Experience the original 1977 cut of Star Wars on the big screen in London this summer, a rare opportunity for fans to witness George Lucas’s iconic space opera as it was first intended.
Star Wars Original Cut to Be Screened This Summer in London
The prospect of seeing the 1977 version of the iconic space opera, ‘Star Wars’, on the big screen has become a holy grail for fans. The British Film Institute (BFI) is set to screen the original cut of the film twice on the opening night of its Film on Film festival on June 12.
Star Wars is a science fiction franchise created by George Lucas.
The series began with the release of the film 'Episode IV: A New Hope' in 1977, which revolutionized the sci-fi genre.
Set in a galaxy far, far away, the saga follows a group of heroes and villains as they battle for power and justice.
Spanning multiple films, television shows, and other media, Star Wars has become a cultural phenomenon with a dedicated fan base.
The 1977 theatrical version of the film, which launched a multibillion-dollar franchise, has rarely been shown in public since George Lucas produced special editions of the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy in the 1990s. These special editions featured new CGI characters and other controversial revisions that altered the original storyline.
For fans who saw the 1977 cut in cinemas decades ago, this screening is a rare opportunity to experience the film as it was originally intended. However, legitimate means of accessing the theatrical cut are scarce. The only options available are an out-of-print VHS release or a low-res DVD bonus feature from 2006.
Lucas’s most maligned alteration to the film is the scene in which Han Solo shoots the bounty hunter Greedo dead in the Mos Eisley cantina on Tatooine. In the original version, Solo fires first, while in the special editions, Gredo fires first, and later revisions have been made to have both characters fire at nearly the same time.
Another unpopular change is the CGI addition of Jabba the Hutt, a giant slug-like villain who was not seen on screen until the final film in the original trilogy. The added sequence features Jabba yelping as Solo steps on his tail, based on a deleted clip featuring a human actor.
James Bell, senior curator of fiction at the BFI National Archive, said that one of the ambitions of the festival is to screen original release prints that transport audiences back to the moment a film was first released. ‘In the case of Star Wars, the festival screening is a unique opportunity to present the film to audiences in exactly the same form as they would have watched it in 1977,’ he added.
The BFI has secured permission from Lucasfilm and Disney to screen the original version of ‘Star Wars’. However, there are no plans to show the original cuts of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ or ‘Return of the Jedi‘.
- theguardian.com | Star Wars original cut to be screened this summer in London
