‘Star Wars’ Version That George Lucas Banned to Screen Again

There is an excellent chance you have never seen Star Wars.

Oh, you might think you’ve seen 1977’s Star Wars (now christened Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope). But what you’ve likely actually seen is one of the many altered versions of Star Wars that have been in wide distribution ever since the film’s initial theatrical run.

Writer-director George Lucas famously kept making tweaks and changes to his creation through iterations of “Special Editions.” Many of these changes are somewhat subtle, while others are glaring and, many fans say, distracting, and even embarrassing (perhaps the worst example — the infamously resurrected Han Solo and Jabba the Hutt scene — remains quite cringe, even after an effort was made to improve it). Going over the history of the original Star Wars and its transformation is a bit like watching an episode of Botched, where a desire for a little surgical refreshment evolves into Greedo shooting first, howling dewbacks, and Harrison Ford stutter stepping onto Jabba’s tail.

But now there’s a new hope — at least, for some lucky individuals in the UK.

According to The Telegraph, the British Film Institute’s Film on Film Festival in June will open with a screening of one of the few remaining Technicolor prints that was produced for Star Wars’ initial run. This is, the story reports, the first time the original print has been publicly screened since December 1978 (there have been copies which have made the rounds on home video).

This is because Lucas’ tweaks to the print began with the very first theatrical re-release of Star Wars in 1981. The studio has since only permitted the screening of various Special Editions. BFI had to negotiate with Disney and Lucasfilm for the rights for a back-to-back screening on the festival’s opening night. This particular BFI print has been stored for four decades at a temperature of 23 degrees Fahrenheit to preserve its quality, so it should look rather pristine.

Lucas, over the years, has been rather firm about not screening the original and, when asked in 2004 by the Associate Press why he doesn’t simply release the original version along with the Special Editions, rather grumpily shot back, “The Special Edition, that’s the one I wanted out there. The other movie, it’s on VHS, if anybody wants it. I’m not going to spend the — we’re talking millions of dollars here — the money and the time to refurbish that, because to me, it doesn’t really exist anymore. It’s like this is the movie I wanted it to be, and I’m sorry you saw a half-completed film and fell in love with it. But I want it to be the way I want it to be. I’m the one who has to take responsibility for it. I’m the one who has to have everybody throw rocks at me all the time, so at least if they’re going to throw rocks at me, they’re going to throw rocks at me for something I love rather than something I think is not very good, or at least something I think is not finished.”

Since tickets for the BFI screening will be snatched up faster than you can say “maclunkey,” one can only hope (since rebellions are built on hope) that the screening’s reception spurs Disney and Lucasfilm to consider letting fans get to see some U.S. screenings as well.