Cleopatra

miker71 said:

I googled

"In emergencies, the X-wing's Guidenhauser ejection seat can throw the pilot clear of the fighter. Separator charges blast the cockpit canopy free, and also launch the astromech unit from the socket"

 

But that wouldn't make any sense at all.  The X-wings are designed for space, not like the speeders on Hoth.  An ejection would then mean death... but the point of ejecting is to avoid death.  Someone in the EU obviously hasn't thought this through.

Interesting point.  I don't so much agree with number 1.  He has a much more commanding presence in person.  As for number 2,  Vader was pretty desperate.  But I do agree that more time should have passed between the Falcon disappearing and the bounty hunters being present.

My favorite change from all three movies: The ending song/additional planet views in Return of the Jedi.

My least favorite change from all three movies: Jedi Rocks replacing Lapti Nek.

The list has been updated to include the entire first hour of the movie.  I am guessing that at least one hour will be cut for the final edit.  Possibly more.  (And can you imagine it was originally supposed to be 6 hours long!?)

Hey guys.  So one of the major reasons behind my joining this forum (aside from my great love of Star Wars) is my passion for fan-edited movies.  As a college student pursuing his PhD in Ancient Mediterranean Studies, nothing bothers me more than a historically inaccurate movie.  Since my favorite historical figure has always been Cleopatra, I tried to get my hands on anything Cleo-related, including the 1963 movie starring Elizabeth Taylor.

Despite the fact that “Cleopatra” is a remarkable period piece, it contains several elements which really bother me.  In addition to that, it’s over 3 hours long!  And not a good 3 hours either.  It’s very slooooow.  The 1999 movie was much better, and I’m hoping the new one starring Angelina Jolie will be even better than that.

In order to make the movie more watchable for myself and my friends and family (who have had to hear about Cleopatra over and over for the past decade), I am going to attempt to edit the original 1963 movie into a shorter, faster-paced and less stereotypical film.  The list of proposed changes below will continue to update as I make the edit.  Since I am still in the process of editing the first 15 minutes, though, I only listed those initial changes thus far.

Any recommendations of suggestions would be very welcome.  I am actually curious to hear your opinions about the film in general.  Despite its age, it still continues to be a classic and many local theaters here in Chicago continue to show it from time to time.  It is obviously very loved but, as with any edit, sacrifices have to be made.

LIST OF CHANGES:

Cut down movie length and increase pacing.

Change opening credits.

Remove Caesar’s introduction and cut directly to Alexandria (this will solve many repeats of information).

(Possibly) change the music during Caesar’s approach to Alexandria to another track from the soundtrack.

Remove all mentions of Market Day - Caesar docks and goes directly to the palace.

Cut some of Pothinus’ lines, making him look like less of a fool (he was historically very calculating and smart).

Make Ptolemy less annoying.

Make Cleopatra’s entrance more dynamic, with (possibly) different music.

Cleopatra will appear less naive - Cut her “this is my palace” and “poison” lines. (Why is she worried about the fruit but not the wine she’s drinking?)

Cut “divine origin” speech.

(Possibly) add music to Cleo’s and Caesar’s meeting.

Cut “dark corridors” statement.

Cut Rufio’s “Sex, torture…” speech.

Cut all depictions of Caesar’s falling sickness.

Remove some of the insults between Cleo & Caesar.

Shorten the poisoned drink scene.

Remove Pothinus’ scream.

Shorten Caesar’s judgement.

Shorten coronation.

Remove the unimportant person walking in the following scene.

almonkey said:

the F111 has a capsule escape system exactly like that

That's pretty cool.  I'm sure the physics is different for space vehicles, but that's neat to think about being able to bail out if things get bad.

I don't think Luke says the planet's name at any other time in the movies. 

And the fact that people pronounce other things differently is fine.  But that one line just sounds so... awckward!  It's not that it's a different pronunciation, it's the fact that it sounds like a totally different word.

LoL... well, I was only kidding about the Lando lines.

Hey Ady... I don't know if this has been brought up before or not, but have you considered changing the way Luke says "Tatooine" at the end of the movie?  Maybe it's just me, but as a kid, I never understood what he said until I finally turned the subtitles on one time.  It makes it sound like he says "Tah-roo-ine" because his a is long and his second "t" is so harsh.  I have no clue if this would even be possible.  But maybe it sounds different on one of the sound sources you're using?

Then again, if it were up to me, I would attempt to change each of Lando's "Haaan" lines to "Han" as well.  It annoys me SO much every time I hear his pronunciation.

So I did a search for this to prevent double-posting, but couldn't find another topic which discussed it so here goes:

During the Battle of Yavin, Biggs tells Porkins to eject from his X-wing.  Is that even possible?  Where would he go?  The X-wings are already such small units, I can't imagine just the cockpit shooting out into space with no form of propulsion. 

Then again, if the cockpit COULD eject, then maybe all it would need would be one big thrust since the lack of atmosphere in space would prevent any friction, and the cockpit could theoretically travel at the same speed until it hit something or encountered spacial turbulence.

Leia is Tarkin's ex-wife.  It ended in a messy divorce. 

She took the house...  He blew up her planet.

Ripplin said:

George will say that the technology prevented him from doing it 30 years ago, but that he always envisioned them that way :P

LOL!  That last video was hilarious!

My opinion may not matter much, but I realize that a lot of people on here grew up with the original trilogy.  I grew up with the prequel trilogy.  TPM came out when I was in 6th grade.  I went to see it.  I LOVED it.

I was already a huge Star Wars fan.  I still have my original pre-1997 VHS trilogy which I watched over and over as a kid.  In fact, ANH is barely playable because I saw it so many times.  As a kid growing up with the prequel trilogies, the OT started making less sense.  Who the heck was that guy playing the Emperor in ESB?!  Why does technology look so much more advanced earlier in the timeline?!  Etc.

Then the DVDs came out.  (I was unaware of the SE VHSs until afterward).  I LOVED most of the changes.  The new CGI elements were cool and helped link the two trilogies together.

Then Attack of the Clones came out.  O.. M.. G.. Terrible movie.  So bad, I did not even see ROTS til it came out on DVD.  I just hated it.  And then it hit me.  The prequels started sucking because they LOOKED so different.  Lucas really should have made the sets look more like 70's sci-fi rather than 21st century sci-fi.  SW takes place in another galaxy, not on Earth.  Who cares if it doesn't match up with our timeline?  Yet he didn't. 

In the end, that's what killed the PT.  The Phantom Menace still remains my favorite of the prequels because of the nostalgia.  Most of you probably love the OT because of the nostalgia.  Kids growing up now may love all 6 movies with all of their alterations because it will be nostalgic for them.

In truth, that nostalgic value alone should never have been tampered with.  Instead of trying to make the OT match the PT, Lucas should have put some thought into the movies and made the PT look more outdated.  Maybe not the special effects, but certainly the sets.  It would have "made sense" for everybody.  Instead, we get 6 movies that he will never be happy with because no one thought of the awkward clash between 70's and 21st century sets.

I'm glad Peter Jackson thinks differently.  He recently signed up to direct the 2 Hobbit movies after all.  I'm sure that he will make them reminiscent of LOTR rather than create new creatures and themes and then try to sneak them into LOTR.

I don't care for Hayden at the end of ROTJ, but the Victory Celebration music is SOOO much better than the original.  It's the only track of all 6 Star Wars soundtracks that I repeatedly listen to over and over.

I think the main focus was on the new footage of Vader walking to his shuttle.  If the original line was kept, the shuttle should not have already been there waiting for him, so the team probably decided to change the line for that reason.  It became less about the line and more about the visuals.

I cannot wait for Adywan's ESB:Revisited, because he is restoring this line :)

In all honesty, I always thought the AT-ST looked a little out of place on Hoth.  Maybe it's because I was so used to it on Endor.  But like you guys said, it's not in there nearly long enough to make any real difference.

Besides, Ady's special effects are amazing.  I absolutely love ANH:R.  I've seen it so many times already and I don't think I'd be able to watch and enjoy my dvd version without all of his edits.  My only gripe with the entire movie was the outdated look of the death star.  It's the only area of the movie that could have used some growth, especially since the Empire was supposed to be more high-tech than the alliance.  But the SSD in ESB already looks so cool that those kinds of changes wouldn't be necessary.

I think Leia's line is less of a "I've known all this time" and more of a "I've always felt closer to you" line.  And in all honesty, it's not that odd.  I remember several news stories from the past few years about brothers and sisters who were separated at birth and ended up getting married!  It wasn't until blood testing was done that they learned the truth.  So maybe familial bonds really do attract people, even if they don't understand why the attraction exists.

doubleofive said:

 

Except for that first shot there, every window in Cloud City is being SE-enhanced. Visual continuity will rule the day.

 

Oh awesome!  There are very few SE enhancements which I didn't like.

Then again, I was born more than a decade after SW came out, so I didn't really "grow up" with the originals like some people did.  I had the original trilogy on VHS in the mid 90s, but the SE came out shortly thereafter.  I found it very exciting to try to spot the changes made to the movies.  The VHS version of Lapti Nek, though, will forever remain a million times better than Jedi Rocks.

Does anyone know why the Super Star Destroyer from the initial trailer was cut out for the final version?  Not that I care.  I prefer to think that emergency rescue craft were sent once communications with the DS were lost.  So it makes sense either way.  I was just curious.

Ripplin said:

Get out.

Kidding. ;)

Well, I only say that because I don't think Ady is keeping all of the new enhancements.  If I remember the ESB preview trailer correctly, I think some of the original backgrounds have been replaced.

About doubleofive's comparison pix, I really like the 2004 enhancements.  They make Cloud City look less constricted and more pretty. 

adywan said:

It's because the red window only appears in one shot in the whole battle and only on the lead AT-AT. If the windows were meant to be red then why aren't they throughout the rest of the battle?

Ah... okay.  That makes a lot of sense.  I guess I'm just so used to the movie posters hanging over my bed that i never noticed the difference in the film.

So I know that this has probably been mentioned before, but why is Ady taking away the red AT-AT windows?  I feel like they were meant to be red since they were depicted as such in the movie posters and paintings.

And, unlike the blue escape-pod door which was actually supposed to be blue in ANH, the red windows aren't very annoying.  They're actually kinda creepy.