Hello! I present to you a 4k83 (and soon GOUT) synced release of the ROTJ mono mix as found on Puggo’s “Return of the Pug” 16mm project.

Many thanks to Jaxxon for supplying the print and to Puggo for taking on this project in the first place and kindly supplying us with the uncompressed audio files he captured from his equipment.

I do want to quickly cut to the chase and state that, unlike Star Wars or Empire Strikes Back, this mono mix does not contain any major new/alternate lines or sound effects. That is, non that I could discern.

On the other hand I can confidently say that this is not a simple fold down: sound effects that are buried in the original mix are louder, there are effects that seems to be missing and there’s at least one edit that is rougher on this mix: when R2 breaks Leia’s chains, she normally says “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here.” Maybe it’s me, but you can hear a ‘before’ as if they tried to edit out the rest of a sentence but didn’t bring the slider down fast enough. This seems to be missing on the original stereo mix. My guess would be that this was a hastily put together mix for 16mm prints.

I must also point out that there is some missing audio:

a few drum rolls at the beginning
the first reel change (on 16mm it’s after they leave Tatooine).
A second or so when the stolen shuttle lands on Endor (I am guessing this was missing on the original print??)
a second or so when Leia follows Luke outside. (I am guessing this was missing on the original print??)
a second or so when the superstar destroyer crashes into the Death Star. (I am guessing this was missing on the original print??)

Instead of filling them in with an alternate source, I decided just to leave them as is in order to keep it as authentic as possible.

Of course, keep in mind that this is a capture of an optical audio track from a 16mm print. The sound is never great on these types of prints: there’s a lot of distortion and wobble and there is barely any dynamic range so it’s very compressed.

I’ll give people a link to download the file if they wish. After that, you’re free to put it on usenet or mega or whatever.