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Return to Mos Eisley: The Star Wars Trilogy on DVD
Mos Eisley Spaceport, a landspeeder-drive from Luke Skywalker’s homestead on Tatooine, is the connection between Luke’s farming community and the worlds beyond - like the end of a funnel turned wide-side up to the galaxy, channelling bizarre foreign species and exotic travellers into a single neighbourhood, and specifically into the single dark interior of the Cantina. Mos Eisley is a hub, a centre – a microcosm of the galaxy, representing the diversity of the broader spheres outside Tatooine – and it also concentrates much of the essence, the charm and energy of George Lucas’ 1977 Star Wars: A New Hope into a single sequence. In the twenty-seven years since the movie was first released, it is Mos Eisley – its layout, its inhabitants, the action that takes place there – that has changed the most dramatically, and so this sequence also illustrates the key differences between Lucas’ creation of 1977 and the revised versions – the 1997 Special Edition is now altered further with this DVD release – that supposedly take us closer towards the pure vision that Lucas wanted all along, had he not been constrained by budget and technology.
“Well, you know, its fun to make films for young people,” Lucas muses casually in the DVD set’s core documentary, Empire of Dreams, explaining why he ever began drafting a Flash Gordon-style space opera during the mid-1970s. “It’s a chance to sort of make an impression on them.” Of course, Lucas made a seismic impression on the young people who saw A New Hope and its successors between 1977 and 1983 – some went into filmmaking because of it, some drew a system of religious belief from it, and millions woke up in C-3PO pyjamas, spent the day making laser noises with mini-action figures and fell asleep in the glow of an R2-D2 nightlight. That he originally meant A New Hope to be a children’s film is less obvious, especially given that the saga is frequently accused by today’s adult fans of having become progressively infantile, with return of the Jedi’s Ewoks marking the beginning of a slide that reached its nadir in Episode I’s Jar Jar Binks. The standard messageboard retort to this criticism claims nay-sayers have lost their “inner child” and the sense of innocent wonder with which they approached A New Hope: if they watched the original Star Wars movie now for the first time, as adults, these cynical “bashers” would find fault with its fairy-tale qualities.
Watching the Mos Eisley scenes now, as an adult who first experienced them in 1977 – a time before domestic videocassettes, let alone DVD – there does seem a clear difference in tone between this fourth episode in the saga and the prequel films to date, The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. Mos Eisley is an adult world presented for a young audience; the urban nightlife in Attack of the Clones is, by contrast, a childish version of an adult world. Coruscant’s Outlander Nightclub where Anakin and Obi-Wan track Zam Wessell is a gaudy neon den, as threatening as a set from the 1960s Batman. The young Jedi weave confidently through the crowds, hassled only by a kid who tries to sell them “death sticks”; even the local drug sounds lame, with a sensible health-warning as its street name. The Nightclub is a set-piece, one more visual spectacle in a sequence that looks like pre-production for a video game; it’s a ten year-old’s idealisation of the kind of “adult” place his big sister goes to when she’s dressed up for the evening.
The Mos Eisley Cantina carries entirely different connotations. This is a stripped-down, basic hole for locals, and it’s immediately clear that while Ben can mingle successfully, the droids are unwelcome and Luke, the point of identification for the young viewer, is a potential target. Despite being of legal drinking age – just about – Skywalker is a farm-boy, gauche and over-eager, fired up on bluff to cover his nerves. He boldly tugs the barkeep’s jacket to get served, but immediately gets bullied by one of the patrons for no reason other than that he’s a new face and an easy mark.
Luke’s behaviour in Mos Eisley is a constant performance, an attempt to act big and keep up a tough-guy front in an environment where, right from the start, he’s out of his depth. “Watch your step,” Ben advises. “This place can be a little rough.” “I’m ready for anything,” Luke boasts, and tries to borrow his mentor’s worldly tone as he in turn advises Threepio, “why don’t you wait out by the speeder. We don’t want any trouble.” Even at the table with Han Solo, Luke squares up to the older man, trying to bargain and brag on an equal level – “I’m not such a bad pilot myself, we don’t have to sit here and listen to all this – ” – while the smuggler lounges back in amusement. It’s in his wondering comment to Ben, though – “I can’t understand how we got by those troopers. I thought we were dead.” – that Luke reveals the more genuine combination of apprehension and awe that Mos Eisley evokes in him. This spaceport, however minor and shabby, is an edgy, dangerous place, and Luke’s reactions cue us to that.
The novelisation of A New Hope, ostensibly by George Lucas himself, confirms this sense of teenage unease and self-consciousness through which we experience the Cantina.
Luke now found himself the subject of some unwanted attention. He abruptly became aware of his isolation and felt as if at one time or another every eye in the place rested a moment on him, that things human and otherwise were smirking about him and making comments behind his back. Trying to maintain an air of quiet confidence, he returned his gaze to old Ben… (pp.95-96)
Rather than a child’s fantasy of adult venues, the Cantina feels like a real adult venue, captured in the way that it appears to a kid: something big and daunting, smoky and noisy, shadowy and dirty. And kind of sexy too – even if the finished movie does cut “the humanoid wench who had been wriggling on [Han]’s lap” (p.101) along with Koo Stark as Luke’s friend Camie (who “wriggled sensuously, her well-worn clothing tugging in various intriguing directions” in the novel (p.18)) – both characters were actually filmed before being edited out of the final cut, and this unpolished, unashamed sensuality still seems to leave its tint, lingering in Mos Eisley like perfume and hinted at in the remaining, brief shot of poised, pretty floozies surveying the bar through hookah-smoke. Though this may be a compromised version of the original conception, it hasn’t lost all the flavour of John Mollo’s pre-production sketches, with their rough fashion-plates of humanoids labelled “2 x Space Girls, Tight Top.” The Cantina owes something to scenes of Harlem bars in 1970s Blaxploitation, as well as Western saloons in John Ford films; Coruscant’s Outlander Nightclub, on the other hand, looks like somewhere the Teletubbies would go for a drink. The funk outfit Meco produced a vinyl rendition of the Cantina Theme soon after A New Hope’s release, and indie band Ash reprised it on a b-side, around the time of their debut album 1977. A generation of Star Wars fans could play that tune on a kazoo as a party piece. I wonder if any fans of whatever age – adult, teenage, under-10 – would even recognise the music playing in the Outlander scene.
One of the pleasant surprises of the DVD documentary is seeing unfamiliar glimpses from a movie so familiar that most viewers
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Originally posted by: ricarleite
The O-OT in 2007? Really? So, should I keep myself from dying or going blind for the next 3 years, based on the hope they might release it?
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Originally posted by: Luke Skywalker
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Originally posted by: Darth Justin
Jimbo can't see beyond what Lucas claims to be the truth. It is useless to argue with him.
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Originally posted by: Bossk
Well, considering how the "long live" cheer is usually used for inanimate objects ("Vive le France" --> "Long live France") and the like, I don't see why it's a problem to use it on a dead man. Especially since I'm being more figurative than literal. I want his scenes in the movie to live on, not the man himself, dingbat.
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Originally posted by: Kaiju Eiga
Hi to O-OT and SE-OTers alike.
Although I've been a lurker here on these boards for many months, I decided to join ranks here.
I know the majority here are pro-O-OT, which I include myself in the mix. I was curious what everyone thought of the DVD version of Blade Runner. As all are probably aware, it's offered only as a Director's Cut and not the original theatrical version (does this sound familiar?). Although there is rumblings that an ultimate Blade Runner set is in the works which will include the theatrical, director's and an all new version; word has it that it's in entanglements with Legal, the studios and Ridley Scott.
My hopes are that TPTB will release this ultimate set so that I can have a choice in selecting which version to view.
Kevin
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Originally posted by: jimboQuote
Originally posted by: Regicidal_ManiacQuote
Originally posted by: jimboQuote
Originally posted by: Klingon_Jedi
Han used to have a girlfriend, yet he claims he always envisioned Leia as his only love. Again, jimbo, I ask for your thoughts, not Lucas'.
Funny I don't remember Han having a girlfriend in the original versions.
Well it was always there by the very same rationale you yourself used to justify the inclusion of the Jabba Docking Bay 94 scene.
Lucas filmed it, it exists. It exists therefore it is canon.
"Filmed = Canon"
Right Jimbo?
Not saying I agree with that but that was YOUR reason for the inclusion of Jabba into Episode IV.
Gotcha!
The Hans girl was deleted for story reasons. The Jabba scene was cut for effects reasons.
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Originally posted by: jimboQuote
Originally posted by: Bossk
I've got 3 of those original Anakins and one of the ghost Anakins that came out in the mid-90s. I'll be damned if he's gonna get them from me.
Long live Sebastian Shaw!!!!!
Kind of an emty cheer considering hes dead
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Originally posted by: jimboQuote
Originally posted by: Klingon_Jedi
Han used to have a girlfriend, yet he claims he always envisioned Leia as his only love. Again, jimbo, I ask for your thoughts, not Lucas'.
Funny I don't remember Han having a girlfriend in the original versions.
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Originally posted by: The Bizzle
Lemme tell you about the intelligence of fanboys:
Most fanboys don't recognize that the new Emperor scene actually CHANGES NOTHING. The worst accusation you can level at it is now redundancy. It certainly doesn't make any less sense than it's predecessor. Don't forget--the original dialog ALSO mentioned "Luke Skywalker" and "The Son of Skywalker." Adding "The rebel who destroyed the death star." doesn't change anything, and adding "How is that possible" doesn't change Vader playing dumb--remember, HE says "Skywalker is with them" in the very beginning. He knows who he's looking after he, he knows EXACTLY who he is in BOTH versions of the movie. There's no reason to explain anything because there's nothing to explain--the situation in BOTH versions is EXACTLY the same.
Most fanboys don't stop to think that if Anakin WAS CREATED BY THE FORCE, what's to stop him from choosing whatever little image he wants to choose? he's a GHOST. He's the frigging FULFILLMENT of an ages own prophecy. Maybe Ben and Yoda don't mind showing up as they were when they died. But then again, they also didn't have about 30 straight years of being Satan In An Iron Lung, either. How is there a continuity error when you're dealing with someone choosing their own image in the afterlife? This is not a new concept. And it shouldn't be something too hard for anyone to accept, either.
Most fanboys will praise up and down the depth, the mythical aspects, the gripping storytelling, but can't explain to you how or why any of that works in the context of the story in any real way, shape or form, beyond the most basic and rudimentary understanding of a potboiler or soap opera plotline. They're really quick to recite what some other semi-intelligent fanboy spouted off on some other messageboard, but if left to their own devices, they couldn't really tell you why some things simply don't work in a Star Wars setting, and why some things do.
Hell, most fanboys don't even take the time to actually learn just what the hell it is they're talking about. It's not as if there aren't about 3 or 4 biographies of Lucas, or 10 or 12 books detailing the making of the Star Wars Trilogy, or 5 or 6 different documentaries about the filming of the movies, and yet even the simplest anecdotes and easiest explanations are total blanks in their rhetoric, filled in by more soap opera characterization, and frustrated projection substituting for actual knowledge of the subject. People are certain that Lucasfilm is a giant mega-corporation with it's own CIA, bureau's and thousand-person staff, all top secret spies and subterfuge in every daily move, and they make sure to ascribe the most cliche, mustache-twirling 30's serial villain motives to any creative decision they don't agree with.
There's a lot most fanboys don't know, and I've found that most fanboys dont' WANT to know, because that might actually force them to stop and look at the shit they spew constantly, and realize how misguided, and often misinformed they are. How reactionary and petulant they sound. How irrational and improbable their little theories are, how amateur and cliche'd their creative re-writes are. Most fanboys don't want to hear any of that, because most fanboys aren't actually fans of star wars. They're fans of BITCHING about Star Wars.
That's most fanboys.
