Revealing mistake: When the shield generator explodes, a piece of shrapnel flies towards the left side of the screen and then flies back, because it bounces off the inside of the building the miniature was housed in. (01:50:05)
Revealing mistake: When Vader throws the lightsaber at Luke and the platform collapses, the point where the platform's columns connect to the ceiling have expanding circles of smoke coming from them as the columns detach from the ceiling, created by the charges used to sever the platform. (01:50:20)
Revealing mistake: In the shot where Vader throws the Emperor into the pit, the Emperor is obviously a puppet, because he doesn't move at all. (01:52:15)
Revealing mistake: When Luke and Darth Vader are fighing in the emperor's throne room, they pass in front of a great window. The stars are blurred and they shake. (01:52:30)
Revealing mistake: Vader tosses the Emperor and then collapses on some barrels next to the railing. Look at Vader's arm - the one with the severed hand. His arm is bent at the forearm in a way that arms just don't bend. This is because David Prowse's hand was inside an "elongated" arm to simulate it being chopped off. He couldn't keep his wrist straight, giving the appearance of a bent forearm. (01:57:00)
Revealing mistake: In many of the scenes taking place in outer space, if you look closely you can see polygon borders surrounding space vehicles (X-Wings, Star Destroyers, and even the Death Star) indicating the objects being superimposed into the outer space background. [This mistake may only apply to the Blu Ray version.]
Revealing mistake: When Luke is being fed to the Rancor, in Jabba the Hutt's dungeon, there are black outlines around the beast's legs, from the composite's blue screen special effect. This was edited out in the special edition rerelease.
Suggested correction: This was not a "mistake". The outlines showing around the beast's leg were due to the limited CGI technology at the time the film was made. With advances in special effects in the following decades, the filmmakers were able to enhance the CGI quality in later releases.
But it is a mistake to show that the Rancor is not real, and the outlines show that. It's certainly not intentional.
Not sure what you mean that the rancor is not real. Of course it's not real. The issue is, at that time, it was not technically possible to show the beastie without the lines showing. I classify a mistake as something that was not intentional. In this case, it was, due to the limitations of CGI in the 1980s.
Revealing mistake: The shots at the end of the movie with the emperor are obviously lit from the front. This exposed too much of the emperor's head inside the cowl so it was darkened to make him look more menacing. Look for the added shadow - it looks like someone took a black magic marker and coloured on the film. (This may be corrected on the re-release).
Revealing mistake: When Admiral Piett says "I have orders from the emperor myself," the right edge of the matte can be seen on the right. Theater version only. This has been corrected on the 1997 special edition release.
Revealing mistake: (Original theatrical release) When the imperial officer yells "Freeze", he is transparent and you can see the reactor through him.
Revealing mistake: In many far away shots of the sail barge you can see it is on a dune rather than in mid air.
Revealing mistake: When Luke is in his X-Wing preparing to make the jump to Dagobah, you can see the red text in the TV-type viewer in the cockpit has been superimposed as it remains stationary relative to the frame even when the cockpit is moving around.
Revealing mistake: On Jabba's sail barge, Luke's hand is wounded before it is shot at.
Revealing mistake: During the speeder bike chase, the speeders never cast any shadows on the ground.
Revealing mistake: When 3PO and R2 are being assigned to their droidly duties in Jabba's palace, there is a shot of a poor droid having hot irons branding his feet. The irons are never closer than an inch from the droid's feet, and the steam that allegedly comes from the burning is obviously being shot out of holes in the droid's feet.
Revealing mistake: After Wicket tells the rebels where the secret entrance to the base is, there's a shot of spaceships flying in space. An X-Wing passes through the Millennium Falcon and another one through a Calamarian cruiser.
Revealing mistake: Right before Luke leaps from the speeder bike to the scout trooper's speeder, there's a shot showing the front of the speeders. Notice the area surrounding the speeders in this shot. During the rest of the speeder bike chase, the speeders pass through this area several times, even though they are not flying in circles. This can be seen, for example, from the sunlight hitting the ground and the tree on the left side with a bush in front of it. Also, one of the shots where this area is seen is the shot before the speeders pass two more scout troopers, but the background has been flipped.
Revealing mistake: When C3PO and R2D2 are picked up in the sand, there is no sand falling off them. Obviously, C3PO's legs and R2D2 where just placed behind some sand (and not in it) or they used blue screen in this shot.
Revealing mistake: When Han Solo lifts his hands up and he spots the Walker that Chewie and two Ewoks are in, one of his hands is transparent, and the trees are visible through his hand.
Suggested correction: They are not transparent. What you are seeing is glare from the bright sky in the background. You can see other ghost images matching the bright white portions of the shot. Besides, there would be no reason for it to be transparent. It appears to be a fully on-location shot with no compositing.
Completely not true. You can see the trees through his hands; therefore, they are transparent.
Look closer. There is a white ghost image that matches the bright white sky, offset to the left and rotated slightly. And why would the hand be transparent? This is not a composite shot.
While it's not a composite shot, that would mean that the shot of the imperial officer yelling "freeze" in the original version wouldn't have been transparent. But it's not a composite shot too, therefore, they are transparent.
This comment makes no sense. What Imperial officer are you referring to and what does it have to do with this shot? And if this isn't a composite shot, which you seem to be admitting, why would the hand be transparent? Do you think Harrison Ford's hand actually became see-through?
Revealing mistake: Look carefully at the close-ups of C3PO's waste where the exposed wires are. You can tell it's fake wiring on top of a black suit which is particularly noticeable when the actor inside the costume as his stomach is moving when he has to breathe.
