‘Star Wars: The remarkable quest to restore the original film’:-
https://www.redsharknews.com/business/item/3176-star-wars-the-remarkable-quest-to-restore-the-original-film (date unknown - 2014?)
a snippet…
"Let me start at the beginning for the uninitiated. George Lucas’ popular space opera has actually been a source of controversy to its fans and they have not been the happiest folks around, despite having the ability to watch the films as much as they like and having brilliant replica lightsabers available to buy.
Lucas started the process of restoring and updating his much loved space saga at great expense in the mid-nineties (it is estimated to have cost about $15 million to complete the project - $10 million of which was just on the first film) and released them in 1997 for the 20th Anniversary of the original release. These reworked films were dubbed ‘The Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition’ and fans have been reeling ever since. There are technically three special editions that exist for home release, with new fan agitating changes and alterations. These are the 1997 original release, the 2004 first DVD and the 2011 Blu-Ray (I could go into greater detail about the differences between these and the various VHS and laserdisc releases, but there would be a risk of a severe intergalactic headache).
George Lucas and his team have produced version after version, alterations after alterations and new editions after new editions of the original Star Wars trilogy. Many have these changes have driven fans bonkers and sent them crying artistic and historical blasphemy. The changes were numerous; some were subtle (lighting and colour palate alterations, retimed sequences), but some were glaring and stuck out like a computer generated sore thumb (extra aliens and creatures filling the foreground and background, updated spaceship sequences and the controversial ‘Han shot first’ debacle). There is a CGI sequence here, a replaced audio there and even blinking Ewoks (not as an adjective before a noun, they actually do blink in the Blu-Ray releases). The reasons for the various alterations have been numerous, from ‘artistic reasons’ to Lucas being unsatisfied with certain special effect sequences that were troublesome to create in the 70’s and 80’s. Even a deleted scene from the first Star Wars movie involving the villainous crime lord Jabba the Hut that was abandoned for budget, logistical and technological reasons was restored, completed and added to the new cut.
For decades, fans have been craving the holy grail of Star Wars home releases – the original, unaltered editions of the original Star Wars trilogy as it was shown in theatres, special effect warts and all, as they originally experienced it. Petitions, forums, documentaries and websites have been created purely for that dream. Unfortunately, Lucas has been adamant about not releasing or even considering such a product. In a 2004 interview he stated, “It’s like this is the movie I wanted it to be and I’m sorry if you saw half a completed film and fell in love with it, but I want it to be the way I want it to be.” His reluctance to release such a version has sparked debates on artist vs. audience ownership and even a refusal by Lucas to submit the Oscar-winning original to National Film Registry for preservation.
Some fans got tired of the Lucas Empire not adhering to such demands, and so the fan community of originaltrilogy.com started working on a version of its very own…"