Feedback Wanted: ANH Edited

It feels a bit sacreligious to even consider it, but after watching the Silver Screen version of Star Wars I think that the film would benefit from a few more cuts. Specifically, I’d cut some of the final dogfight and all of the Falcon gun turret battle (or work it in somewhere else).

To break it down shot by shot:

Extended Escape from Tatooine

-“Looks like an Imperial cruiser, our passengers must be hotter than I thought”
-“Why don’t you outrun 'em I thought you said this thing was fast!”
-The entire sequence from then on in until “Go strap yourselves in!” Hard cut to Falcon pursued while Luke and Obi-wan retire to the game room.
-Take shot from gun turret battle “We’re coming up on their sentry ships. Try an’ hold 'em off. Angle the deflector shields while I charge up the main guns”.
-“C’mon buddy (change to ‘kid’), we’re not out of this yet”
-Luke and Han go to the gun turrets.
-Droids walk out of the game room
-2 TIEs attack, and blast the hallway by the droids
-Reaction of only Chewbacca yelling from the Copilot chair
-“Don’t worry, she’ll hold together. Hear me baby? Hold together”
-“Got him! I got him!”
-“Great, Kid. Don’t get cocky”
-Han blasts a TIE
-“That’s it we did it!”
-Shot of R2 extinguishing the fire
-Shot of Han returning to the captain’s chair: “Stay sharp there’s two more coming in, they’re gonna try and cut us off.”
-Shot of Falcon flying, cut straight to Death Star. Implication is that they go to hyperspace after fighting off the final two TIE fighters.

This scene may be an improvement over the original in terms of continuity, as this time the Falcon has literally blasted its way off planet. Also, in the subsequent scene, Han returns to the game room as if after an extended stay in the cockpit, presumably outrunning their pursuit.

JEDIT: Upon further viewing, Luke still has his Stormtrooper belt on in the gun turret scene. However, the whole scene could simply be Han picking off TIEs, since at this point Luke and Obi-wan are merely passengers, and it need never be established that there are two gun turrets.

Escape from the Death Star

Since this sequence has no gun turret battle, the cuts are straightforward. Luke is consoled by Leia, the previously cut shot of the Falcon entering hyperspace is used here, and there is the expository shot by Tarkin and Vader before cutting back to Leia and Han in the cockpit. Now the mystery of why the Empire would waste 4 TIE fighters and pilots to just let them go is solved. Also, the audience is allowed to dwell on the loss of Obi-wan and Han’s miserly attitude without a convenient bonding activity.

Final Dogfight

I don’t have much idea of what to cut here, except perhaps whittling down the first and second trench runs and making the Death Star countdown match the movie time a bit more accurately.

So those are my ideas. Thoughts?