TheBoost

I would say that most interesting point is that these directors are almost exclusively fantasy-genre directors.

<blockquote><p><strong>Darth Id</strong> said:</p><p>George's original conception was that the evil Empire was more or less timeless, and the whole Star Wars universe was based on the for-all-intents eternal struggle of the forces of good against the Empire.</p>
<p>I don't think there is anything in <em>Star Wars, ESB </em>or even<em> ROTJ</em> that necessarily contradicts this.  Ben's yearning reference to a time "before the dark time, before the Empire" could be a reference to something extremely ancient and remote.  There's no reason it wasn't 200 or even a thousand years before the events of SW, and Ben was the last of a long dwindlage of torch-bearers.</p></blockquote><p> </p>

Even in the first draft, the Emperor is presented as the first emperor, coming to power with the aid of corrupt robber barons and the Sith Pirates (or something like that).

Yeah

Possessed said:

Warbler said:

triplets?

 That was the answer that popped immediately into my head.

 yeah. It is aimed at middle scokdkr

Here's an excerpt from my as of yet unpublished story book of logic puzzles I wrote for my middle schoolers. 

*****

“Well what do we have here?” The Captain said wryly, “If it isn’t the Ninja Twins again. I recognize you both from the throne room.”

“Stop calling us that!” Said Candy the Ninja.

“It’s not accurate.” Added Brandy the Ninja.

“But you look exactly alike!” The Captain said

“Not exactly.” Said Candy, “I’m slightly prettier.”

“You are not!” Said Brandy, “We do look the same.”

“And you both have the same birthday?” The Captain asked. 

“Yep.” Candy said.

“October sixteenth.” Brandy added.

“The same year?” Asked the Captain.

“Yes.” Candy and Brandy both answered at once.

“How about your parents?”

“Same mom.” Said Candy

“And the same dad.” Said Brandy.

The Captain sighed, “Then I don’t understand how you aren’t twins. But it really isn’t that important. Get out of my way; I’m trying to escape with the Orb of Marmac.”

But Candy and Brandy didn’t get out of the Captain’s way. They just stood there smiling. The Captain was about to push them apart and continue his escape when suddenly something hit him across the back of the head. 

All he heard was giggling as he collapsed into unconsciousness. 

WHO HIT THE CAPTAIN? HOW ARE MANDY AND BRANDY NOT TWINS? These questions in fact, have the same answer! Find out in the next thrilling chapter of “The Puzzling Tales of Captain Adventure!”

That's the sort of fun lateral thinking problem I enjoy. Thanks Warb. 

(didn't get it, but really enjoyed the answer)

Akton said:

Ronster said:

You can definitely see the influence it had on Altmans Excalibur

 

 

Surely you mean Boorman's Excalibur.

Though now you've got me thinking about Excalibur as directed by Robert Altman... overlong, excessively talky, Arthur played by Elliot Gould, Guenevere played by Shelley Duvall...

 That would be BRILLIANT!

Ronster said:

And of course Empire Strikes Back the dark side cave sequence

Not sure how much of an influence it could have on ESB, seeing that ESB was shot first.

If you'd be interested in Sound Effects, but are not willing to make a large commitment, there are many individual parts that need sound effects someone could tackle. For example:

• The weird chittering of a specific alien.
• The ambiance of Luke's hospital room.
• The musical growling of the protoWampas
• The sounds of each individual space flight scene. 

So the job can be just as big or as small as you're interested in.

We have a logo (thanks Fishmanlee), two finished scripts, and a handful of solid actors. 

Timeline is to have all the scripts done by August, hold more auditions, and have lines recorded by October. 

Warbler said:

TheBoost said:

Warbler said:

You think "Son of Frankenstein" is better than Frankenstein, Bride of, and Dracula?   *beats up Boost*

 Just not having Edward Van Sloan in it makes it better. 

Lugosi as Igor!? Basil Rathbone! One armed Lionel Atwil! 

 Lugosi as Dracula? The first two performances of Boris Karloff as the Monster?  The scene of the Monster with the blind man?  Colin Clive?  Elsa Lanchester?

Edward Van Sloan. 

He also sucks the life out of "The Mummy."

TV's Frink said:

THE ROOM IS MISSING

YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID

 We wrote this list before I saw The Room. 

I suppose it'd be better in the "Bad Movie Weekend." 

Should it replace PLAN 9 or MANOS?

Warbler said:

You think "Son of Frankenstein" is better than Frankenstein, Bride of, and Dracula?   *beats up Boost*

 Just not having Edward Van Sloan in it makes it better. 

Lugosi as Igor!? Basil Rathbone! One armed Lionel Atwil! 

Warbler said:

Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein(how do you justify added Son of Frankenstein) but not these two?)

King Of Kings(the 1927 silent version)

High Noon

Stagecoach(the original)

The Shootist

True Grit(the original)

The Searchers

(gulp)Birth of a Nation(it is extremely racist and offensive but everyone should watch it one time)

Schindler's List

Judgement At Nuremberg

A Shot in the Dark

The Maltese Falcon

Raiders Of The Lost Ark

The Hustler
Little Caesar

Angels With Dirty Faces
The Public Enemy

Duck Soup
Planet of the Apes(the original)

"Son of Frankenstein" is a particular weakness of mine, as I think it's the absolute best of the Universal horror films. Completely subjective I admit.

The fun part of that particular list is that to add anything, you need to cut something. What would be removed to add four more Westerns? or Four more gangster films?

I think I had a list of 220 films to start with. 

I love Duck Soup, maybe I'll solve the problem of two Casablancas by replacing "Night at Casablanca" with that. 

Tobar said:

Is it wise to have someone watch a sort of spoof of Casablanca before watching the actual Casablanca?

Oh and you're pretty vague about the Kong/Zilla listing. Is it Kong 33/76/05 and then is it Godzilla 54/55/85/98/14?

 Added years (I meant the originals) 

You make a good point about the Casablancas. 

Found an old file from me and a pal BSing about what were the essential films everyone needed to see. The idea of this list is someone would do a double feature each weekend for a year, so this list is 104 movies in a kind of rough order, paired with a film that kind of complement each other.  Sometimes by genre, sometimes by era, sometimes by style, sometimes be content. 

There are lots of films listed that aren't masterpieces, but someone literate in film should see. There are lots of masterpieces that aren't on the list. 

Whatcha think? What'd I miss?

• “M”
• The Great Dictator
  
  
• A Night in Casablanca 
• Buck Privates (1931)
  
  
• Dracula (1931)
• Dracula (1958)
  
  
• Bright Eyes (1934)
• Road to Bali (1952)
  
  
• Son of Frankenstein
• Cat People
  
  
• King Kong (1936)
• Godzilla (1954)
  
  
• The Maltese Falcon
• Sunset Blvd.
  
  
• Zulu
• The Ten Commandments
  
  
• Sleeping Beauty
• Wizard of Oz
  
  
• El Dorado
• Good the Bad and the Ugly
  
  
• Rebecca
• Psycho
  
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• 12 Angry Men 
  
  
• Yojimbo
• A Fistful of Dollars
  
  
• Easy Rider
• The Blob
  
  
• Some Like it Hot
• Beach Blanket Bingo
  
  
• Cleopatra
• The Longest Day
  
  
• Lawrence of Arabia
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
  
  
• Casablanca
• The Great Escape
  
  
• Mary Poppins
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
  
  
• The Haunting
• House on Haunted Hill
  
  
• Manos: Hands of Fate
• Plan Nine From Outer Space
  
  
• Baraka
• Russian Ark
  
  
• The Graduate
• Fight Club
  
  
• Rocky Horror Picture Show
• Easy Rider
  
  
• Young Frankenstein
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
  
  
• Brazil
• 2001 Space Odyssey 
  
  
• This is Spinal Tap 
• Airplane!
  
  
• Pink Floyd’s The Wall
• Apocalypse Now
  
  
• Goldfinger
• The Godfather
  
  
• Night of the Living Dead
• The Seventh Seal
  
  
• Black Christmas 
• Friday the 13th
  
  
• Full Metal Jacket
• Platoon
  
  
• Shogun Assassin
• Enter the Dragon
  
  
• Top Gun
• Back to the Future
  
  
• Aliens
• Blade Runner
  
  
• The Omen
• The Exorcist
  
  
• The Big Lebowski
• Blue Velvet
  
  
• El Mariachi
• El Santo and the Vampire Women
  
  
• Dirty Harry
• Shaft
  
  
• Star Wars
• Jaws
  
  
• Akira
• Ninja Scroll 
  
  
• It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
• Animal House
  
  
• Rocky 
• The Breakfast Club
  
  
• West Side Story
• Grease
  
  
• Chinatown 
• Unforgiven
  
  
• Beauty and the Beast
• Spirited Away
  
  
• Reservoir Dogs
• Clerks
  
  
• Silence of the Lambs
• The Matrix
  
  
• Do the Right Thing
• Boyz in the Hood
  
  
• Amelie
• City of Lost Children
  
  
• Batman Returns 
• The Dark Knight
  
  
• Scream
• Ringu

TK-949 said:

There are a lot of artists who copy Struzan's style. Dull? I don't think so.

 Whatever that is, I must pay money for it immediately. 

The Merchant said:

What's wrong with Palpy being a Sith? Just curious, nothing against him not being a Sith.

 Any time you take a character, and say "WAIT! There's a whole class of characters just like them!" it lessens that character.

Greedo comes from a species of all bounty hunters.

Jabba comes from a species of all crime lords.

Palpy comes from a club of evil wizards.

Boba comes from a planet of bad ass whatever he is (retconned at some point).

It makes them boring. 

I was fun. At the end of the day I gave a copy of "Revisited" to one student, and Harmy's "Despecialized" to another.

I'll say Hayden in Ep 3 was fairly close in many ways to my mental image of "when I first met your father." Dashing cocky Anakin, not psycho whining Anakin.

Going by the chronology implied in the OT, by the time he went bad he would have been considerably older. 

sigh

I think all that Disney has from George, is a couple legal pads covered in doodles and lists of names. 

next Saturday I'm teaching a four hour class on "Star Wars." 

I'll be covering

• Hologram technology.
• Modern prosthetic limbs.
• The Hero's Journey
• How to build a lightsabre. 
• Lucas's filmic inspirations
• The physics of real spaceflight.

Any other ideas what I should cover? High school students.

I'm trying to find a brief video about The Special Editions, and what's wrong with Lucas and film preservation. I have a reading to pass out stolen from SaveStarWars.com, but videos are always good.

I'm glad more people get to see this, but I PAID FOR IT ON iTUNES MONTHS AGO!! I'M A SUCKER!! GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!

I often thought of this disaster when people would ask of the Baltimore protesters "why are they breaking things in their own town?"

generalfrevious said:

... ...a greedy bastard who bashes the system for the very thing he is guilty of. The Hobbit/Lord Of the Rings means nothing to him except as an intellectual property he can milk to build his second mansion. 

 While I usually don't think building narratives about creators is a useful way to analyze work, it might be worth noting that Peter Jackson still lives in the same house he lived in before starting LOTRs.