Trooperman said:
I call it the 1971 Director's Cut because the official story (according to what I read) is that the '78 version is exactly the version that George Lucas handed in in 1971 before the studio played with it.
However, given George's penchant for remembering things a little differently than they happened, I guess we can't be 100% sure.
If you go over to the THX preservations thread, we talk about the differences between the 1971 version and the 1978 version. The strange part is that they are very very similar. There's an extended scene with SEN and some children and a re-order of various shots.
It's definitely a change, but nothing like the studio meddlings of Brazil, Magnificent Ambersons or Greed. Seems as though ol' George has exaggerated the situation a bit.