TheBoost

I would stab a puppy to get my hands on that sandstorm scene.

I agree that if our lives belong to ourselves (a fundamental idea in Western thought) then what greater right do we have than to end that life if we so chose?

This is especially troubling in the case of terminally ill patients who, be being hospitalized, may not have it in their power to end their lives. I can see how difficult this is morally for doctors, but I think that someone on a lifesupport regime should, after a couple of meetings with a councelor, be given some means to end their own life, doctor assisted if necessary.

In the case of people in vegatative states, when the choice is made by family to end their life, the person in question suffocates or starves... perhaps two of the most unpleasent ways to die. Wouldn't it be more humane and respectful to end that life by a doctor painlessly and quickly?

Jonno said:

 I LOVE that picture of the four heroes on Hoth on the back of this cover. I used to have it on my wall as a kid. ANyone know where I could score a hi-res version of that image?

Vaderisnothayden said:

 

Ziz said:

Of if they wanted to be really obvious that he was selfish, mean and egotistical, they could have called him "Vaderisnothayden Bane".

Bullshit. It's called insults, not sarcasm.

I'm a tad late, but just wanted to say (especially since VINH and I have had little clashes in the past) that I think Ziz's comment seemed a bit on the unecessarily nasty side, and VINH isn't unreasonable in his annoyance at it.

On the other hand, since Cad Bane is cool, intelligent, has an awesome hat, I say his name should be TheBoost Bade.

Erikstormtrooper said:

 

For the record, removing the garbage mattes is the only change that I think should be made to the OT for a proper home release. That's it. This is not a slippery slope. I still say it's a result of the movies being brightened for TV viewing.

 You make a good point that a DVD release is not the exact same animal as a theatrical relaease, and by its very nature changes the presentation in some ways.

I personally have no problem with the mattes, and in all honesty if they were removed I probably wouldn't notice much (same with Empy's "slugs" in certain shots of ROTJ, they weren't visisble on the silver screen).

Really, I'd be happy either way

Warbler said:

 

But, on the other hand, Favre  couldn't play the race card and he would have Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and the NAACP to defend him.  

 

 

 Not that I have any love for Shapton, but he came out strongly opposed to Michael Vick IIRC.

xhonzi said:

Where does the bit about Thrawn and the Vong come in?

You know, it kind of reminds me of Optimus Prime.

 I think it was in maybe Outbound Flight that Thrawn learned about the Vong while in the Outer Rim... or one of those. They all blur together.

Seriously, Thrawn is smarter, cooler, more far thinking and more morally centered than the heroes we bought the books to read about. As much as I hate the term, doesn't that kinda make him a Mary Sue?

Jay said:

TheBoost said:

You make a very interesting observation. NO ONE defended Vick a damn bit (except one other black football player, who then had to apologize, his name eludes me).

 Could it be "sad old white jew who makes Oscar winning art" vs. "tough looking black guy from the projects who plays lowly sports" in the general perception and portrayal?

I think it's more likely that people are very quick to scream about animal cruelty, but cruelty towards other humans is just par for the course.

 A disturbing observation, but not at all short on truth.

Is it because Vader was somehow 'good' in the end that the EU seems obsessed with making sure the villains are actually pretty good? No one seems actually villainous in the EU.

THRAWN- Really only wanted order and stability. Was motivated to protect the galaxy from the Vong. A hell of a guy in all regards. Frankly, the "heroes" were stupid for fighting him

TALON CARDE- Not only a honest and good smuggler who's kind to his employees, eventually he's not even a smuggler, but an 'information broker' who no doubt only deals with good guys.

DAALA- Sure she's a lunatic who wants superweapons to oppress the galaxy, but eventually she's President of the Galaxy, where she's downright benign and forces women's equality on the Empire.

MARA JADE- Pretty much a straight ahead hero after a bad start when she's semi-controlled by the dead Emporer.

DARTH VECTIVUS- A really nice guy who, despite being a Sith lord, spent all of his time in the honest pursuit of business ventures and spending time with his family, no doubt barbequeing with his kids.

LOST TRIBE OF THE SITH- A colony of Sith whose philosophy is to harness the Dark Side to help eachother out.

THE EMPIRE- By "Fate of the Jedi" the Moffs are still mainyl bad (the male ones at least) but the Empire is good, even Luke thinking it's just a great option for people who want a little more 'order' in their lives.

DARTH CAEDUS- Seemed evil, but only became a Sith lord when it was clearly laid out to him and the reader that things would be much much worse if he DIDN'T become a Sith Lord.

How are we supposed to root for the 'good guys' with this kind of stuff?!

DuTwan said:

I know it was my own idea but i like the idea of trying to make these Ewoks more like Jungle tribes. Spears, shields and bows are enough and as someone said, i forget who (all credit to them) pit and traps. On there physical appeareanes then i believe some thing more like bones to there costumes etc. Little trickets of dead animals and people perhaps.

 Large shields and long throwing spears really wouldn't be terribly appropriate to a people who live in a dense jungle.

Just using parralels in Earth cultures, short bows would be useful where speed is more important than distance but not long bows, which would be cumbersome and rarely would you have room to arch a shot for great distance.

C3PX said:

I personally wasn't trying to make a comparison between a black man who has done something bad and a Jew who has done something bad. I was merely contrasting their crimes and the current public opinion to them without even considering race in the matter. Though you may make a relevant point, Boost. Though I think the difference is more due to the fact that he is a Jewish man with an extremely high level of status in the Hollywood machine. I have no doubt a black football player who rapes a thirteen year old girl would be burnt at the stake, but I also feel the same treatment would be given to a white football player who committed the same crime. Likewise, had a white football player been involved in dog fighting, I am pretty sure he would receive the same treatment as Vick.

I guess the real question is, what would the general public reaction be if Polanski had been caught fighting dogs?

 I didn't mean to imply YOU were the one unfairly comparing the two. Just contrasting the two men's treatment in the general media.

I'm not sure you can point to their 'status' without somehow considering race and perception. Vick wasn't just a footbal player. He was a guy from the projects, doing dirty, project crime. I'm not sure if the backlash would have been quite as heated if Brett Favre was caught doing something cruel to animals with less of a social/racial stigma, for example fox hunting illegally or the Victorian sport of ratting (of course, this is impossible to test objectivly).

As for Hollywood, I think there would be a very different mood of Spike Lee gave a girl malt liquor and raped her as opposed to Polanski with qualudes and champagne... a difference in perception based on both race and perceived economic class.

But I do beleive you and I are in agreement that Polansky and Vick are both scum who should have the book thrown at them.

Here are my first mockups!!!!

This shot of Ewoks nimbly leaping over a log could easily (relative term, I couldn't do it) become more intense with the addition of blaster shots they narrowly avoid... or even one might get hit mid-air!!!

And here's a shot simulating my proposed final pan up, from the happy heroes, to the fireworks up to the stars, where as the music crescendos, the audience POV itself is sucked into hyperspace. I even would say the credits should roll over hyperspace starlines, a special ending for the final film.

C3PX said: really sick of celeb worship. I could honestly care less about these guys, most of them seem to be scum, and it becomes even more annoying when they try to play the role of scum with bleeding hearts who want to adopt a million kids and save the world from the evils of SUVs and cow flatulence.

Polanski is a good example of this over the top celebrity worship, just look at how many people are defending him so strongely. I like how Micheal Vick, a man who mistreated dogs in a rather horrible way seemed to be considered the devil for his crimes, but yet poor old Polanski is obviously being treated quite horribly, after all, all he did was rape the hell out of minor. (Not saying I sympathize with Vick in anyway. But still, I have found that the kind of person who is willing to be cruel to animals doesn't have too far to go to be willing to be cruel to humans. Even my "evil" friends who are big into hunting are the types who absolutely hate to see an animal suffer.)

You make a very interesting observation. NO ONE defended Vick a damn bit (except one other black football player, who then had to apologize, his name eludes me).

 Could it be "sad old white jew who makes Oscar winning art" vs. "tough looking black guy from the projects who plays lowly sports" in the general perception and portrayal?

Could it be that qualudes and expensive champagne use to rape a young girl has some kind of less stigma attachech than having dogs fight, because dog-fighting is a low-class (Black/Southern US) crime?

Although I'm not sure animal-fighting correlates with human cruely. There was a lot of cockfighting in the neighborhoods I grew up in, and lots of the guys who raised those birds were oddly loving to them, and generally not violent dudes.

Bingowings said:

Did he?

 

Who really did it?

It's not as cut and dry as everyone on here seems to making out.

Is this a case of child rape or child prostitution with blackmail?

Either way it should go back to court, the full story should come out and all guilty parties should be punished (if they are still alive).

 I beleive Polanski did it... as he did confess to drugging and raping a little girl.

Child prostitution is de facto child rape. Paying to rape a child doesn't change that. I have no idea what the victim's parents were thinking, but that changes absolutely nothing.

Pretty cut and dry.

Perhaps here parents might have been guilty of something too. But if her mom and dad were Huggy Bear and Dolemite, it doesn't in any way shape or form ameliorate Polansky's crime.

Bingowings said:

 

 

Besides most of the problems in the Star Wars galaxy were not caused by Vader or Palpatine (they just exploited the mess that was already there).

Again, I disagree.

The Naboo blockade is instigated by Palpatine, who orders the invasion. This is all based on deadlock in the Senate that Palpy is very possibly responsible for. The Seperatist Crisis is organized by Palpy's henchman Dooku as an excuse to use the army Palpy created. Palpy acheives power, murders the Jedi and stops the war overnight, now with his awesome army in place to enforce his will.

The galaxy was probably doin' allright if not for the millenium long machinantions of the Sith.

Bail jumpers are often tricked into being arrested by being summoned to some kind of award, or prize winning.

I really like "Chinatown" but I'm not sure I see the other side of the issue. He's a holocaust survivor, and his pregnant wife was brutally murdered. For that he has my extreme symptathy. That's enough to drive you mad, but since he's never claimed to be insane, those facts are irrelevant.

Ultimately, F him, he raped a little girl.

Bingowings said:

 

 

 

Besides Vader throwing his master down a death pit doesn't really redeem him, you would need another trilogy for that to happen.

 

I disagree. That is an act of personal redemption. He doesn't somehow negate all of the evil he's done, but he does, in those final moments, reclaim his ability to chose to do good after decades of being a slave to evil. He dies a man, not a puppet of the Dark Side. He doesn't need to go and build Habitat For Humanity or anything to accomplish that.

(Which is why in the EU it seems SO LAME that they name Han and Leia's kid Anakin.  There's no denying that their father was one of the biggest SOBs in the galaxy)

ChainsawAsh said:

The garbage mattes should not be fixed - they were there in 1977, so "fixing" them is just another alteration.  A film is a snapshot of the time in which it was made, and effects flaws are a part of that.  I really wish the Raiders of the Lost Ark DVD had kept the cobra reflection, too.

I seem to be in the minority as far as this idea goes, though.

 Count me in. They didn't bother me in 1985, they don't bother me now. I also don't want Casablanca colorized or matte lines erased on Claude Rains's "Invisible Man" reveal.

I would definitly like a copy of this if it got made. I hated that game for its gameplay, but the cutscenes are at least an enjoyable little romp, IMHO on par with the Clone Wars series as a Star Warsy diversion.

I think a great way to make the Ewoks more fierce seeming would be the simple addition of a shot of a pile of empty, broken Stormtrooper armor, that Han looks over and sees as he's hanging upside down about to be cooked. It implies the Ewoks have been killing Imperials for a while, and makes them scarier.

Say I could score a few armor suits, and perhaps made a set of some sort to match the Ewok village.

How could I film these, and have that image be anywhere near the necessary quality to be seeminglessly inserted into ROTJ? I'm just a simple man.

Anchorhead said:

TheBoost said:

 

In the OT our focus was mainly on non-Jedi issues, except specifically Luke's journey. The villains were criminals and Imperial military. Most of the heroes were smugglers, poloticians, and shady businessmen.

 

 

I agree with the first sentence. The main story of the first three films isn't really a Jedi story, per se. In fact, most of the military seems to regard the old religion as obsolete. The outcome of the main conflict happens to be decided by a former Jedi (losing) and a Jedi in training (winning), but it's a non-Jedi military conflict.

Regarding the heroes, the true heroes are an old Jedi Knight, a princess working clandestinely against the military, a farm boy drawn into the story by accident, and a self-serving pilot hired to provide transportation so that military information can be delivered.

 I know you dont dig on the EU Anchorhead, but one of the biggest EU issues IMHO is that the works are OBSESSED with Jedi. 80% of them are Jedi-centric, usually with some random "Han's Cooky Non-Jedi Adventure" wedged into the story awkwardly.

And worse, there are these long treatises about the nature of the Force. The OT has what, maybe 10 minutes total in three movies talking about what exactly the Force is. The novels go on and on and on about the Force like the authors really want to be Thomas Aquinas or something.

As kids, my brother and I would fight over who got to be Han Solo when we played. The loser had to be Luke the Jedi.

skyjedi2005 said:

I still wonder though even if Lucas relented and had someone like Robert Harris restore the oot, would all the hatred leveled at Lucas continue. 

 I don't think you can blame an artist for, 30 years after making a masterpiece, making more work that doesn't necessarily measure up to that masterpeice. If I'm dissapointed in the PT and Indy 4, that's not a personal flaw with Lucas, they're just not as good films.

The only thing I have issue with the man about is his desire to rewrite/erase/destroy film history, as well as the movies that I love and that made him rich and famouse. If tommorrow he said "Restored OUT comes out in November! Sorry about that!" I'd have no beef with him at all.

Anyone who is personally angry at Lucas just because his later film output was dissapointing is a bit odd in my opinion.

skyjedi2005 said:

 

The focus should have been on the Jedi, or the sith.   That stuff interests me not no name cannon fodder like republic troopers and bounty hunters.   

 Interesting that a PT-hater like yourself would be so focuses on Jedi/Sith conflicts, as these were of extremely minimal importance in the OT. The "Sith" didn't even exist in the OT.

In the OT our focus was mainly on non-Jedi issues, except specifically Luke's journey. The villains were criminals and Imperial military. Most of the heroes were smugglers, poloticians, and shady businessmen.

vote_for_palpatine said:

"There is some of that already with the Naboo celebration being the Emperor's theme up tempo and sung by children..." I have read this idea before, on other SW sites. I don't hear it at all. I've listened as closely as I can to make sure I wasn't the odd man out, and my conclusion stands: one is not an arrangement of the other. They are two different pieces.

 Try whistling it. That's how I realized it, trying to whistle the "Happy Naboo Children Song" and realizing it's the same melody as the Empy's Theme.

Bingowings said:

If a bit of music does need to be added (if possible) to ROTJ it has to be the droids motif from ESB.

Everybody else seems to have a musical cue why not the droids?

There must be some music lite scenes with them in where it could be slipped in descreetly

 What's the droid motif? Where in ESB would I hear it?