timdiggerm said:

Just remember, if you listen to the music, as Williams and the LSO recorded it, there's no room in the scene for a miss. That means, if such a moment was ever even filmed, it never made it to any cut that had music.

Not necessarily- they could have 1. Added it after scoring and tracked music over it (this was done in other places), or 2. The grappling hook footage could have meant they cut out some of the shots beforehand where they are just shooting back and forth or standing around.

I'm just saying, considering that we have proof that not only were there at least 3 sound mixes but there were at least 2 different versions of this in 1977 (based on the end credits alone!)- who is to say there were not 12 different versions of this that year? Maybe not that many, but...

And the thing with Darth Vader flying away; I can easily see how that might have been added when it was clear the movie was a monster hit and there would be sequels. Look at Episode 1- there is one version ending with Darth Maul falling down the shaft in one piece. The one where he falls down in two pieces has different timing on the DVD. It is not like changing the demise of the villain at the end of the movie would be out of character for GL- at ALL.