Star Wars Original vs. Star Wars SE: A Comparison of the Infamous Shooting Scene

Cafe Society
1

What I am proposing is basically a side-by-side, screenshot-by-screenshot comparison of the Original version and the Special Edition version of the Han/Greedo confrontation.

We have, on VHS, both the SE box set Star Wars Trilogy and a lone copy of the Original Star Wars. The latter is from 1995, and was probably released just before Lucas got his hands on the new special effects technology.

I was inspired by the Star Wars threads on these boards, and finally dug out both copies and sat down with them to see for myself what it was all about.

I was surprised by what I saw.

Anyone interested?

2

Sure. Whatcha got?

3

I’m going to guess that the only difference is a very thin, small laser blast coming out of Greedo’s gun before he gets fried. Han doesn’t move. Greedo doesn’t actually pull a trigger. The whole thing looks like shit and ruins the scene for everyone, including those who have never seen it before, because, honestly, what bounty hunter would shoot a target he’s trying to take in alive, or would even miss from that distance (Hell, Dale Gribble could have made that shot!).

That’s about as stupid as a world (and possibly galactically) renouned crime lord making a personal visit to someone he’s trying to have brought to him, without the expressed purpose of breaking every bone in their body before tossing their broken body in a ditch and burrying them alive.

Man, those special editions suck. Glad I got the originals.

4

I liked that scene. I thought it was fun to see a younger, thinner Jabba slumming along with Boba Fett.

Besides, Han’s load of spice was huge.

5

The scene will be restored for the DVD release.

6

It’s ONE FUCKING SCENE, and yet there are people who say it ruins the entire Special Edition.

I for one am extremely glad that Lucas updated the movies to clean them up and make the environments more…well…“full” I guess.

And you know what, I’m willing to live with one little flawed scene in exchange for an improved edition.

7

This would be welcome news, but it is not what I have read/heard. As I understand it, George Lucas considers the Special Editions as the only copies of the Star Wars films. The DVD pack released is likely to contain the same Special Edition versions that we saw re-released in the cinema.

However, there is further speculation that some scenes have been further enchanced. In particular, some of the rotoscoping effects on the lightsabers have alledged to have been tweaked (especially the colour of Darth Vader’s blade after he slays Obi Wan in ANH).

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Ponder this:

We live in a country where literal societal upheaval occurred when the Coca-Cola people changed their damn soda pop formula.

Think about that.

I mean, Coca-Cola is far from the center of my life. I’d hate to think it was the nexus of anyone’s life, except Coca-Cola executives. But people threw conniption fits because they couldn’t get REAL Coca-Cola any more!

I’ve heard it said that we tend to attach ourselves to exterior things to compensate for our lack of culture. In the absence of social culture, we get hooked up with commercial culture. When Coca-Cola dinked around with their recipe, they were, in fact, screwing around with our CULTURE!

Considering how many people get so plugged into pro football that nothing else exists… considering how many poor and middle-class people support President Bush, despite what he’s doing to them… I believe that this theory has some weight.

This brings us to *Star Wars. Star Wars * was a powerful thing. I was a teenager when it came out, and I was friggin’ mesmerized. There had NEVER been anything like Star Wars! I mean, this was MAJOR!

Naturally, *Star Wars * plays a major part in my memories of that time. It was an Event, it was a Social Happening, it was a Cultural Milestone! It was a Marketing Event! Hell, *Star Wars * helped DEFINE “merchandising and marketing tie-in” as we know it today!

It couldn’t help but become part of the culture. Unfortunately, George Lucas seems to have missed that point. He is aware that it’s a tremendous money machine, but he insists that he and he alone owns the thing, and that he has every right to do with it as he wishes, including recutting it, shooting new scenes, and so forth.

Legally, he’s quite right, of course. He owns it. He made it, he worked hard on it, he put it all together. He owns the trademarks, he owns all the rights. He’s on very solid ground.

Socially and culturally, he’s being an incredibly blind fool. *Star Wars * has gone beyond that point. *Star Wars * is right up there with Stagecoach, Citizen Kane, Pride Of The Yankees, and a great many other films, in that it has become a Classic… and it has become part of the culture. In that sense, Star Wars belongs to us all.

…and what would we do if some jackass bought the rights to *Citizen Kane * and decided to “improve” it? Certainly, some scenes could be cleaned up, maybe color added, maybe a little zest added to its pacing?

How about Stagecoach? You know, that movie’s really very politically incorrect. Look how it treats the Indians! I bet we could clean that movie up, maybe explain WHY the Indians were so hot after that stagecoach (to avenge some wrong done them by the White Man, no doubt…)

Irrelevant. Citizen Kane is what it is. Change it, and you don’t really have Citizen Kane any more, you have the “new version…” a cheapened, ugly version of what you have come to think of as a classic.

…but Star Wars is Lucas’ baby. It’s HIS, dammit, and we can all go pound sand, as far as he’s concerned. The movie didn’t come out on video until everyone who really wanted a copy had a pirate edition, and now the same thing is likely going to happen with DVD. In the meantime, we can jolly well buy what he offers us – the Special Editions.

I rather liked the new Jabba footage, myself… although it’s hard to reconcile this whining Jabba with the ruthless, powerful one in the third movie.

If we were going to include old footage, what happened to the conversation where we find out who Biggs is?

What’s with the new explosions? Every time a really large object blows up in these new versions, there’s a ring effect. Did Lucas really just fall in love with this ring effect, or what?

There comes a time, George, when you gotta let go. Just let go. Give the movie to the world. Nobody said you couldn’t still own it. No one says you can’t still profit from it. It’s YOURS. Just QUIT DINKING WITH IT! It’s DONE! It’s BEEN done for YEARS!!!

GIVE IT UP!

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I’m with you. Greedo shooting first is dumb, but I like the rest of the improvements.

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Greedo shooting first was about the worst thing Lucas could have done to the film short of taking a big, steaming shit on the negatives, but the scene with mini-Jabba was pretty bad too. Not only did it re-hash everything Greedo said, but the premise is retarded. The Jabba from RotJ wouldn’t have let Han talk his way out of the mess, he’d’ve whacked him right then and there. Or at least tortured him a bit. And I won’t even get into the “walking on the tail” bit that was kludged in just to use the scene.

I liked the fighter fleet passing Yavin that was added, but for the most part the few improvements throughout the three originals don’t make up for those two glaring atrocities.

(And I didn’t even see the first two movies in a theater! Imagine how bad I’d be if I were a few years older :slight_smile: )

11

What drove me nuts in that scene is when Han stepped on Jabba’s tail (in front of Jabba’s bodyguards) and got away with it. That would be comparable to slapping Don Corleone’s butt and walking away- even if he liked the person a crimelord couldn’t afford the loss of face of letting somebody get away with that.

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“Back, and to the left. Back, and to the left. Back… and to the left.”

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Thanks everyone for the responses. After I watched the Han/Greedo scene I spent some time on the beginning of the movie, and am rather puzzled at some of the small changes that Lucas decided to make to other parts of the film.

For example, the Imperial boarding party scene: when the hatch is blown, the flames are green. In the original, they are orange. Also, from that same scene some shots of the nervous rebels have been totally cut out. IMO, the extended (by a few screenshots) montage of sweating, nervous rebels added to the tension of “something big about to happen”. The new cut is not as effective in comparison.

Also, if anything about the SE has ruined the movie, in my opinion, it is that the cleaned up picture shows what a horrid actor Mark Hamil actually was. For example, in the scene where he is given his fathers’ lightsaber, in the Original, the film quality is just grainy enough to cover the fact that Hamil is actually bugging out his eyes in a rediculous way that is supposed to convey amazement.

Also, the formating of the SE tapes that I have is not the same as the Original, causing some scenes to lose their dramatic empact. For example, in the scene where the Jawas arrive back at their vehicle, the formatting of the original includes on the right side of the screen, a view of the massive tank treads. In the SE the scene is more to the left, and the tank tread is not seen. A wall of rusted brown behind them is not as stirring as the realization that its a giant vehicle, IMO.

So as not to make this overly long, my next post will be the comparison.

14

The 3D Jabba looks terrible.

The worst thing about computer effects is how quickly they age. The original giant-puppet version of Jabba still looks as menacing and “real” as ever, but the 3D model used in the SE is laughable!

At the time the SE was released in the mid-90s, that might have been the height of computer effects, but now he looks like a fancy Quake 3 model!

15

I have never in seen the original trilogy in a theater, which I do think makes the experience much more of an event. I’ll leave it to others to judge the significance of the changes Lucas has made. From a storytelling perspective, however, one change in Empire Strikes Back struck me as particularly terrible: the yell added to Luke’s fall after the fight with Vader. In the original, Luke’s calm resolve to end his life was (to me) a significant moment in his maturity. He finally realized the cost of his impetuousness and recognized if he accepted help at that point there would be no turning back. The yell undercut all this. Fear may have been a normal response, but this was a choice and not an accident.

I read somewhere that the yell was actually the same one use for the Emperor’s fall in Return of the Jedi. If this then was supposed to be some sort of foreshadowing or drawing of a parallels in characters, it was clumsy and sophmoric.

(apologies for the slight hijack)

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The Shooting Scene: In both editions, the beginning part of the scene is the same, with one small difference. Greedo’s eyes are metallic blue in the Original, but have been changed to black in the SE. Apart from that, they are identical from the point where Han gets up from the table, rounding the corner to run into Greedo, to the line where Han gestures with his hand and says, “Yes, I bet you have.”

Original: same scene, the screen goes mostly white. Part of Han’s black vest can still be seen in the flare. That is exactly one screenshot.

Scene switches to Greedo on the left side of the screen with a small red marble-like dot approaching his face. That is one screenshot.

Screen goes completely white, followed by sound of laser and by pyrotechinic sparks, flares, and smoke. There is lots of smoke, and the screen goes mostly black with it.

Switch to scene of Han on one side with his laser in his lap and his leg propped up on the table, and Greedo on the other side with is head in mid-fall to the table top and his hand clutching the edge. Dull thud as he hits.

The scene switches to various aliens glancing over, and at this point is again identical to the SE.
SE: From “Yes, I bet you have.” the scene switches to Han sitting across from Greedo. This scene, frankly, looks awful. The seemingly enlarged foot on the table is at an awkward angle that makes it appear disembodied. After some studying, I believe that two scenes were digitally remastered together. The moment when he first sits down, and the moment when he is lifting his foot off the table to rise.

A plume of purple smoke emerges from the lamp, and a red streak of laser gun energy flies across the scene. Han has been digitally remastered into a slight ducking gesture in the upper torso area. This appears to actually be his original relaxing into his seat to his left played backwards so that it looks like he is rising to the right. The bolt appears to have grazed his foot, but not really. It hits the wall a good six inches (at least) away from Han. It turns into a little purple splatter that dissapears.

I believe Han’s fingers have been digitally remastered to appear to be holding his laser, but that area of his pants is completely black, and I can’t make out that he is holding it.

Same scene- a red laser bolt surrounded by purple smoke emerges from Han’s crotch. The red laser bolt travels through his enlarged foot, and dissapears. Another bolt emerges from a slightly different area of his crotch, more like from his kidney. This bolt is aimed directly at the lamp, but seems to pass though it as a red streak.

Scene switches back to Greedo. The bolt of laser energy has changed. It is now heading directly for Greedo’s face (previous scene it was in line with his torso) in the form of four little colored balls. One appears to be the original, another is also red, and two are greenish-black.

The screen goes almost completely white, with Greedo’s eye and hand and the laser dots still visible in the flaring negative.

Greedo’s torso explodes in a pyrotechnic display of shooting sparks and smoke, followed by more fireworks, more shooting sparks, and more smoke. This appears to be a whole new scene, as the lamp is in the corner the whole time, but it could be the change in formatting. More smoke turns the scene to mostly black.

Scene switches to Han across from Greedo slumping to the table with a dull thud followed by scenes of various aliens glancing over. The table under Greedo is glowing blue.
My conclusion: Surprisingly, in the Original, Greedo did not shoot at all. In the SE, it was a shootout between Han’s crotch and the evil table lamp. The lamp shot first, and the crotch was merely defending itself.

If anyone has any questions about other parts of the movie, I will make an attempt to answer them. My VCR is ready.

17

Some folks impart a huge boomcrash to Stars Wars. The big thing I remember is what happened after the movie. My darlin’ and I had driven to a bigfat gazoom theater with a huge screen and rumbly speakers to get the intended impact. When the film let out, we saw that a huge thunderstorm had moved in. We, the audience, were standing under the short overhang around the theater. I, alone, took off my shoes and socks. I handed them to my sweetie and walked out to my car. I heard other people saying I was a really gallant guy to go get the car. Not so. Not at all. I had seen that I had parked right on top of the main drain of the parking lot, and that the water was nearly up to the floor of my car. In ten more minutes, I’d have to take the bus home.

That’s what I remember.

18

the scene with jabba was in the book, i always thought it was in the movie as i read the book more times than i saw the movie.

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Some changes are so small as to pass almost unnoticed, but by thunder, someone noticed them.

Were you aware that the shootouts had been changed? Watch this in frame by frame: Star Wars Special Edition Cutlist. Click the picture to see the video.

At regular speed, the shootouts look very similar. Frame by frame, you’ll see that every shot was carefully recut so that all shots of laser fire actually striking a person have been cut out.

Lucas’s pussification of his masterpiece continues.

20

Could be worse. He could have replaced the blasters altogether with walkie talkies.