April 12, 2025

YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN: Original Star Wars Cut Will Be Shown at a Theater for First Time in Decades.

A rare screening of the original 1977 Star Wars movie — complete with Han shooting first — will be shown at a theater in London this summer.

Since its release, Star Wars: Episode 4 – A New Hope, as it’s now called, has undergone several controversial changes made by the film’s creator George Lucas. The original movie that sparked one of the biggest franchises of all time is now a holy grail for fans who want to watch the film as it first appeared in the 1970s.

The subsequent alterations made to the film are well-documented: Han Solo being shot at by the bounty hunter Greedo first, rather than the original in which anti-hero Han killed Greedo without being shot at. Then there is the addition of a CGI Jabba the Hutt who was only mentioned by name in the 1977 release. Fans have also complained about the color grading painted on re-releases.

But for those attending the British Film Institute (BFI)’s Film on Film festival in London, they are in for a treat. Star Wars will play not once but twice on the opening night on June 12.

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“I wanted to show the film to my kids, and I wanted them to see the original version that I enjoyed at their age,” writes Robert Williams on The Star Wars Trilogy website 4K77. “Not the one with the already dated-looking CGI, over-saturated colors, and a strong magenta tint.”

The Guardian notes that anyone wanting to see the original theatrical cut legally must find an out-of-print VHS release or a DVD bonus features from 2006.

Lucas has little sympathy for those who want to see his first version of the film telling the Associated Press in 2004, “I’m sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be.”

If Disney can restore and rerelease Michael Lindsay-Hogg’s Let It Be, the last Beatles movie, which had only been available for decades on badly duped copies of copies of copies the ancient VHS videotapes, surely they can find a way to bring the original version of the original Star Wars to streaming or Blu-Ray.

Posted at 12:45 pm by Ed Driscoll 174

WHAT POLICING LOOKS LIKE IN BRITAIN THESE DAYS:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds 128

CHANGE: Matt Taibbi: Burn it all Down. Globalization, once hailed as a panacea, has proven to be fundamentally corrupt and needs to be blown to kingdom come. “Everyone who follows this site knows I’ve always had an uncomfortable relationship with the Trump phenomenon. At the best of times, I find him puzzling and maybe dangerous, even when he’s being funny or taking aim at deserving targets. Now he’s president and people seem reflexively to want more criticism of him, but on this issue, what choice is there? The global economy created by both parties from the eighties onward was not only designed to be a giant predatory clusterfuck, but nearly impossible to unwind. Forget ‘incrementally,’ it’s got to be exploded. Would more of the same and a slow death be better?”

Some things can’t be done incrementally.

Posted at 12:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds 256

THE 21st CENTURY ISN’T TURNING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: ‘Puppy Prozac’ surges tenfold as owners medicate anxious lockdown dogs.

Vets have reported a surge in the use of “puppy Prozac” as owners seek medication for anxious lockdown dogs.

Research has revealed a tenfold increase over the past decade in the number of dogs in the UK on fluoxetine, an antidepressant sold under the brand name Prozac when used in humans.

Fluoxetine increases levels of serotonin in dog’s brains and is licensed in tablet form to treat pets with separation anxiety, or those displaying forms of aggression.

Greater use of the medication reflects a wave of behavioural problems in puppies bought during the pandemic lockdowns, who were not socialised properly and struggled to be left alone as owners returned to the office.

Vets said that social media had contributed to a “mismatch between owners’ expectations and the reality of dogs being dogs”, creating demand for the drug.

In some cases, people wanted their pets to be “fur-babies” that stay quiet, and believed medical intervention was needed if dogs ran around, jumped up or barked too much, vets added.

As always, life imitates the earlier, funnier version of Saturday Night Live:

Watch on TikTok

Posted at 10:45 am by Ed Driscoll 100

GOODER AND HARDER, CALIFORNIA: Oakland Chinatown businesses say they’re getting fined thousands for graffiti on their own property. 

In Oakland, Chinatown merchants are raising the alarm after many are being hit with thousands of dollars in fines for graffiti on their properties.

Shirley Lou knows how this story goes. On any given day, the supermarket she manages is tagged. They paint over it and then it happens again.

“We cannot control. We clean up and they come again. So many times, but the city — I don’t know why they are charging me money,” said Luo, manager at Won Kee Supermarket.

On Tuesday, she tried to pay the latest fine of $500. The city told Luo she owes $3,000, which includes late fees.

“It’s not my fault. Not our fault. It’s somebody go to the roof and mark so many graffiti,” Luo said.

This is not an isolated issue. Throughout Oakland’s Chinatown, business owners are reporting thousands of dollars in fines for not painting over tags fast enough.

“We close at 4 o’clock when we go home, and we cannot watch people do things like that. We can’t. So, the city has to help,” said Susan Lam, Oakland business owner.

As Lawrence Person wrote in 2023, “Defund The Police + Decriminalize Shoplifting = ‘Food Deserts.’” Oakland’s government attempting to push their grocery stores out of business is also guaranteed to make that happen.

Posted at 10:14 am by Ed Driscoll 218

THE NECROPHILIAC OF PELHAM ONE, TWO, THREE: The Worst Story of the Week.

The Times sub-headlined its news piece with truly remarkable framing: “New York’s subways have been the subject of debate, with politicians using them to paint the city as out of control and dangerous to residents and visitors.” Yeah, can’t imagine why. I can do no better than Liz Wolfe of Reason when she points out that “the subhed appears to be, uh, pretty backed up by the headline.”

Look, on any objective level this is a horrifying story. But I am determined to find the bright side of a story involving a thief sodomizing a corpse on the R train, because it is Friday, people, and we need good cheer on Friday. So . . . well, it at least beats the story of the poor woman who was immolated by an illegal immigrant psychopath while asleep on a different New York City train late last December. Yes, people died in both situations, but at least nobody was technically murdered this time. In Eric Adams’s New York, we must regard this as an improvement.

As Glenn wrote a few days ago, “Yes, public transit depends on a functioning high-trust civil society. Which lefties hate and undermine at every opportunity.”

 

Posted at 8:45 am by Ed Driscoll 94

TOO MANY SPOILED SPECIAL FLOWERS IN OUR LEADERSHIP CLASS EVERYWHERE:

Posted at 8:30 am by Glenn Reynolds 111

QUESTION ASKED: Did Douglas Murray break Joe Rogan?

Who gets to call themselves an expert? That’s the big question featured in a bruising episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, in which Rogan hosts The Spectator’s Douglas Murray and the libertarian comedian Dave Smith. Murray accuses Rogan of opening “the door to quite a lot of people who’ve now got a big platform, who’ve been throwing out counter-historical stuff of a very dangerous kind.”

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Murray also comes after Smith, who self-identifies as both a libertarian commentator and a comedian – monikers that other libertarians and other comedians would contest. Murray is aghast when he learns that Smith has never been to the Middle East. “You can’t time-travel but you can travel,” he says, after Smith points out that he’s not “been to Nazi Germany” either. “If you’re going to spend a year and a half talking about a place, you should at least do the courtesy of visiting it… I think it’s a good idea to see stuff, particularly if you spend a career talking about something. If you’re insistent that you’re an expert of some kind, or not claiming you’re an expert but still talking about it, about the provisions going into Gaza or not, if you’ve never seen any of this going on.”

I don’t agree that you have to physically visit an area to opine on it, but it certainly seems like quite a Kinsley gaffe for Smith to seemingly equate Israel with Nazi Germany.

Posted at 8:14 am by Ed Driscoll 318

JOHN ROBERTS ISN’T AS POLITICALLY SOPHISTICATED OR CLEVER AS HE THINKS HE IS, AND THE RESULTS WILL BE AWFUL:

I always tell my law students that as a lawyer, when you’re patting yourself on the back about how clever you’re bing, you usually aren’t.

Posted at 7:30 am by Glenn Reynolds 161

BOLDLY GONE: NASA axes ex-DEI chief after giving her new job title in apparent effort to evade Trump crackdown: report.

A chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at NASA has been fired despite the space agency appearing to change her title in an attempt to spare her from President Trump’s executive order ending federal DEI initiatives, according to a report.

Neela Rajendra, one-time Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, was terminated this week from her newly minted role as head of the “Office of Team Excellence and Employee Success,” the Washington Free Beacon reported.

“Neela Rajendra is no longer working at [Jet Propulsion Laboratory]. We are incredibly grateful for the lasting impact she made to our organization. We wish her the very best,” a mass email from lab director Laurie Leshin, obtained by the Beacon, stated.

Insert Clarkson Dacia Sandero meme here:

 

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll 60

DAVE FREER’S STORM DRAGON IS OUT. YES, THERE’S PAPER COPIES. BUY ONE FOR A YOUNG MAN TODAY:  Storm Dragon.

Posted at 7:00 am by Sarah Hoyt 5