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BOBA FETT WAS LUKE'S MOM?
10.01.04
By Devin Faraci
Contributing sources:
Today was the press day for the reconstruction of Samuel Fuller's The Big Red One, the classic 1980 war film that is even more incredible no with footage, which the studio had trimmed, returned to its rightful place.
At the press day was Richard Schickel, film critic and historian (who did the reconstruction), Robert Carradine (once and future nerd and one of the stars of this film) and Mark Hamill (you may have heard of him).
I'll be running the results of this great press day soon, but there was, as you would expect, some Star Wars related stuff that came up, and I took an opportunity to get Mark Hamill aside and get his take on some aspects of the Star Wars mythos, stuff that no one else will have. So I figured I would run it now! Enjoy.
Q: Some Star Wars fans are outraged that he would tinker with the original films. What’s your take on that?
Hamill: It’s his toy, if he wants to give it a new paint job, you know. There was only one instance that I thought was changing the intent of what we wanted to do. That was when Vader reveals that he’s my father, I committed suicide. I let go and calmly dropped back. That’s the way Irving Kershner and I discussed it, that’s the way it was in the script, that’s the way that I played it. I didn’t see it, but someone said that they dubbed a scream in it. I said to my son, “Go check it out, see if there’s a scream in.” He came back, “Yeah dad, there’s a scream and it sounds like the Emperor!”
Q: They changed it on the DVD, they cut it back out.
Richard Schickel: This is all part of the dark plan where he’ll bring back the original and make another billion dollars!
Hamill: And then he’ll release the workprint, from before there were any special effects! Black and white, with leader lines. Countdown numbers!
Q: When I heard that they cut the scream out I was so relieved, because it was such a huge mistake to put that in.
Hamill: Nathan, my son, said, “Did you do the scream?” They must have a library of sounds that all of us made from ADR, so he can do whatever he wants.
Q: Prior to Jedi, did you know Leia was your sister?
Hamill: No. In fact I said, “Come on George, you made that up on the plane ride over here, didn’t you?” It seems so arbitrary to me, I don’t know if he made it up, it seems so arbitrary to me.
Q: And it makes Empire so creepy.
Hamill: She just gives me a peck on the cheek, right?
Q: No, you’re in the bed, she’s trying to make Han jealous…
Hamill: Oh in the medical room. I thought you meant before the swing across [in Star Wars]. Well, it’s not creepy on her part, it’s creepy if he knew.
It seemed to me that after revealing that Vader was my father they desperately wanted to top that, which you can’t do! The audience is expecting the unexpected. I kept thinking that Boba Fett would take off the helmet, shake out her hair, and it’s my mother! You would go, “Wow, a double agent!”
But I did think that they jettisoned Boba way too arbitrarily. He was built to be this awesome bounty hunter that was badass and everybody was afraid of him, and what, you flip a switch on his backpack and whooo!
That’s one of those things – we all increasingly became possessive, as did the audience, of how things should play out.
There's plenty more from Hamill and the rest, plus a look at this great film restored to even greater glory, coming soon. Stay tuned.
"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." - Goebbels.
"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - Orwell.