Displaying items by tag: Star Wars 40th Anniversary

All right, I shouldn’t have tell any of you what today is... it’s Towel Day!

And also, of course, the 40th anniversary of a little film called Star Wars. Not Episode IV. Not A New Hope. Star Wars.

To recognize the occasion, we’ve got a couple things for you here at The Bits today.

First up, our very own Michael Coate has updated and expanded his excellent History, Legacy & Showmanship retrospective column, A Force to Be Reckoned With: Remembering “Star Wars” on its 40th Anniversary. He’s combed newspaper archives all across North America to produce a definitive history of the film’s debut theatrical release back in 1977-1978. Every theater that showed the film, the day it opened in that theater, all of it. Trust me, I’ve learned from personal experience that one’s memory of seeing the film back in 1977 is not as accurate as Michael’s exhaustive research – he’s sent me the vintage microfilmed newspaper clippings to prove it. [Read on here…]

Before we get started today, we’ve updated our recent review of Lionsgate’s Ex Machina in 4K Ultra HD format to include more accurate information about the film’s DI resolution, which is full 4K. Special thanks to Bits reader Ryan F. for the heads-up on the info from American Cinematographer magazine.

Also, our own Russell Hammond has updated the Release Dates & Artwork section for this week with all the latest Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD cover artwork and Amazon.com pre-order links. As always, whenever you order literally anything from Amazon after clicking to them through any of our links, you’re helping to support our work here at the site and we truly do appreciate it. [Read on here…]

All right, first up today we’ve got a couple more Blu-ray reviews for you: Tim has checked out Lionsgate’s Parents and The Lair of the White Worm, both recently-released entries in their Vestron Video Collector’s Series that are well worth your time. Be sure to give them a look.

Now then…

We’ve been saying for a while now that, once Disney took over the Star Wars franchise, it was inevitable that the original theatrical versions of the Star Wars films would be released at some point. Disney, as a studio, is very disciplined in taking care to meticulously preserve all of the valuable film assets in their vault. So this idea that those original films no longer exist, as suggested by George Lucas himself at one point, is hogwash. [Read on here…]