“I have never seen Star Wars. Most people haven’t. Unless you were alive and aware in 1977, the movie we call Star Wars is not, in fact, the same Star Wars that crowds lined up around city blocks got to see when the lights finally dimmed and the 20th Century Fox fanfare subsided. When the film was re-released into theatres in 1981, the “original” version was already gone. No longer just Star Wars, the film was now Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope. A title change was only the beginning. First in 1997 with the Special Edition, and then in 2004 with the DVD release, all the way up to the most recent Blu-ray and digital releases of the film, there have been a nearly endless number of changes, everything from dialogue replacement to fully computer animated effects sequences. And, of course, Han doesn’t shoot first. That original version, the one released to cinemas in 1977, has been practically unavailable for decades. Until now.”

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