SilverWook

Was the original version of the pilot movie ever released on DVD? I know there was a Japanese Laserdisc of it.

Something with no other purpose than to be decorative like a statue seems out of place in THX's world though.

Some stills on Ebay that I can't recall seeing before...

http://cgi.ebay.com/THX-1138-Robert-Duvall-8-Orig-Photos-Sci-Fi-Lucas-/280661080909?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4158b43b4d

The first clear shot I've seen of the bloodied prisoner's face whose hands the robots were taping up. And it was THX all along? Since he looked fine before and after his trial, it makes the robots even more sinister if they beat the crap out of you, and then have you healed and cleaned up for your public appearance.

And what is that thing behind the kids? Yet another type of robot?

Youtube has become such a troll hangout, I'm hesitant to even upload anything anymore. Vimeo seems a much nicer place too.

The "fans" who are getting exactly what they wanted on Blu Ray certainly seem to feel threatened when people post something that doesn't jive with their perception of reality. What frightens them so?

Vader takes the fall, but Luke can sense he survives in the novel.

Even without the SW title on the cover, I don't think any fan would fail to notice the Star Wars "font", not to mention Vader on the cover. And no self respecting bookstore was going to put copies on the bottom shelf, either. ;)

Nice find! I think there's some footage in there that's not in Classic Creatures or Making of a Saga.

Even in '83 they were fibbing over the title change. Note the "nine episodes" is mentioned though. Whoops!

Too bad I missed BDW's appearance at a bi mon Sci Fi con in Los Angeles a while back. I imagine he's got a lot more to talk about these days.

Batman might be a sore spot for him as well. He probably thought he was going to get to play Two Face in the sequels! I know I did.

It's not nice to call him an asshole. However, it is acceptable to call him Bitchface...

It was a pretty big deal when MGM issued a remastered Letterbox LD in the early 90's. It was the first time the movie had been transferred to video from 65mm elements. Even Criterion's much lauded edition was from 35mm. The Criterion has all the cool extras though.

My minor 2001 obsession compels me to hoard everything from a Japanese CAV version, to the HD-DVD. ;)

Alas, the only theater near me still standing that had 70mm capability, (at least they did in the 90's) isn't where the revival screenings are held.

generalfrevious said:

There's also another problem: SW is the only movie franchise I know of that has an extensive revisionist history that is changed from day to day. We are talking about Soviet Russian levels of revisionism. Do any other movies have censored/revised histories on how they were made? I doubt it. SW is a movie, not a communist dictatorship.

The studios used to outright fabricate how certain FX were achieved in the old days. (If they revealed how it was done at all.) Ray Harryhausen recalled an article on King Kong from his youth that said it was a man in a gorilla suit in front of red process screen. Yeah right!

Ironically, Dino DeLaurentis duped the entire motion picture academy into believing every shot in the '76 remake was Carlo Rambaldi's life size mechanical Kong, (which barely worked at all) screwing over Rick Baker's contribution.

In 1977, someone at 20th Century Fox put out publicity crap that Threepio was totally mechanical, much to Anthony Daniels' dismay. (In fact, the studio was a tad paranoid about acknowledging any of the masked performers, let alone putting out any "unmasked" photos.) Boy, did I get into schoolyard debates over that one!

Not the replies I was expecting. ;)

I think seeing it in a Cinerama venue would be pretty intense on it's own. Doing that is still on my "things to do before I die" list.

There seems to be a common thread to the films considered "acid" viewing material:

2001

Head (The Monkees' feature film)

Fantasia

Heavy Metal

Are there other movies as trippy as these?

RedFive said:

I don't know a single 8 year old who would sit through ten minutes of that movie, let alone the whole thing.  For that matter, I don't know a whole lot of adults who would either.  A lot of people go to movies to relax and be entertained, not to use their brains, and while I'm sure the case was the same back then, in 68 those effects would have been highly entertaining to those who didn't care about the rest of the movie.  It's too bad there aren't a lot of smart movies today that are also big budget extravaganzas. 

I saw 2010 for the first time a couple years ago.  Just terrible.

You are aware a certain segment of the audience was consuming something a little stronger than what you could get at the snack counter while watching the movie back then? ;)

The making of 2001 paperback mentions the incidents where someone in the theater got a little too deep into the film!

Somebody missed that film in health class on the dangers of inbreeding!

Don't think I've ever seen that pic from the Jedi set before!

Given the way Carrie kissed Chewie at the MTV movie awards, the ESB one didn't shock me too much first time I saw it. I wonder if anyone has tried to get Fisher or Mayhew to sign a copy of that one! ;)

What is the SR Archive?

EDIT: Nevermind...Skywalker Ranch. Doh!

Thanks for sharing the pics. Shame they don't even light her up anymore.

Even with all the severed limbs, gallons of blood spurting, and bunny related gore? The MPAA was more lenient in the 70's than I thought!

Or else I'm thinking of Life of Brian...

If anti copy encryption spoils the party yet again, (as happened with that Charlie Brown film a while back) there is a widescreen laserdisc out there.

There are photos in existence from when the Enterprise was loaned to a college campus around 1972 for a static display of space hardware. It had been sitting around gathering dust in storage at Paramount since the series ended. This was prior to the Smithsonian ever getting their hands on it or any restoration.

Details like the infamous "grid lines" on the saucer were there all along. But where it was drawn on the model with a fine pencil line it has been way overemphasized on the current paint job.

As all the original guys who built it aren't with us anymore, there isn't anyone with the clout to definitively say whether the restoration is proper or overdone.

Wish I had saved photos from the IDIC page. It was an invaluable resource.

I only know what I personally saw in 1976 looked "right" to my young untrained eyes. *sigh*

Depends on your taste in humor. This movie frequently aims for the low end of crude humor spectrum. (It's too easy to constantly drop the F word for a punchline sometimes.) I was hoping for something along the lines of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which it isn't. There hasn't been a lot of sword and sorcery comedy done since then.

I did get a several good laughs out of it in spite of things. I have a strange sense of humor though! Can't tell you my favorite line without spoiling it. I've been quoting it for days now...

It's also pushing the envelope of it's R rating in several places. (And there's a lot of nudity, but not from Natalie, just so you know!) Had a PG-13 cut been imposed, it probably wouldn't work at all. Can't say more without major plot spoilage. (Holy Grail is practically a PG film by today's standards.) You're never going to see this on basic cable uncut if at all!

On the plus side, it's got some great FX sequences which seem inspired by some of Ray Harryhausen's films. This almost could have been an interesting tongue in cheek fantasy epic had they not been going for outright comedy. I bet somebody does a fan edit down the road!

It will probably hit the bargain theaters pretty soon, and be on video by late summer.

doubleofive said:

 

SilverWook said:

Which is really sad to think about. There was a time when a certain tv starship actually drew more visitors to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum than the real spacecraft on display. Imagine what a draw the Falcon could have been in some venue!

Really? Cause when I went to see that ship last year, it was in the basement of the giftshop with no signs that there was a basement to begin with. Had I not known exactly where to look, I wouldn't have known it was there at all. Broke my heart. That and the fact they gave it such an awful paint job.

 

I heard a rumor someone high up didn't like that people were coming to see it over the real historical craft on display. Hence it's banishment to the basement.

When I saw it in the 70's it was hanging in a gallery only a few feet away from a model of a real life Mars probe my father worked on when he was at JPL! Some of his co-workers there were among the first "Trekkies".

And yeah, the current restoration paint job is an abomination. I'm sad I've lost my personal 70's photos of the "E". (And the IDIC page which had tons of better photos than mine has vanished from the web.) The replacement red nacelle caps were wrong at the time, as was the missing deflector dish apparently replaced with a plastic salad bowl, but she was beautiful swaying slightly in the air conditioned breeze!

It's comforting that Lucasfilm seems to take really good care of their miniatures, and doesn't hock them off like Paramount did. I wonder if we will ever get to see the TNG Enterprise or the movie 1701 in a museum.

Death threats?! Did someone break into their houses, and swap out their DVD's for fanedits or something? Jeebus!

As passionate as I am about the OT, and it's influence on my life, at the end of the day it's a set of movies, not some creepy ass cult. "Fans" like that make me embarrassed to be a Star Wars fan.

It was similar schenanigans that have made me keep a safe distance from Star Trek fandom for decades now.

Which is really sad to think about. There was a time when a certain tv starship actually drew more visitors to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum than the real spacecraft on display. Imagine what a draw the Falcon could have been in some venue!

Maybe some rich fan will build their own full size replica someday...

I saw ROTJ on Spike while channel surfing this weekend, and got to wondering what happened to that full size scout walker they built on location.

Could it have ended up in someone's backyard like the "secret entrance" to the shield generator bunker did?

I think they actually covered her up a bit with CGI for the trailers.

Now that I can see turning to the dark side over! ;)

The weekend box office results were not a pretty sight. It's a sad day when Easter Bunny jelly bean poop jokes, and a remake of Dudley Moore's best movie, sell way more tickets than Natalie Portman nearly naked by a waterfall.