Live Leak have unearthed a video that appears to match the much fabled "Star Wars blooper reel". The reel, said to have been assembled as a treat specifically for the cast and crew after shooting wrapped on the original film, has long been spoken about as one of the key (and often disputed) holy grails of Star Wars footage that hadn't been made public.
The video in question comes from "a Star Wars fan who bought a LaserDisc off eBay and paid $699 for 30 minutes of never before seen footage." This LaserDisc is also said to contain 50 raw and behind-the-scene takes from Return of the Jedi. Here is one compilation of outtakes and bloopers from A New Hope and appears to be the same as the blooper reel that was shown at this year's Comic-Con: Interesting stuff indeed. This legendary collection was thought to be just that, and was something that Lucasfilm always refused to acknowledge. This continued until its editor and author, J.W. Rinzler, screened the reel for a small audience at Comic-Con this year.
Here is a rundown of what
the author said was contained on the original Star Wars blooper reel:
Harrison Ford (as Han Solo) fluffs the line, "Great shot kid, that was one in a million" after Luke blows up the Death Star. Ford proceeds to eat his headset mic. A squad of stormtroopers blows open a door on the Death Star, but a piece of the set about three feet high remains. The stormtroopers attempt to hop over the board, tumbling on to the other side as if emerging from a clown car. Alec Guinness (Ben Kenobi) gets whacked in the face by Chewbacca's arm in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon; Guinness proceeds to boggle his eyes and make faces at the camera. Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin) imperiously insisting that Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) "name the target" for the Death Star, then flubbing his line and collapsing into Fisher's arms. Anthony Daniels (Threepio) struggling for several minutes to get to the top of a sand dune on Tatooine (ie. Tunisia), in a costume he could barely move in; Daniels falls over at the top. Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) speaking a line cut from the final film, "Let's get some distance before that thing goes supernova," before pausing to ask George Lucas how he should pronounce "supernova." An alien in the Mos Eisley Cantina repeatedly jabbing his middle digit into another alien's chest until the digit bends back on itself. The alien looks at his deformed hand in horror.
After one viewing you can clearly see that this is the same footage; thankfully it has now seen the light of day after 36 years. This has been a strange week for this kind of Star Wars "lost" material. Earlier in the week, the original teaser trailer for "Revenge of the Jedi" was officially released by the Star Wars YouTube channel. Revenge of the Jedi was the original name for Return of the Jedi. The name was changed after George Lucas felt that a Jedi does not take revenge, so the change to return would fit into the overall tone of the original saga. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlDw3gHoSGM What do you guys think? Should things like this be reinforced by the Lucas/Disney camp or does it ruin the saga for you? Let me know in the comments below.