The story I always heard was that some people (can't remember if it was studio or Lucas' friends) felt that there weren't enough humans (only Leia) in the first act. And in a movie where not everything makes sense, Biggs really doesn't make sense. How many days from when Leia's ship is attacked to the Falcon arriving on Yavin? A handful? In that time Biggs leaves for the Rand Ecliptic (yes, I typed that from memory, why do you ask?) the same morning that Owen buys the droids, he makes contact with the rebellion like he said he would AND makes his way to Yavin IV. And once there we are certainly not given the impression that he is a new guy like Luke. Without the additional scenes there is an unusual emphasis on Bigg's death but the movie is well enough off without them. OTOH, it's nice to have him in the Star Wars mythos. Marvel's Star Wars #17 will always be one of my favorite pieces of Star Wars writing ever.
Is there? We know he was a friend of Luke's from Tattooine (Luke name-checks him at least twice before the added Special Edition bit on Yavin), it'd be pretty weird if he died and Luke didn't care at least a little bit. (And from memory, it is a very little bit in the grand sceme.)
I know the one. I agree that that's a exceptional story. Written, if I recall correctly, by the legendary Chris Claremont who brought the Uncanny X-Men to the top of the sales charts.
It's still weird in the original cut because Biggs is just a name mentioned in passing in the first third of the movie with no great emphasis put on him because the scene where he was introduced was cut. Then at the end of the movie...he's just *there* without comment because again, his reintroduction scene was cut. Even as a kid I found that jarring.
It really is a joyride to watch, and I'm an avowed fan of many of the 1997-2011 changes and additions.
The only changes that ever appealed to me were a few extra shots and enhancements to the Battle of Yavin.
they are "fine".. but I would rather watch (imperfect as they may be) the shots the people pushing the model work and motion control did entirely over CGI, especially for a film released long before CGI.
The Yavin 4 base fixes in the establishing shots are pretty much the only SE shots that I would keep. You have base exterior and interior matte painting fixes/CGI enhancements, and you also have the MF inserted into the shot of the sentry tracking something unseen with his sidearm, which was really cool [edit - see follow-up comments downthread, starting at https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/i-f...o-watch-nowadays.301624/page-17#post-13333036]. Almost every CGI space battle shot is inferior to the conventional shot it replaces, even if there were problems with the original, and in many cases (at least three that come to mind off the top of my head*), there are story beats that are trampled on by the replacement. * - Those would be: 1. "Luke, pull up!" BANG BANG "Are you alright?!" "I got a little cooked, but I'm OK." In the shot of Luke pulling up/out, it's not as clear that Luke is getting hit by white hot secondary explosions to his strafing run. 2. When Red Leader and his wingmen descend for their trench run, the original had two separate descents, one of Red Leader by himself, and a second one of his two wingmen descending together. In the new version, all three are shown descending in tight formation together. This replacement is inferior, because the original depicts the fighter pilots as right away respecting the strategy fix necessary after the first trench run regarding the problems that were called out by Gold Leader's lines "It's no good, I can't maneuver!" and "We're too close!" and later answered by Biggs in the third "We'll stay back far enough to cover you." Instead of all three Rebel craft in tight formation, the wingmen are back far enough to prevent a TIE from getting close enough to the leader for a direct shot. Also, the wingmen can fly "loose" and don't have to hold the craft steady for the computer-controlled run. The second run of X-wings had this figured out too, and it was shown in the original much more clearly, in just those few seconds in the shot of their descents to the trench. 3. Jesus, the launch from the base is just so much cooler with fighters barreling up out of the atmosphere, than with them just lazily ascending. These guys are supposed to be under a ticking down clock, man.
yeah many of the improved battle shots were to simply show off, as a testing ground for what the company was capable of but the story was told better originally
I'll agree except for the "big" shot of the x-wings as they approach and the s-foils shot. Those are terrible. @CorporalCaptain hear hear!
I'm largely happy with the Yavin battle changes, they were the one thing in the original movie that were really starting to look ropey IMO. I find the replacement shots to be very much in keeping with the movie too, the ships still don't do a huge amount of acrobatics like in later instalments so it doesn't jar for me. The only SE changes I really object to are Han shooting first, Jabba and the Mos Eisley approach. The rest I'm happy with on the whole. Ideally I would like a disc release of both versions but we all know that ain't never going to happen so I have to make my peace with what we have.
Oh my big pet peeves in that sequence: The rebel ships slow takeoff (your #3) The single panning shot establishing the Rebel fighters heading away from Yavin 4 and heading toward the Death Star: because that simple flat pan portrays the Death Star already having a clear line of fire on the rebel base. The CGI X-Wings mess up the wing markings. Luke's Red 5 should have 5 short lines on each wing (as can be seen in the shot when he gets hit just before he says "I'm hit but not bad") but in the CGI shots most of the X-Wings appear to have Red 2's wing markings, including in the shot mentioned in 2. The shot of Luke's fighter being chased over the Death star after "I can't shake him" because it has maybe 30% the speed an energy of the admittedly not perfect original etc.
Having seen a 70mm print of the original theatrical cut (other than the episode title) in June I know what you mean.
The Special Editions are the perfect case in point to the fact that sometimes the artist is not the best judge of his own work.
I watched this video yesterday, amazing what the editors (and Lucas himself) were able to do with that rough cut to transform it into the film that we all know and love. Most of the deleted scenes were just clunky and awful.