The negatives were reassembled for the special editions but they can be put back together. Even if they couldn't you could still create a new transfer using the separation masters and interpositives. Even failing that, the 35mm and 70mm copies of the films they have archived could be used to make decent modern…

The whole purpose of that speech was the preservation of the films in their original form. "In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be ‘replaced’ by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten." He can…