This is a film that needs no introduction at all. I am sure everyone here knows what it's about even if you arnt a fan, Personally i am not a huge fan but this is my Brothers print and to be fair this one and the Empire strikes back are the two i do enjoy. This is another one of those prints my Brother keeps threatening to sell but when we view it he always say's ,"let keep it another few years".
We bought a second hand copy from the Derann lists around 30 years ago, when we got it the print was four individual reels from a white box special but it was not advertised as such. The previous owner must have lied to Derann when he or she traded it in. As this was not what we wanted we returned it to Derann and what they did was unbelievable. Derek sent us a brand new sealed stereo print. What service!!!
I am guessing that this print may be from a second run of prints as some of the reports we have read have been very mixed from 1st class pin sharp to prints full of negative sparkle and very grainy.
This is our print to the best description i can give you all. It certainly doesn't come out as good as the later scope prints such as T2.
Anyway, this copy is in excellent condition as far as the print is concerned. I'm not sure how true this is but i have read of one or two showing slight fade, this one we have is a low fade stock print with excellent colours. The image is good but the day scenes, especially in the dessert on reel one are a little soft when C3PO and R2D2 are walking through the sands but generally, overall is it very good considering this is one of the early scope features. Indoor scenes are very good with excellent contrast and very good vibrant colours. The only marks on this print are within the sourced material and are where the original reel changes are, for a couple of seconds you get this curl of green come into the left side and it curls in and curls back out again, it's literally a couple of seconds and only happens twice so is of no bother at all. If anything reels 1 to 3 are ever so slightly darker than they ought to be. You notice this with the lack of visibility of the stars in the opening scene, again this has never bothered us and as we only paid the £180 for the second hand print, but upon returning it was sent a brand new stereo print which at the time was £325 so we aint complaining. Reel four with all the best action does have a brighter image which is weird but again, is fine. The sound is very good, and while this is a stereo print we simply put it via twin track mono through the pioneer amp we use. This print has been joined onto 2 x 1200ft spools but we hold the original box and leaders and tails. I do now own a lovely T610 Bauer but dont really want to start pulling films on 1200ft spools down to 800s.
Generally speaking this is a very good print with some slightly soft image in reel one during the dessert scenes for a few minutes, but the fact that this is indeed the original release with no CGI makes it a collectors item.
By the way, we have had this print now for around 30 years and have run it a lot through three different Elmo ST1200HD's and as you can see there are no lines, so those who believe the Elmo's are not good to film, well, all i can say is wheres the lines? It has 42 runs since we have had this print. I date my viewing every time and have done for 35 of our 40 years of collecting.

At the start of this print we have added two full length scope trailers to The Phantom menace and The Empire Strikes back, both great quality and generous length trailers, especially Phantom menace which was around 80/90ft.

Tom,

Even with the very, very minor imperfections you noted--your print is one that I, and I am sure anyone else, would be proud of showing to friends and family in the home cinema. And, it is extremely impressive that it has been run 42 times as you would never guess that based on its condition. This helps make a strong case that if an Elmo ST-1200HD projector is well-taken care of and guides are replaced as needed etc, then prints seem to be safe from routine damage and visible wear and tear.

Exactly Greg, i only mentioned it due to some slating of Elmos over the past. We viewed Star Wars extensively during the first five years we had it, its certainly viewed by my Brother once a year and i tend to look at it every other year.
It's all about looking after your machine and replacing those worn parts. But above all, having it serviced by proper trained engineers. We have been lucky.

I would love to know how many prints of this movie Derann did sell. Oddly enough, when i did The Q & A's to the dealers some years ago in the film for the collector magazine, one of the questions ii asked Derann was, "what was your biggest selling title"? I expected it to be be this one but in fact it was Beauty & the Beast.
I think whether your are a Star Wars fan or not this one release has been a very important one for the simple reason there doesn't appear to any other format that offers this original 1977 version any more.

Tom,

The non-CGI original version was the best. Saw it in the theaters with my Dad and one of my sisters in 1977 when it first came out and that is the way it should have been left. Not this nonsense with altering things to be politically correct (Han NOT shooting Greedo first etc.). I have a trailer of Star Wars, but it is the "Special Edition" which has the cheesy Jabba the Hut add-on I think--if I am recalling this correctly. So you and your brother's print of Star Wars in its original form is indeed a very unique and special film to hang on to.

Great print Tom 😁😁😁📽📽

This is something most of us would very much like to own :-)

Fantastic looking print Tom, you lucky man :-)

Cheers Dell,
I just wish i could be a Star Wars fanatic then i think i would appreciate it more. As it's my Brothers print i cant complain as both of us get to view one anothers films.

One thing we do kick ourselves for is returning a feature print of Return of the Jedi. He paid 180 for it but he seemed to think it had faults but i thought it was very good. And i am very fussy. He's kicking himself now though