logo Sign In

Post #330264

Author
Bingowings
Parent topic
Info & Ideas: ESB and ROTJ Wishlist
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/330264/action/topic#330264
Date created
13-Sep-2008, 11:05 AM

Mostly, I think that you want to change too much! I believe that this movie would be more work for Adywan than both ANH and ESB combined. It seems like what you want is a whole different movie instead of the same movie improved.

 

If you mean, in an ideal universe I could go back in time, cuff George Lucas to Gary Kurtz and force him get much of the same team who made Empire to produce a more original and satisfying conclusion to the first trilogy, you betchya!

There is a lot that's fine with Jedi but most of that stems from decisions taken years before for the first two films.

The core cast (though not at their best) still managed to generate a unique atmosphere (Jedi feels more like Star Wars than any of the prequels not just because of the nostagic buzz of revisiting old friends but because in casting those actors something magic happened that wasn't there when cast for TPM was assembled). If instead of making the prequels Lucas had made a set of films set after Jedi, with the original cast but with the same frightful lack of attention to story and character development as we saw in the prequels he did make, I imagine they would be rather like Jedi.

The production artists (though not pushed to reach beyond the necessary) still created work from set and model design to musical score which reminded the audience why they fell in love with the feast for the imagination that the Star Wars universe provided.

But Jedi was where Lucas (unwisely) kicked away the checks and balances to his creative processes.

He got in a director he could totally dominate, he surrounded himself with yes men and pushed home the "It'll do" attitude that caused so much friction between himself, Gary Kurtz and Irvin Kershner (who wanted to push the saga beyond that).

In the end Jedi feels like a contractual obligation project rather than a unique work of art.

George is a get it done guy and looking around at what he has done in the various fields he has his digits stuck into is proof of that.

People like Kurtz acted like a pressure valve, slowing that energy down and focusing it until the end results were polished jewels.

If you look at what Kurtz did without someone like George behind him you can see that he was just as lost on his own. The Dark Crystal, Return To Oz and Slipstream are all well intentioned pieces, full of great ideas but lacking the spark of momentum that the first two Star Wars films had.

Lucas after Raiders is all energy without focus or at least the same focus (Jedi and the prequels are more about selling toys than selling magic).

And it starts to really show in Jedi.

So in a sense yes. I do want a different film.

Ady himself has said that Jedi is a big project for him, unlike Empire (where the most of the work is repair and restoration) Jedi was flawed from the start and to get as much out of it will take a bit more than just painting over the cracks in the plaster.

I don't expect all of my suggestions to come to anything, some are possibly impossible.

But the point of this thread is to make wish lists.

Those were my wishes.

I'm not so quixotic to assume that all my dreams will come true.

The point of my putting them out there is that some of them may not have crossed the minds of people like Ady making these projects and if possible and appealling to them some of them will come true.

That said, even if all my suggestions (and the equally valid suggestions of others posting here) were realised in a redux, the story would essentially be the same, it would just fit in better than it currently does with the rest of the trilogy and balance better with the prequels too which seems to be what most people want from projects of this kind made by Ady and others.

There are preservation projects which just correct the colour or present the different theatrical versions but the Revisited series seems to be a different beast.

P.S. My objection to the Han/Threepio comedy routine is that it takes the viewer out of the moment and is inconsistant with the usual style of Threepio/human humour up until that point. In ANH and ESB Threepio is put down or shut up because generally nobody cares what he has to say because he's a droid (even when he is making sense as seen with the hyperdrive in ESB). The scene in Jedi doesn't fit that model it's just a comedy scene for the sake of a comedy scene. Threepio frequently makes (possibly despite himself) very important comments which add to the story. When he points out that no-one cares what happens to a droid in ANH Han points out that droids are disposable and can be pulled to pieces if they step out of line to which he backs down. This is a political message. Droids in the Star Wars universe are slaves and even our heroes maintain this state of affairs (just as the noble Jedi in the Old Republic did nothing about human slavery in places beyond the Republic's borders). ESB also has a couple of moments of irony on this theme, when the constantly put down and ignored slave spots Stormtroopers in Cloud City his first response is to protect his owners who barely give a damn about him when he goes missing. The one person who does go looking for him and tries to put him back together is the same Chewie that Han says will pull his arms off when should he loose at playing a game. Later when R2 (the voiceless pro-active one) notices that the hyperdrive still isn't working, Threepio takes his owners word for gospel and tries to pull rank on R2 (who thankfully as always, pays no attention to him). The exchange in Jedi doesn't as it stands fit that format. I'd want it kept in if Threepio turned the humiliation around for once after all he did save the heroes dozens of times but as it stands, it just doesn't fit.