George Lucas Just Couldn't Stop Changing Han Solo And Greedo's Face-Off In Star Wars: A New Hope
George Lucas' sci-fi epic "Star Wars" was released in 1977. It became a hit of some renown. A decade later, it was — anecdotally — one of the most commonly owned VHS cassettes in the homes of my peers. It was seemingly the most re-watched film in history. Indeed, the film's massive cult began assigning importance to elements of the movie that were mere background details during filming. Unnamed extras were not only named by the cult's expanded universe lore but were given entire backstories.
In the late 1990s, George Lucas elected to remaster and recut "Star Wars" and release it in theaters with all-new special effects and a few visual tweaks he felt he wasn't able to accomplish using 1977 technology. The 1997 "Star Wars: The Special Edition" was met with much enthusiasm, as perhaps just as much chagrin. Since fans had memorized the movie, each tiny change was noticed, and some changes ... well, they made no logical sense. It was at this point in history that the controversial "Han shot first" meme began to proliferate through the then-nascent internet. Frustratingly, the Special Edition changes have become the most available, standard cut of the film. It's been 26 years since the "Han shot first" controversy, but it remains as baffling today as it did 26 years ago.
Even more baffling, there are now multiple cuts of the "Han shot first" scene, with each change more baffling than the last. For those unfamiliar with the controversy ... well, firstly, congratulations for avoiding it ... but I shall attempt to succinctly elucidate below.
Who shot first?
The scene in question involves a meeting between Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and the Mugwump-like alien Greedo (Larry Ward) at a sleazy alien dive bar. Han, it seems, owes a lot of money to an off-screen gangster named Jabba, and Greedo, armed, has come to collect. Han sweet-talks Greedo for a few moments, but it becomes clear that Greedo wishes him harm. While they speak, Han reaches under the table and unholsters his blaster. In the 1977 cut of the film, Han fires his blaster and kills Greedo. He leaves the bar unbothered by the other customers. Greedo, dead, remains smoldering at the table.
Thanks to the world's many "Star Wars" obsessives, the various cuts of the scene have been recorded for comparison. It seems that there are at least five different edits of the scene.
In the 1997 Special Edition cut, Lucas added a notable special effect. Perhaps wanting to show that Han Solo wouldn't kill a man unprovoked (although that is mere postulation), Lucas added a laser blast from Greedo's gun a half-second before Han fired his own blaster. Greedo's shot hit the wall behind Han, about a foot to the left of his head. It's a baffling change. It's odd that Greedo would fire his gun at Han at point-blank range, only to hit the wall. At the time, many complained that Han killing Greedo in what appeared to be a desperate self-defense move robbed Han of his naughty, badass qualities.
Cuts #3, 4, and 5
Perhaps hearing the critiques of the 1997 edit, or perhaps merely wanting to further refine the scene, Lucas went back for a tertiary recut for the 2004 DVD release of "Star Wars." In the 2004 cut, Han and Greedo shot their blasters at about the same time, making it a mutual act of violence, but with Han escaping the luckier one. It was also for the 2004 DVD release that fans noticed that Harrison Ford's body was digitally manipulated to appear as if he were "dodging" the shot. This, people later noticed, was a more exaggerated effect from the 1997 cut, where Han digitally tilted his head slightly. Compare the two pictures above.
The quaternary cut of the "Han shot first" scene came in 2011 when "Star Wars" was released on Blu-ray. That cut, when looked at very closely, revealed that only a few frames — less than half of a second — had been excised from the scene. In moving more quickly, perhaps Lucas was attempting to tone down the violence of the scene. After all, now there was a slight bit less of it. One might argue that in all of the cuts, Han Solo still murders a man in public.
The final, quinary cut of "Han shot first," previously covered in the pages of /Film, came in 2019 with the release of the 2019 4K HD Blu-ray of the flick. That scene replaces a rear shot of Greedo with a head-on shot (?) and polishes up the digital effects. Han still ducks to the side. Since this is the most recent cut of the scene, audiences might have to accept it as the "official" version.
For the record, though, the original 1976 script for "Star Wars" has Han shooting Greedo with no return fire.