Star Wars “Original” Crawl

Imagine this alternate history scenario. It’s May 1977 (if you weren’t alive and/or old enough to understand movies you are in this alternate history). You’re sitting in a cinema waiting to see the latest space movie everyone is going nuts for. The lights go out. The screen comes to life.

THE
STAR
WARS

bursts onto the center of the screen and fades back, and then the following text starts scrolling on the screen:

The REPUBLIC CALACTICA is
dead. Ruthless trader barons,
driven by greed and the lust
for power, have replaced
enlightenment with oppression,
and “rule by the people” with
the FIRST GALACTIC EMPIRE.

For over a thousand years,
generations of JEDI KNIGHTS
were the guardians of peace
and justice in the galaxy. Now
these legendary warriors are all
but extinct. One by one they
have been hunted down and
destroyed by the sinister agents
of the Emperor: the DARK
LORDS OF THE SITH

It is a period of civil wars.
Rebel Armies, striking from
fortresses hidden deep within
the Great Rift, have won a
crushing victory over the
powerful Imperial Starfleet. The
Emperor knows that one more
such defeat will bring a thousand
more solar systems into the
rebellion, and imperial control
of the Outland systems
could be lost forever.

To crush the rebellion once and
for all, the Emperor has sent one
of his most ferocious Dark Lords
to find the secret rebel strongholds
and destroy them…

What then follows is the exact movie as it was presented in our reality in 1977. This opening text is the only change. It changes nothing that appears in that movie. It just alters our perceptions of the world outside the film. So the movie still works as is (assuming people stayed in their seats after reading all this nonsense).

So what changed in this alternate reality? Let’s pretend that in this reality Lucas showed his assembly cut of the movie to his pals, Spielberg, Coppola, and De Palma, but the opening text wasn’t included. He hadn’t decided on it yet. This is a reasonable scenario, as there are many different versions, and this one above isn’t even the one De Palma re-wrote into what ultimately did open the film. This is from a draft of the script they used when shooting the movie, so nothing in here is in conflict with what appears in the final edit.

What does this change?

What we can learn from this text is how Lucas actually envisioned the world he put on film. What then are the implications of this text being “canon” for the first Star Wars film?

The first paragraph may give you Prequel nausea, but it’s actually quite important. In this version of things a secret evil Jedi didn’t overthrow the Republic. Greed and corruption did. While in no way does this explicitly say the Emperor isn’t a secret evil Jedi, it’s implied he’s just a corrupt oligarch of some kind; one of the “ruthless trader barons”. It paints a more complicated, and possibly more interesting, portrait of galactic politics. It’s not just one evil guy and his henchman with a billion disposable soldiers. It’s kind of like a real nation with complicated ideals and ambitions.

The second paragraph directly conflicts with dialogue in the original film, but falls in line with Palpatine in the Prequels; “for over a thousand years” the Jedi were guardians of the Republic. Obi-Wan goes on to say “a thousand generations”. That’s a big leap. But then again, Obi-Wan’s sense of time is all messed up. Poor dude is like 48 years old and looked like he was 70. Also in this paragraph is something that will ultimately conflict with the prequels “one by one” the Jedi were hunted down, not all at once by a secret evil order implanted in clone soldiers. And the final major change here is the “DARK LORDS OF THE SITH”, notice the plural. Vader is just one of an army of evil Jedi hunters. Now, Tarkin does say “you are all that’s left of their religion” to Vader, in regards to him sensing Obi-Wan being alive. However, it’s possible that the original intent of the LORDS OF THE SITH is that they weren’t dark Jedi, but just Jedi hunters. And Vader, being a former Jedi, still clings to some tenants of the religion.

The third paragraph is actually really important. The implication is that the Rebels winning another battle, i.e. blowing up the Death Star, would turn the tide of the war in a major way. The exclusion of this concept from the opening crawl, or mention of it via dialogue in the movie itself, leaves it up to interpretation how powerful the Empire really is. As a result they can show up in The Empire Strikes Back with barely a bruised eye, despite losing a planet killing weapon, poised to wipe out the Rebellion, and nobody will question it. If you implied one more victory would put the Empire on the back heel, then sequels need to get into the narrative weeds to explain the renewed threat. There’s another tiny detail here that made it through all the revisions up to right before the final one De Palma wrote… “civil wars” plural. Implying that there are multiple resistances to the Empire going on at once.

The fourth paragraph doesn’t really change much except to double down on the idea that Vader is just one of many henchmen of the Emperor. This change is pretty major as it would open the way for the Emperor to be some kind of secret evil Jedi who had mental control over his one henchman, Vader. If Vader had like a dozen other peers; the dynamics of him succumbing to the Dark Side and his redemption arc change in a huge way. Unless they went the route of the other Sith Lords just being tougher-than-average thugs and Vader was special because of his Jedi powers. But again, this is unnecessary narrative baggage that changes to the opening crawl unintentionally cleared right up.

Why was it changed?

Keeping in mind that this is not the version Brian De Palma saw and re-wrote, it still means at some point Lucas (or someone) looked at it and said “naw, this has to get paired down”.

The REPUBLIC CALACTICA is
dead. Ruthless trader barons,
driven by greed and the lust
for power, have replaced
enlightenment with oppression,
and “rule by the people” with
the FIRST GALACTIC EMPIRE.

The details struck out were unnecessary to explaining the universe. The remaining details are explained in the movie itself. There’s talk of a senate and the elimination of the Senate and the “last vestiges of the Old Republic being swept away”. Obi-Wan talks about “before the dark times, before the Empire”. That’s more than enough detail: There was a good time, where there was a republic, now there’s a bad time and an Empire.

For over a thousand years,
generations of JEDI KNIGHTS
were the guardians of peace
and justice in the galaxy. Now
these legendary warriors are all
but extinct. One by one they
have been hunted down and
destroyed by the sinister agents
of the Emperor: the DARK
LORDS OF THE SITH

All of this is explained by Obi-Wan and is unnecessary to understanding the film’s universe up front. Knowing that “Sith Lords” are a thing is unnecessary information, and is actually included in some deleted dialogue from the film. I don’t think it was removed for narrative reasons. I think scenes with this information just never fit the flow of the final edit.

It is a period of civil wars.
Rebel Armies, striking from
fortresses hidden deep within
the Great Rift, have won a
crushing victory over the
powerful Imperial Starfleet. The
Emperor knows that one more
such defeat will bring a thousand
more solar systems into the
rebellion, and imperial control
of the Outland systems
could be lost forever.

All of this that isn’t crossed out made the final crawl, as this is important setup for how the film opens and what’s going on. I can’t really say why they eliminated the detail about how vulnerable the Empire is. Possibly because it’s moderately implied during the Death Star meeting scene? One of the guys there says “Until this battle station is fully operational we are vulnerable. The Rebel Alliance is too well equipped. They’re more dangerous than you realize”. It’s even backed up by the next guy “Dangerous to your star fleet, Commander, not to this battle station”. Meaning if the Death Star is blown up the Empire is kind of hosed. So maybe that’s why it was left out. Ya know, because it’s kind of explained in that scene you hated when you watched the movie on VHS as a kid.

To crush the rebellion once and
for all, the Emperor has sent one
of his most ferocious Dark Lords
to find the secret rebel strongholds
and destroy them…

For the most part none of this last paragraph made the final version. The fact that the Empire wants to stop the Rebellion is a given. You don’t need to explain it again after already saying there’s a civil war going on. The more important information, which is missing here, but makes the Assembly Cut is that the Empire is building a battle station. And missing all the way up until De Palma’s version is…

Pursued by the Empire’s
sinister agents, Princess
Leia races home aboard her
starship, custodian of the
stolen plans that can save
her people and restore
freedom to the galaxy…

Literally the most important piece of information you need to start the film and understand what is at stake.

How It Plays

Imagine how confusing the start of the movie would be having seen that original crawl instead of what we got?

• Alright. Big ship attacking smaller ship. I assume this is the First Galactic Empire and the Rebel Army we were told about.
• Two robots. Weird, but cool. “There will be no escape for the princess this time.” What princess? There’s a princess? The story they just made me read said something about robber barons, a lady named Judy Knight, and a guy named Lord Seth. Is Judy Knight the princess?
• Big ship has captured the little ship.
• Faceless guys in armor blowing open the door. A battle. Looks like the Rebel guys are losing.
• More fighting. The robots barely escape.
• Whoa, who the hell is the big guy in black armor? He looks scary. That’s probably Lord Seth.
• Alright, now who the hell is this lady with the pastries on her head? Is that the princess, Judy Knight? Why is she a princess? What is she doing to the one robot? Is it like an 8-track cassette? Is she playing music? Are those headphones on her head?
• Oh man, Lord Seth is choking that dude. Death Star? What’s that? Plans? Transmissions? What the hell is going on in this movie?
• The white armor guys found Judy Knight. Oh shit, she straight up iced one of them and they knocked her out. Who is Lord Vader? I thought he was Lord Seth?
• The robots are leaving. Oh they have the plans… for whatever a Death Star is. That’s what Lord Seth Vader is looking for.
• Wait, she called the guy Darth Vader. Is it Lord Seth? Lord Seth Vader? Darth Vader? This guy has too many names. Ok, she is the princess, he called her “your highness”. Oh she stole plans to whatever a Death Star is and hid them in the robot. I think I get it now. This movie is fucking weird.