Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9080 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-09-11
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: PAL, Colour
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 255 minutes

DVD Description
Disc 1 - Special Edition: DTS 5.1 sound and 16:9 Anamorphic picture

Disc 2 - Original Version:2.0 Dolby Surround sound and is 2.35:1 letterbox within a 4x3 picture Disc 2 is THX, ensuring the highest possible quality picture and sound

Synopsis
The third and final chapter in the original wondrous STAR WARS saga is RETURN OF THE JEDI. Luke (Mark Hamill) must save Han Solo (Harrison Ford) from the clutches of the monstrous Jabba the Hut, and bring down the newly reconstructed--and even more powerful--Death Star. With Han Solo imprisoned, Luke accompanies his faithful droids R2D2 (Kenny Baker) and C3PO (Anthony Daniels) in a rescue bid, with Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) also lending a hand. After they valiantly disentangle their friends from Jabba's clutches, Luke returns to his Jedi Knight training with Jedi master Yoda. Meanwhile, the Rebel Troops amass in an attempt to see off the impending threat from Darth Vader (played by David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones) and his new Death Star, with the operation being lead by Han Solo. But Luke must face Vader himself if he is to become a true Jedi Knight, and as he enters into a spirited battle with his light sabre-wielding enemy, some surprising revelations await the young warrior. Includes the original theatrical version of the film.

Customer Reviews

Finally
To be fair - these are the films I saw and loved back as a kid. No altered / added scenes, all of the dialogue that was used the first time around. (Bring my shuttle). The transfer is fine, not in anyway as bright and sharp as the 2004 set, but still the colours now look as I remember them. One small problem, ANH is a bit fuzzy in places and a small number of scenes have a 'speckled with white flickering dots' look but these are minor points. The matte errors are back in Empire and Jedi, although those in ANH are now hardly visible compared to the hideous green squares in the 2004 set. No pink cored lightsabers, no music cues drowned out and no scary Hayden. (there are no differences I can see having a quick look at the SEs) I would have liked to see them properly restored, but they didn't get it right with the last disks so I'm not really complaining. Boba Fett has a decent voice once again, no CG and Han indeed shoots Greedo in an awesome fashion.

Ho ho hoo ho ho...
I remember seeing Return of the Jedi in my local Odeon when I was a sprog, loved it then and still love it now. The first half of the movie in Jabba's palace is superb, years later I'm still seeing creatures in the background I've never seen before! You've also got the original Max Rebo band song in this version too.

The worst Star Wars film in a terrible DVD transfer
Watching the original versions of the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD is like travelling back in time - not so much to the innocence of youth but more to the days when picture quality was never much of a consideration on video releases and Fox had the reputation for the worst transfers in the business. Watching the PAL DVDs is to step back into an age of low resolution standards conversions from NTSC to PAL with all the loss of detail and motion blurring that that entailed: certainly if you've got one of the old remastered video releases you might as well hold on to that, because the quality isn't as poor as this. The sound quality is pretty awful as well. From Lucas' past track record it's all too easy to imagine this is just a scam to allow him to sell a remastered version a couple of years down the line, but it's even harder to dispel the notion that somewhere Lucas is whining "See how soft the focus is? How can you say these are better films?"

Return of the Jedi isn't as bad as the scarred memories of working at a movie theatre showing it five times a day for 12 weeks would have it, but it's still the least of the series. With no producer or studio to rein him in this time, Lucas offers something that's little more than a rehash of the first two films, but with bigger Death Stars, more spaceships, more teddy bears and far, far too many Muppets, it's crippled by an atrocious opening section where one after another the heroes try to rescue Han Solo only to get captured in the most tedious ways possible. Richard Marquand's inability to direct action is much to the fore in this section, and he's not much better in the rest of the film, while Harrison Ford gives a particularly bad performance that's all too indicative of a bored man with nothing to do but stuck here anyway because of contractual obligation. If you can forget the dire first third, the rest of the film is okay when it's dealing with the Skywalkers' family feuds but less successful on the ground in the Teddy Bears Picnic - sorry, Ewok scenes. Still, it does have Princess Leia in the slavegirl outfit...