Besides "The films need to be the way I want them," has Lucas stated anything as to why the Blu-rays became the travesty that they are? — Page 3

Wolfman said:

 

Lucas said:

The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in Episode IV, what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t. It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down.

 Gary Kurtz said at the Elstree Empire Day that Han's actions were pre emptied. He knew Greedo was going to kill him so Han shot him first. That's that !

Well, we don't even need someone like Kurtz explaining it to us, the scene as it plays out in the original film is very simple and speaks for itself. You need to be a brainless toddler if you don't understand what's going on in that scene.

msycamore said:

Well, we don't even need someone like Kurtz explaining it to us, the scene as it plays out in the original film is very simple and speaks for itself. You need to be a brainless toddler if you don't understand what's going on in that scene.

Ultimately that's why this particular change is so indicative of the problems with the Special Editions… unlike some of the other sequences, it was an alteration that was clearly NOT what was originally intended in '77, and it was poorly executed in all versions… and all arguments to the contrary just end up sounding condescending because Lucas is making it about us not being able to suss out what happened in this extremely straightforward scene.

StarThoughts said:

unlike some of the other sequences, it was an alteration that was clearly NOT what was originally intended in '77, and it was poorly executed in all versions…

I still think that if Lucas could have he would have shot the original films on video and have used modern cgi had he been able to do so.

Would i have been a fan without the limitations that made the films the way they were, probably not.

He hated the films as they were made.  The original trilogy prior to 1997 was only about 25% of what he imagined or wanted.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I don't know why Lucas didn't just reshoot the shot so that Han shoots second.

All He would have had to do was have a replica of the cantina set built, have a few Han/Greedo costumes made/taken out of storage, and then hired a guy who could have reasonably stood in for a young Harrison Ford to play Han (he could have always cut-and-pasted Ford's head onto the guy's body later, anyway). And then, during the reshoot, the guy could have made a realistic dodge away from Greedo's blasterfire, and then shot the scaly green bastard from under/over the table in self-defense.

I honestly don't know why Lucas didn't just do it -- and many of the other changes -- this way. It would have cost a couple thousand bucks or so to do (I can't see it costing much more than digitally twisting Han's body around in the original footage) and it would have look far better and seamless.

Lucas seems to like half-assing everything he does, though, even when he had the millions to do better.

 Sometimes the things you say just make no sense to me.  This is one of them.

bkev said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

I don't know why Lucas didn't just reshoot the shot so that Han shoots second.

All He would have had to do was have a replica of the cantina set built, have a few Han/Greedo costumes made/taken out of storage, and then hired a guy who could have reasonably stood in for a young Harrison Ford to play Han (he could have always cut-and-pasted Ford's head onto the guy's body later, anyway). And then, during the reshoot, the guy could have made a realistic dodge away from Greedo's blasterfire, and then shot the scaly green bastard from under/over the table in self-defense.

I honestly don't know why Lucas didn't just do it -- and many of the other changes -- this way. It would have cost a couple thousand bucks or so to do (I can't see it costing much more than digitally twisting Han's body around in the original footage) and it would have look far better and seamless.

Lucas seems to like half-assing everything he does, though, even when he had the millions to do better.

 Sometimes the things you say just make no sense to me.  This is one of them.

He meant Lucas should have cut the image of Ford's head off and pasted it onto the image of the other guy's body. You're just twisted to have read it the other way ;)

No, I got that.  I just think it's dumb to expect someone to do that for what's essentially a re-edit of a film rather than an entire redo.

Also three was something in his tone that bothered me, but that's just down to rhetoric.

StarThoughts said:

and all arguments to the contrary just end up sounding condescending because Lucas is making it about us not being able to suss out what happened in this extremely straightforward scene.

Yeah, he has always been great at communicating with his fanbase. But he is only making himself a laughing stock with his statement. Apparently it was confusing to him.

It's his name on the film, this is the legacy he will leave behind. He will always be remembered for creating Star Wars but he will also be remembered for taking a big crap all over it.

DuracellEnergizer said:

Well, if Greedo had to shoot first (I don't want him to, but if he had to) I'd prefer it had been done in a way that looks professional.

This

isn't professional in any sense of the word.

It's good enough to George Lucas. It still amazes me after all these years how fucking retarded that tweak is, even without Solo's incredible dodge, which looked even more amazing in '97, Greedo would have missed. :) One of ILM's proudest moments...

What if Han shot first, but Greedo also shoots out of reflex?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuJzCbOnOGE

..it'd probably excuse his bad aim, anyway.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0jhMPbpeIY

...it does vaguely resemble the puppet more, though. By which I mean the colours are more feasible - the 2004 one is too green.

vacuum said:

this was the dumbest fucking scene of all time!

Doesn't come even close to this...

That! Inexcusable!

I'll tell you something: if George didn't like his movies, he should've just remade them from scratch! Would save a lot of trouble.

SilverWook said:

That gif is so dark, Han's blaster fire appears to be coming out of his...never mind!

 Yes, SE Han clearly borrowed Sex Machine's weapon from 'Dusk 'til Dawn'.

If Tom Savini's film career had started just a little earlier, I'd bet he would have been involved in the Cantina scene's creature FX and masks.