The Best Version of the Original Star Wars Movie
Star Wars Revisited is the best edited version of the movie Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope made by a fan of the film. The film was re-edited by British amateur artist Adrian Sayce of Shrewsbury, of the United Kingdom, who is known by his internet username as "adywan". Sayce's previous intentions were to make major color corrections to the 2004 DVD release of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition and to remove or revise some of the horrible changes made by creator George Lucas and new special effects that were not yet available in the original theatrical versions of the films. Sayce's final edited version contains substantial continuity editing, re-cuts of some key scenes and entirely new computer graphics special effects.
Sayce's re-edited version has been hailed by some Star Wars fans as the best version of the original Star Wars film and is unofficially titled Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope Revisited.
The Cuts and Additions
The opening crawl has been fixed and Star Wars now recedes into the background at the proper speed.
You can see a wrecked Battle Droid in the Jawa transport with R2-D2 & C-3PO!
Threepio’s line “there’ll be no escape for the Princess this time” has been changed to “there’ll be no escape this time.” This fixes a large continuity problem, since when R2 plays the “help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi” hologram, Threepio has no idea who she is, and is unclear who the special passengers on the Blockade Runner were.
There is an awesome new series of special effects shots that introduce the Death Star (showing it in orbit of a planet — very cool) that includes the Imperial March! (True Star Wars fans know that this classic bad-guy theme has always been missing from A New Hope, since John Williams didn’t write it until he was scoring Empire!) Also, in the scene on the Death Star that follows, when Tarkin is discussing the Emperor’s dissolution of the Senate, William’s Emperor theme (which was used a lot in Return of the Jedi and the Prequel Trilogy) plays softly in the background.
While a lot of the new creature effects added into the Mos Eisley sequence for the Special Editions have been preserved, they have been trimmed to cut out the juvenile humor (such as one droid punching another, or a Jawa falling off one of the large creatures).
When Obi-Wan slices off the arm of the creature menacing Luke in the Cantina (that’d be Ponda Baba. Yes, I am a Star Wars geek), we see in the next shot that the arm actually looks cauterized (the way light-saber wounds look in all the other films) as opposed to bloody.
The moment where Han is surprised by Greedo was ruined in the 2004 DVDs because Greedo’s subtitles appear on screen too early, BEFORE Han sees Greedo. This has been fixed. Also, during the scene between Han and Greedo, Adywan has added some subtle facial articulation to Greedo’s face (his eyes blink, his mouth moves more), bringing the rubber mask to life.
HAN SHOOTS FIRST!!!
The effects shot of Alderaan being destroyed has been beautifully re-done, making this a much more powerful moment.
I don’t know how he did it, but somehow Adywan has totally re-worked the Vader/Obi-Wan duel to be both longer and much more fast-paced and intense. In a really clever touch, he also added in music from Revenge of the Sith, specifically John Williams’ “Duel of the Fates” track that played behind the Anakin/Obi-Wan duel in that film. The combination really elevates this scene, and connects the Original Trilogy to the Prequel Trilogy in a powerful way. (He also used CGI to subtly touch up the moment when Vader actually strikes down Obi-Wan — we now see Vader’s saber burn through Obi-Wan’s cloak. Very cool.)
The battle between the Falcon and the Tie Fighters after they escape from the Death Star has been greatly enhanced, so that it no longer seems as if the Falcon is sitting still while the Tie Fighters buzz around it.
When Han and Leia and then Han and Luke chat in the Falcon’s cockpit after the fight, the hyperspace effect has been added in to the cock-pit windows. It was always ridiculous that there were un-moving stars in the cockpit during that scene, when they’re supposed to be racing to the rebel base!
The graphics of the Death Star used during the rebels’ briefing have been nicely enhanced, and when Leia and the rebel leaders monitor the Death Star battle in their base, the huge circular panel that they gather around has been enhanced with a beautiful 3-D hologram of the Death Star and all the fighters.
Oh my lord the final Death Star battle has been tremendously enhanced. There are a variety of entirely new shots that are just amazing — particularly a stunning shot of the fleet of TIE fighters engaging the rebel X-Wings (scored to the Imperial March, which has once again been inserted here). There are a TON of tweaks to this whole sequence. Almost every shot has had a lot of extra ships and explosions added in to the background, making the battle seem a whole lot more visceral and chaotic. The big red planet Yavin has been added in to the background of many of the shots, emphasizing the Death Star’s increasing proximity to the Rebel Base. When the X-Wings are being chased down the trench by Vader and his TIE fighters, you can now see the TIEs chasing behind the X-Wings in many of the shots. (In all of the many versions of Star Wars, this has never been the case. You’d always see a shot of the X-Wings and then cut to a shot of the TIE fighters.)
Chewie gets a medal at the end! He’s no longer excluded!!
How to get Revisited
Star Wars is copyrighted by Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC and you have to own a copy of the films in order to legally own a copy of this edit. This is a free edit and enhancement work, if you bought this edit from someone then you were scammed.
You can download the torrent file or Google "star wars revisited download". This is the Star Wars movie edit you are missing in your life.
Enjoy and May the Force be with you.
Sources: http://annex.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars_Revisited
http://www.motionpicturescomics.com/2009/02/09/han-shoots-first-josh-is-astounded-by-adywans-fan-edit-of-star-wars-a-new-hope/
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Interesting, I may have to give it a watch. Haven't seen many edits but I enjoyed the de-specialized editions by Harmy very much.
Wooooowwww!!!!! We just finished clone wars on netflix, excited to check this out!!
Yeah, Clone Wars was so cool!
I like Star Wars, and curious about this version. Thank you :)