The original cut of the 1977 film “Star Wars: A New Hope” will be screened in London this summer.
“Star Wars” Original Cut London Screening
According to The Guardian, a rare screening of the 1977 original cut of “Star Wars: A New Hope” will be shown in London.
In the original 1977 theatrical cut, Han Solo shot first at Greedo, and Jabba the Hutt was only mentioned by name and did not visually appear until “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.” This theatrical version of the film will be shown twice during the opening night of the British Film Institute’s (BFI) Film on Film festival on June 12.
Since the 1990s, when George Lucas produced special editions of the “Star Wars” trilogy, the original version of the film has rarely been shown in public. Other controversial revisions were done to the film during that period, including new CGI characters.
Those looking to watch the theatrical cut can only do so with an out-of-print VHS tape release or a DVD bonus feature from 2006. Many fan-made edits that attempt to restore the film to its original cut have circulated online.
Lucas told the Associated Press in 2004 that he was “sorry you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it, but I want it to be the way I want it to be.”
The special edition version released in 1997 was edited to show Greedo the bounty hunter firing first at Harrison Ford’s Han Solo. Another change that was unpopular among fans was the CGI addition of Jabba the Hutt. Originally, the character was not seen on screen until the final film of the original trilogy, “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.”
Senior Curator of fiction at the BFI National Archive, James Bell, said,
One of the ambitions of the BFI Film on Film Festival is to screen original release prints that transport audiences back to the moment a film was first released — to give audiences of today the special emotional connection that comes when viewing the very same object seen by a film’s original audience.
James Bell, Senior Curator of fiction at the BFI National Archive
Disney has granted the BFI permission for the original version to be screened. There are no plans to screen the original cuts of “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” or “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.”
Have you seen the original cut of the first “Star Wars” film? Let us know on social media.
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