Feb 28, 2012  •  In Cool Tool Tuesdays, Entertainment, Geek, Movies, Star Wars

Cool Tool Tuesdays: Harmy’s STAR WARS “Despecialized Editions”

Welcome to today’s installment of Cool Tool Tuesdays, where I feature a favorite item from my life and spotlight it so that others who are not familiar with the product may also benefit from it. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, hardware, material, or website that I have personally tried and love.

Do you have any questions about today’s cool tool? Would you like an item featured in the future? Please leave a comment to this post, or send me a message via my contact form. Enjoy!


As with most Star Wars fans, I hate the various modifications that has been made to the original trilogy and I openly voice my opinion on the matter.

And unless you own the trilogy, in its unedited and original form (often in Laserdisc or VHS format), it can be difficult to relive the untainted masterpiece.

(Just in case you are wondering, I did once own Star Wars episodes IV-VI in VHS format. But it disappeared from my parents’ home while I was away at college. My parents swear they did not touch it, so we can only surmise that a visitor “borrowed” it. 🙁 I consider this one of the saddest losses of my life.)

There’s also the fact that technology has changed tremendously since 1977, when Episode IV was released. I don’t even know anyone who owns a VHS player anymore — how can we continue to enjoy the authentic version and ensure that future generations will have access to it too?

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

Or, in this case, where there is Star Wars, there will be a devoted following of über geeks with tons of time and resources to spare. (Or at least lend for this good cause.)

A very dedicated fan who goes by the name “Harmy” at The Original Trilogy forums has painstakingly put together a very high quality cut of the entire trilogy, utilizing a wide variety of video sources as well as custom mattes. The result: nearly identical versions of the original theatrical releases of Episodes IV-VI in HD format!

Right now, Harmy’s Despecialized Editions are the best restorations of the original trilogy by far. Because it is a fan preservation, it does not technically infringe on copyright laws…but this also means that it cannot be bought or sold. What you can do is download the trilogy and enjoy it from your computer, or burn it onto a disc and enjoy it on your television.

Heck, it even comes with cover art for Blu-ray cases — you can print those out and geek out even more!

You can learn more about the “despecialized” version of each film at the following threads in The Original Trilogy forums:

Episode IV: A New Hope

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

Screened.com also featured a special, behind-the-scenes article on Harmy and his project here. It’s worth reading as it tells the tales of fandom, dedication, and “rare examples of Internet dissatisfaction leading to something genuinely amazing and productive.”  :mrgreen:

Finding the actual download links to the movies can be a bit of a pain, but they can certainly be found if you know where to look. (And if you’re really having trouble, just let me know and I’ll help you out.)

Harmy says that the “despecialized project” is not quite over yet. An obvious perfectionist, he still sees minor glitches, and wants to work on certain scenes such as the Ben vs. Vader lightsaber duel, or the original hologram of Leia, both of which were recomposited in later edits of the film and given a very different look in the process.

We will certainly be waiting for the newer — ironic when you consider that the goal is to go back to the original — release of Harmy’s Despecialized Editions with great anticipation. But in the meantime, geeks everywhere thank this 23-year-old student for all his hard work.


ETA, 2/2013:
Ever since MegaUpload has been shut down in addition to many torrent sites, it has become increasingly harder to find these movies for download. If you are having trouble, please shoot me a message via my contact form and I will send you instructions.

ETA, 5/2013:
I believe that the latest version of the Despecialized movies is 2.1. Unfortunately, I only have the original versions, so if you are looking for the most updated, I’m sorry to say that I can’t help you. REPEAT: I do NOT have the 2.1, nor do I know where to get them.

ETA, 6/2013:
I have located the 2.1 version and am currently in process of obtaining it. (The download is divided into 41 different files, hosted on a server that only allows one download at a time, so it’s taking a while.) I will post an update once I am done downloading and compiling — I hope that I can provide an easier way to download this latest version as I did with the first. 🙂 If you wish, you can message me and I will let you know once I am done.

ETA, 7/2013:
I was able to obtain version 2.1 of Episode IV. (As far as I can tell, Harmy has yet to release subsequent versions of Episodes V or VI. Please correct me if I’m wrong.) Please shoot me a message and I’ll send you instructions on how you can get it.

ETA, 7/2013:
I’ve been getting too many requests and, as a result, my servers have been overloaded. I’m sorry to say that I can no longer provide anyone direct links to the movies. However, if you contact me, I can tell you how I got the movies.

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25 Responses to “Cool Tool Tuesdays: Harmy’s STAR WARS “Despecialized Editions””

  1. V says:

    I guess I’m an idiot – I simply can’t find these to download. I MUST have them! Please help a blonde fan out? Thanks!

  2. kreese says:

    i would wait on star wars. Harmy’s newest version will be out soon and will make this one look like crap.

  3. Miguel Cruz says:

    I have to take exception with the commonly held belief that the films everyone saw on VHS and laserdisc are in their “unedited and original form”. The home video versions are in fact different from the movies people saw in theaters. The Episode IV tag wasn’t in the original theatrical release. Aunt Beru’s voice has been redubbed as well as a number of other voices and sound effects.

    Lucas ordered up a change to the closing scene in Empire while it was still in theaters, adding an establishing shot of the medical ship with the Falcon docked underneath. If you saw that movie during it’s first couple of weeks, those shots were not there. However people “think” of the home video versions as the originals since they either didn’t actually see them or were too young to remember.

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  5. MadPlanet says:

    I never even knew these existed until I stumbled onto this. Was debating on getting the laserdisc version versus the 2006 DVD original theatrical version but now it’s off to find a torrent for these. Thanks!

  6. Strangeluck says:

    The link mentioned above is no longer working.

    Anybody has a newer still working link ? Preferably for a one click hoster and not a torrent ?

    Thanks in advance

  7. Matt says:

    Wow, incredible work! You could get the unmolested cuts of these films from laserdisc and even DVD. Unfortunately, these were not the cleanest sources and no HD releases of the classic cuts have ever been officially released.

    I cannot thank Harmy enough for doing this. It’s just incredible work and dedication, and at the end of the day, these are THE BEST versions that exist right now of the films in non-special edition form. Any Star Wars purist will not be disappointed spending the time watching these.

  8. James says:

    SOMEONE PLEASE HELP!

    I really need these in my life. NEED them. No it’s not an understatement!

    Could someone please help me find a torrent ASAP! None of the suggested ones work! 🙁 And a link to the cover images as well please? PLEASE! 🙂

  9. Godzillinois says:

    Excuse my ignorance but since these are now HD restorations does that mean I need a Bluray burner to put these on disc? Or can I still burn these ‘Despecialized Editions’ with a regular DVD burner?

    • David says:

      Not for versoon 2.1. All you need is a DVD9 and a burner. Version 2.5 is mastered for the Blu–ray format discs but other masters may be available. If you don’t want to mess around with burners you could use virtual drives or open the file in VLC.

  10. David says:

    Version 2.5 is available.

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  12. Bart says:

    If anyone has a link to v 2.5 I would greatly appreciate it. I’m having a hard time finding one that works.

  13. The guy says:

    I have the original trilogy on Laser disk. I wish there was a legal way for me to contribute as I enjoy both the original and the 4th version of these movies.

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