For years George Lucas has remained adamant that his special editions of the first Star Wars trilogy are the only ones that count (check out everything he changed here). It doesn't matter if you think that's an egregious cinematic crime. Lucas has told countless fans desperate to see the unaltered, original version of A New Hope that it can't happen anyway, because every theatrical print from its 1977 run is destroyed. Well, that's not stopped a series of very determined Force fans who called themselves Team Negative 1 from taking the matter into their own hands.
Earlier attempts to restore the film, like the "Despecialized editions", are valiant efforts that compile various sources and degrade them to better resemble the original movies. This is where Team Negative 1 differs. The group purchased an original print of the movie on eBay for $2,000 and went through every single frame to remove dirt and repair damage before transferring it to HD. Oh, and they also omitted the "Greedo shot first" and other CGI elements Lucas added to the later versions.
Now, none of this is remotely legal, and so we won't be linking to their "Silver Screen Edition" here. But you can take a look through some of the clips the team posted to YouTube, showcasing several differences between their cut and the Blu-ray version.
Images: Lucasfilm
