rpvee said:
A technicolor print meaning just an original film print that was originally distributed to theaters in '77?
From savestarwars.com:
Floating around in the world are a few private 35mm copies of the Star Wars films. They are on Eastman Kodak film, and, although different individual prints fade at differing rates, would by now be unpresentable as is. A few weeks ago, I saw a 1975 print of Jaws, and the title card that was supposed to be white-on-black was now white-on-red, so vivid that I thought it was an alternate title card timed to look like blood. Sadly, the rest of the print was very pink. It was also scratched to hell from being played for thirty years. Most of those private prints of Star Wars floating around probably look about the same--even if never played, the photochemical emulsion of Kodak film would have turned pink by now. Except for one print. One print is special. It is a Technicolor imbibition dye-transfer print. This means: it has a finer grain and better picture, but, more importantly, it looks exactly the same as the day it was printed. Properly cared for, it will outlast all of us.
A bit of history is in order here. When color photography was first invented for motion pictures in the 1920s and 1930s, it was achieved through the use of dyes, and eventually Technicolor emerged as the technological leader in this field. They used three strips of dyed black and white film that recorded each spectrum of colour--red, blue and green. When these three strips were combined, a full-colour reproduction was possible, with famously vivid hues. Prints were made through a similar use of dyed strips. By the 1950s, however, Kodak had figured out how to do colour using photochemical emulsions, much like black and white. The earliest efforts were murky and crude, but by the 1960s filmmakers had abandoned the Technicolor three-strip process because Kodak colour film was so much cheaper, even if it wasn't as vivid. Technicolor survived a while longer, however, by offering imbibition (I.B.) dye-transfer prints of Kodak negatives as premium releases.
Regular 35mm prints are made through photochemical means and printed on Kodak Eastman stock. The grain is much coarser than Technicolor, detail not as fine, the colours are less accurate and not as vivid, and it will start fading after a decade. Why does everyone print on photochemical film then? It's really cheap, quick and easy. While Technicolor still made dye-transfer prints in the 1960s, the films of the 1970s made the grainy, desaturated Kodak stocks a virtue through the gritty, countercultural films that were popular at the time. There was no more need for Technicolor and by the 1970s it had closed down in the United States. In Britain, however, it clung to existance for a few more years. When Star Wars opened in England, there were a couple of Technicolor prints made for special showings. George Lucas had one printed for himself--it was used as the reference for the 1997 Special Edition colour timing because it was fade-free. How many of these existed overall? Certainly not more than a handful. Which is why it is fortuitous than one was--somehow--smuggled or obtained through legitimate means (which did sometimes happen in rare circumstances--but probably it was simply stolen). Technicolor closed down in Britain not long after Star Wars opened there, and there were no prints made of the two sequels.
Cut to 2010. Pretty much no one has seen the original version of Star Wars since the 1990s. There are memories of a 70mm revival screening in 1990 in California, but even then the print was starting to go pink, and probably isn't very watchable now. Baltimore's historic Senator Theatre was getting ready to close down after financial troubles, to be transfered to new managers, and owner Tom Kiefaber wanted to send it off in style. His family had owned the theatre for 71 years, and in that time had made a few connections. On the last day of operations, July 21, 2010, amid some moderate media coverage (including ABC news), Kiefaber decided to hold free screenings of Star Wars to a packed house--and not just the original version. He knew of a privately owned Technicolor print.