Rewatched the OT for the first time in 7 years with a friend who hasn't seen them, and WOW

So like the title says, I just rewatched the OT for the first time in years. My first and only prior time watching it was when I got into SW as a whole prior to the start of the Sequel Trilogy. Don’t know why it called out to me so strongly then but I dove in head first into all the movies and shows I could find. I didn’t really click with the OT then, but watching them now, I had the time of my life with my friend, a Star Wars skeptic up until these last few days.

Shoutout to everyone involved in this community, and a big shoutout to people like Harmy and the others who’ve worked to make the Despecialized Editions of these movies, because my friend and I had an amazing time watching those. Near the end of RoTJ, he mentioned how he wished there was a disc version of the Despecialized Editions, so I’m hoping to surprise him with his birthday with a boxset of those movies. Honestly, it’s equal parts fun and frustrating tracking down all the various bits needed to put that together, but again, I can’t thank the community enough for creating these wonderful resources. It’s going to feel so satisfying once I’ve put it all together and sent it off to him :)

Anyways, I just made an account here and decided to make at least one post because of how much I’ve gotten from this forum and the OT in general. Have a good one yall <3

“Watch your step, this place can be a little rough” XD

I’m not sure I’d be brave enough to show the OT to somebody who has never seen it before and is maybe on the younger side. I couldn’t handle them saying that the films are boring and the special effects outdated lol.

ANH in particularly has lots of non-Zoomer-friendly scenes, like C3PO and R2-D2 slowly walking through the desert. That was so 70s.

Channel72 said:

ANH in particularly has lots of non-Zoomer-friendly scenes, like C3PO and R2-D2 slowly walking through the desert. That was so 70s.

That’s part of why it irritates me when people say Return of the Jedi is some kind of fall from grace for having a handful of Endor scenes in the middle. There were always parts that were “slow” throughout the trilogy by cracked out modern standards. That’s just how it is.

^ Yeah, I can understand that perspective. It’s just that something about the desert scenes on Tatooine just seem more “cinematic” to me, whereas ROTJ Endor scenes have this boring, fan-film-adjacent vibe to me. But that’s very subjective I suppose. Maybe it’s just because I think deserts are more interesting than forests, or I’ve seen lots of fan-films where they just shoot out in the woods because they see it as easily accessible production value. It also tracks with Lucas’ overall fatigue in ROTJ. He used to seek out “exotic” locales in Norway and Tunisia. For ROTJ he was like “let’s just get on the interstate and drive upstate”

Trees are more familiar to a lot of people, that’s true. Myself included. They’re still huge trees though, some of the largest on earth. I’ve been there in person and it doesn’t diminish the movie for me. If you’re doing all the planets as single biomes eventually you would end up covering a temperate forest world, not to mention they already had Tatooine in the same movie, so there’s a contrast there. You could do a jungle maybe, but that would also feel similar to Dagobah in the same movie.

There wouldn’t be fan films in the first place without films to be fans of!

Vladius said:

Trees are more familiar to a lot of people, that’s true. Myself included. They’re still huge trees though, some of the largest on earth. I’ve been there in person and it doesn’t diminish the movie for me. If you’re doing all the planets as single biomes eventually you would end up covering a temperate forest world, not to mention they already had Tatooine in the same movie, so there’s a contrast there. You could do a jungle maybe, but that would also feel similar to Dagobah in the same movie.

There wouldn’t be fan films in the first place without films to be fans of!

True. The main issue is ROTJ has this 25-30 minute “Endor dead zone” where pretty much nothing happens (for some definition of “nothing”). They get trapped by Ewoks. C3PO is mistaken for a God. They’re carried to the Ewok village. Luke does a magic trick. Leia is there with new clothes somehow. They tell campfire stories, etc. This is about when you change the channel.

Now, I can see how you might counter this by saying something like “yeah but the same shit happens in ANH with endless scenes of R2/C3PO wandering around, getting caught by Jawas, sitting on the sandcrawler, etc.”

And yeah, it’s hard to argue that the ANH stuff is somehow objectively “less boring” than the “Endor dead zone” in ROTJ. But here’s my attempt anyway: the ANH slow scenes take place in the first movie before there’s that much of an ongoing narrative or built-up stakes. We’re basically in “exploration mode” at this point. But with Endor, we’re in the middle of a major climactic Rebel military op. When a film like this stalls in the middle of Act II for 3PO jokes and campfire stories, it’s more likely to test audience patience. Whereas with ANH, the slow scenes happen at the very BEGINNING when we’re just sort of along for the ride and learning about the world of Star Wars. It’s a very different context, which for me, makes a big difference. Also the ANH scenes have way more of an “alien vibe” than anything on Endor.

Maybe that helps communicate this point more clearly. Now excuse me while I take 100mg of Adderall so I can pay attention to ROTJ.

Channel72 said:

Vladius said:

Trees are more familiar to a lot of people, that’s true. Myself included. They’re still huge trees though, some of the largest on earth. I’ve been there in person and it doesn’t diminish the movie for me. If you’re doing all the planets as single biomes eventually you would end up covering a temperate forest world, not to mention they already had Tatooine in the same movie, so there’s a contrast there. You could do a jungle maybe, but that would also feel similar to Dagobah in the same movie.

There wouldn’t be fan films in the first place without films to be fans of!

True. The main issue is ROTJ has this 25-30 minute “Endor dead zone” where pretty much nothing happens (for some definition of “nothing”). They get trapped by Ewoks. C3PO is mistaken for a God. They’re carried to the Ewok village. Luke does a magic trick. Leia is there with new clothes somehow. They tell campfire stories, etc. This is about when you change the channel.

Now, I can see how you might counter this by saying something like “yeah but the same shit happens in ANH with endless scenes of R2/C3PO wandering around, getting caught by Jawas, sitting on the sandcrawler, etc.”

And yeah, it’s hard to argue that the ANH stuff is somehow objectively “less boring” than the “Endor dead zone” in ROTJ. But here’s my attempt anyway: the ANH slow scenes take place in the first movie before there’s that much of an ongoing narrative or built-up stakes. We’re basically in “exploration mode” at this point. But with Endor, we’re in the middle of a major climactic Rebel military op. When a film like this stalls in the middle of Act II for 3PO jokes and campfire stories, it’s more likely to test audience patience. Whereas with ANH, the slow scenes happen at the very BEGINNING when we’re just sort of along for the ride and learning about the world of Star Wars. It’s a very different context, which for me, makes a big difference. Also the ANH scenes have way more of an “alien vibe” than anything on Endor.

Maybe that helps communicate this point more clearly. Now excuse me while I take 100mg of Adderall so I can pay attention to ROTJ.

I know what you mean. Tatooine is sweeping landscape shots and the plot hasn’t been completely set in motion yet. Endor is mostly close ups with main characters we already know. But the point that was made before about it not being Gen Z friendly definitely applies. I would also say the instinct of someone who’s seen both dozens of times is just “skip it skip it skip it” and get to the action.

They’re getting to know the ewoks and making them loyal allies, which is a key point for the rest of the movie and not something you can just speed through without explanation. It has multiple layers where Leia gets to know Wicket first and fights alongside him, then they impress them with the Force, then the storytime gives the ewoks a frame of reference for the battle and their history. If you just had one of those things, or a bribe or something, it wouldn’t make sense. But when 3PO announces that they’re part of the tribe and Han starts asking for serious support, the audience goes “yeah, I could see that” because it had setup and it wasn’t rushed.

Also it’s a fun adventure about our heroes exploring an unknown world and almost getting eaten. This wasn’t a time when we had Revenge of the Sith with a gigantic action setpiece every few minutes with huge sinkholes and exploding volcanoes, or 50 EU books about the main characters going on other adventures. Sure, by comparison with that, Endor looks fairly mild and tame. That’s fine though. Again, this was made in the early 1980s. Its competition was reruns of Star Trek, Star Wars knockoffs, B movies, glacially paced westerns, and books. People need to chill out.

A lull in act 2 makes a lot of sense given that the opening is Jabba’s palace and the ending is a huge battle sequence cutting between a lightsaber duel, a ground fight, and the largest space fight we’ve seen yet.