Star Wars: Special Edition

Out of all of the films of the trilogy, George Lucas was least happy with the sacrafices he had to make on 'A New Hope' due to money and time restrictions. It is said that Lucas only finished editing/polishing this masterpiece hours before it's opening screening in 1977. 'Star Wars: A New Hope' is one of the most enjoyed movies of the trilogy, it's jolly approach contrasts greatly with the dark 'Empire Strikes Back'
Many would argue with George Lucas, bewildered as to how he could be unhappy with such a masterpiece, but die hard fans know the problems he faced which , in the special edition were solved through CGI 'tweaking' and the insertion of new or previously unreleased footage.

Download the Movie Trailer

A New Hope' has the most changes/new additions of all of the films in the trilogy, with an additional 4½ Mins of running time. Most of the changes are evident on the desert planet of Tattoine, in particular the Mos Eisley Spaceport. See Left In the "Making Magic" CD, George Lucas says that Mos Eisley was one of the reasons besides the Jabba thing(More on that later) that made him want to do the Special Edition. He explains how Obi wan sets us up for a large town that doesn't deliver. He only filmed a few street shots due to a lack of shooting time. Instead of Luke, Obi Wan and the droid's instant arrival into the city on the landspeeder, We continue to follow the speeder towards the right as the camera cranes up to show the speeder continuing down a main street revealing the now large space-port of Mos Eisley. This gives a great impression of what Mos Eisley was originally meant to look like. It is now a bustling city with many pedestrians, traffic, droids, and other inhabitants. There is a huge castle keep like structure with many large tan domed Moorish-like futuristic architecture speckled with an occasional crashed ship body laying about. The streets are bustling with dinosaur type creatures (re-modeled from ILM's work on Jurassic Park) called Rontos as well as Dewbacks.

A few other surpises occur within the Cantina , Han Solo's confrontation with Greedo has unfortunately been terribly tweaked for the worse and has received a bad audience response everywhere. In what was meant to be a humourous and cocky death for the poor green one from Solo, Greedo's death is the result of Solo's self defence. This time Greedo first fires a CGI created blast hitting the wall behind Han, to which Han fires back. The scene really does look awful and is the only spoilt element of the Special Edition.

Docking Bay 94 This is the most heralded addition, finally placing a CG Jabba The Hutt in front of the Falcon to confront Han about illicit money owed. The footage was originally filmed with a fat Welshman in a fur costume as Jabba to which a superimposed image was to be placed over using stop-motion techniques See Left, however the scene was abandoned due to lack of money that George Lucas has as well as time restrictions. However, Lucas never considered the fact that Han Solo walks BEHIND Jabba in the scene and so ILM solved this problem by making Han step on Jabba's tail (which is quite funny!). Also look out for Boba Fett who makes a cameo appearance in the scene towards the end.

Exit From Mos Eisley NOW When the Falcon flies safely away from the docking bay escaping from the imperial stromtroopers, it lifts off into the sky revealing another matte painting of the cityscape. On the big screen this has a highly dramatic effect and is breathtaking...simply amazing!

New explosions of Alderron & The Death Star [See Left] Now when Leia's home planet of Alderron and also the Death Star is blown away, the result is much more spectacular, with CG ripples of flames spreading from the explosion. ALSO! look for spectacular new CG sequences included in the X-Wing attack of the Death Star in the battle of Yavin.

BIGGS DARKLIGHTER SCENE ADDED! Many scenes in 'A New Hope' which contained Luke's childhood friend Biggs Darklighter were removed from the final edit as George Lucas was unhappy with the way they slowed the pace of the film, making it over two hours in length. Most of the scenes (on Tattoine) still didnt make it to the special edition, however a brief one on Yavin 4 was infact added as George Lucas felt that it helped to develop the storyline and made Biggs' unfortunate death that little bit sadder. The dialogue from that scene is as follows!

LEIA: He's got to follow his own path. No one can choose it for him.

LUKE: I only wish Ben were here.

Leia gives Luke a little kiss, turns, and goes off. As Luke heads for his ship, another pilot rushes up to him and grabs his arm.

BIGGS: Luke! I don't believe it! How'd you get here...are you going out with us?!

LUKE: Biggs! Of course, I'll be up there with you! Listen, have I got some stories to tell...

Red Leader, a rugged handsome man in his forties, comes up behind Luke and Biggs. He has the confident smile of a born leader.

RED LEADER: Are you...Luke Skywalker? Have you been checked out on the Incom T-sixty-five?

BIGGS: Sir, Luke is the best bushpilot in the outer rim territories.

Red Leader pats Luke on the back as they stop in front of his fighter.

RED LEADER: I met your father once when I was just a boy, he was a great pilot. You'll do all right. If you've got half of your father's skill, you'll do better than all right.

LUKE: Thank you, sir. I'll try.

Red Leader hurries to his own ship.

BIGGS: I've got to get aboard. Listen, you'll tell me your stories when we come back. All right?

LUKE: I told you I'd make it someday, Biggs.

BIGGS: (going off) You did, all right. It's going to be like old times, Luke. We're a couple of shooting stars that'll never be stopped!

Luke laughs and shakes his head in agreement. He heads for his ship. As Luke begins to climb up the ladder into his sleek, deadly spaceship, the crew chief, who is working on the craft, points to little Artoo, who is being hoisted into a socket on the back of the fighter.