Okay, this is a seriously geeky moment but the most notorious change made to any of the Star Wars films is to a scene early on in the first Star Wars film. In the scene, smuggler Han Solo, later to become a rebel hero and one of the lead protagonists of the franchise, is confronted by a bounty hunter named Greedo, who wants to collect on Jabba The Hutts contract on Solo for owing him money. Leaving aside the issue that bounty hunters are freelance law enforcement agents capturing bail jumpers and people whove proven to be flight risks in the real world, not criminal enforcers and hitmen as Boba Fett, Greedo et al are in the Star Wars Universe: the issue here is the climax of this scene. Solo keeps the excitable Greedo talking while he eases his blaster out of its holster under the table. In the original cut, Greedo doesnt get a shot off: Solo kills him in cold blood. This scene cements the smugglers amoral attitude for the audience, setting the tone for the redemptive character arc that leads us to General Solo, rebel hero by the close of Return Of The Jedi. Apparently Lucas felt that this was not in keeping with his interpretation of the character. In the 1997 special edition, the scene was reedited to see Greedo shooting first but missing, and Solos killing shot coming in self-defence. In the films 2004 DVD release, the scene was messed with yet again: this time, Solo dodges Greedos blaster shot before killing him in self-defence with two shots. In the 2011 Blu-Ray release, the scene was changed yet again, tightening the short-but-sweet gunfight to make the previous edit less glaring. Lucas claims that the original cut always had Greedo firing first, but that the close-up editing and confusing effects meant that Greedos original shot wasnt obvious. Hes right: its practically invisible, because its not there. In Lucas original shooting script, only Han is cited as shooting: an early draft, located this year in a US university library, also only specifies Solo shooting. Its a small thing if youre not a Star Wars fanatic if you are one however, its a major bugbear and the cause celebre for disputing Lucas clumsy edits to his own movies.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
