Harmy's Despecialized Edition: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Harmy's Despecialized Edition.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Blu-ray cover]]

'''''Star Wars: The Despecialized Edition''''', also known as '''''Harmy's Despecialized Edition''''', is a [[Fan edit|fan-created]] [[film preservation]] of the [[Star Wars original trilogy|original ''Star Wars'' trilogy]] films: ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' (1977), ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]'' (1980), and ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'' (1983). It is a high-quality [[replica]] of the out-of-print theatrical versions, created by a team of ''Star Wars'' fans with the intention of preserving the films, culturally and historically. The project was led by Petr Harmáček, then an English teacher, from [[Plzeň]], [[Czech Republic]], under the online alias ''Harmy''.

The original ''Star Wars'' trilogy was created by [[George Lucas]] and released theatrically between 1977 and 1983. For the franchise's 20th anniversary in 1997, Lucas introduced noticeable [[Changes in Star Wars re-releases|changes within the films]] to address his dissatisfaction with the original cuts. These versions, promoted as the "Special Edition,", included additional scenes, different dialogue, new [[sound- effects]], and [[computer-generated imagery]]. These changes, along with more changes added in 2004 and 2011, were carried over into subsequent home video releases. {{As of|2024}}, the original theatrical releases are not commercially available, and have never been officially released in [[High-definition video|high definition]].

The new changes were met with a mixed to negative response from some critics and fans. Harmáček felt that changing the films in this way constituted "an act of cultural vandalism.".{{fact}} In 2010, he began to create a high definition reconstruction of the films' theatrical versions. He and a team of eight other fans used the 2011 [[Blu-ray]] releases for the majority of material, the lower-definition 1993 [[LaserDisc]] releases as a guide to the original version, and various other sources. The first version was published online in 2011, and updated versions have been released since.

As a [[derivative work]], ''Harmy's Despecialized Edition'' cannot be legally bought or sold in the United States and other countries with treaties respecting US copyrights, and is "to be shared among legal owners of the officially available releases only.".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Ultimate Introductory Guide to Harmy's Star Wars Trilogy Despecialized Editions |url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yLsvexWBVM8IYSGopKuSfsGk5YIgCwQWd23bqb5ryD4/pub |website=docs.google.com |access-date=2020-05-20 May 2020 |archive-date=2017-02-22 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222122728/https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yLsvexWBVM8IYSGopKuSfsGk5YIgCwQWd23bqb5ryD4/pub |url-status=live }}</ref> Consequently, the films are mainly available via various file sharing methods. Reaction to the project has been mostly positive, with critics generally praising the quality and [[aesthetics]] of the work.

==Background==

{{Further|Changes in Star Wars re-releases}}

{{stack|[[File:Star Wars Logo.svg|thumb|''Star Wars'' logo.|alt=The words "STAR WARS" written in a large, yellow, outline font against a black background]]}}

The original ''Star Wars'' trilogy was a Lucasfilm production released theatrically by [[20th Century Fox]] between 1977 and 1983, and was subsequently released on home media during the 1980s and 1990s. The films were distributed by [[CBS/Fox Video]] on several formats, such as [[VHS]], [[Betamax]], and LaserDisc.<ref name=Goldberg/> In 1997, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of ''Star Wars'', Lucas re-released new cuts of the trilogy to theaters, naming them the "Special Editions". The purpose of this release was to change the films to meet Lucas' ideal vision that he could not achieve during their original productions. A number of changes to the original releases included additions of enhanced digital effects, previously unreleased scenes, altered dialogue, unreleased and newly recorded music by [[John Williams]], updated sound-effects by [[THX]] and [[Skywalker Sound]], and entirely new CGI sequences from [[Industrial Light & Magic]].<ref name=Miller/>