Read into Lucas's original cut of the OT. It was bad. He had 3PO pulling slapstick humor on stormtroopers in the middle of the Battle of Hoth. And remember the scene in ANH where the troopers walk by and the door in Mos Eisley opened and 3PO and R2 snuck out. Remember that tension? That scene was played in reverse. George's version was the droids walking into the closet, shutting the door, and then the troopers marching right by it with a wAcKy sOuNd EfFecT. The OT was basically saved by Lucas's ex-wife, who cut and rearranged the films to take out all of his stupid shit and treat the plot and characters more seriously/realistically. If you go through the changes and play it in your head the way George intended, IT ABSOLUTELY FEELS THE SAME AS THE PREQUELS. Like its startling how the tone feels.
I think he also had a rough cut screening with Spielberg and several other directors that proposed significant changes.
That's why we have those unused scenes with Biggs on tatooine and Jabba that cropped up in the special edition. Luke also had a whole gang of friends that got cut at their suggestion.
Luke's friends were named Camie and Fixer, and he had a nickname - "Wormie Luke." ANH was originally laid out much more like a Disney movie. The original was an intro with Luke going about his day, where we got to know about him and his shitty life and friends for about 15 minutes. Then he would see the space battle above the planet through his binocs, and then the camera would pan out to the opening space battle between the Devastator and the Tantive IV. Instead that whole opening section got cut and they gave us a "show, not tell" introduction to Luke, and well after the movie opened with that amazing pan out down the length of the star destroyer with the plot kicking off almost in media res.
Read into Lucas's original cut of the OT. It was bad. He had 3PO pulling slapstick humor on stormtroopers in the middle of the Battle of Hoth. And remember the scene in ANH where the troopers walk by and the door in Mos Eisley opened and 3PO and R2 snuck out. Remember that tension? That scene was played in reverse. George's version was the droids walking into the closet, shutting the door, and then the troopers marching right by it with a wAcKy sOuNd EfFecT. The OT was basically saved by Lucas's ex-wife, who cut and rearranged the films to take out all of his stupid shit and treat the plot and characters more seriously/realistically. If you go through the changes and play it in your head the way George intended, IT ABSOLUTELY FEELS THE SAME AS THE PREQUELS. Like its startling how the tone feels.
I think he also had a rough cut screening with Spielberg and several other directors that proposed significant changes.
That's why we have those unused scenes with Biggs on tatooine and Jabba that cropped up in the special edition. Luke also had a whole gang of friends that got cut at their suggestion.
Luke's friends were named Camie and Fixer, and he had a nickname - "Wormie Luke." ANH was originally laid out much more like a Disney movie. The original was an intro with Luke going about his day, where we got to know about him and his shitty life and friends for about 15 minutes. Then he would see the space battle above the planet through his binocs, and then the camera would pan out to the opening space battle between the Devastator and the Tantive IV. Instead that whole opening section got cut and they gave us a "show, not tell" introduction to Luke, and well after the movie opened with that amazing pan out down the length of the star destroyer with the plot kicking off almost in media res.