Gaffer Tape said:But in this case, in terms of mono, there is some subjectivity to it. Although the majority of the country would see it in mono, the mono mix was the last of the original three to be completed, so I would think there is some validity to a claim that one of the original stereo mixes is more the "original" version than the mono. Granted, I would still like to hear the mono version at some point in my life.
But, geez, when you get right down to it, there are just far too many sound mixes for Star Wars. It makes my head spin.
I don't know if I trust anymore the claims that the mono was completed after the release date. But even if it was showing from the start with the stereo, I don't know if I respect its having a preeminent status over the other two mixes. Just the fact that the other two mixes were valid mixes getting exposure around the same time and not being promoted as "These are the less definitive mixes" says to me that in real terms they're all about equal in standing (by real terms I don't mean in what Lucas wanted, I mean looked at aside from that, taken as what they are). Plus if the mono's status was so damn important wouldn't they have put it on vhs instead of the stereo? They did put the tractor beam line into the 85 vhs (but not onto the 82 vhs), but I don't know if they bothered to put the blast doors line in and for the "definitive" laserdisc collection they supposedly "forgot" to put in the tractor beam line, which sounds terribly like the mono lines weren't a high priority. To me it just looks like the mono's special "definitive" status didn't count for a lot even to Lucas and co. I view the mono and other versions as roughly about equal in status. Same goes for the 35mm and 70mm for ESB.
And when all's said and done, I'm not inclined to lend a lot of weight to Lucas coming along later and tinkering with something and saying the later version is the definitive version.
The other question as regards versions of ANH kicking around way back, is whether or not some sort of workprint with the deleted scenes ever got publicly shown way back. We don't have verification that such a thing happened, but we also have no proof that it didn't, along with lots of claims that it did. Let's just pretend for moment that it did happen, what would be the conditions in which it might have happened? Would it have been meant to be an official form of the film, like the different mixes, or would it have been sort of "We're running out of prints, let's send out the workprint" or a case of "Whoops, wasn't that the workprint we just sent out"? Did they deliberately intend to release the workprint as an official version with standing on a level with the different mixes? How widespread could it have been, compared to the two stereo mixes? Some of you must have a much better notion than me about these questions and of how such a thing might have happened and how it might have been intended.
And what's this about most people seeing the movie in mono? How widespread would the two stereo mixes have been then?