Can you imagine "Star Wars" without John Williams' iconic musical score? It's impossible, right? Williams' music plays throughout virtually 100% of the movies' run times. Take it out, and it's just plain weird.
A YouTube channel called Auralnauts has inadvertently proven just how awkward it is to watch "Star Wars" without Williams' music. Auralnauts did it to make you laugh, so you'll hear some silly sound effects like coughing and a few ridiculous Chewbacca roars, but the result is the same.
The scene they've used is the familiar moment at the end of "A New Hope" where Luke Skywalker and Han Solo are awarded medals for their actions surrounding the Death Star's destruction. In the original film, this scene seems to fly by; with the music excised, it drags by painfully slowly. It loses all sense of momentum. Plus, it's just uncomfortable.
Sure, it's more realistic. It's not like a triumphant fanfare would have been playing over that Rebel ceremony in real life. But it's so odd, it may make your geeky little head explode.
One more thing: part of the scene has R2-D2 getting all excited and bouncing back and forth, and it's actually kind of annoying when you can hear the tap-tap-tapping, and it feels like it's never going to end. I've watched this scene hundreds of times, but this is the first time I noticed that after the R2's bouncing goes on for a while, C-3PO reaches down and he's all like...
If you missed it, watch it again. It starts around 1:20.
