The Unofficial Complete REVISITED SAGA Ideas and Random Discussion Thread — Page 40

THIS.

ray_afraid said:

No no, that's after the battle. I mean where are they when Han & Co. are caught in the net, about to be eaten ect.

 Yeah, I've got a write up about that waiting to present it to Ady when we get there. Basically that whole segment feels like the film just stops....there's no tension, and it would be very easy to inject some back in with a few simple shots.

-The Endor strike team completely disappears from when Luke, Han, Chewie and the droids find Leia's discarded helmet until the morning of the attack on the bunker. Perhaps a few cutaway scenes to explain where they've been and what they're doing during the night (this is easy to do as it does not require any main characters and can be accomplished by shooting extras in Endor gear). Additionally this next part of the film is missing crucial types of shots/scenes that make up basic film mechanics and make for good story flow, so these additions wouldn't be just for the sake of adding something new, there's an actual structural reason for including them. My suggestions are as follows:

 

    a) The scene where Luke leaves the Ewok village to turn himself in to Vader is immediately followed by the scene where he is delivered into Vader's hands. Usually a film has whats called a cutaway shot, or scene, to allow for the passage of time in the viewer's mind, but in this instance it is lacking. A simple night scene of some rebels in a hideout or encampment, hunkered down, staying out of sight, perhaps as an AT-ST goes by in the distance. They could even be discussing how they've received a message from Han and co. about where to meet the next morning to attack the shield generator. (as mentioned, this does not have to be a full scene with dialogue if you do not want it to be, but can all be achieved in one shot of the rebels hiding from the Empire during the night...simply to allow for some time to pass so that it is generally believable that Luke has had the time to turn himself in)

 

    b) Vader tells the AT-AT commander who delivers Luke to "continue his search", then has his conversation with Luke and then in the next scene Han and co. have joined back up with the other rebels and are already on the attack. The attack scene starts off WAY too suddenly. What is missing in the beginning of the "attack on the bunker" scene is a series of establishing shots. Sentries or scouts watching distant Imperial movements, engineers setting up traps or mines (perhaps with the help of Ewoks), men gathering their equipment for the battle ahead or taking down their camp and just generally getting ready (or perhaps THIS is where you'd want to put a quick shot of someone running up to the rebel in charge to tell him that Han has made contact). All of this could be done in early morning hours....maybe with some mist....and THEN you have the opening shot of Chewie, Han and Leia peering over the fallen tree at the landing platform a little later in the morning.

 

    OR c) Both. (This section of the film not only does not have enough coverage on some of the background elements but is also rather badly edited in my opinion. When Han and co. are with the Ewoks its almost as if the story in progress just stops, and the Empire ceases to be a threat.....almost as if the Ewok village is a secret dimension or a place that the Empire cannot get to. Even when Vader tells his commander to "continue his search" you never see the consequences of that order. There is no feeling of urgency for them to get the shield down for the imminent attack. That sense of drama/suspense only comes back the next day when the attack starts. If there were a few cutaway shots of the Empire hunting through the forest for the rebels at night or some Ewoks avoiding Imperials in the dark woods it would add that ever so slight reminder that the Imperial forces are still out there looking for them) Using both these scenes adds some suspense back into the film at a point when all suspense virtually disappears, but it also has an interesting side effect, in that it increases the surprise when the Emperor's "best troops" show up at the bunker. If you show the Rebels interacting with the Imperials during the night, and then prepping for battle the following morning, you're building a sense of apprehension and/or suspense for the coming battle....and don't forget, at this point the Rebels think they're attacking the shield generator head on, so they think they have quite a fight in front of them, but then there's the relief of finding out that there's a back door, and probably a much smaller fight (that they can probably easily win). So we're torn from worry, to relief, and then back to worry when the Imperial troops show up after all. It adds more impact to a scene already in the film if you make a couple of small additions probably totaling no more than 10-15 seconds of screen time.

ray_afraid said:

No no, that's after the battle. I mean where are they when Han & Co. are caught in the net, about to be eaten ect.

 I answered this on another thread somewhere.

When Luke comes back and Leia is missing Han orders them to stay put while he, the remainder of the command staff (in a homage to Star Trek) and two brightly coloured, reflective noisy machines go off to be captured for plot reasons.

Bingowings said:

When Luke comes back and Leia is missing Han orders them to stay put while he, the remainder of the command staff and two brightly coloured, reflective noisy machines go off to be captured for plot reasons.

 Yup, Han flips a switch and that part of the film just turns off until he gets back. They weren't supposed to be captured, so the rebel troops wouldn't have expected them to be gone for so long....and were they supposed to attack the shield generator that day? Or was the plan to wait till the next day all along? The story structure really falls apart (again) as soon as they're captured by the Ewoks.

I would have it that Ewoks are planning to attack the base the next day and the two plans kind of come together in a special way and have babies.

"What needs to change is the scale of the thing which is a bit flat and mundane for a Star Wars film and the tone which is light and comic which is entirely inappropriate for the climax of a film about war albeit a fantasy one."

I agree on the scale of the ground battle needing to be larger in scope. The lighter moments though arguably help balance things out considering all the stuff between Vader/Luke and Palpatine going on are quite dark and heavy as heck. However, we don't need to keep all the light stuff...maybe just trim it back a bit?

DF Shadow said:

"What needs to change is the scale of the thing which is a bit flat and mundane for a Star Wars film and the tone which is light and comic which is entirely inappropriate for the climax of a film about war albeit a fantasy one."

I agree on the scale of the ground battle needing to be larger in scope. The lighter moments though arguably help balance things out considering all the stuff between Vader/Luke and Palpatine going on are quite dark and heavy as heck. However, we don't need to keep all the light stuff...maybe just trim it back a bit?

 Maybe but surely we shouldn't have a lightening of the mood. It should be a dark, dark end of the tunnel (the ground force captured, the fleet pummeled, Luke being psychically minced) before the final escape into the light.

I hear ya.

I guess another thing to consider is how dark AdY will be going with the rest of ROTJR too. Keep in mind even ESB (darkest movie in the saga) had some lighter moments here and there to break the tension.

DF Shadow said:

Keep in mind even ESB (darkest movie in the saga) had some lighter moments here and there to break the tension.

 Because ESB doesn't come out of the dark at the end.....it ends dark. ROTJ has a happy ending, and so can afford to feel a little more dire until we get there.

Which brings up another point...the final ewok celebration.

Nub nub, the current SE song or something new?

My instincts are like the Lapti Nek/Jedi Rocks debate, neither tune works.

I'd use some combination of the Force Theme with something suitably celebratory (no panpipes).

My dream ending of ROTJ would be a reverse of the Jedi Temple raid in ROTS.

Have Luke push open the door to the ruined council chamber, ready to re-build as the celebrating population of the capital fill the sky with fireworks.

Have Leia catch a glimpse of her mother from a dusty senate pod.

Have Han and Chewie bury Lando. OPPS!

Have Han and Chewie bury Lando alive...

ben_danger said:

Have Han and Chewie bury Lando alive...

So it turns out Han didn't forgive Lando for his betrayal in ESB after all?

LoL, the weird side of me is curious to see a mock-up.

DF Shadow said:

ben_danger said:

Have Han and Chewie bury Lando alive...

 

LoL the weird side of me is curious to see a mock-up.

 Well he is a vampire.

ben_danger said:

Have Han and Chewie bury Lando alive...

I like it. Turnabout's fair play. He may or may not survive, so it's a lot like carbonite.

"The point is that they rhyme, so it's like poetry." (GL)

Speaking of which, anyone else bothered by Han & Lando suddenly being cool again in ROTJ despite their last meeting in ESB?

I recall a cool moment in the script (I think during the deleted sand storm scene) where they sorta spoke on things and came to an understanding.

LUKE (moving to his ship)
I'll see you back at the fleet.

HAN
Why don't you leave that
crate and come with us?

LUKE
I have a promise I have to keep
first... to an old friend.

Luke and Artoo take off in their spacecraft.

HAN
(looking dubiously at Lando, obviously
remembering his friend's betrayal
and subsequent aid)
Guess I owe you some thanks, too, Lando.

LANDO
Figured if I left you frozen like that
you'd just give me bad luck the rest of
my life, so I might as well get you
unfrozen sooner or later.

LEIA
He means "You're welcome."

LANDO
Come on, let's get off
this miserable dust ball

Doesn't Billy Dee do this scene in the Radio drama?

In which case you could marry it with this idea and have the scene play over Luke's fighter speakers.

It would be easier, I imagine to make a physical puppet (big enough for detail but small enough to manipulate) and then 'Cantinarise' the face.

However as I said in the first page of the ANH:SE Redux Thread the dialogue would have to be changed to be not just a rehash of the Greedo scene and Han must not step on Jabba's tail.

It seems like a lot of work for a few more lines of Harrison but maybe it can be done.