It started to blow chunks as soon as they landed on teddy bear planet.
Posted on 04/20/2025 4:08:02 AM PDT by grundle
1977's 'Star Wars' will receive a resurrection screening after being hidden away for decades in favor of tweaked "Special Editions."
There is an excellent chance you have never seen Star Wars.
Oh, you might think you’ve seen 1977’s Star Wars (now christened Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope). But what you’ve likely actually seen is one of the many altered versions of Star Wars that have been in wide distribution ever since the film’s initial theatrical run.
Writer-director George Lucas famously kept making tweaks and changes to his creation through iterations of “Special Editions.” Many of these changes are somewhat subtle, while others are glaring and, many fans say, distracting, and even embarrassing (perhaps the worst example — the infamously resurrected Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt scene — remains quite cringe, even after an effort was made to improve it). Going over the history of the original Star Wars and its transformation is a bit like watching an episode of Botched, where a desire for a little surgical refreshment evolves into Greedo shooting first, howling dewbacks and Harrison Ford stutter stepping onto Jabba’s tail.
But now there’s a new hope — at least, for some lucky individuals in the U.K.
According to The Telegraph, the British Film Institute’s Film on Film Festival in June will open with a screening of one of the few remaining Technicolor prints that was produced for Star Wars’ initial run. This is, the story reports, the first time the original print has been publicly screened since December 1978 (there have been copies that have made the rounds on home video).
This is because Lucas’ tweaks to the print began with the very first theatrical rerelease of Star Wars in 1981. The studio has since only permitted the screening of various Special Editions. BFI had to negotiate with Disney and Lucasfilm for the rights for a back-to-back screening on the festival’s opening night. This particular BFI print has been stored for four decades at a temperature of 23 degrees Fahrenheit to preserve its quality, so it should look rather pristine.
Lucas, over the years, has been rather firm about not screening the original and, when asked in 2004 by the Associated Press why he doesn’t simply release the original version along with the Special Editions, rather grumpily shot back, “The Special Edition, that’s the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it’s on VHS, if anybody wants it. I’m not going to spend the — we’re talking millions of dollars here — the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn’t really exist anymore. It’s like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I’m sorry you saw a half-completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I’m the one who has to take responsibility for it. I’m the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they’re going to throw rocks at me, they’re going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.”
Since tickets for the BFI screening will be snatched up faster than you can say “maclunkey,” one can only hope (since rebellions are built on hope) that the screening’s reception spurs Disney and Lucasfilm to consider letting fans get to see some U.S. screenings as well.
Disney managed to kill Star Wars for me. Heck, it was in a death spiral by the end of Lucas’s tenure.
I generally like George Lucas’s work even the star wars prequels but not releasing the original versions of star wars was such an oddly petty move on his part.
I’m with you on this one.
After “Revenge Of The Sith” the series started going downhill.
Saw the original on opening day at the Cinerama in Seattle. Waited in line around the block. I was in HS.
Agree, though to be fair, the lingering death started with Jar Jar Binks...
It started to blow chunks as soon as they landed on teddy bear planet.
So what? A little kid venture.
Went to a free private screening of Star Wars in Wash DC during a winter school trip and did a private survey afterwards . Our all boys school group were waiting in line for another movie .
let me guess... there are bestiality scenes with Chewbacca and Princess Leia? a homo scene between Luke and Han or luke and Obi wan??
You never noticed the 7-foot tall teddy bear hanging out with Han Solo?
That’s a squatch.
It was already going downhill with “Return of the Jedi” in 1983.
* Lame attempt to recreate the cantina scene in Jabba’s lair
* The silly action scene where Jabba tries to execute the protagonists with an overly complicated method that would embarrass even a Bond villain
* Ewoks
* Attack and destroy the Death Star… again
I could go on, but you get the idea.
In 1977, it was best when viewed when on LSD....I think I saw Timothy Leary one row ahead of me...he morphed into R2-D2 and was suddenly on the screen...
He should jave released it when I was interested and cared.
The fan(atics) killed Star Wars demanding more movies.
Thanks for the comparison link. I went through some of it. Lots of details were improved.
Good to have the original historic version preserved somewhere as a baseline.
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