James Moorhouse
A select few lucky folk have just been treated to a legal showing of the original Star Wars film for the first time in 47 years, and they have some strong opinions on it.
For those of you who don't know much about the epic space saga, then you might not be familiar with the huge fandom associated with it and the clamour to see or buy anything associated with the original George Lucas films.
Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope introduced the world to classic characters such as Princess Leia, Darth Vader and Han Solo, although fans would have to wait another three years to meet the best character, Yoda, for the first time, with Lucas only recently revealing exactly why our favourite green Jedi speaks in his particular way.
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However, die-hard fans will know that there was actually an earlier version of the 1977 film which its creator originally banned from cinemas, and it was only the other day at the British Film Institute that it was shown legally to fans for the first time.
The original cut comes without any of the improvements and tweaks that have been made to it over the last 48 years, to the extent where one film critic felt like he was watching an entirely different film.
Unfortunately, it looks as if Lucas was right to keep it away from the public eye, after it had some pretty surprising responses from the audience.
A vlogger for Cinema Savvy, George Aldridge, said: "There are so many great changes to the Star Wars films; it’s the ones we dislike that have always overshadowed them. It felt like watching the film for the first time.”
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Robbie Collin, chief film critic at The Telegraph, wrote: "'Fresh pair of eyes' would be the obvious phrase to reach for, except there was nothing fresh about the joyously craggy, grubby, stolidly carpentered spectacle which unspooled for two hours on the BFI’s screen one.
"The frictionless, corporate sheen of Star Wars as we’ve come to know it was missing: every scene had the visceral sense of watching actual people photographed doing actual things with sets and props that had been physically sawn and glued into place."
It is noted that while many fans enjoyed the spectacle, they have come to appreciate the work of Lucas even more after seeing all the subtle changes that were made to the final cut.
While some fans might always prefer the originals, we also have the prospect of seeing Ryan Gosling in a Star Wars film to look forward to in the future.