The British Film Institute recently screened an original 1977 copy of the first Star Wars film, with some surprisingly re-evaluating it and the changes director George Lucas made to it with his Special Editions, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Released on May 25th, 1977, the original Star Wars was a cultural phenomenon, becoming the highest-grossing film ever at that time and further transitioning the industry from the New Hollywood movement to the blockbuster era. Unhappy with the theatrical version, however, Lucas would controversially release updated special editions years later with changed and added scenes to fit his vision, while removing the 1977 version from circulation. In 2004, he said in an interview,
“I’m 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.”
Now, after being stored in cold temperatures for four decades, a copy of the original unaltered film, even missing the later added title of A New Hope, was found in the BFI Archives and screened at their second Film on Film festival on June 12th.
Because of Lucas’s desire that the original not be shown again, fans were confused about the announcement. To ease their concern, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy introduced the screening in person, saying,
“I’m here to make sure you don’t think this is an illegal screening”.
When it came to the screening itself, while certain unaltered moments, such as the “Han shooting Greedo first” sequence, were applauded, other aspects received a different reaction, with Robbie Collin of The Telegraph saying
“…It felt less like watching a blockbuster in the modern sense than the greatest game of dressing up in the desert anyone ever played”
and George Aldridge of Cinema Savvy saying,
“There are so many great changes to the Star Wars films; it’s the ones we dislike that have always overshadowed them.”
Regardless of the changed reactions, however, the discovery of the print is being appreciated for its historical significance, with BFI chief executive Ben Roberts saying,
“It was a ‘miracle’, the print was in good enough condition to screen publicly.”
and the senior curator of fiction at the Archive, James Bell, saying,
“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”.
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