It’s easy to watch Star Wars. It is widely available on several different physical formats, and it’s readily available to rent digitally or stream on Disney+. But that assumes you’re willing to watch the version of Star Wars that Disney and Lucasfilm want you to watch.
They only make available one of the “Special Edition” prints of Star Wars; a version of the film with updated digital effects and some additional scenes, which were first created by George Lucas in the late 1990s as part of the original Star Wars trilogy’s re-release in theaters ahead of the debut of the Star Wars Prequels. Lucas further tinkered with the Special Editions multiple times; the most recent change debuted with the film’s addition to Disney+, when suddenly Greedo suddenly yelled “Maclunkey!” for some reason before being shot by Han Solo in the Mos Eisley Cantina.
Even before Lucas made the Special Editions he had tweaked the original theatrical print of Star Wars — for example adding “Episode IV — A New Hope” to the opening text crawl around the time of The Empire Strikes Back. (Originally the top of the crawl simply read “Star Wars.”) So it has been almost impossible to see the version of Star Wars that played in theaters in 1977 — at least legally.
Until this year. Per The Telegraph, an original theatrical print of the film will play at the BFI in a few months. The print was struck in London at a Technicolor lab there, and is apparently in terrific condition thanks to a special process that ensures its colors don’t fade over time.
And according to their report, these screenings were permitted by the powers that be at Lucasfilm. (“Permission from Lucasfilm and Disney was required in order for us to screen the original cut at the BFI Film on Film Festival,” a BFI spokeswoman told The Telegraph, adding “We have a long-standing partnership with Lucasfilm and Disney and this permission was sought and obtained.”)
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Right now, the print is only screening twice at this one venue in England. Whether this event is a prelude to similar screenings elsewhere remains to be seen. But to me, this is the one big way out there that Disney could make a lot of money off a re-release of Star Wars. (They continue to re-release the various films in theaters; Revenge of the Sith is returning to theaters next month, for example.) After decades out of circulation, there is a lot of curiosity among longtime fans, and even some casual Star Wars viewers, see these versions.
A wide re-release of the original prints today could have the same impact on Star Wars that the Special Editions had in 1997. (At the time, those cuts were not controversial. They were greeted gleefully by fans who got the chance to see Star Wars on the big screen. It was only later, as it became clear that those were now the only versions of the trilogy that you could watch, that people turned on them.)
The rare original Star Wars print will screen twice on opening night of the BFI’s Film on Film Festival on June 12. For more information, check out the BFI’s website.
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