The original film, A New Hope , was released back in with little hope pun not intended of success by even its creator, George Lucas. According to Screen Prism , Lucas was so sure of its failure that when it was released in cinemas, he was hiding out in Hawaii on vacation. But Lucas must have had some belief that the movie could be a hit, because buried deep in his mind was a plan to turn what looked like a standalone film into a series of movies.
When A New Hope then simply titled Star Wars defied the odds, Lucas had been able to do just that with his cinematic baby. Then, in , a fourth Star Wars film was released. Only, it wasn't a fourth film — it was to be the first one on the Star Wars timeline. The Phantom Menace is in fact episode 1, and was succeeded by episodes 2 Attack of the Clones in and 3 Revenge of the Sith in to comprise a Star Wars prequel trilogy.
But why create them in this order? Why not make the first Star Wars trilogy prequels, then create two separate sequel collections? The answer is a lot simpler than its accompanying questions suggest.
Author Michael Kaminski writes in The Secret History of Star Wars that Lucas decided to start with the fourth episode "due to technical and storytelling reasons. He had also developed a backstory for his elaborate tale, which together totaled six chapters, and sought to make Episode IV first, due to technical and storytelling reasons.
When the film by some miracle went into production, it was beset by problems of all kinds, and Lucas was sure it would be a failure—and was shocked when it became the biggest sensation of the year. Lucas himself has corroborated this claim, stating, "The Star Wars series started out as a movie that ended up being so big that I took each act and cut it into its own movie [ It was like a big script.
It was way too big to make into a movie. When Han and Chewie are running from the stormtroopers, the and versions add an extra small line for Han.
The version also corrects a shot from shortly after the fight where Darth Vader's light saber had not been colored by the effects crew. It now appears red as it should be. In the and versions, we actually see the Millennium Falcon when it is arriving at the rebel base, and the huge doors are moving now instead of stationary. There is a small conversation between Luke and his friend Biggs before they go into battle. When the Rebels launch to go into attack, the and versions have added more special effects.
A shot of the Rebel fleet in space has been expanded in the and versions and the camera now moves with the X-Wings. The Death Star explosion is expanded in the and versions. Many matte lines have been removed throughout the and versions and other similar optical improvements have been made. The overall video and audio quality has also been improved in each version, sometimes with changes to some sound effects.
The DVD reissue contains a "bonus disc" which features the unaltered, pre-special edition film, with the original opening crawl without the "Episode IV: A New Hope" subtitle and the LaserDisc sound mix without C-3PO's "tractor beam description" and Stormtrooper "close the blast doors" lines.
This is the first and only time that this version will be available on video in regular DVD. The film was originally released with two stereo mixes created from the same four-track master. Later, a third audio mix was prepared for theaters which had not upgraded to Dolby stereo yet.
This third audio mix was in mono and had a few minor differences from the other two audio mixes such as Aunt Beru being dubbed by a different actress. In , two of the three versions were updated to include the "A New Hope" subtitle - the version not updated was the mono mix.
Later on, a fifth audio mix was created the fourth being created for the VHS release for the Definitive Collection Laserdisc set. This audio mix combined elements from all three of the theatrical audio mixes but was primarily sourced from the 70mm stereo mix. The DVD bonus disc is made from the masters for the Definitive Collection laserdisc set but with the highest quality print available spliced in for the original opening crawl. In the USA "Ken Films" released for world-wide outright sale, condensed versions of popular cinema releases for the Super 8 home movie film market.
From , initially only the seven minute running time abridged version of STAR WARS F48 was sold in three versions; in color and sound; in black and white and silent with subtitles; in color and silent with subtitles. Reel 1 is running 17 minutes meters , reel 2 is running 9 minutes.
This two reels are fitting together and are showing the story from the beginning of the movie to the end of the fight between the Falcon and the TIE fighters right after the escape from the Death Star. The assault on the Death Star didn't make it in this Super-8 version. The beginning shows not the opening crawl, the cut version starts in space over Tatooine with the star destroyer attack on Princess Leias's blockade runner while a speaker summarizes the opening crawl.
Almost three years later the German "UFA" released a 17 minutes long version including parts of the final battle against the Death Star and the throne room ceremony. Additional this version includes a lot of sequences not shown in the "marketing film" version: cantina scenes, Tusken raider scenes, the destruction of Alderaan, the Death Star approach of the Falcon after entering the Alderaan system.
By editing this three reels together the viewer got a complete overview of the story. But Obi-Wans death is not shown.
The 17 minutes US "Ken Films" version F48 provides two scenes not included in the German version: Vaders conversation on the blockade runner and a part of Luke and Leias swing across the abyss.
In the DVD edition, Vader's lines are lowered very slightly in pitch so his voice sounds more like it does in the next two films. For the initial Australian Cinema release of Star Wars distributor cuts were made to get the censorship classification the distributor wanted to guarantee an audience.
Australia Film Censorship Board insisted that the full length scene was not allowed to be seen "Luke's home is destroyed and he finds two charred bodies at his burnt-out home on Tatooine his aunt and uncle " all shown in a close-in shot of the homestead "Igloo" and nearby are the charred bodies skeletons of Owen and Beru Lars. In most German home video releases, two lines from Luke are missing "You know what's about to happen, what they're up against.
Those lines were recovered and included in the Blu-ray release. The film has numerous Hungarian versions: The original subtitled release from renamed Chewbacca to Harah for unclear reasons. The first dubbed release, made for a television broadcast introduced dialogue changes that were carried over into later dubs.
The Clone Wars are simply named "the War", as the translator couldn't make sense of the term. Han Solo's boasts about the Millennium Falcon are rewritten; instead of referencing the Kessel Run, Han says the ship can lose Imperial Star Destroyers under one twentieth of a second. His mention of the planet Corellia is also removed.
Greedo's dialogue is dubbed using heavy voice-modulation effects. The rest of the dub often simplified lines Obi-Wan Kenobi's "Who's more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him? The most interesting part about this scene is that Han walks behind Jabba during their conversation and accidentally steps on his tail. Han's body had to be digitally raised up to make it appear like he is stepping on an actual tail. There are other minor examples of this too: an extended scene was added showing stormtroopers searching for the droids on Tatooine, with one riding a Dewback.
Certain aliens within the Cantina were also added or changed in some way. Shortly before the Battle of Yavin, Luke has a conversation with his childhood friend Biggs Darklighter. It's a nice scene where the two reconnect after both of their shared adventures and reminisce about the old times. Unfortunately, the scene was removed in the theatrical release.
In fact, almost all of Biggs' scenes were removed from the original cut, where he was intended to play a more prominent role in Luke's character development. The scenes at Yavin, as well as some other scenes on Tatooine, were restored in the Special Edition, giving more context to Luke's strong reaction to Biggs' death at the Battle of Yavin.
There are some more subtle changes to the overall look of the film that may go unnoticed. In addition, new digital shots of various ships are also added, as well as numerous small dialogue changes that are too long to list here. Particle effects from explosions look cleaner and sound effects from blasters and lightsabers also get updated.
Speaking of lightsabers, the coloration of each of the re-releases causes some lightsabers to change colors.
The version changes it back to blue. He has written about books, movies, tv shows, video games and just about everything in between. He loves reading, writing and gaming in that order. You can check out some of his earlier work at Bookstr. By Sage Negron Published Dec 26,
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