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Gaffer Tape

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2-Jun-2005
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13-Nov-2019
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Post
#234331
Topic
What did the Prequel Trilogy need?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/234331/action/topic#234331
Time
Honestly, I don't mind Anakin being a whiny lovesick teen in AOTC. When I first saw that movie, I was 16, and I was feeling pretty much the same way at the time. What needed to be done, though, in my opinion, to make him more compelling, is to show that he's more than that. When push comes to shove, he has to show himself as a mature and capable Jedi who puts his duty first. That was barely touched upon in the movie. There wasn't much of an arc. He started out as brash, and he ended up as brash. Even when he was being heroic, he was being arrogant. And something that piqued my interest early in the movie was never elaborated upon. When Anakin and Padme meet with the queen on Naboo, Anakin is asked his opinion of the situation, and Padme totally cuts him off and disses him at the same time. There's a tiny bit of tension, but by the next scene, it's all romance and hugs and flowers again, and this power struggle is never brought up again. That would have been a whole lot better. They love each other, but they are both very strong and somewhat controlling people who both want to be in charge, and it causes sparks, maybe similar to Han and Leia but more serious. Plus, it would set up something of a shaky relationship for the next movie. They are truly in love, but there's an element of distrust and always that one little seed that could cause destruction at any moment. And since Anakin's original motivation for turning to the dark side was a lust for power (before the ridiculous turn evil for love thing), it might work better with Anakin having previously been shown to fight others (including his wife) for power and authority over situations.

My other thought is that it might have worked better had the roles been reversed. Rather than Anakin being the chaser, and Padme being the voice of reason, it should be the opposite, with Padme almost being a temptress. So then the main conflict wouldn't be "she loves me, she loves me not," but it actually would be, "Do I go with my feelings, even though I know I shouldn't, or do I act on them?" And, like Padme did in the actual movie, he should reject her on logistical grounds but have his decision inwardly torture him for the remainder of that storyline. But once again, there's no conflict the way it is now. Anakin doesn't have to make a choice. He's already made it when he sees Padme in his very first scene in the movie. The only conflict is getting her to feel the same way.

And, of course, I always have to wonder what in the world Lucas was thinking when he set up this love story as an encounter between a 14 year old girl and a 9 year old boy?! I can live with the five year age difference, but I find it hard to believe she would have fallen for him when her earliest memories of him are of him running around yelling, "Whee!"
Post
#234325
Topic
Expecting too much of George Lucas?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/234325/action/topic#234325
Time
Originally posted by: Mike O
Besides, I may be one of the few people old enough to get Gaffer Tape's screen name. (She was amazingly beautiful when she was young)


Whom?


If by whom, you're referring to Gaffer Tape, that's me, dude. You know, we've talked some. If by whom, you're referring to "she", Anchorhead is talking about Carrie Fisher. My user name, avatar, and signature all go together and are referring to the same story. First off, I want to give Anchorhead thanks for mentioning and complimenting me. Second, I want to say that I'm not old enough to really get it. I'm only 20, so I obviously wasn't around when Star Wars first came out. I actually read this story in an issue of Newsweek that came out in 1999. It was an article written by Carrie Fisher entitled "Postcards from the Edge of the Galaxy" as a spoof on her book. And it told the story of how she was never allowed to wear underwear with her costume because there was apparently no lingerie in space. So in scenes when she had to run, her breasts were bound with gaffer tape. In addition, she xeroxed her breasts and handed them out to the entire crew and joked about holding a raffle to see who could get to rip the tape off at the end of each day of shooting.

On topic, though...

I wish I hadn't missed all this stuff because most of what I've wanted to say has already been said, and there's so much to respond to that I don't know if I can cover all that's left that I want to. So I'll do the best I can to contribute. I've always stated that Empire is my favorite Star Wars movie. Even when I first saw it at 9, I loved the darker plot, I loved the advancement of the story, I loved the lightsaber fight. Everything about it was just perfect. And I still consider it my favorite with Return sort of dragging as the tail end. Even though I've now long accepted that George didn't have the first trilogy planned out at all like he's always claimed, it still works. Considering the continuity flaws in the prequels, Obi-Wan's explanations in the original were golden. I've always thought it was a good job of tying it together. Ben wasn't lying, per se, he was just sparing Luke's feelings. The reveal is always fun and helped the story of Empire certainly. But I definitely get where you guys are coming from, and I enjoy Star Wars as a standalone movie.

But Leia being Luke's sister? Even at my original viewings, I never really took to that. I mean, Luke just picks it out of thin air. "Yes, you have a sister. She's anonymous. She could be any girl in the galaxy, you know." "Wait! It must be Leia, because she's the only girl that I know, and the only girl in these movies!" "Damn. I didn't do a good job with that one." Plus, it's a plot point that seems to exist for no reason! There is such a huge setup for this, starting with the previous movie. "There is another." In the next movie, "There is another Skywalker." I mean, you would think that they were setting up for something big. A new quest for Luke. A savior to Luke. Something. The only payoffs are the emotional scene between Luke and Leia and to tidily tie up the love triangle that George had apparently gotten bored with. But Leia doesn't really do anything in terms of fulfilling some kind of destiny as "the other", does she? She has no screen time with Vader or The Emperor in that entire movie! I suppose I'm supposed to think the payoff is when Vader plucks the information from Luke's head and uses it to get Luke to attack him, but would it have made any difference if Leia hadn't been his sister?! We already know that Luke deeply cares for her, so why did she need to be his sister?

Sorry, I could go on and on with how much that irks me.
Post
#234314
Topic
OOTCon
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/234314/action/topic#234314
Time
I had no idea that 35 mm prints were illegal to own. Why is that? And, if so, where do all these private collectors with copies of Star Wars come from, and how is it they're not raided?

EDIT: Or do they simply have negatives, which may or may not be okay? I don't know.
Post
#234042
Topic
OOTCon
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/234042/action/topic#234042
Time
Originally posted by: zombie84
Here is an interesting story:

In LA a man once owned a 35mm copy of Star Wars. He was a private collector of 35mm prints and had converted his garage into a screening room. The neighbourhood kids would sometimes gather in his garage and they would be delighted to a private screening of Star Wars, back in the days before home video was common. Somehow, wind of this caught up with Lucasfilm/the authorities. The print was confiscated and the man either jailed or fined, i can't remember.

The laws have sort of changed since then in light of the explosive growth of home video but its an interesting story nonetheless. I would say if it is a privately held screening then there is absolutely no problem with it--if it is a 35mm print then some complications may arise, especially if it is popular and the print is not a legally-obtained one (which it likely will not be).


That's really sad and horrible. Is this someone you knew personally, a story you heard from someone, or a clever anecdote?
Post
#234032
Topic
OOTCon
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/234032/action/topic#234032
Time
I'm sure I'm not the only person who thinks it's pretty damned retarded that Lucas actually says, "If we give you permission to show this movie, you can only show this version of the movie." Do you think that stance will change once the OOT gets its official (albeit apparently crappy) release next month?
Post
#234029
Topic
Expecting too much of George Lucas?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/234029/action/topic#234029
Time
No, Anchorhead feels the same way you do.

But, wow, I never thought about the Princess's name before. I always just thought it was the way some characters pronounced it "Hahn" while others pronounced it "Haan", and the way that Lucas always mispronounces his characters' names ("Doku" for "Dooku", "Clariisian" for "Calrissian"). But, yeah, does anybody refer to her as "Lay-uh" in the first movie? Now that I think about it, I don't think so. I can only think of three times her name is actually said in that movie: once by Tarkin, once by 3PO, and once by Dodonna, and I think they all say it as "Lee-ah," but I'm not entirely sure about 3PO.
Post
#233955
Topic
Luke VS. The Abominable Snow Man/Wampa in ESB - oddly enough, the wampa didn't hit him in the face
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/233955/action/topic#233955
Time
Originally posted by: Obi Jeewhyen
I'd really like to know the truth, 'cause one of things I always hated about Empire is my (perhaps mistaken) belief that the beginnig of the film was written to overcome something that happened to an actor in his personal life, rather than to serve any legitimate story purpose.

Frankly, it looks to me like Hamill suffered far more than a broken nose, and that his fairly drastic difference in appearance was certainly noticeable ... perhaps even requiring some sort of explanation in the film.


Either way, I don't like the opening ... and I might be more forgiving if it was not there simply to explain Luke's messed-up face.


Yeah, that's kinda annoyed me, too. Still, it does serve the story in one way since it's when Luke encounters Ben who tells him to go to Dagobah. We're just going to ignore the fact that Ben could have come to Luke any old way, but it would have been much less interesting had Luke just been sitting around talking to a 2-1B when suddenly Ben's ghost pops up and says, "Hey. Um, stop goofing around and go to Dagobah, lard ass!"
Post
#233954
Topic
Expecting too much of George Lucas?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/233954/action/topic#233954
Time
Originally posted by: JediRandy
Originally posted by: auraloffalwaffle
Originally posted by: Mike O
his desire to deny fans the SEs.


You might wanna edit that post, Mike!

Luca$h may have come up with the screenplay and directed ANH but, as discussed elsewhere, there were many people with him (Ralph McQuarrie, Gary Kurtz, John Mollo, Joe Johnston, John Dykstra, Ben Burtt, Richard Chew, Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas and many more) that shaped Luca$h's material into what people saw on 25/05/77. You can't lay it all at Luca$h's feet, like you would with a true auteur filmmaker. The reason that we have a shit PT is that Luca$h has been convinced that he is an auteur when he really never was.


And can you imagine their work on Star Wars without Lucas? Wow....McQuarrie's Darth Vader design.... Burt's Sound design...... ILM's SFX..... JW score..... the editing...

...


Oh wait. Without Luca$h, there wouldn't have been a movie.

Oh, well. No need to hire McQuarrie to design characters that don't exist...nothing to edit because nothing was shot... no Ben Burt sound, no score, no ILM because why put together a SFX house without a to movie make, right? No Star Wars at all.

But again.... it's all trivial. What with GL's lack importance and all.


No one's saying that Lucas is unimportant to the creation of Star Wars. That would just be silly. But it is definitely fair to say that Lucas was as dependent on the aforementioned people to make his movie as the aforementioned people were dependent on Lucas for having an idea for a movie that gave them jobs!
Post
#233840
Topic
9/11 - The Movie
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/233840/action/topic#233840
Time
Possibly. But they'd be branded a lot less than if this movie was released in, say, '02. If the cries of "too soon" simply did not exist, if anybody even remotely said something negative about a movie about 9/11, they'd be roasted alive. After all, that's pretty much what happened to Politically Incorrect, if you recall.
Post
#233523
Topic
In games D-pad or Analog what do you like better?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/233523/action/topic#233523
Time
Originally posted by: ricarleite

2- SNES (north american color scheme) - A classic. Possibly the best design and handling for a two-handed controller. The D-pad was smooth - like the DS lite feels now - and it had the L and R buttoms, a great inovation. It is THE controller to play 2D fighting games.


Just out of curiosity, why the (relatively bland) North American color scheme? It doesn't really make any different to the functionality of the controller.
Post
#233519
Topic
How the prequels should’ve played out:
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/233519/action/topic#233519
Time
Originally posted by: Tiptup
There were Firefly comics? Written by Joss Whedon? Hmm, sounds enticing.


Yeah, I wish I could find them. And, technically, they're Serenity comics. And they were written by Joss Whedon, so they are considered canonical. I only know a little about them, as I don't want to spoil them for myself, but they include things like the departure of Inara and Book and a reappearance by Badger as well as the other stuff I mentioned.
Post
#233517
Topic
Expecting too much of George Lucas?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/233517/action/topic#233517
Time
It's not so much that he changes his mind. I mean, that happens in the creation of fiction all the time, and it's really quite interesting to see how a story can evolve away from what you originally intended it to be. But he either refuses to believe it ever changed or tries to convince us by changing his movies that it never changed. It was always meant to be this way, and anything that differs from that is just either the technology of the time or the crappy studio system that prevented him from doing it the way he wanted it.
Post
#233447
Topic
In games D-pad or Analog what do you like better?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/233447/action/topic#233447
Time
I got an NES for Christmas of '89 when I was three, and it's still kicking. I always take it to school with me and play it pretty regularly.

But by the time I was really getting into video game playing, the SNES had come out. All my friends had started to get it and really made my NES look lame in comparison. I didn't get an SNES until Christmas of '94 when I was 8, and by that time, the majority of its lifespan was already over! But I caught up when I got an N64 Christmas of '96 right after it first came out.