EddieDean said:
Rogue Leader, those are all good ideas. I like Leia’s politics angle for the Ewoks. Is it worth considering subtitles for the Ewoks to help sell that concept?
Hmm, I think subtitles could work if they aren’t overused. Just whenever they were necessary. I wonder at which points in the movie subtitles could be used to make this idea work. Also, I feel like Ewok chieftain could be subtitled, but Wicket shouldn’t be.
My favourite edit of ROTJ, which I don’t think is available any more and I’ve forgotten the name of, also restructured the ending.
I remember that edit! Was it the first Spence edit?
The very first rough edit I ever did was of ROTJ, and instead of doing that, I restructured the ending to where what Luke was doing tied in more with what the Rebels were doing.
I restructured the scenes this way:
- Preceding scenes show the Rebels at their lowest point. Ewoks dying, Rebel pilots dying.
- Leia gets shot (the stormtroopers may or may not tell them to freeze before cutting away).
- Luke, who is hiding from Vader, senses Leia in pain and in danger. This is why Vader is able to sense Luke’s thoughts about Leia. Vader threatens to turn Leia, and then Luke goes ham.
- When Luke rejects the Emperor, and the dark side, this is when things begin to turn around for our heroes.
- We cut back to Han and Leia, and Leia pulls her gun and shoots the two stormtroopers. They’re able to trick their way into the bunker and begin setting charges.
- The Emperor starts zapping Luke until Vader throws him down a well.
- Han blows up the bunker, and Lando and others start flying through the Death Star. Rebels blow up Super Star Destroyer.
- Luke and Vader have father-son bonding time.
- Lando and Wedge blow up reactor, begin flying out. Like escapes, then rebel pilots and Lando escape.
This restructuring felt similar to build-up/climax of the ring being destroyed in Return of the King. Even though they are sort of disconnected, the battle outside the gate is at its lowest point (Gandalf seeing the Ring-Wraiths flying back toward Mount Doom, and Aragorn almost being killed by a troll) when the quest to destroy the ring is at its lowest (Frodo refusing to destroy it, and fighting for it with Gollum).
After the Ring is destroyed, we are celebrating as the audience, but we are also still worried if Sam and Frodo will be able to escape Mount Doom alive.
So, the Emperor dying and the bunker being destroyed happen almost simultaneously, but then Lando trying to destroy the Death Star happens as we watch and see if Luke will be able to escape in time.
I think back when I made it, I had trouble getting the scenes to flow together nicely because of how the score is, but I wasn’t working with all five channels. So if I went back I probably could make the musical transitions flow better.