Movies That Were Better On VHS

The original Star Wars is both one of cinema's all-time greatest masterpieces, and also one of its greatest travesties, depending on whether you're watching the theatrical version, or the extended slow-motion footage of George Lucas repeatedly kicking fandom in the nuts, otherwise known as the Special Edition. Released in 1997, the Special Edition is the New Coke of the cinematic world, without the excuse that it was the '80s and everyone involved was probably on a very different kind of "coke." It's also the only version available. If you wanna watch Han shooting first, you better hand Harrison Ford a gun and tell him what you really thought of Indy 4.

Unless, that is, you happen to have a VHS copy of Star Wars lying around. In that case, you're laughing all the way to the nerd bank.

As Starwars.com notes, the first VHS releases of all Star Wars movies predated the Special Editions by over 10 years (A New Hope by an even greater margin). While even the first VHS is subtly different than the theatrical version of Star Wars (via Inverse), it's at least in the same ballpark, as are two other versions released on VHS. It's only when it comes to the original trilogy's final video release that the ugly specter of the Special Editions rears its Bantha-like head. By contrast, Den of Geek reports that the theatrical version saw one, extremely brief, release on DVD, and then only with shoddy picture quality.

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