Star Wars VHS home release (1984) - first 5 minutes

This is a digital capture of the first five minutes that play on the CBS/ FOX VHS (1984) release of the original 'Star Wars' movie (1977). The original VHS tape is based off of the theatrical re-release of Star Wars (1981), hence the title 'Episode IV: A New hope' being included.
Obviously, I don't own 'Star Wars.' It was created by George Lucas and Lucasfilm, now owned by 'Disney' for better or for worse.

[@ThePoreproductions]

Man, this movie starts right where Rogue One left off!

[@V.v_1157]

This man wants to be hurt

[@yumster2367]

😭

[@5roundsrapid263]

Silly joke, but at least you didn’t spell it “Rouge”! There are edits on KZbin where the end of Rogue One segues into A New Hope.

[@knownpleasures]

Still took seven long years to get to video!

[@ThePoreproductions]

@@knownpleasures Oh, you mean from 1977 to 1984?

[@yespeace]

wow, I didn't know the prequels were planned this early

[@systemshocker2875]

no, Empire Strikes Back started the episodic titles. It was added to the first movie for this release to fix up the confusion

[@yespeace]

@@systemshocker2875 yeah, but still, almost 20 years before the phantom menace

[@briangonigal3974]

@@yespeace The idea was originally just to convey the idea of coming into one of those old episodic film serials somewhere in the middle, hence the slanted crawl (copied straight from an old Flash Gordon or Buck Rogers serial) catching you up on the story so far and the movie seemingly picking up with the story already in progress, with the Princess already on the run from some previous adventure. When Empire was released it was dubbed "Episode V" and the previous film retroactively renamed with "Episode IV" to reinforce this, but in truth it's not really clear how serious Lucas really was about actually going back and making those early episodes at first. He certainly always intended to make at least a trilogy once it was clear what a hit the first film was, and there is grand talk from the time of Empire's release of possibly an eventual full series of nine films, but then almost immediately Lucas started insisting that once he was done cashing in with this blockbuster Space Opera trilogy he had committed to, he was going to pursue his dream of being a "serious" director of esoteric limited-budget Art films & maybe documentaries. By the time Return of the Jedi was finished he was insisting he was done with Star Wars for good and any old talk of additional prequels or further sequels was dead & buried (and indeed Jedi does seem to fully & completely wrap up the whole grand story) But of course, fate would eventually dictate otherwise.

[@yespeace]

@@briangonigal3974 Wow, thank you! That's a great explanation

[@lufi77]

George Lukas started with Episode 4 because he knew from technical point of view 1-3 where not possible at that time.

[@jamestwhelan6693]

It was as fantastic on VHS back then as it is now on 4K! (Actually, maybe better because it was all we had😂!)

[@dannsthamann195]

The 4k is heavily edited from this, In 1997 George Lucas, feeling dissatisfied with some of the effects and some “mistakes” rereleased the original trilogy remastered under “special edition” that added annoying CGI nonsense, like making greedo shoot first replacing lapti neck with Jedi Rocks and replacing Yub Nub and most of the original effects and changing dialog

[@Eternaldarkness3166]

I still have my VHS copies, some movies you just don't get rid of.

[@thedys70]

I'm having trouble parting with mine too...

[@nathancruz9172]

I wish we get the original theatrical version on Disney + or blu ray disc.

[@Naminski1a]

Or 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.

[@thedys70]

As soon as Uncle George drops off the perch, they will pounce

[@nathancruz9172]

@@Naminski1a yep

[@Naminski1a]

In the original release of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977), it has the 1953 20th Century-Fox logo and the 1954 recording version of 20th Century-Fox Fanfare with CinemaScope Extension by Alfred Newman.

[@baptiste6875]

And no "Episode IV - A New Hope"

[@Naminski1a]

@@baptiste6875 Also, the Episode IV subtitle was added in the opening crawl for the 1981 theatrical re-release.

[@baptiste6875]

@@Naminski1a Yes, but you were talking about the original 1977 theatrical release.

[@Naminski1a]

@@baptiste6875 The original theatrical version is on the 2006 2-Disc Limited Edition Widescreen DVD release.

[@gorillazzillathemeh5897]

Every time I hear the CBS-FOX theme, I keep expecting a Doctor Who episode. They partnered with BBC to bring the tapes to the States.

[@pustulioyo]

RIGHT? My dad still has some of them, some of them he bought at conventions, some of them he recorded off of PBS. I think it was used on every BBC VHS in the US and we had the Wallace and Gromit collection on VHS, this logo was definitely attached to it.

[@5roundsrapid263]

What’s ironic is that this film was shot in England, so a lot of the same crew had worked on Doctor Who, too. They even reused some of the same props.

[@Naminski1a]

@@5roundsrapid263 You mean Thorn EMI-Elstree Studios.

[@Lupton2000]

Me too or Fist of Fear, Touch of Death.

[@MathewRenfro]

surprised this upload got past youtube's Content ID, the automatic system to detect Copywritten materials. Just a matter of time till The Mouse comes with a DCMA takedown. Glad I got to see this upload while its still up.

[@thedys70]

The Mouse has become Vermin...

[@MrMisanthrope84]

Seriously, they had Episode IV on the titles as far back as 1984?

[@treystephens6166]

1981

[@flyingthebuttress]

Yeah that was after empire and return where he put them as episode V and VI

[@MrMisanthrope84]

@@flyingthebuttress wow, I didn't realise it was that far back. I thought he added those titles for the special editions.

[@JamesBondStarWarsFan1983-by6qp]

I Love Star Wars 1977 so much. Star Wars 1977 will always be my absolute favorite Star Wars film, 1977 was a brilliant and great year for movies, and 1977 was the year of Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Saturday Night Fever, and Smokey and the Bandit. Star Wars had an awesome Tantive IV opening with C-3PO, R2-D2, Darth Vader, and Princess Leia, the opening crawl for Star Wars was stellar, and Star Wars along with Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Saturday Night Fever are my top 3 favorite films of 1977. David Prowse from A Clockwork Orange was a great villain as Darth Vader, I loved Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia, and C-3PO as well as R2-D2 are both the best robot characters in Star Wars. Alec Guinness was excellent as Ben Kenobi, the lightsaber fight between Darth Vader and Ben Kenobi was very good, and George Lucas's direction for the film was great.

[@Tk-4444]

nice capture!

[@pustulioyo]

I love this!

[@lukegreen5341]

0:20 Old School Times. X

[@rickyj5547]

I used to play it non stop

[@johntabler349]

Clever writing your infected into an already moving story giving you just enough information, telling the story with visuals very good

[@andrewattenboroughtwothumb4697]

I remember seeing the early 90s version on vhs but this is incredible of the original movie from 1977

[@PlasmaCoolantLeak]

A friend had a pirated copy of the movie on VHS a few years after the movie was released. The images were too big for the TV, LOL. I asked him where he got it. "You know better than to ask me something like that." He made me a copy, but I was too paranoid to hold onto it, LOL.

[@darkblades1201]

I have this one! I now need return of the jedi cause I found empire already

[@MediaLoverChris02]

Are there ANY VHS copies WITHOUT the ‘Episode IV - A New Hope’ title??

[@themovietheatre]

This tape's in Stereo.

[@davidhope2599]

Could you put the full thing up somewhere?

[@ViewpointProd]

3:12, seemingly a burnt in timecode? not sure why that's there, its def not closed captioning data.

[@lukegreen5341]

3:06 Welcome Back To The Capital City Of London C-3PO And R2-D2 Dudes. X

[@trex70]

I realy want a copy of the hole VHS

[@BrianBisetti]

Wait, this isn’t the right recording of the Fox Fanfare. Did he change it up for this release?

[@showerhourplaylists1370]

Someone should’ve pre’d this quel

[@captainnewzealand4644]

The way me as a child and the rest of the world saw this movie until the late 90's. I'm glad we have remastered and enhanced 🎉versions now, but like someone else already mentioned, George fiddled too much and ruined certain parts of the OT.

[@Phil_Mitchell]

Yeah the Disney movies are trash but I still won't forgive Lucas for all the special edition garbage changes.

[@kilroy987]

I won't deny there are some changes I didn't like so much: Mos Eisley eye porn, Unneeded wampa, You were lucky to get out of there, Jabba Palace dance scene, Blinking Ewoks, NOOOOOO! Once he put the first movies out, they were something we loved. After that, they were something he fiddled with.

[@5roundsrapid263]

The original edits were done by Marcia Lucas, his ex-wife. She cheated, then took half his money. I’m not saying he did it out of spite, but who knows…

[@beardedgeektoyreviews836]

⁠@@5roundsrapid263 not exactly true, Marcia only worked on the final reel the Death Star battle, Paul Hirsch and Dwyane Dunham edited the rest of the movie. All three of them won an Oscar for Best Editing at the 78 Academy Awards.