AntcuFaalb said:

An Aside

I often hear bootlegs regarded as the Holy Grail for Star Wars fans in the '80s. To what extent is this true?

I'm sure many of you were conscious during that time (I wasn't, as I was born in the late '80s), so do you have any stories to share? If so, please do!

Born in 1975 I was too young to get to see star wars at the cinema and so the version I knew was the pan and scan version that would have been shown on u.k. t.v. during the 80s. One of the many ways Star Wars fired up my imagination were the quick cutaway shots which would give you tons of alien stuff/information/detail in one second and then be gone (this is before I had the ability to pause films) . It suggested whole films within films, worlds within worlds. Then one day I visit my cousins house and he's got this star wars paperback with 16 colour inserts, with pictures wider than pan and scan, pictures not actually in the film i've seen, and pictures with deep rich inky colour unlike i've seen. I see there is a whole different version of star wars that i've never seen before a richer more detailed (later understood as the documentary style feel Lucas was going for) version that was there when it first came out in the cinema and which i've unfairly missed by being too young. Will I ever get to see this version? Is the only place you can see this version in america? These questions are still kind of waiting answers decades later.... (!)

i realize the film i imagined through these pictures stems from inaccurate colour printing technique and so exists in an alternate universe, but still the dream (reality!) of a richer original starting print is what the PS78 is for me...