Tack

ben_danger said:

Another gripe with Ewoks is how much they take over in the finale of the film. If we left them behind (and avoided the party on Endor) it might feel a little less imposing.

PREACH IT!!! They take up WAY too much of the finale. Heck, there's more shots of them than the heroes, I think. They seriously need to be cut down. let's get back to our heroes, please!

So, anyone ever read the 1970's Power Records comic where Uhura was white and Sulu was black? It happened.

If you're really trying to get a theatrical coloring down, check this thread out:

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-Colortiming-Cinematography-was-What-changes-was-done-to-STAR-WARS-in-93/topic/9805/

The canyon scene is a big discussion, but do not believe the 1986 laserdisc. It's not timed right. It's supposed to be twilight, and the 2006 DVD is pretty accurate.

Reegar said:

Tack said:

Yeah, I get that. I guess I'm just too opposed to Ewoks in general.

I level with you there.

It's a shame we can't go with your plans from the How would you have handled Episode VI (6)? thread: forget Ewoks; Stormtroopers versus uniformed Rebels; Leia saves the day.

Oh believe me, I wish. Leia is in serious lack of some badass action moments for herself, even though her male co-stars have had plenty of. Don't get me wrong, she's far from a damsel. She carries her own in a speeder-bike battle and kills a few people by the end of the trilogy. But taking out a generator, THAT would even everything out. 

ray_afraid said:

^I forgot about that. There's a ton of ideas for a ROTJ edit there. Anyone looking to start one would benefit from checking that out,

Yeah, but this is more about a total rewrite of the existing material. It's changes that COULDN'T be carried out no matter how hard we tried to edit it. STuff like what I mentioned, or the lists in that "How would have done ROTJ differently" thread. But, yes. That is a cool thread.

These came from the DVD menus, didn't they? Anyway, I agree. Especially Series 2.

aalenfae said:

I don't mean vicious like they're ripping off limbs and eating the stormtroopers or anything xD
I just mean to make them more dangerous and aggressive. Not just teddy bears jumping on top of the stormtroopers and killing them somehow. They have spears and arrows, for instance, yet we really only see ONE arrow do any damage. 

The stormtroopers are too wussy because the Ewoks are too invincible and have no credibility as combatants. If we add some shots of Ewoks being fearsome, as well as Stormtroopers being more effective at dispatching them, both problems are fixed.  

Yeah, I get that. I guess I'm just too opposed to Ewoks in general. I do agree, if we saw some more effective ground weapons and some non-violent deaths for both sides (basically anything less than Conquest of the Planets of the Apes), I'd be fine.

BTW, my only perception of vicious meaning gore just came from that one OWENSCUSTOMS diorama of the Ewok removing a stormtrooper heart. That's what I want to avoid. :)

DuracellEnergizer said:

What I would have done:

Replaced the Death Star II with an Eclipse-class Star Destroyer, and have it serve as more of a setting rather than a MacGuffin. If that could merge with what I said about the Executor going down instead of the main threat, YES!! 

Cast a young, attractive actress to play Palpatine. Clive Revill would have been retained as the voice of Palpatine. That would be GREAT! An extra layer of creepiness to him, like the Talosians.

I would have had Palpatine's little cadre in the beginning of the film consist of Sith Lords/Dark Jedi instead of funny looking men in goofy headgear. This would show that Vader isn't the only high-ranking darksider in service to the Emperor, and it would help to set up a sequel trilogy. Hmm, interesting. I like this too, you're a machine!

I still would have kept the "rescue-Han-from-Jabba's-palace" subplot, but reworked it heavily to make it work better (I don't know precisely how I would go about doing this, however). Just shorten it. That's what I'd do.

Placed Jabba's palace on another, new, world rather than on Tatooine. You better believe it. Part of an adventure storyline is seeing new places, and the Star Wars films have a tendency to meander around the same 4 or 5 planets. Keep it fresh, people!

Omitted the stupid "from a certain point-of-view" speech. Ben will admit he lied, but that he did it only in Luke's best interests. Again, good idea.

Omitted the bit with Leia as Luke's sister/Vader's daughter. YES!! Whole thing just comes off as pointless, to me. 

I would have shown Sullust. What purpose would it serve?

Changed the Ewoks to Trandoshans, Bossk's race (hey, I'm trying to be original, here!) I already stated my opinion on the Ewoks. I don't even really think they need replacements. Just keep it to human combat, just new and inventive. It takes too much story to introduce them, time that could be spent elseqhere.

Changed the whole method of how Palpatine & Vader go about seducing Luke to the darkside to make it more believeable. The whole "if-you-strike-me-down-in-hatred-you'll-join-me" bit is just dumb and smacks of future PT developments. Eh, I never had a problem with it. What would you change it to, exactly?

Had Han die heroically on Endor. You lost me. It's too bittersweet for what is the most part a triumphant adventure story. The death of Vader should be emotional enough, we don't need to hammer another one in. 

By the way, anyone agree with me that Han and Leia's relations to Lando are WAY too peachy-keen in the final film. There should be this tension, this distrust, this... unease! If they'd stayed together for more of the film (in my version, they would), this would have been a great dynamic to enforce. In fact, a lot of things probably could have reinforced more. Luke should have this mental scar from his face-off with Vader, or even have him try to block off his emotions, thus further alienating him from the group. 

Different, more uneasy relations between Lando/Han/Leia. This would be exacerbated by Han's being frozen for so long. It would add some more conflict to what are some pretty peachy relations. More discussions between characters.

Luke is more of an outcast in the group, until the very end. He has spent the time between movies (mere weeks in this version) at Dagobah, he's the last one to arrive at Tatooine, and he's (of course) absent for most of the battle. Make it understandable too. Vader TORTURES him mentally, constantly trying to get inside his head, throughout the whole film until he surrenders on Endor. Also, give him some scars from his brawl with Vader in the last film.

No Ewoks. Not even replacements. There are more troops  for both sides deployed on Endor, and we get some interesting combat,. Mainly, AT-AT's and snow speeders fighting on the ground. Lando and CHEWBACCA are up in the air, so one new character and one character we care about up there, to increase tension. Han gets shot early on in the battle, and Leia continues the ground strike on her own. R2 is shot, possibly even in worse shape than in the final film. Leia destroys the generator on her own.

No change to the Vader/Emperor/Luke stuff. It's perfect as is. Just change the final outburst a bit, to accommodate my next change...

Luke and Leia? Not related. Yoda's promised "other" from ESB is kept ambiguous, a mysterious promise for another tale.

Luke claims power for the rebellion via a mass announcement, before Death Star II can explode. The big destruction for the movie is the Executor, which goes out in far more of a bang. Namely, Chewie and Lando cause it. 

The film ends with Luke having a final convo with Ben on Courescant, where Ben discusses his pride in Luke for finally redeeming his father. And right before Ben fades out, he catches a glimpse of a man in robes, clearly his father. They both fade out, and Leia and Han come out, Han's arm in a sling. We hear that Leia's in power now, queen of the galaxy. The three share a conversation about their adventures, and the films end with the three of them staring off into the distance, together, once again.

What do you think?

CatBus said:

Some random internet dude said: Harmy is nerd royalty

I thought we were an autonomous collective.

Nonsense. We're living in a dictatorship!

Eh, I think the problem is that the STORMTROOPERS are too wussy. I mean, think about it.

The Ewoks forms of fighting on the ground (no traps) make sense, considering their culture (god I can't believe I just said that). The problem is, that should only hold them off for about a few seconds. Even assuming all the troops that we see fall down don't die, that's still some pretty weak-ass armor for them to be taken out so easily.

The traps on the other hand, while definitely effective, are WAY too advanced for them to be realistically built by them. If they'd stuck with the monsters, however, I could accept it.

And of course I don't want to go the way of them going more vicious, especially since I hate it when Star Wars does anything too gruesome (I'm talking to you ROTS).

God, Lucas was already in his control-freak phase during ROTJ wasn't he? I mean, that Black Friday thing was terrible of him!

rockin said:

I remember seeing this when I was really young in the early 90's on TV and VHS, but on DVD and Blu-ray the cut became noticeably shorter. Two scenes that I believe were taken out were the tornado scene and the scene where Superman stops a nuclear missile at the Kremlin. 

I know that there was a fan edit of Superman IV a few years ago, which aimed to restore the whole film rather than just the original international cut. I also know that the Deluxe DVD and Blu-ray have the scenes that were cut in the form of Deleted scenes, but the optical effects for these are incomplete. The laserdisc on the other hand has these intact still with complete optical effects, as does the VHS, which would be two useful sources for the cut scenes, but the laserdisc would be my preference.

The reason for this whole thread is that I think it would be nice to finally have the International Cut of this preserved, even if it is considered one of the worst Superman films - I still get some enjoyment watching it, and I know that there are some others out there who also do as well. 

Listed below are a few of ideas of how to possibly do this:

• Preserve the film using the laserdisc
• Preserve the film using the blu-ray and upscale the scenes from the laserdisc that were cut from the blu-ray
• Preserve the film using the DVD with scenes from the laserdisc.

 

I know this seems quite an ambitious project, especially one for a film which many people dislike, but I'm not sure how people here feel about this. Currently I don't have the means of capturing the laserdisc, and I'm looking into ways to do this. If anyone would like to help then that would be great. Really I just want to see if anyone here has any interest in this project happening or not. 

There's a tiny problem though: The laserdisc is 2:20:1. A full preservation would probably be the best.

^Exactly! You can't let small things like that ruin an experience for you. 

Jonno said:

i tried holding my breath when luke was under the water and i couldnt do it why didnt he die

Hamill actually ruptured a blood vessel in his eye while holding his breath in that scene. That's why there's not too many head-on shots of him in that scene.

Also probably why he's mainly into voice acting these days.

Frankly I'm more worried about the fact that there seem to be a couple of stormtroopers on the Death Star with severe vision problems. Come on, how did they not see Obi-Wan sneaking around!?

Bingowings said:

Another ROTJ taste variation.

What if we don't see Yoda die?

Luke has his conversation with Yoda who isn't very well.

He tells Luke Vader is his father and Luke says sorry for running off.

Luke leaves Yoda alive but unwell.

At the end of the film we see him as a Force ghost so we find out he died later.

It might make his death seem less abrupt and midcoversational.

That's actually how it happened in the comic adaptation. I think his death is fine actually, but I can see the counterargument.

Yeah, I saw that. Someone had to find that clip I posted anyway, right?

There's an insider article titled "100 Things you Didn't Know About Star Wars" which states that the EU explanation was that they were stunned, discovered before the ship took off, and died in the explosion in the infirmary. You're welcome!

Both those shots are in the movie. Caption fail.

That's just a clip from The Magic and the Mystery. Watch the whole thing here:

http://thestarwarstrilogy.com/starwars/post/2013/06/03/Star-Wars-The-Magic-and-the-Mystery

If that's the case, I hate the new show for ruining a powerful moment from the original cartoon by having her survive. Anyway you put it, I just don't like the new show NEARLY as much as the original.

NEW<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<OLD

Yeah, I found that a few weeks after I typed that post. Great site, I'm just hoping that they get some more of the strips on there. Mainly, the final Williamson/Goodwin strip "The Final Trap."

Is this special out there in any decent shape? I only ask because this has the intriguing alternate IMAX version of the opening scene to STAR WARS. There is a YouTube clip, but:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I733E_EtD2M

it looks as  if it were shot off a TV screen of a bad VHS copy. Just curious, did this ever surface?

Mod Edit: Website : IMDB Page : Wikipedia Page : Ripplin’s Ben Burtt’s “Special Effects: Anything Can Happen” OT•com thread

Shouldn't it be either "rewritten" or "rewrote"? ;)

In all seriousness, good ideas. You going to pst this anywhere?