Why Star Wars' Original Trilogy Looks A Bit Different On Disney Plus
George Lucas' zeitgeist-altering epic "Star Wars" came out in May of 1977 to overwhelming audience enthusiasm and massive financial success. Its light, adventurous tone, and pleasantly archetypal characters, not to mention its state-of-the-art special effects, hit a nerve with the general public, and the film was embraced to a degree only seen a few times since in the pop culture firmament. To this day, filmmakers have sought to emulate its success. The only film that ever came close was Luigi Cozzi's 1978 film "Star Crash," a film that nearly matched "Star Wars" in terms of financial success and pop recognition. That last part was a joke, but I encourage y'all to watch "Star Crash" nonetheless.
However, the version of "Star Wars" seen by audiences in 1977 was notably different from the one that can be seen by audiences in 2023. Over the decades, multiple subtle changes have been made to the original film. There have been digital remasterings, entirely reworked special effects, added scenes, and even a proper re-titling. In 1977, the only on-screen title was "Star Wars" (a title this author still stubbornly abides by). When the film's sequel, "The Empire Strikes Back," was released in 1980, George Lucas changed the title crawl to add "Episode IV: A New Hope." It was the first sign of a constant "Star Wars" alteration trend that extends to the present day.
The "Star Wars" movies, as they are seen on Disney+, are derived from relatively recent 4K scans of the films, leaving them looking slightly different from previous releases. According to Games Radar, the new 4K scans go a long way to change the color temperature in certain scenes and improve the picture quality in general.
And, just because they can't stop, the cut is slightly different too.
Greedo's eternal death
Much hay has been made about the "Greedo Shot First" scandal. In a notorious scene, Han Solo (Harrison Ford) has a chat in a seedy alien dive bar with a dangerous criminal named Greedo (Larry Ward). The pair sit at a table in the corner where Greedo threatens Han. Han reaches under the table and puts his finger around the trigger of his gun. Before Greedo can shoot, Han fires under the table, slaying the mugwump-looking alien.
In the 1990s, Lucas famously recut the scene and added some special effects to make it look like Greedo squeezed off a shot first, missing Han. Han, then, killed Greedo in self-defense. One can only speculate as to why Lucas felt this change was necessary. But that wasn't the end of it, as the scene kept getting recut, with some featuring Greedo shooting first, but Han ducking out of the way ... an effect achieved through clunky CGI trickery.
Speaking of clunky, a further cut of the scene featured Greedo shouting an alien expletive that sounded like "McClunky!" On Twitter, Garrett McDowell, the host of the "Star Wars" podcast "Scum and Villainy," put the four known versions of the scene next to each other. The arbitrary re-edits are infuriating. The fourth version is the version currently on Disney+. According to an article on The Verge, the "McClunky" line was added by George Lucas prior to Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm.
/Film has written about the various "Star Wars" edits multiple times in the past, including the reincorporation of the famous 20th Century Fox fanfare. More than alternate cuts, though, keen-eyed Starwoids will likely note the subtle alterations in the film's visual texture.
The restudent has become the remaster
"Star Wars" was shot on a Panavision PSR 35mm camera. It was shot on the same kind of film stock as "The Empire Strikes Back" a few years later, but the films look dramatically different. "Empire" has sharp lines and clear colors, while "Star Wars" (at least a print from 1977) looks washed out and slightly milky. Some film fanatics have posited that the "Star Wars" film stock was produced in a low-end lab, or was perhaps purchased on the cheap, leaving the overall look a little shabby. Of the "Star Wars" movies, the 1977 looks the most handmade and textured; the many sequels have been polished to a shine.
The version of "Star Wars" on Disney+ has undergone several polishes after the fact, and several Twitter users have noticed the difference. User @CartyCinema helpfully put old and new scans side-by-side. The new scans contain more visual detail — one can see every pore on Mark Hamill's face — and the color has been corrected. The film no longer bears slightly bluish tints as it might have with inferior film stock.
The original versions of the "Star Wars" movies — that is, the original theatrical cuts — are long lost, hidden in a Disney vault somewhere. Ever since 1997, all versions of the "Star Wars" movies have been the "Special Editions," complete with the Greedo nonsense above, a lot of newly made digital effects, and other alterations that tend to rub long-term Starwoids the wrong way. Sadly, every version of "Return of the Jedi," including the one on Disney+, contains Darth Vader screaming "Nooooo!"