Reminder: Han Shot First

[King Of Dirk]

The release of the latest retread got me thinking about The Good Old Days, a.k.a. before Lucas ruined the '77, '80 and '83 releases of the only three Star Wars movies. I wondered if I could find unbutchered versions on Blu-Ray, but alas all commercial options seem to have sailed.

Then I saw a reference to something called Harmy's Despecialized Edition.

I lack the saavy to procure this without turning my Mac into a slave for cyrptocurrency mining or similar, and wonder two things (this being VSalon, the first isn't too big a stretch):

1. Anyone here (have a friend) who has successfully obtained Episodes IV, V, and VI in Blu-Ray format this way?
2. Anyone here (have a friend) who can explain how to do it safely/correctly?

I seek only to augment versions I have paid for several times (theater and VHS) and to supplement versions I have paid for and regretted (the DVD versions of movies with revisions I do not like or want). Not trying to shortchange Mr. Lucas, though heaven knows he doesn't mind shortchanging his fans.

These are the versions I'm looking for.

[72gmc]

This is an admirable quest. And, I have no idea. I am simply wishing you luck, which is worth at least as much as the standard storm trooper's marksmanship.

[rec head]

You aren't going to get a commercial bluray of the original theatrical cut unless Disney (FYI: they really love money) decide to put it out. I don't think they have the rights to it yet.

I have downloaded the despecialized versions. If you follow the directions I don't think it is a huge security risk. I ran the torrent on my NAS which has it's own torrent downloader. That way I didn't have to install any torrent software on my PC.

They now have an upscaled to 4K version out there. I haven't gotten that yet but I have it book marked. My home theater PC is pretty good at upscaling so I'm not that worried but I'm sure with all the care that has gone into this project the 4K versions are probably pretty good. Now that I think of it I have an old 1 disk NAS that I could hook back up and use it to do the downloading.

PS. I really liked episode 9.

[BBB]

It really would be interesting to see the original versions (again).

But, going on my hazy recollection, the original Star Wars (before the episode moniker was attached) had some pretty clunky effects and the first round of revisions circa 1997 did a lot to fix these 1970s shortcomings (as well as doing a decent job of correcting the colour).

FWIW - I've never really understood the Han Shot First rigmarole. Lucas creates a character who operates outside the law (a smuggler) and has bounty hunters chasing him because he owes money to an over grown slug. Han is, according to Leia, a scoundrel. So, when he gets confronted by Greedo he shoots first. Big deal. Fits in with the character. Lucas then gets cold feet as the smuggler becomes a general and runs off with the hero's twin sister. So, he changes who shot first. What was the point? This is in a movie where a bloke in a black suit and in desperate need of ventolin has strangled someone before throwing them into a wall in the first five minutes, while the who shot who first scene happens minutes after an old man cuts someone's arm off in a bar. That a smuggler was shooting someone who was out to shoot him shouldn't have been a surprise. By the same token, that this of all the myriad of changes has caused fans to become a little discombobulated is also hard to understand. I accept that it was an unnecessary change, but it is a minor detail. Other changes probably should cause more offence. Replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen, or a representation of a figure that Luke never actually knew. That makes no sense at all.

If 'they' are going to change anything or re-release movies, they could completely re-write and re-shoot episodes 1, 2 and 3.

[ElvisMerckx]

Not Blu Ray, but this set has DVDs of the original theatrical versions:
https://www.ebay.com/p/70420734?iid=...waAq4vEALw_wcB

[rec head]

For those not familiar with Harmy's Despecialized versions of SW I'll try to explain. People hate the fact that so many changes were made to the original theatrical cut that they re-cut it using all the best sources available. From what I remember the sources were DVD, Laserdisc and BD. Then they converted everything to 1080 and color corrected it to make it look as good as possible. It is free to download.

[deano]

I have an original SW script you can read if you want (white gloves, clean room environment, chained to the nuclear football, etc.).... someone in my family acquired it from someone at Lucasfilm in the late 70s, is the legend. It's dated April 1976, labelled revised fourth edition. ( I think Luke is still 'Luke Starkiller' in that draft, though I'd have to double check).

When I was a kid, I had read all those deleted scenes in the script before they re-released them in the late 90s. So those re-cuts did have some fidelity to the original. You can check my script if you want. Fun!

[theflashunc]

The year Disney projects flat fiscal earnings is the year you'll see these magically appear out of the vault.

And the current conspiracy theory du jour is George put a clause in the sale contract that only the revised and updated versions can be released. Who knows how true that is.

[GrantM]

I have the original triology on VHS tapes in letterbox. the proper way to watch them is on a CRT tv, preferably a sony trinitron.

-g

[rydesteel]

I've never understood the numbers on the series, then again...I saw Star Wars at the Milan Cinemas with a pretty young blonde friend and wee bit of Columbia's finest Gold. Number them how you want but it will always be the First one
for me :>).

[pdmtong]

Episode IV

ASCII version

[snotrockets]

And the current conspiracy theory du jour is George put a clause in the sale contract that only the revised and updated versions can be released. Who knows how true that is.

A director of his reputation can get right of final cut into his contracts (for example, Spielberg has it, which is why you don't see his movies in planes: he declines to recut them for the airlines.) If he has right of final cut, then yes, he can decide which versions gets released, and he is very clear he considers the '77 version a work in progress.

If you're in DC, there's a copy of the 1978 reels in the library of congress. You can watch it there.