‘The search for the ‘Star Wars’ George Lucas doesn’t want you to see’:-
https://mashable.com/2015/12/17/star-wars-original-cut/?europe=true - a 2015 article
a snippet…
"Ah, Star Wars. Not the movie that’s launching like a nostalgia-boosted rocket this week ,or the prequel sequels that broke millions of hearts a decade ago, or even the face-lifted originals that the franchise’s creator unloaded on the public in the late 20th century.
No, I’m taking about the movie I saw as a teen 38 years ago. The epic film called simply Star Wars. It was singular and self-contained. It was raw and it was visceral. It has also, more or less, been hidden away for nearly four decades.
Ever since director George Lucas started messing with the original trio of films — Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi — fans have been fixated on the series’ unadulterated versions.
Lucas has either seized and destroyed or hidden away all copies of the original films in order to roll out modified versions that are ostensibly better than the originals. Owing to its age, the first film, which was released in 1977, has probably undergone more updates and spit polish than the rest.
There is, however, one place beyond the reach of Lucas’s twitchy, compulsively dissatisfied grasp: the Library of Congress.
As I read last year in the epic How Star Wars Conquered the Universe, by Mashable’s own Chris Taylor, the Library doesn’t just have a preserved 1977 negative of the film. That negative has been transformed into a glorious 4K file that anyone can view by appointment."
The rest of the article follows the writer’s journey to the Library of Congress to watch and experience the 1977 version of Star Wars… a compelling read.