The original editor for this movie was John Jympson. Richard Chew was Lucas' first choice of the editor, but budgetary reasons did not allow him to do so. However, a screening of the first rough cut assembled by Jympson turned out absolutely disastrous. The movie had immense pacing issues, was nearly overflowing with unnecessary exposition, and had very little narrative tension. For example, the opening scene of the Empire raiding Princess Leia's ship was originally intercut with shots of Luke watching the space battle from the surface of Tatooine with his friends, which killed most of the suspense. The rest of the first act was a confusing mess, randomly throwing in concepts like the Force, Darth Vader's powers, the stolen Death Star plans, and Alderaan before they were properly explained. Lucas fired Jympson and asked his then-wife Marcia (while editing New York, New York (1977)) who, in turn, brought in Chew and Paul Hirsch to finish. They quickly identified the problems, which they fixed by omitting much of the unnecessary explanation, and rearranging entire scenes to better regulate the flow of information. Both men gave the movie a tighter focus, an improved story structure, and a much-needed faster pace, which paid off when they received an Academy Award for their work.

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