Anyway, what’s so special about the 70mm ESB? Didn’t ANH also have picture and sound differences between the 35mm and 70mm versions?
Sound, yes, picture, no. ESB is the only one to have visual/editing differences between 70mm and 35mm, which was just down to a few VFX shots in the final scene being unfinished when the 70mm prints were struck IIRC.
Yes but the shots weren’t unfinished, they didn’t exist. The film that was released 5/21/80 was the 70mm. After it came out Lucas realized it needed three extra shots to better establish the spatial geography in the final scene and ILM complied. They were added to the 35mm prints which weren’t screened until a month later.