Han shot first. If he didn't, why the elaborate scene immediately preceding the shooting where Greedo has a blaster pointed at Han, while Han secretly unholsters his own blaster.

Now Lucas feels bad about it, so he tries to rewrite ancient history. (The whole event happened long, long ago, and far, far away). Tell Lucas to stop his mind tricks. These are the droids we're looking for!

This is nothing but blatant subterfuge. If you watch the original film, Greedo is propelled TOWARDS Solo at the shot. Solo was always considered a poor shot, and I find it impossible to believe that he could have unholstered his inaccurate, Clone-War era blaster, aimed it through the table, and fired the killing shot in that amount of time.

Examine the film! Greedo slumps:

"Down; and to the table."
"Down; and to the table."
"Down; and to the table."

That shot came from an Imperial Stormtrooper dressed to look like a band member, and firing from behind. They wanted Solo to get the princess, blow up the Death Star and ultimately get rid of Vader and the Emperor, because this whole "Dark Side" crap was cutting into their profits.

Bada-bing, Bantha poo-doo! Solo was a patsy.

Summer, 1977. Satellite Twin movie theater. Norman, Oklahoma. Screen one. Tenth, maybe eleventh row back.

I was there, man. And Han most definitely shot first.

But not to worry. Under Oklahoma's "Make My Day" law, it was completely justifiable. And completely cool.

In my school system here and in the libraries you have to make a special request to get Huck Finn and certain other politically incorrect books if you want to read them. And in answer to what does this have to do with firearms? Why the move to restrict knowledge available to people and to make certain items socially unacceptable for people to do, say or advocate for. Example in the school system here you may not wear anything or have anything in your possession as a student that in any way promotes the use of firearms. Anything means a hunting tee shirt or a hunting book etc.

Kinda ridiculous thing to argue about, a fictional shooting in a movie, BUT:

I think the best way to describe this is Han covertly drew his sidearm under cover of table in fear of his life - self defense, acting under belief Gredo was about to do him grievous harm.. When Gredo DREW his weapon to inflict that harm Han fired. Gredo's body convulsed from mortal wound and his shot, fired micro-seconds AFTERWARD, went wide. Clear cut justifiable case of self defense. Good Shoot. That's how I believe it would go down in an Arizona courtroom anyway. On Tatooni or whatever, it's up to writer's imagination.

To me Lucas makes a mistake altering the original even for better special effects. People don't like to see classics yutzed with.

Steamed Blow Fish for lunch everybody!

Of course Lucas is trying to whitewash history now. His libby buddies gave him enough crap about letting Han be a bad mamma-jamma that he had to try and mess the whole thing up. Greedo was bad at his job, simple as that. Otherwise Han would have been the one that left in the body bag.

Really? This is a topic of discussion? That's about the only thing more lame than Lucas tampering with a finished movie to be more politically correct.

What's next? Mark Twain removing the N word from Huck Finn?

By the way, since I have chimed in, I'll add my vote for Oryx's interpretation. There wasn't a grassy knoll in the bar scene was there?

I loved Star Wars as a kid but to be honest I left it behind when I first saw Kurosawa these guys just stole mercilessly from him

So what does this have to do with shotguns and bird shooting? Next, I suppose, DP will be showing us hand stitching with his Singer sewing machine. I like Band of Brothers now that was a real movie. "Sobal, you solute the office not the man." :)

I'm astounded that Lucas would even care. What should he (or anyone else) care about how an audience perceives a fictional character? It's not like there were crowds of people protesting Greedo's murder.

If someone was pointing a gun at me, I would try to shoot first. More than enough justification.

By the way, how did Han Solo get a Mauser C-96 in whichever planet and age he was in?

Please, read my blog. Just google "A Wild Beast at Heart".

Perhaps Mr. Lucas chose to ignore the classic scene bathtub from from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly and the line, "If you're gonna' shoot somebody, shoot, don't talk about it". And just in case you are reading this, George, should you tire of gazing on your original oil painting entitled, "Only A Poor Old Man", by Carl Barks, I would gladly drive out your way and pick it up, saving you the expense of packing and shipping.

If we are going to talk about George Lucas messing up movies I would like to point out the new end of episode VI. I personally think that replacing Darth Vader's ghost with Hayden Christiansen is perhaps the greatest insult/atrocity.

Kansasjeff,

True. Star Wars was either a remake of "Hidden Fortress" (Kurosawa) or an adaptation of the Lord of The Rings (the book by Tolkien).

Matt Dillion is the only verified gunfighter to shoot second and win. Hans shot first!

George Lucas I believe was a dedicated Joseph Campbell student. The Star Wars story line follows an outline of "Hero w/1000 Faces" and "Mythic Image" religiously.

Han, mah bukee, keel-ee caleya ku kah. Wanta dah moole-rah? Wonkee chee sa crispa con Greedo?

Translation:
"Han, my boy, you disappoint me. Why haven't you paid me? And why did you fry poor Greedo?"

A Hollywood libby director cum history revisionist? why am I not surprised.

Greedo had the drop on Han, and he managed to get the first shot in anyways, it was self defense and a justifiable homicide, case closed.

PB,
I don't think the topic was well recieved,,,,