Last week I asked you name the person who said

I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that the films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them

The answer was George Lucas.

As Ben mentioned in the comments below, “Who isn’t concerned with their national heritage and films?” and on the surface of it, Lucas is putting forward a very valid concern.

But I’m overpowered by the stench of his hypocrisy.

Next month sees the long awaited arrival of Star Wars on DVD. Fantastic. Except for one thing. This is not going to be the version of Star Wars we saw in 1977. Or the “Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope” version that we saw in 1981. And rumours are rife that it is not going to be the Special Edition version that was released in 1997. No, this is going to be something new. Something different - again.

However, any chance you might have of showing your kids the original versions as you remember them are slim as Lucas is preventing any version prior to the one he is releasing from being seen again. Ever. If you’re a sad geek like me then you probably have both the original set and the special edition set on VHS. (Somewhere I still have all three films on tape as recorded from TV which is historically interesting as even then there were differences).

Allegedly, from reviews I have read, Lucas has also made substantial changes to his first opus, the sci-fi classic, “THX1138″. The reviews, so far, are not favourable. Rather than an intelligent and bleak vision of a dystopian future, Lucas has dumbed down the film to cater for the McDonalds masses of the twenty-first century.

While I am not necessarily against Special Edition/Director’s Cut/Extended versions of films (and I’m thinking of Blade Runner, Aliens, Lord of the Rings and suchlike) what I do like to have is choice. Films such as E.T. and The Wicker Man were extended or changed but both the original and new versions of the films could be found in the same package. Lucas, in his decision to never release the original original trilogy again, is denying us that choice and, in my opinion, leaving us with a legacy of films that aren’t as good as they once used to be.

That is why I am incensed that he has the audacity to be hypocritically affronted by the news that someone wants to colourize the black and white versions of The Three Stooges and that films he watched as a child may not be preserved.