplin and Keaton films were originally meant to be seen.


The Organ Loft proudly presented the horror classic Nosferatu in 3-D. I've always found 3-D in movies gimmicky and unnecessary, but I loved seeing the original Nosferatu the year previous, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to catch the film again - and bring a date. Unfortunately, the movie wound up being kind of terrible. The team that worked 3-D into the Max Schreck classic also added their own scenes, rewritten tile cards, and a terrible animated segue sequence using the bat symbol from the 1960's Batman series.

In short, the movie - a timeless film with a strong following and emotionally-moving story that transcended genre restrictions was bogged down by unnecessary additions that clashed with the aesthetic already established by the time in which the film was made.

Sounds almost exactly like what's going on with Star Wars right now. At least, it would to someone who cared.

Since it's such a (relatively) new form of artistic expression - and since it's so often linked with big Hollywood business - film as a potential historical artifact seems to get neglected. I'm all for raising awareness of film preservation and artistic merit. Literature and history classes in the future may well turn to film as another text worthy of study.

After all, it was a literature class that introduced me to Charlie Chaplin, and I'll forever be grateful for that.