From very early George Lucas started making edits, changing Jabba, scenarios, colour, effects.
How can one watch the very original unedited version of star wars? Is there even such a thing?
With these:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/155343341510?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=706-89093-2056-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=155343341510&targetid=1659317062297&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=1002420&poi=&campaignid=17288923165&mkgroupid=135230546845&rlsatarget=pla-1659317062297&abcId=9300873&merchantid=589842224&gclid=Cj0KCQiA_P6dBhD1ARIsAAGI7HDpRI3MZePvy7UiRM6QCF5UEG1eLzg6r1aFTQl7kYqi3ZoMyFjZECEaAnIWEALw_wcB
I've got 'em. They're letterboxed, but if I just resize my TV's image settings, they look great. If I had a giant-sized, ultra-hi def TV, maybe I'd see tonnes of flaws, but they look fine on what I've got.
I pop in the OG films on disc two and it's just what was in theatres. Title crawl doesn't even say "EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE"; that sucker just says, "STAR WARS"
I think I replied to this already somewhere else on this forum, so apologies, Ace, if this is something I am repeating, but for me the ultimate version for today's standards would be Harmy's Despecialized Edition. They painstakingly, frame by frame reverted all unnecessary changes Lucas made from 1997 onwards to the films, and produced a true HD theatrical version of all 3 original films.
They are even working on a 4K version now :-)
Aren't the 4K versions prepared by some other people and finished by now? I'm talking about 4K77-, 4K80-, and 4K83-projects. Haven't seen Harmy's versions, but I read that it has parts only in DVD quality.
shareNo worries. I do the same thing. Can't always remember to whom I've said any particular thing; plus, you can't count on everybody having read every inch of each thread. I appreciate the heads-up on the Despecialized Edition. I have a friend who acquired them and loves them - swears by them. I might check them out sometime, particularly since my copies might deteriorate.
To me, that's the main thing that bothers me: there's this piece of film history that Lucasfilm/Disney and even before the sale George Lucas himself just allowed to become unavailable to the general public. I worry that this will happen more and more. Subscription services will be pushed, physical media will go away, and "owning" a copy is really just perpetual renting for a subscription fee. In consequence, companies will yank back product from digital libraries of their customers and either erase them entirely or tweak them before putting them back. It's especially concerning with the up-trend of bowdlerizing going around. "Oh, this is offensive now; we'll just take it out for you. There you go, baby. Enjoy your pabulum."
Very few people??? Millions of people saw the original and most of them are probably still alive. Lucas didn’t make significant changes until the 1997 Special Edition, so the original wasn’t just seen by people who watched it in the theatres in 1977 (like me), but also everyone who watched it in the subsequent 20 years.
Look for Harmy’s Despecialized Edition or the Silver Screen Edition if you want to see the originals. Or the DVDs suggested by the other poster. Or even old VHS or Laserdisc copies.
Everyone in the developed world saw the original "Star Wars" in 1977, as well as everyone in the developing world who had a couple of bucks for a movie ticket or access to a VHS player. We're talking billions.
Including me! Saw it in the theaters in 1977, fanboys, so I have fandom seniority on you guys!
Spot on
shareI saw it on opening day. Many people did.
shareNot a lot of people saw it on opening day, May 25. Fox only released it in 32 theaters, in only 21 cities, on opening day. However, many people falsely remember seeing it on opening day because of how big the film became. They waited in lines around the block, and in subsequent years have thought that was an opening day line.
Star Wars didn't go into wide released until the end of July. That's when most people started seeing it. If you actually saw it on opening day, you are one of a small number of people who did. Most people saw Smokey and the Bandit that weekend.
I saw it in the theater. Just waited a week for the lines to die down.
shareWe'll never see them in good format because George Lucas hated the originals so much he put it into Disney's Contract when they bought it from him that they can never release the original versions.
shareReally? That is very interesting / intriguing. Going to Google now for the full original releases
shareDo you have source for this claim?
shareNo but it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. It is a rumor floating around. George Lucas hates the orignal versions of the OT and it wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. I admit I could not find anything on google about it.
shareI think what happened with George Lucas is he had NOTHING but money after his divorce in 1983. He couldn't make any good movies(Howard the Duck) except for Star Wars. After a decade he realized Star Wars was all he had and decided to make even more money by making special editions, a new trilogy, etc. and eventually retiring by selling Disney for billions of dollars.
So, for over 30 years George Lucas made nothing good at all. NOTHING.
Sometime in the 2010s, I had gotten a DVD package, probably from Amazon, that contained both the original and the special edition (tinkered) versions, so 6 DVDs. This was apparently before Disney bought it out.
The problem with those is that they are fullscreen instead of widescreen.
shareI thought (haven't seen them) they were 4:3 letterboxed (the same than laserdisc release).
shareThat sounds even worse. That means a lot of the picture of the film is cut off.
shareNo, the whole image was there. Its just in much lower resolution. They didn't remaster the original versions, but just used the old laserdisc masters which were made for 4:3 televisions, not the modern 16:9 tv's.
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I watched the original theatrical cut back in the day, there was no A New Hope in the crawl, simply opened up as Star Wars.
shareI saw the OOT on TV back in the early to late 80s, and I don't care about whether it said an episode number and name, or nothing at all. I didn't even notice, it's that inconsequential.
But from what I recall, Lucas didn't tinker with the content of the movies at all until the Special Editions came out around 1997, and thereafter, every major VHS, DVD and Blu-ray release had a tinker of some sort. I don't know why he left well enough alone for something like 14 years, to be honest.
The pre-Special Edition fanedits are not hard to find on the internet.
share4K77 (ANH) and 4K83 (ROTJ) are the latest 'definitive' OT versions but they're not fanedits. They're scans of the original 35mm prints.
shareI was thinking of the Harmy upscaled versions. But yes, you are correct that there are those too. Although Empire doesn't seem out yet except in beta stage.
shareYes, but people don't want FAN EDITS, they want the ORIGINALS.
The 4K77, 4K80 and 4K83 are the originals. If you mean that you want them released in cinemas, to legit physical media or Disney+, I wouldn't hold my breath. Some people believed Disney would do it after acquiring Star Wars, but it hasn't happened yet.
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