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Post
#285922
Topic
Anyone else nostalgic to the PT?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/285922/action/topic#285922
Time
Ah, here we go...

Star Wars Versus The Lord of the Rings

The powers of good struggle against the strong and well-organized military might of the enemy. The story opens with the enemy scouring the world for something of great value it has lost - something that would be a great threat to the enemy if it is not recovered, despite being, among other things, a rather plain looking hunk of gold metal (note what the Stormtrooper is holding when he says, "Look sir, droids!") . This threat finds its way to a distant farming community, to be inherited by a young hero filled with wanderlust. The hero receives the inheritance of his forefather from a wizened old sage, who charges him to travel far away from home to prevent the enemy from finding what they seek. This wise sage and the dark commander who is hunting for the hero were formerly friends and members of the same age-old order of magic-users, until the latter betrayed the order to become the enemy's second-in-command. In the course of running from his home, the hero and his party find themselves in a shady tavern where they encounter a scruffy-looking wanderer who joins them and provides transport and guidance in their mission, after they are forced to leave quickly when a spy of the enemy rats them out. They travel together towards a peaceful place which has become a center of the resistance against the enemy. After either resting there a bit or narrowly dodging its blown-up pieces, the party finds themselves misled into a massive stronghold of the enemy, a multi-level maze of passages and chasms. Their patience is tested as they stand in filthy, shallow water, trying to get through a locked door covered in strange symbols, when, suddenly, a tentacled creature grabs the hero and pulls him into the water. The creature leaves without being killed, and the party narrowly avoids being crushed by the ensuing wall collapse. The sage character sacrifices his life in a one-on-one duel in order to allow the rest of the party to escape the catacombs. The enemy gives mild chase, but allows the heroes to flee to the forested encampment of their allies.

Thereafter, the similarities grow fewer, but are still placeable in the second installment, which begins with a battle that results in the separation of the heroes. The majority of the party finds themselves in a drawn-out chase with the servants of the traitorous sage. The chase leads them to an isolated city, the leader of which has turned over his allegiance to the enemy, but ultimately redeems himself. The rest of the party, comprising the central hero and his shorter, fatter companion, travel through a mysterious, marshy place, and come across a shriveled little creature who is many hundreds of years old, and provides guidance to the hero, though the hero's friend does not particularly like or trust the creature, epitomized by an argument over food.

Of course, there are plenty of holes in this parallel - Star Wars has many influences, but Lord of the Rings is one that I almost never hear mentioned, and it clearly provided a large amount of back-bone to the plot, at least in the first two movies (Return of the Jedi and Return of the King are really only similar in name and the fact that they are mostly one big battle-scene).

Post
#285919
Topic
Anyone else nostalgic to the PT?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/285919/action/topic#285919
Time
Originally posted by: zombie84
Originally posted by: CO
Originally posted by: zombie84


Well thats hardly an legitimate argument against it. By that logic, most of the OT should be discarded because Lucas completely took scenes and imagery from other films--in fact the shot of Luke viewing the burning homestead, is, as i mentioned, taken from John Ford's The Searchers. Personally i found the schmi death to be a typical moment of the PT--a highly charged emotional scene that had the power to be poignant and touching, but was madly mishandled and only achieves a fraction of its power. Pernilla August was dreadful, the editing was sloppy and there is that cheesy moment that just instantly pulls you out of the film--she is having a poetic death scene but then she slumps her back dead, instantly. Its like a high school play. It's moments like that that just make even the best of the PT have some kind of ackward mar on it that any other director would been aware enough to avoid.


I agree that Lucas took many things from his directors he loved as a kid, but the Anakin at Shmi thing is more of a plot point rather then a visual that was lifted from a previous movie.

This scene where Anakin talks to his mom at the grave is the key to the whole PT, this is the changing of Anakin, and eventually is the reason he turns to the darkside, and the exact scene and plot point is from Superman:The Movie, except Anakin couldn't turn back time by flying around the earth.

The key death scene in the OT is when Obiwan falls to Vader with Luke looking on, and Luke is never the same after that, and as far as I know that wasn't lifted from any movie, cause I can't remember any movie using the force ghost issue before SW.



By the same token Luke rushing back to the farm only to discover it burnt to the ground and his family massacred is probably the most memorable scene from The Searchers. The Cantina brawl is from Yojimbo, many other plot points from Hidden Fortress, and 1/4 of ESB is taken from Dersu Uzala, including the characters of Yoda and the scene where Han has to save Luke in the snowstorm. Star Wars is an amalgum of sources, some of the specific, some of the vague, some of the just images and shots and some of them whole scenes and characters. I don't think its fair to write off a scene because it was taken from somewhere else. If it works, it works. And Superman wasn't the only one to have a scene such as that--its an archetypal scene relating to the powerless people have over inevitable death.


Don't forget Lord of the Rings. People don't usually mention it, but you can construct a large amount of the plot backbone for Star Wars and Empire out of LotR. I wrote something about it awhile ago, let me see if I can look that up...
Post
#284173
Topic
Revenge of the sith is the shite and the flies upon it
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/284173/action/topic#284173
Time
Originally posted by: Marvolo
Something about those scenes in Jabba's palace have always bothered me. They just seem like something from another story and don't connect with the rest of the overall story very well.

I think that's exactly right. Jedi's biggest problem, as I said elsewhere, is that it can't do it's own thing until it's taken care of the shopping list of other requirements that got dumped on it. All trilogies suffer from that in their third act - even Lord of the Rings. The Jabba's palace stuff feels out of place, because it's really the ending of Empire Strikes Back. Only once Han is back again, and Luke has filled his promise to Yoda, can we get on with the real story, and by that point we've already wasted the better part of an hour.

I like the third part of Back to the Future. The first one is my favorite, and it's the classic, but III tried its best to fight that shopping list by taking the story in a totally wild direction. Kept it fresh, and gave the series a real third act, instead of just a movie-length ending. 'A' for effort.
Post
#284133
Topic
Revenge of the sith is the shite and the flies upon it
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/284133/action/topic#284133
Time
Let me also jump in to the defense of Jedi and point out that, unlike the Gungans, a few Ewoks are killed onscreen, and are even given a moment to be mourned over. They may still be saccharin, merchandisable teddy bears, but at least the movie took what was going on seriously. That kind of honesty is what keeps Jedi several notches over the prequels. And, unlike his turn to the dark side, Vader's turn back to the good side is actually a pretty damn good scene.

I guess I could say the big difference between Jedi and the prequels is that, while Jedi was uneven, and yeah - teddy bears - the movie pulled through at the most pivotal moments. The prequels have their redeemable qualities, I suppose, but the key scenes are the worst scenes. You could even argue for an inverse ratio, where the more important the scene, the worse it is, with Anakin's Fall - the entire reason all three movies were made in the first place - the most colossal misfire of them all. I mean, seriously, if you're going to put all that time, effort, and money into a story about Vader's turn to the Dark Side, only to totally phone-in the moment when it actually happens... you might as well have turned the whole production over to Rankin-Bass. Really - if the rest of the film had been Shakespeare, that one scene would still ruin the entire trilogy.
Post
#284101
Topic
Revenge of the sith is the shite and the flies upon it
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/284101/action/topic#284101
Time
Originally posted by: corellian77
While the other two prequels definitely have their flaws, at least there was some meat to the story. AOTC offers up an assassination plot, a mystery, an (attempted) love story, and the outbreak of war. Then, with ROTS (in my opinion the best of the PT), you have a story that truly adheres to the classic definition of a tragedy: our protagonist (Anakin) undergoes a change from happiness to suffering (Anakin to Vader; married to isolated), often involving the death of others (Padme) as well as the main characters (the Jedi; Anakin himself in an Obi-Wan Kenobi-ish kinda way), resulting from both the protagonist's actions (Anakin deciding to save Padme at all costs; killing the Jedi) and the inescapable limits of the human condition (Anakin's fear of isolation; greed; his need for control).

In a way, I think you just described why I dislike the second two films a lot more, especially Sith. They include/attempt a lot more meaty ideas... and fail, to varying degrees of awfulness, at all of them - ESPECIALLY the most important ones. That, to me, makes them vastly more painful to watch. They put on parade exactly how terrible at storytelling they are. And many of those moments are classic plot points (a checklist of things we have been waiting for, as an earlier poster put it), which I would much rather not see at all, than see butchered. The Phantom Menace, meanwhile, aims lower, and comes out cleaner for it. It might not be better made, or have more "artistic" value to it, but at least it's not pretentious.
Post
#283577
Topic
Question about Tarkin
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/283577/action/topic#283577
Time
What I get from the film, without regard to what other authors have added, is that the question of rank doesn't really matter. Lord Vader is not in the chain of command - he's nobility, not military personnel. Tarkin has command of the station, while Vader carries significant political clout. Thus, the two relate as equals. Tarkin is not afraid to get snippy with Vader, even to mildly threaten him. But when he demands that Vader "release him," there is no "yes, sir" in response. Vader replies simply "as you wish," deferring to Tarkin's authority because it pleases him, not because he has to. And he simply declares that he will face Obi-Wan - there is no asking for permission. There are really no formalities between the two of them at all, in fact - because they simply aren't in the same heirarchy.
Post
#283567
Topic
What kind of Star Wars fan are you?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/283567/action/topic#283567
Time
I'm a fan from the angle of film enthusiasm. I adore the original trilogy, and know the films backwards and forwards, but I haven't read a scrap of extended universe material, or even played a Star Wars video game, and have no desire to. Like some others, I don't mind the Special Edition's cosmetic changes, but I find it hypocritical to cherry-pick, so I advocate the release of a (properly restored) original trilogy in its original condition, warts and all. My position is that George can do whatever he wants to his trilogy, I just want the original versions also.

My thoughts on the films might be useful. I continually waffle back and forth on whether I like Star Wars or Empire better. Star Wars has a classic simplicity to it. It is also the most fun, especially as a film enthusiast, since the movie basically takes all the standard stories that have inspired western pop culture, and plays mix and match. On the other hand, that makes it difficult to take seriously, being so referential. If Kurosawa, Tolkein, and Buck Rogers had not come before, Star Wars would not exist. Empire is not only a more powerful dramatic work, it is also the point where Star Wars moves past simple homage and grows its own mythology. As for Jedi, it is clearly the weakest of the three, but not too much weaker, and not, I think, by its own fault. It is simply a tall order to be the last part of a trilogy. It doesn't have the luxury of going wherever it wants, or ending however it wants. It is given a checklist of things that must be accomplished and questions that have to be answered. Jedi spends its first half tying up loose threads from Empire, and the second half providing a rousing finale for the trilogy as a whole, and has precious little time to develop its own themes. I think it does admirably under the circumstances, and can be forgiven for a few bizarre choices and a general lack of cohesion.

As for the prequels, I like to say that we've gone from Saturday afternoon serial to Saturday morning cartoon. That pretty much sums up the difference in dramatic tone. In retrospect, Phantom is the most watchable, because it aims low. As simple-minded children's fare, it's not awful. Clones actually tries to be serious drama, and fails with hysterical clumsiness. But of all six, Revenge of the Sith is the worst. By far the worst. It demonstrates such an astonishing disregard for character development - and human emotion - that it occasionally bordered on offensive. Beyond disrespectful to the characters, it became disrespectful to the audience itself, carrying on with a smug confidence while cutting every corner, taking every cheap shot, and trying to foist tears on us that it never even tried to earn. I've been disappointed in Star Wars before, but always with a laugh or a sigh. I think of Revenge of the Sith, and I get angry. I HATE Revenge of the Sith. It is some of the most juvenile, irresponsible, amateurish filmmaking I have ever seen.

Er, anyway. I'm calm now. Hope that was helpful.
Post
#283034
Topic
Star Wars Fans Are Cool Regardless Of Age...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/283034/action/topic#283034
Time
I see your point. Usually it's a two-step process: your breakout role gives you enough attention to land a big star vehicle, which solidifies mainstream appeal.

Portman's breakout role was definitely The Professional. She got a lot of critical attention for that part, and was sortof expected to be a major actress, someday. But you're right that she wasn't actually a mainstream star until Star Wars.

In the case of Knightely, however, her breakout was Beckham, and Pirates was her star vehicle. I don't think most people even know she was in Phantom Menace.
Post
#282653
Topic
Star Wars Fans Are Cool Regardless Of Age...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/282653/action/topic#282653
Time
I submit that there are three classes of fans:

-Those old enough to remember Star Wars as a stand-alone film.
-Those who grew up with the trilogy as a complete set.
-Those who grew up with the Special Edition and prequels.

For the first group, even the second two films were an intrusion of sorts. This is my father - he still insists that "Darth" is Vader's first name.

I'm in the second group. Han shoots first, damnit, but I don't flinch at the title "A New Hope," and I'm happy to tell you why a planet of Ewoks is better than a planet of Wookies.

As for the third group, that's my brothers, but I'm not sure there is much consensus opinion, apart from "Natalie Portman is hot." I defer to bkev et all.

Oh, and I'm 26.
Post
#259940
Topic
What did the Prequel Trilogy need?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/259940/action/topic#259940
Time
Originally posted by: auraloffalwaffle
Originally posted by: BeeJay
Nobody, it might be getting a bit off-topic. But I might like to have an explanation of what you mean by inconsistent. Emotions of turmoil can't all be the same from day to day or Star Wars movie to Star Wars movie ....emotions are like a storm, and they are always going up and down. Especially with Anakin Skywalker.
...

It's that what we see and what we hear and what we know about his future are not consistent with each other, not that Anakin's emotional state should remain the same throughout. Anakin's responses seem inconsistent with his situation. I honestly feel that his responses to his surroundings and situations seem constantly at odds with who he is and who he will become.


First of all - you see? This is why I didn't want to discuss it. We're distracting these other guys from their discussion of Luke's temple.

Anyway, Aural seems to understand what I mean. Responses is a good word. What I'm talking about is not emotional inconsistency per se, but motivational inconsistency. Emotions may be wild, they may be complex. But they are NEVER random. And Anakin was fairly consistent up until the Fall, in that I could see how each event affected his reasoning. And it seemed to me that the events immediately leading up to Anakin's fall were pushing him further and further AWAY from the Dark side, while nothing compellingly pushed him back towards it. Yet... down on his knee he goes. Not because he felt it, but because the plot required it. From that point on, I lost all sense of who he was.

And that really is the last I'm saying on this here. But feel free to check out the review I put in my old LiveJournal, right after the movie came out: Come to the Dark Side... we have cookies!
Post
#258673
Topic
What did the Prequel Trilogy need?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/258673/action/topic#258673
Time
And what I mean by thematically, is that Owen is the rock, the unchanging man, the one afraid to go out and explore. Owen is everything that Luke (and Anakin) are not. He's afraid, he's not inquisitive, he doesn't rock the boat, etc. This is why I don't agree with ideas taht Owen would've/might have been a soldier or even a failed Jedi. These characters are archetypes. Owen does nothing. He stays home, he does what is required of him, he's frightened of the world outside of his limited sphere.

So, IMHO, Owen, along with his family before him, lived on Tatooine, he did what his father did before him, and his father before him, etc., much like my own family. I'm one of the few to break out and NOT become a farmer (which is why it was so easy for me to identify with Luke). In that case, Owen was doing what he has always done, and he believes that is what Anakin should be doing, and believes that Luke should be doing what he does. It's all about diametrics and archetypes, and in Owen's case, having Anakin going out, becoming a Jedi, attempting to achieve his dreams---and then become something twisted and corrupt only verifies and validates Owen's stance. You go out, bad things happen to you.

This is why Luke mustn't dream, mustn't aspire. He must be kept down---for his own good.


Word. Big fat underline.

Also, I like the idea of Tatooine appearing in the prequels, but for another reason entirely. In the original films, it serves as the prime example of that "used future" asthetic people always talk about. It's got strange and advanced technology, but it's all worn and shabby and poor and corrupt. Very post-apocalyptic. ...Or maybe just post Clone War...

What I'm getting at is that the planet wasn't always like the original trilogy depicts it. Not that it was ever a metropolis or anything - just a farming community - but a prosperous and civil farming community. No Jabba. No shady dive-bars. A simple but charming place to live - like an Arabian bazaar in so many fairy-tales. ...And then when we revisit the planet in ANH, we see what 20 years of Empirical rule have done to the place. Driven into poverty by the callous and greedy government (much like the decline of Russia under Soviet rule), overrun by thieves and scavengers, and ruled by viscious crime lords who have set up shop in a place where law enforcement is just as corrupt as they are, Tatooine is the before and after picture that shows what the common citizen has to lose.

Of course, how and where you use that is totally up in the air.
Post
#258539
Topic
What did the Prequel Trilogy need?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/258539/action/topic#258539
Time
Originally posted by: Obi Jeewhyen
Um, just going to venture a 'hear, hear' for everything this new Noboby has posted. Great stuff.


Thank you. And I apologize for the stupid handle. I wanted to get into the discussion here, went to create a user account, and found that I already had one, under the name 'Nobody'. I'm not sure what the hell I was thinking - must have been a few years ago - but the site doesn't allow me to change my name, so Nobody I am.

Anyway, my idea of the Temple was as sort of a "Central Park" in the midst of Coruscant, but I like the Endor suggestion as well. I think it's best that Dagobah not be the original home of Yoda, as otherwise Vader and friends would probably think to hunt for him there....

Or wait, scratch that. I just read Marvolo's comment, and I really like this Caamas idea.

Post
#258050
Topic
What did the Prequel Trilogy need?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/258050/action/topic#258050
Time
I remember George talking in DVD commentary for ANH (if this is wrong, someone correct me. Could be in another one of the OT movies, but I'm pretty sure it is Episode IV,) how the saga is told from the two droids' point of view. He expanded that to the droids having a part of the entire saga, so you could go as far as to say the entire saga is told from their viewpoint!

The original Star Wars is a very classically and carefully structured piece of cinema, and it's definitely told from the droid's viewpoint. I think that ideal was much looser in the following two movies, so I'd say it's a stretch that the whole saga is from their point-of-view, but they're obviously a presence throughout.

But, regarding Anakin's involvement, it only makes sense to me that he might have built Artoo. It's not real science that matters here, it's movie logic. Although both robots are technically complex, it is because of Artoo's personality that he speaks much more highly of Anakin's abilities.

And that doesn't require taking the heroic repair job away from him. That scene was obviously contrived to introduce him, so it could simply be contrived at a different spot. A flock of robots driving out onto the hull to fix a severed wire is a little silly anyway. Imagine this instead: the ship is damaged, and either they have no droids, or none can fix it, and that's why they have to land. On Tatooine they meet Artoo, who comes with. NOW something goes wrong. They could be attacked again - could be Trade goons, or maybe Jabba discovered them and sent his own cronies (interesting chance to see another culture's space tech)- or maybe Obi-Wan is simply a lousy mechanic and his upgrades break. My vote is that Maul is after them, and Obi-wan didn't get the hyperdrive working right, and Anakin and Artoo work together to get it running in time - probably requiring Artoo's spacewalk. Makes them both look good.

And what about Threepio? He's easy. As a protocol droid, he fits nicely into any official hospitality capacity, of which there are plenty, since the prequels deal with so many politicians. It was nice meeting a counter-part of his right off the bat, and frankly, I was expecting to see many more. For instance, you know who could probably use such a droid in their employ, but was conspicuously missing one? Amidala. So, that's my answer: Threepio works for Amidala. Which means we meet him in Naboo, and he's been along with the main characters the whole time. Probably we first see him on the escape ship - it would make sense for him to be stationed there, since it's sortof Naboo's Air Force One. Again, the movie logic side of my brain really likes this idea, because it means one droid belongs to Anakin, and the other to Padme. Nice and symmetrical.

The young boy couldn't yet filter out what to feel and what not to feel, so he took the path of being a normal, innocent boy. So as that boy got older, he started being able to understand these emotions. But understanding emotions doesn't mean you can deal with them. Anakin, being a Jedi, having to supress all these wild emotions, was required by nature to become a brat.


You know, I'm sure you can find a way to explain any of his actions, but it didn't come across to me on the screen. It's not that he wasn't emotional enough, or the scene wasn't emotional enough - it's just the emotions seemed contrived... they seemed inconsistent. But I don't want to debate this subject much, because it could go on forever, and I think it's off-topic here.
Post
#258035
Topic
What did the Prequel Trilogy need?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/258035/action/topic#258035
Time
Originally posted by: vote_for_palpatine
Originally posted by: BeeJay
In ESB, Yoda did mention to Luke that he kept a council of Jedi. If this council has a place to meet, as in the Temple on Coruscant, then that just means the Jedi found it more convenient for them to gather in a place instead of trying to have meetings while scattered around the far corners of the galaxy.


Could you elaborate on which scene you mean? Because I believe you're referring to this:


"Ready, are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained!"

That is not council as in "city council", but counsel as in "judgment". Below is the link:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=counsel


Yeah, I didn't get what he was referring to. Good call.
Post
#258032
Topic
What did the Prequel Trilogy need?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/258032/action/topic#258032
Time
I understand what you mean. However, have you ever thought that life still comes from the living beings on Coruscant? It is a huge city; and while I'll admit it is lacking in plants where there needs to be, humans/aliens/and everything in between are in the hundreds of millions! That is probably enough life Force to sustain the Jedi's love for living things.


Enough, for sure. But just "enough" isn't good enough for the central hub of a religion. It should be "the most" - a concentration of everything they hold dear. What about the design of the Jedi Temple has anything to do with what they believe in? It looks cool and impressive, but it's got nothing to do with the Jedi religion. And why all the steel? From the outside, the building looks like a Fabergé factory. It blends right into the industrial/commercial opulance that makes Coruscant such a spectacular - and dehumanizing - place. Sure, the city's filled with lots and lots and LOTS of people. So is Grand Central Station. Can you imagine a Jedi relishing in his love of life by standing in a train station?

I understand the desire for a central meeting place - someplace close to the halls of political power. But why not make that place a respite from the chaos around it? If I ran the zoo, my inspiration for the Temple would be the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. It doesn't need to be a messy, uncultivated swamp like Dagobah. A place low to the ground, but spread over many miles, full of gardens and orchards and strange animals and children chasing each other around while doing spectacular stunts in the trees. A place where the buildings are crafted by loving and talented hands, not by machines - pinnacles of art and of patience. Perhaps, a place where the concentrated energy of the Force is so great that rocks float in the lake, and flowers grow out of thin air. And my mind is really wandering there - I'm sure there are totally different directions you could take this idea, but the point is that it's not hard to envision a temple that is both spectacular and centrally located, and that still exemplifies the Jedi ideals. Yet Lucas didn't bother. He didn't think.

And, for the record, my opinion is that he thought very little through, and that it had a very huge effect. People slam his directing all the time, and it sure wasn't great, but the real problem is the story itself. The writing. Stupid little things that contradict and didn't occur to him, and add up to hurt the films at all the critical points. Stuff like Queen Amidala is "young and naive," but it turns out she was elected, so the whole young-monarch-inherits-huge-responsibility concept has the rug pulled right out from under it. Stuff like building a protocol droid to help his poverty-stricken mother. With what? Dinner parties? How is it that he fits perfectly into a mass-produced shell? Did Anakin buy the do-it-yourself kit? He should have built R2-D2. For one thing, Artoo is unique. For another, Artoo is plucky and resourceful and heroic - and could therefore be considered the embodiment of his good traits, even during the rebellion. The only thing Threepio seems to have inherited is his whininess.

And there. RIGHT THERE. That's the big one. Anakin is a brat. There is no level on which that was a good decision, and it's not just Hayden's performance - he was written that way. And it spoils everything it touches. This is supposed to be a tragedy, but a tragedy only works when you sympathize with the main character. It's tragic because you can see how that person's flaws led to their downfall, and because you realize how likely it is that you would have done the same. You can hate Michael Corleone, but all the moreso because you know how good he could have been, and because you understand why he made every choice he did. I don't understand any of the choices Anakin made. I don't sympathize with him, I don't relate to him, and I find him annoying and idiotic. He was characterized very badly and very inconsistently. That alone, even if everything else was perfect, destroys the entire trilogy. That character arc is the entire reason the movies were made in the first place. If that arc works, then everything else is forgivable, and if it doesn't, then nothing else matters.... and Lucas botched it. Badly.
Post
#257805
Topic
What did the Prequel Trilogy need?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/257805/action/topic#257805
Time
Too many responses to get caught up, so here's hoping I'm saying something new...

Endless problems, but one of the worst is the portrayal of Jedi. I agree with others that they should be more detached and remote, like samurai. A meeting with Yoda should be a special and mysterious trip, like meeting with Nicodemus of the rats of NIMH. But most of all, the Jedi Temple was a horrendous mistake.

The Jedi are a religion of life. Yoda has his whole famous speech about how the Force grows from the life in the universe. Why else would he live in Dagobah? That planet is absolutely dripping with living things. So where does George place the Jedi to worship? In a steel and marble monstrosity that doesn't have so much as a potted plant. AND the council meets in a chamber at the tippy-top of the highest tower, as far as possible from the life-sustaining earth below. A true Jedi would HATE IT in that place. It's a chilly, lifeless hell.

That's really not the worst mistake in the PT, but it exemplifies the thoughtlessness that infects everything else. Literally - he just did things without thinking about what they meant.
Post
#257597
Topic
my memory isn't that bad, is it? (in SW '77 - Luke misses with the grappling hook?)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/257597/action/topic#257597
Time
I remember it. Or think I do. I did read the novelization, once, as a little kid, but my mother also remembers the missed throw, and she never touched the books. The one piece I can add to the puzzle is that I'm too young to have seen it in theaters in '77. So I'm convinced it must have been a TV broadcast. We actually had a VHS copied from a network broadcast - in the 80s I think. That's the version of the movies I grew up on. In fact, the moment I saw this board, I drove over to my parent's house to grab it, but they finally threw it out to make room for the DVD collection. DAHH!!!

But SOMEBODY in the world must have a tape of that broadcast. It'll be a bitch to find... I don't even know how many TV edits there might be. Our tape had all three movies, though I don't recall if they were back-to-back or over consecutive nights. The only difference I'm certain of was missing material in Jedi - this cut didn't include the droid's "job interview" scene at Jabba's palace (which, to this day, feels out of place to me, since I never saw it as a kid). Also, it was definitely on one of the big three networks - it was taped well before we got cable. It's probably a lost cause, but I can't feel this matter is closed until I've seen that broadcast again.
Post
#33567
Topic
Okay, what did we LIKE about the Special Editions?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/33567/action/topic#33567
Time
Now, I wonder... in these new versions of Indiana Jones, does Indy still shoot first at the guy with the swords? Or perhaps Lucas has insisted on adding a digital throwing dagger to prove that good old morally pure Indiana was just acting out of self-defence? 'Course, then they would also have to digitally alter his dispassionate, "I-don't-have-time-for-this" facial expression to one showing pain and regret at taking the life of a fellow human being. *chuckle* Hypcrit.