I am trying to imagine how my scenario would work out on the Endor surface. Han taps the guy on the shoulder. The commandos break in through the door, and keep the cut to the Death Star and Luke facing the Emperor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1qYEYGkTeU&t=6m58s
After the Emperor says, "Oh, I'm afraid the deflective shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive," we then see our heroes being marched out of the bunker from 3PO's and R2's perspective. The Ewoks ambush them. Take out the Ewok horn blowing. Show Ewok carnage and only use the more depressing shots of the battle.
Here are some potential shots from the Battle for Endor. There's probably less than I was hoping for, but still this links should give a couple of seconds of useful footage that could slightly expand the Ewok struggle and perhaps make it appear a bit more violent and overwhelming at times for them. Maybe more could be found, as I just quickly was searching on YouTube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAEV_sLEglI&t=3m49s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ5_q7p6WQs&t=3m8s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ5_q7p6WQs&t=4m59s
Also show some of our own filmed commando action. Make the battle look more bleak for the whole company. Take out the destruction of the AT-STs at this point.
3PO and R2 head to the bunker, R2 fails to open the door before getting shot. Han tries to hotwire. When he says, "I think I got it. I got it!" show the door opening rather than shutting (shouldn't be too hard for someone with some skills anywhere beyond mine). The battle continues to rage outside. Somehow show Chewie and a few commandos near the bunker with Han and Leia to imply that they will enter as well, and include a high quality, well restored version of the following clip (probably shorten the time that Han stands in the hall like an idiot while the troopers realize what's going on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT-ZsR2P8dU&t=0m16s
At about the point where Han says, "Charges, c'mon. C'mon!" take out Leia's, "Hurry, the fleet will be here any moment," and the rest of that video. Instead we see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BVEvvCRGy4&t=7m57s
...Han setting up the charges. The battle continues again showing a desperate Ewok battle, perhaps with a few remaining commandos outside. Just thinking here...perhaps show some Imperials charging in...maybe even show Han chucking the box at Ben Burt, but as the stormtroopers charge in, show some laser blasts and smoke and cut to the space battle, so we don't really know what happened from there in the bunker. When we return to the surface of Endor, we see Han yelling, "Move! Move!"...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFp9wXfnvdE&t=0m56s
...with added laser blasts all around to make it still appear like a fire zone, perhaps with some added shots even coming out of the bunker like he is being chased. The bunker explodes, "The shield is down," yadda yadda. We then see the happier shots of the Ewoks surprising and beating up stormtroopers, beginning with the horn blowing earlier removed, and particularly shots that make the bad guys look like they're fleeing. Show Ewok AT-ST traps (maybe remove the double log smasher), and show Chewie commandeering one and taking out troopers and the AT-ST. The routing of the legion of the Emperor's best troops is far easier to believe when the baddies are in panic after the destruction of their generator. End our perspective of the land battle with the black Ewok shouting, "Yah haha!" The audience then assumes that the good guys have the Imperials on the run.
Even though we never see Leia get shot, we'd be okay seeing Han bandage her later, assuming it was just an injury in the heat of battle.
I want to give a few thoughts on the space battle as well, but I will put those into words later.
Is there anything that simply would not work in this scenario? Anything that should be left in or taken out? Other suggestions? Any feedback?