"Laugh it up, Fuzzball."
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.
I saw the original Star Wars film in 1977 with my wife. I was 27 at the time. Watched the next sequel, the one with the teddy bear creatures in it, didn’t care for it, and haven’t seen a Stars Wars film since.
How Star Wars was saved in the edit (youtube)
The intro:
In February of 1977, George Lucas invited some of his closest friends to watch a rough cut of his new film: Star Wars.
In attendance among a handful of people were Steven Spielberg and Brian De Palma. The response was- not good. According to Spielberg, this is how De Palma reacted: "Well, Brian went off the deep end. WHAT???!!! MAKES NO SENSE! NONSENSE!' "
The film was in trouble. Sure, you can point at the superficial problems with the rough cut. Such as, placeholder VFX, stock footage, unfinished sound, and temp music.
But, we're not gonna focus on those.
No, the real issues were fundamental: the story, the scenes, the characters, the pacing But the film was not beyond saving, because they say a film is written three times: first, in the screenplay, next, in production and finally, in the edit.
The success of Star Wars was not inevitable. In fact, the way things were going, it was almost guaranteed to fail. It was only due to their laborious editorial process that Star Wars snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
So Lucas turned to his ingenious editing team: Richard Chew, Paul Hirsch, arguably one of George's greatest collaborators: his wife at the time, Marcia Lucas. Their job was to rebuild a bloated first act, cut tons of unnecessary material, create clarity, tension, and drama in places that had none, and restructure scenes and entire sequences to propel the story forward.
Basically, they just had to start from scratch.
I saw the opening somewhere on the east side of manhattan in 1977.
The audience rolled back and forth like tall grass roiled by shifting winds.
Saw it opening day in Chicago. That and James Bonds films were the reason to stand in line and create memories for a lifetime.
No matter how many times I watched, I could never keep the plot, after the first 3, straight in my head. That is, until I made this music video of Weird Al’s and everything suddenly made sense.
Star Wars - The Saga Begins - “Weird Al” Yankovic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v30lask4Ihw
George Lucas is a man who cannot control his own appetites. I am amazed he hasn’t been outed in a stock, monetary or sex scandal, no gender choice intended. He just ate himself into a blob, people like that are addicts. I don’t trust addicts.
"Laugh it up, Fuzzball."
Rememember how they started to roast Han Solo over an open fire, and Luke Skywalker saved him?
And remember all those empty stormtrooper helmets they were using as drums at the end of the movie?
Can you guess what kind of meat they were serving at the banquet?
When I saw the title, I first thought of the Holiday Special.
Exactly! Ewoks are basically midget orcs.
I don't normally side on the side of empires, but in this case, Ayn Rand's dictum has merit: "On the one side are the forces of mysticism, medieval tribalism, dictatorship — and terror; on the other side are the forces of reason, individualism, capitalism — and civilization."
Ewoks are commie savages.
I was stationed at Myrtle Beach AFB - the home we were heading to after the movie was a friend’s trailer off base.
The best time I had on the stuff - only used it 4 times - was playing pool in a bar that had a baseball game on the TV. Still remember how cool “Black Water” by the Doobies sounded on the jukebox, how when I hit a ball, the cue ball seemed to jump inch-by-inch until it hit the target ball, which flowed like a stream into the pocket - and how the “click” of the balls hitting didn’t register until a second or 2 after the ball was pocketed.
And watching the baseball game, with men throwing, swinging, and running like little puppets was so funny we cried real tears from laughing so hard - got a lot of looks from the local rednecks...
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