Attn Star Wars Fans: THESE are the versions you've been looking for (Screened: Behind the Scenes of Harmy's Star Wars "Despecialized Editions")

[Bliz]

See the article below regarding the "Despecialized" versions meticulously created, frame by frame, by this ridiculously hardcore fan, with the help of others. It is the closest you can possibly get right now to a digital quality print of the originals.

The files are available on torrent, or there are instructions for how to download in a comment to the article below and at the threads regarding his work at originaltrilogy.com. I have watched scenes (but not the whole movies) on a 56" tv, immediately after watching the same scene from the DVD special editions. I'm no videophile, but to me the quality difference was negligible to non-existent. The movies are totally watchable, and do not LOOK like anyone has been screwing with them. It's amazing. And the level of detail they've gotten into on the changes is ridiculous. 99% of even dedicated star wars fans would never notice some of the things he is correcting

There is a gray area with these fan edits, and whether or not they constitute fair use. I don't know the answer, but you should not download these if you do not own the movies. Do not support piracy. Here is Harmy's disclaimer:

This is a fan preservation. Fanedits and preservations must not be bought or sold. Please report every fanedit or preservation you find for sale to webmasters of originaltrilogy.com. Fanedits and preservations are an artform and to be shared among legal owners of the officially available releases only. Do not support piracy.

http://www.screened.com/news/behind-the-scenes-of-harmys-star-wars-despecialized-edition/2917/

There are countless justifications for hating the Special Editions, from shoddy coloring mistakes to unnecessary CG alien additions, but one towers above the rest. The original Star Wars is a cultural landmark worthy of preservation--along with films like Birth of a Nation, Metropolis, and Citizen Kane, Star Wars had an incalculable impact on the language of film, and Han Solo stepping on CG Jabba's tail had nothing to do with it.George Lucas has, perhaps, lost sight of that fact. His fans haven't. While most of us can't do more than complain, one member of the Original Trilogy Star Wars forum has gone above and beyond to restore Star Wars to its original (imperfect) form. Harmy, a 23 year-old student living in the Czech Republic, has spent most of 2011 working on his own Despecialized Editions of the original trilogy--ironically restoring the vision Lucas wandered from in the past 15 years.

With new changes in the Blu-ray releases stirring up rage and

across the Internet, Harmy's work has suddenly exploded in popularity. Fed up with CG insertions but desperate for a better picture than the letterboxed Laserdisc rips included on the 2004 DVDs? Harmy's Despecialized Editions are the closest you're going to get.

And here's the crazy part: Harmy didn't spend seven months undoing Lucas' damage with state-of-the-art editing software or a beastly octo-core desktop workstation. As he explained to me in an email interview, he works with the humble tools available to him: an old laptop, outdated Adobe After Effects, and consumer-grade editing software. Why? Because the original films deserve to be preserved.

"I used to have a copy of a copy of an old VHS (the original version) which I watched so much as a kid that I totally wore it out," Harmy wrote. "Actually in the case of TESB and ROTJ I saw the Special Editions first and it took a lot of effort to find the original versions on VHS here in the Czech Republic. And it was one of the awesomest STAR WARS moments for me when I finally got to watch the original versions of these films (though it also made me pretty angry when I realized that some of the Special FX shots I was admiring so much were actually recomposited and thus lost much of their historical value)."

Harmy originally got the idea to "despecialize" Star Wars when he found out an old girlfriend had never seen the movies. He wanted to show her the original, rather than the Special Edition, and ended up settling for the Laserdisc rip on the 2004 DVDs (often referred to as GOUT, or George's Original Unaltered Theatrical versions).

Long before starting the Despecialized project in 2011, Harmy had tried splicing the GOUT DVD footage into a 720p rip of Empire using Windows Movie Maker. The results weren't pretty, but he came back to the idea three years later and started work on a Partly Despecialized Edition of the trilogy, removing the most egregious SE changes. Those edits eventually rolled into the full Despecialized Editions he worked on this year, beginning with The Empire Strikes Back in February and ending with Return of the Jedi in August.

In addition to cutting out Special Edition scenes, Harmy color corrected each film--which involved matching up all of his disparate source videos--to mimic the original versions as closely as possible. Working with an HDTV rip as a base, he upscaled content from the GOUT DVDs, created custom mattes to hide Special Edition changes, and used extensive rotoscoping to piece the changes together.

Just a few of his most impressive edits are scattered throughout this article--hundreds more are compiled in a Picasa gallery here.

Even with Star Wars finally out on Blu-ray, Harmy doesn't plan to start the projects from scratch.

"I also decided against using the Blu-Rays as a source for the new versions, as I’d still have to work in 720p and from the comparisons I've seen between the Blu-Rays and the highest quality HDTV captures, the difference is so small (being the same resolution from the same master) that it wouldn't be worth it," he explained.

But the Despecialized project isn't over and done with just yet.

"I’m working on a new version of SW with some glitches fixed, some shots re-despecialized and some additional changes (for example I’m currently working on restoring the original lightsabers in the Ben vs. Vader duel or the original hologram of Leia, both of which were recomposited in the SE and given a very different look in the process)," Harmy wrote. "Then I’m going to do some further tweaks to ESB (some more changes were recently discovered and added to Doubleofive’s comprehensive SE change lists: SW, ESB, ROTJ, Blu-Ray)."

Harmy's initiative--and the passion of the Original Trilogy forum crowd, who kept him going through the more tedious editing moments--are rare examples of Internet dissatisfaction leading to something genuinely amazing and productive. The Save Star Wars website is a fascinating resource for changes made to the series over the years, and its story about a 2010 screening of a one-of-a-kind Technicolor imbibition dye-transfer print sparks a tiny hope that one day a 4K or 6K scan of the original film will digitally preserve Star Wars for decades to come. It may be a forlorn hope, considering the time investment and equipment (nevermind the legal issues) involved in digitizing the film.

Until the day Lucasfilm or a very rich, very bold fan scans that Technicolor film, the Star Wars community subsists on edits like Harmy's, put together with the Special Edition and GOUT DVDs and HDTV rips from satellite broadcasts. If you're interested in diving into the deep, deep world of Star Wars fan edits, Harmy's Despecialized editions are easy to find with a little Googling. Most editors aren't nearly as exacting--or as subtle, anyway--and instead focus on having fun with Star Wars instead of preserving it.

(more at the link)

[elkabong82]

awesome, totally awesome

it's a damn shame that fans have to recreate the original versions, George Lucas is out of his mind with the crap he's added in

[TheLongshot]

Funny this comes up. I have a friend of mine who is working on converting his LD of Star Wars to Blu-Ray.

[FanboyOf91]

God bless this good man. Generations of children will be saved from George Lucas' endless lust for 'moar CGI'.

[Bliz]

God bless this good man. Generations of children will be saved from George Lucas' endless lust for 'moar CGI'.

They're easy to find. Just google "torrent harmy despecialized." If anyone d/ls after reading this thread, come back to this thread and post your thoughts/review after watching

[The Curious One]

I can understand George wanting to go in and do something different or better now that technology and budget wouldn't let him do in 1977 - 1983, Even with the newer trilogy, there were time contraints and other pressures that he just couldn't do all the little things he wanted to do. On top of that, he's decided that he wanted to change some things anyway.

I can understand the fans who want George to stop tinkering. But this has gone over the top, in my opinion. How much time and effort and money did this guy spend doing this? for a movie? seriously?

I like Star Wars - when the first original Star Wars was released I was 17 and saw it in the theaters more times than I can count.

I really don't care if George keeps tinkering, and if people want to think that George has ruined (raped?) their childhood (is it really that traumatic? REALLY?), that's their business.

For me, my memories are mine - there is nothing that George can do to change that. And there is nothing this guy can do to preserve them or bring them back.

[Sticksboi05]

I have the original VHS' luckily.

[Bliz]

I can understand George wanting to go in and do something different or better now that technology and budget wouldn't let him do in 1977 - 1983, Even with the newer trilogy, there were time contraints and other pressures that he just couldn't do all the little things he wanted to do. On top of that, he's decided that he wanted to change some things anyway.

I can understand the fans who want George to stop tinkering. But this has gone over the top, in my opinion. How much time and effort and money did this guy spend doing this? for a movie? seriously?

I like Star Wars - when the first original Star Wars was released I was 17 and saw it in the theaters more times than I can count.

I really don't care if George keeps tinkering, and if people want to think that George has ruined (raped?) their childhood (is it really that traumatic? REALLY?), that's their business.

For me, my memories are mine - there is nothing that George can do to change that. And there is nothing this guy can do to preserve them or bring them back.

I don't think people would care if he kept tinkering, if he would just release the originals in a version that didn't look like utter crap. Or if his tinkering was worth a damn or added more to the movies than it detracted.

[Major Harris]

star wars fans are hilariously geeky (guilty as charged).

but i really don't get some of the complaining. i mean seriously, are people upset that he added some windows? or clouds over a sun? or extra animals in a scene? it's pretty funny.

i do get the whole "han shot first."

[TheLongshot]

I don't think people would care if he kept tinkering, if he would just release the originals in a version that didn't look like utter crap. Or if his tinkering was worth a damn or added more to the movies than it detracted.

I think some would be happy if he just stopped tinkering with the film. Thing is, with every version of the film, there seems to be something new added. At some point, you just need to quit it and move on. George needs a new hobby.

Personally, I don't make much of a big deal over the changes, but I would like the original films out there because they are a part of history.

[Bliz]

Funny this comes up. I have a friend of mine who is working on converting his LD of Star Wars to Blu-Ray.

Is your friend on that originaltrilogy.com site too? That's basically what this guy is doing - it's quite an undertaking. The LD is widely reputed to be a god-awful transfer. That's why Harmy has to combine elements from multiple sources to get to a dvd-quality version of the original with color corrections, etc.

If he's not too far into it, he might be better off just downloading the Harmy version and converting that to blu-ray

[TheLongshot]

Is your friend on that originaltrilogy.com site too? That's basically what this guy is doing - it's quite an undertaking. The LD is widely reputed to be a god-awful transfer. That's why Harmy has to combine elements from multiple sources to get to a dvd-quality version of the original with color corrections, etc.

If he's not too far into it, he might be better off just downloading the Harmy version and converting that to blu-ray

Yeah, I forwarded the link to him.

[No_Pressure]

star wars fans are hilariously geeky (guilty as charged).

but i really don't get some of the complaining. i mean seriously, are people upset that he added some windows? or clouds over a sun? or extra animals in a scene? it's pretty funny.

i do get the whole "han shot first."

I think that once a film like Star Wars becomes a major cultural phenomenon the filmmaker has to take into account what he's doing. Think of any famous film that has shaped our culture. Gone With the Wind could have CGI Civil War battle scenes and a happy ending, right? If it was what the film's creator "originally wanted" who are we to judge? Maybe in the Wizard of Oz Dorothy could be less of a girly girl and get into a fist fight with the flying monkeys, or there could be all sorts of crazy ass over the top CGI for the witch and her magic. That would make the movie better wouldn't it?

I remember learning about a whole bunch of classic movie stars like Jimmy Stewart talking in congress during the 80's against colorizing classic films like It's a Wonderful Life. I'm pretty sure they won and original editions were restored.

Lets do a special edition of the Godfather and add in a bunch of CGI enhanced car chase scenes or gun fights. Or hell, for the sake of doing something, lets use CGI effects to re-arrange the pictures on the walls of rooms, or change the color of wallpaper and paint slightly for no apparent reason. Nobody should care about that stuff!

Preserving classic films in the manner which made them classics is an important thing in my opinion. At a certain point the film belongs to the fans as well as the people who made it because of the effect the film has had on an entire culture. Going back and rearranging the scenes, changing character aspects, changing scenery and the look of a film which inspired and entertained millions is wrong. I don't even think so many people would have a problem with George Lucas if he acknowledged the original editions- the greatness of those films, the impact it had on our society. Instead he treats them like big mistakes which are far in the past. All the major releases for over a decade have been special edition with edited and tinkered with scenes, all the versions shown on TV now are the special edition or should I say the replacement standard edition. Its one thing to have a new release with a different take on things. George Lucas created Star Wars and can release a special edition if he likes, but its another thing to have a totally different version of a film completely replace the beloved originals.

All of that killing my childhood stuff is melodrama but it has a point. When a film becomes as big as Star Wars and has the impact it had, fans come to love everything about it, even the blatant imperfections or the imperfections which perhaps George Lucas alone perceives. Any alteration or 'fixing' of those imperfections destroys what the film was and what it once stood for. It doesn't leave one saying "wow what an amazing movie trilogy" it leaves them saying "wow it WAS an amazing movie trilogy before it got all ****ed up beyond belief". For those of you who are married, think of any small imperfection your wife may have- one that she perceives as a problem, but one that you don't. Now imagine something "fixed" or altered that imperfection. Your wife might be happy that she is now perfect or exactly the way she envisioned herself being, while you may be bothered and distraught that your wife altered her appearance or something else about her. You loved the woman she was, and these alterations were unnecessary- you wish she hadn't done them.

But its her body, she can do whatever she wants with it without taking your feelings on the matter into account, right?

No, being a fan of Star Wars isn't the same as a marriage and nobody should ever love a movie like a wife. Ever. The point is that at this point Star Wars is a relationship between the fans who came to know and love it, and George Lucas who created it. George Lucas has taken the path of the selfish wife, and the fans are simply ****ed over in the end.

I suppose making a de-specialized edition would be like the husband being a genetic engineer and cloning his wife the way she used to be and marrying her...that's where it gets complicated...

[Major Harris]

no, the movies don't eventually belong to the people. and "adding car chases and shootouts,", changing the ending of gone with the wind, and adding flying fighting fist fightin monkeys are a far cry from putting clouds over a sun or adding an extra or two. it's a far, far cry.

let's talk about things that actually changed the movie, as far as plot...greedo shot first..that's basically all we have. this line says it all, imo:

99% of even dedicated star wars fans would never notice some of the things he is correcting

[No_Pressure]

no, the movies don't eventually belong to the people. and "adding car chases and shootouts,", changing the ending of gone with the wind, and adding flying fighting fist fightin monkeys are a far cry from putting clouds over a sun or adding an extra or two. it's a far, far cry.

let's talk about things that actually changed the movie, as far as plot...greedo shot first..that's basically all we have. this line says it all, imo:

Greedo shooting first isn't the only thing, You have the entire entrance scene to Mos Eisley cluttered with crazy crap, anybody could notice that. The song and dance scene in Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi? Yeah real subtle change there. Also the Sarlaac pit monster apparently has a beak and is going after people. Oh and every explosion has an unnecessary ring around it. Lets also have Darth Vader shouting "NOOOOOO" when he picks up the emperor to throw him into that bottomless pit in the death star. Then there was the entire scene added in for A New Hope where Han and Jabba are talking prior to taking off for Alderaan. Changing the song those insufferable Ewok bears are singing at the end of Return of the Jedi and adding in scenes of people celebrating on other planets was real subtle also. I liked when mysteriously Hayden Christiansen replaced the guy who was originally portraying Anakin Skywalker's ghost in Return of the Jedi also.

You're telling me that all of those things didn't change the movie and were unnoticable like clouds in the background? Get real buddy, entire scenes were added, entire portions of scenes were noticeably changed, whether it had an impact on character development and the plot or not these were obvious differences and they're just a handful of things.

[Bliz]

no, the movies don't eventually belong to the people. and "adding car chases and shootouts,", changing the ending of gone with the wind, and adding flying fighting fist fightin monkeys are a far cry from putting clouds over a sun or adding an extra or two. it's a far, far cry.

let's talk about things that actually changed the movie, as far as plot...greedo shot first..that's basically all we have. this line says it all, imo:

Greedo isn't the only one, but even if it was something doesn't have to change the plot to detract from the movie.

Take the brontosaurus-looking thing in the OP for example. A brontosaurus is scared by the speeder, causing it to buck the rider off its back. A little slapstick shoved into the movie for no reason at all. Am I supposed to believe Lucas was been lying awake at night for decades, damning technology for not being advanced enough to allow him to have his brontosaurus in that scene? What's the point of that addition?

What about ridiculously fake and out-of-place looking CGI scenes, like the celebration at the end of ROTJ (fake looking CGI people celebrating on a bridge) or the landing sequence in cloud city? If you're going to do a CGI scene or character, you can at least TRY to make it fit the movie or look real, like Gollum.

I think at this point Harmy's doing it to be a perfectionist. The article says his first edited version only bothered with the most egregious changes.

[Major Harris]

ok, i did forget the NOOOO...that's bad. but all the rest is nitpicking. it doesn't change the story.

as far as adding hayden christiansen, that made total sense to me. as he was pictured before, he was darth vader, not anakin. anakin the jedi died when darth vader was born. the jedi come back, not the sith. if anything, they messed that up in '83.

on top of all that is the pesky little fact that none of these changes are "not preserving precious geek history." you can easily still view them in their original form. would it be nice if they redid them in their original form to update? yes. and it'd be a wise business decision because plenty of geeks would buy it.

[No_Pressure]

ok, i did forget the NOOOO...that's bad. but all the rest is nitpicking. it doesn't change the story.

as far as adding hayden christiansen, that made total sense to me. as he was pictured before, he was darth vader, not anakin. anakin the jedi died when darth vader was born. the jedi come back, not the sith. if anything, they messed that up in '83.

Well you could argue that changing the special song Sam plays in the bar in Casablanca to another song doesn't alter the plot, but changing it from what it was to something else would still be a vile ****ization of one of the greatest movies of all time. If anything I find the things I mentioned about Star Wars even more offensive than if they changed the plot because the things I mentioned in most cases are changes for the sake of changes. If they don't really change much then why add them at all??? What value do they add to the movie? Who are they pleasing?

[MattFancy]

ok, i did forget the NOOOO...that's bad. but all the rest is nitpicking. it doesn't change the story.

as far as adding hayden christiansen, that made total sense to me. as he was pictured before, he was darth vader, not anakin. anakin the jedi died when darth vader was born. the jedi come back, not the sith. if anything, they messed that up in '83.

on top of all that is the pesky little fact that none of these changes are "not preserving precious geek history." you can easily still view them in their original form. would it be nice if they redid them in their original form to update? yes. and it'd be a wise business decision because plenty of geeks would buy it.

I agree. There are a few things you can get upset over in regards to the changes, but subtle changes like scenery or a song, don't seem like that big of a deal to me.

[Major Harris]

Well you could argue that changing the special song Sam plays in the bar in Casablanca to another song doesn't alter the plot, but changing it from what it was to something else would still be a vile ****ization of one of the greatest movies of all time. If anything I find the things I mentioned about Star Wars even more offensive than if they changed the plot because the things I mentioned in most cases are changes for the sake of changes. If they don't really change much then why add them at all??? What value do they add to the movie? Who are they pleasing?

well, it all goes back to whose movies they are. if he wants to change it, he can and will. if people don't like the changes, they really don't have to buy the super duper blu ray extended extravaganza party set with a free china set. i just don't get why this makes people so mad, and why people go through so much time and trouble to make the movies to be what they want. but i don't have to download the torrent and watch it, so i'll just laugh inside of myself and not ***** about it.

[scruffylookin]

I do think that George Lucas should recognize that the original versions of those films are fond memories for people and he should make it available if people want them.

Having said that, I understand why he is updating the effects in the original trilogy. He is trying to get them to match the prequels as much as possible because he wants future generations to see them as a whole. He is focused on how kids will see his saga today and in the future. In the end Star Wars is for kids and he is more concerned with the kids of the 2010's, 2020's than those of us who were kids in the 70's.

Now to get all geeky for a moment, I do wish to address the Greedo/Han thing. I understand why he tried to get Greedo to shoot first. It's because he was hellbent on inserting that Jabba and Han scene on Mos Eisley and if you have that scene, where Jabba really wasn't all that threatening and even kind of chummy with Han, having Solo kill Greedo in cold blood seems harsh. The threat in the Greedo scene is that he was taking Han to Jabba. That was Han's defense to shooting Greedo. If Greedo took Han to Jabba, it was a death sentence. But once George decided to insert the Jabba scene and we see that not only was Jabba not going to kill Han he was willing to bargain with him, it would make Han shooting Greedo that much harsher (some would say bad assier).

So I get why George did it. There is a big but though. If I were George I would tell the ILM guys to make Greedo shoot first. Do the best you can with everything at your disposal effects wise to make it convincing. If after they do that, the best they can do is what we first saw in 1997 (the Blu-Ray is a little better) then George should have let it go and kept the Greedo sequence as is and abandon the whole Jabba scene (or provide it as an extra). He was wrong to insist on going with the change because in reality the scene is butchered. He also neutered the Jabba "threat" when he decided that it was okay to have Han walk on his tail as a way to get around the fact that the original scence was shot with an actor and they had no idea at the time that Jabba would be a giant slug. I like some of the stuff in the special editions and I think that if George just went back to original Han is the only one who shoots and remove the Jabba scene, most fans would stop complaining.

End geek rant.

[Major Harris]

Greedo isn't the only one, but even if it was something doesn't have to change the plot to detract from the movie.

Take the brontosaurus-looking thing in the OP for example. A brontosaurus is scared by the speeder, causing it to buck the rider off its back. A little slapstick shoved into the movie for no reason at all. Am I supposed to believe Lucas was been lying awake at night for decades, damning technology for not being advanced enough to allow him to have his brontosaurus in that scene? What's the point of that addition?

What about ridiculously fake and out-of-place looking CGI scenes, like the celebration at the end of ROTJ (fake looking CGI people celebrating on a bridge) or the landing sequence in cloud city? If you're going to do a CGI scene or character, you can at least TRY to make it fit the movie or look real, like Gollum.

I think at this point Harmy's doing it to be a perfectionist. The article says his first edited version only bothered with the most egregious changes.

i think if the brontosaurus bothers someone, that person has other issues. just my opinion.

[elkabong82]

the look and feel of a movie adds to the story, otherwise why ever worry about cinematography? matching 70s visuals with cheap-looking CGs distracts from the movie, especially when it's rampant throughout in new additions. All the added scenes and CG do are make the movie seem more alien, more distanced from the original, and that sucks.

and no, major, you cannot still easily view them in their original form, unless you have people like harmy who produce them. all the movies out now are some form of specialized edition, as in, you cannot watch ROTJ on tv or dvd and not see the stupid CG alien singing scene in Jabba's palace.

[Major Harris]

the look and feel of a movie adds to the story, otherwise why ever worry about cinematography? matching 70s visuals with cheap-looking CGs distracts from the movie, especially when it's rampant throughout in new additions. All the added scenes and CG do are make the movie seem more alien, more distanced from the original, and that sucks.

and no, major, you cannot still easily view them in their original form, unless you have people like harmy who produce them. all the movies out now are some form of specialized edition, as in, you cannot watch ROTJ on tv or dvd and not see the stupid CG alien singing scene in Jabba's palace.

pretty easy for me.

[elkabong82]

i think if the brontosaurus bothers someone, that person has other issues. just my opinion.

how would you feel if the team in your sig were all of a sudden required to wear neon green socks? A minor change, barely noticeable right? Or would it be something very noticeable because it is out of place and annoying to you and doesn't belong on something you've enjoyed for a long time? I know this is just a hypothetical, but I'm trying to give you a relatable example of why people are bothered by CG additions, like the brontosaurus.