Not that I can compete with Dooku … lol … but I was 13 when it came out and I saw it seven times that summer.
Definitely no Biggs scene. The first time Luke appeared was at the droid sale.
I only recently saw the Biggs scenes on the internet. They didn’t stir any memories at all … .
I have the original Beta tape that we made from the original reel. It’s there.
Beats me. Maybe there were some earlier bootlegged prints that were shown in some theaters under shady circumstances, or maybe they showed a different version on TV sometime later. I can tell you with complete confidence that it was not in the reels received by the Shady Oak Theater, my family’s one-screen movie theater in Clayton, MO, in 1977. If that scene were there, there’s no way I would have forgotten it.
I will bust out the 500 pound Betamax and confirm this evening. (To my wife’s delight, no doubt. “Research, honey.” :))
Um, couldn’t you transfer that to DVD now?
And I’ll be checking our VHS tape. 
Seconded. I’ve had people doubting me for so long…
-Joe, needs to see it himself
I’m with you, I remembered the Kamikazee scene too.
Okay, I saw Star Wars a ludicrous number of times in the theatre in 1977, and the time has been when I could recite the dialogue in its entirety from memory.
I still have the first WS releases of the trilogy, and those are the ones that I bust out from time to time.
Of course, I’ve got the radio series and had the 45rpm read-a-longs as a kid, too, so it’s possible my memory has been coloured, but I’m pretty sure I remember what’s there.
The scene with Luke watching the Blockade runner under attack (or just after the attack) through the electrobinoculars was in the original release, and serves as the segue to the first scenes in the household. There is no comment on what he saw.
The scenes with him rushing back to tell his mocking friends (and showing Biggs, after the action is finished) were never included.
The scene of Luke and Biggs meeting up ‘again’ before the Battle of Yavin has always been there – unexplained familiarity and all.
Personally, I think they should have left the scenes establishing Luke as a whiny, “over-imaginative” kid, mocked by his peers with the nickname “Wormy,” just as they were.
Both Luke and Han’s “arcs” are very nearly flatlines, with all that’s been cut away.
My VHS copy of ESB has the kamikazee snowspeeder, too. When did that get cut? :eek:
I recorded it on VHS way back when from one of our cable movie channels which is when I noticed all those differences I mentioned earlier. I’m pretty sure that scene wasn’t on there either, but I no longer have a VCR nor any of those tapes, just the Betamax ones.*
Good question. I’ve never had cause to, since the Betamax experience is a youthful reminisce kinda thing for me. The distinctive sounds the buttons make, and the remote with wire (non-wireless?) always bring me back. IIRC my Betamax has RCA outs, so if I have some time someday I’ll look into hooking it up to my TiBook and transferring it.
*I have always maintained that Beta was a better format - the picture quality was better IMO, and it’s a testament to Sony that my giant, heavy Betamax is still going strong, whereas I’ve gone through countless VCRs and two DVD players since. Too bad Sony, like IBM, failed to see the marketplace properly.
Yes! That is what I had been referring to but I could have sworn he also made comments on it just prior to mentioning Biggs wanting to join the Imperial Academy.
I don’t agree. The first time you see Luke is when the Sandcrawler shows up at their moisture farm, and Aunt Beru tells him to tell Uncle Owen to make sure if he gets a translator to make sure it speaks Bochee. “Doesn’t look like we have much of a choice, but I’ll remind him.” As he runs over to the Sandcrawler, the soundtrack plays the opening bars to the theme song as he runs over, adding weight to his characater. I’ll verify that tonight also.
I found a script onlne. Here’s the parts I remember as being in the movie:
None of the rest of the Power Station exchange rings a bell but that does.
For what it’s worth, todd33rpm said he saw the film in Colorado Springs when he was eight, and he says he remembers the electrobinoculars scene too. He doesn’t recall a first meeting with Biggs, though, and adds that nobody else he talked to when he moved back to Indiana remembered either scene.
That script has a bunch of lines and scenes that weren’t in the movie. Like this one, right after the Stormtroopers blow their way into the rebel ship and the fighting begins:
Then that script says, after Artoo and Threepio comically don’t get hit as they move through the crossfire, but before Vader’s entrance, that there’s this scene:
Neither of those were in the movie. This sound suspiciously like it was cribbed from a first draft of the script and not from the movie itself.
Yeah, I figured that. I found another site with three earlier drafts but those weren’t in a very good format.
I’m currently thinking it was someone, just not Biggs. I’m just about to go ask my SO where her Star Wars tapes are.
Based on this and many other debates about what was in the original film (not to mention the debates about the original title), I’m beginning to wonder if it is possible that there were multiple versions released in different theatres?
Turns out we only have the '95 and '97 versions.
So, when it comes to certain search methods…
Anyone have suggestions (pubic or private) on how to find these less-cut versions?
I really want to see how accurate I am on that snowspeeder in my head.
-Joe
Sigh… my wife thinks I’m even crazier now. Thanks.
Anyway, I did a side-by-side of 3 of the 4 versions of TESB I have. For the record, I did retail VHS copies released in 1992 (oil paintings cover), 1995 (The ‘faces’ cover) and the SE from 1997. The first 2 were Pan & Scan (I didn’t know better back then, and widescreen was rarely on the VHS versions), the '97 SE was wide.
There is no Kamakazie speeder to be found in any of these versions.
However, I will point out that Lucas has made (at least) minor changes to just about each film, every few years (hell, the “SE” that just came out on DVD is different than the “SE” he did in '97). I believe he cut out a rebel soldier getting hit with a laser shot by a AT-AT and diving off screen. I think he cut that bit out way back in the 80s, IIRC. That noted, it’s not impossible the Kamkazie snippet has been dropped out somewhere along the way.
Dooku, did you get the Betamax out?
I have to re-iterate (as others here have done) that did not see the scene with Luke watching the space battle in the original release. I saw it twice th day after its release in Boston, and I watched it numerous times that summer. I also watched it in New Jersey and in Upstate New York. I’ve watched the original release video and several subsequent releases, and in none of these have I ever seen such a scene. To this day haven’t seen it in a movie.
Perhaps there were a couple of alternate versions, but they didn’t show up in any of the theaters I visited, or on any videotape I’ve watched.
As noted, I did see the scene in the Marvel comic, but that’s a whole different thing. The first time I saw Luke was when Aunt Beroo calls him. In fact, it’s classic filmmmaking – You hear Luke’s name called, the camera tracks with him a long time (a nice “establishing shot” to tell you that this is a major character, which is one of those tricks filmmakers pull. It’s almost invariably the very first time you see the character.), and you even hear his signature musical motif. None of this would make cinematic sense if we’d seen Luke before.