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auraloffalwaffle

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23-Jun-2006
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6-May-2011
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766

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Post
#368333
Topic
A theory on ESB and the SW movies made after.
Time

Hernalt said:

Once the casting was assured with quality performers, he didn't really _have_ to direct them but rather let them loose inside the candy store of the set design, matte paintings, props, costumes, make-up, and play back monitors if they had them.

 

I take your point but I would say in return that there is a very noticeable difference between the performances the main actors achieved in SW77 and ESB. I think they all performed to a much higher standard in ESB and achieved much greater characterisations than in SW77. I would most definitely point to the change in director as one of the main factors causing that difference, another being a better script.

Also worth noting in SW77 is the difference between the quality of performance given by the likes of Alec Guinness and Peter Cushing as compared to the main actors - Guinness & Cushing are the sort of highly gifted and experienced actors who can give a polished performance no matter what. Case in point: compare the main actors' delivery of the dialogue with that of Guinness & Cushing - Harrison Ford famously said "you can write this shit but you can't say it" - Guinness & Cushing have no problems and the lines sound wonderful.

My point is that only the very best actors in the cast of SW77 could get past Luca$h's poor direction entirely. The main 3, Hamill, Fisher & Ford, could not and only gave the best they could give in ESB when given good direction.

Post
#368109
Topic
A theory on ESB and the SW movies made after.
Time

For Luca$h, ESB is the worst thing that ever happened to Star Wars:

1. It was made by a much better director than he is. It had greater depth and atmosphere and better performances than he could ever have achieved, as we can see from the PT.

2. It took Star Wars in an aesthetic direction he had never intended it to go, as we can see from the PT. He wanted to make a bigger, better equivalent of the sci-fi serials he used to love as a kid, not a deep, atmospheric space opera (a term which may never have been attached to Star Wars before ESB).

Unfortunately for Luca$h, people loved it and it's quality has ensured it's lasting appeal and continuing increase in respect. I sincerely believe that people, while they may love SW77 more, will usually pick ESB as the best of all the movies.

That must piss Luca$h off more than anything else, I think. It's the one he had the least control over, after all. From which we must conclude that Luca$h is not, in fact, the great auteur he would like us all to think he is. For me, SW77 is not a well directed film. It's success as a movie comes from the exciting production design, daring casting, tight editing, ground-breaking audio and visual effects and it's marvellous, Wagnerian score.

This is why it makes me so angry that Luca$h feels he has the right to tinker with the films the way he has. As far as I'm concerned, he played a very small part in making them as special as they were. I think he should have much greater respect for the work of the people who made SW77 a success and stop filling the movie full of added junk.

Post
#364295
Topic
Abrams is Destroying Star Trek like Lucas has Destroyed Star Wars
Time
PaulisDead2221 said:
lordjedi said:
auraloffalwaffle said:

lordjedi said:

That's the other thing I didn't like, the way he acted during the Kobayashi Maru.  Did he really need to sit there eating an apple acting like it was nothing?  They could've at least had him pretend like he didn't know what was going on.

 

Uh...

[THINKS]

... never mind...

What?  Were you thinking back to that scene and realizing how lame it was or were you thinking back to it and recalling something I missed?  In all honesty, when I was watching it, all I could think of was "Arrogant much?"  It was his third time taking the test, we're informed that nobody takes it even twice, and there he is acting like everything's hunkey dorey.  I guess I should've said that they could've at least make him look like he didn't know what was going to happen, when it's obvious he clearly did.  At least that way it wouldn't have been so obvious that he cheated too.

 

 

I believe the scene in its current form is meant to incorporate elements of this concept in order to illicit a formed reaction of this substance from the audience.

 

Indeed... you make a good point, PaulisDead2221...

I think the key thing is that Kirk doen't CARE if they catch him for changing the program... all he wants is to win and look like he did it without even breaking a sweat... I'm afraid Kirk IS arrogant, lordjedi... at least in this incarnation... and isn't Kirk eating an apple while McCoy's telling the story in 'Wrath Of Kahn'...?

Post
#360123
Topic
what character is this?
Time
vote_for_palpatine said:

And honestly, I have read many of those backstories - several of them are well done. I can't wait to find out the the asteroid creature from ESB is a former Jedi, and that his attempt to devour the Falcon was a well intended attempt to save Han, Leia, and company from capture at Vader's hands. The light side can work in mysterious ways.

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/8661/toucheyy4.th.jpg" border="0" />

Post
#349002
Topic
The Special Edition wasn't needed.
Time
Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:... That GL deleted them is testament to what a good director he was then. Putting them back in weakens the film and is proof that he has lost his eye for what's good and bad in a film.

I fear that Luca$h cannot take credit... I would give that to his editing team... as has been said on these boards before, Luca$h's choice of collaborator is the real difference between SW77 and all he's done since as a director... in fact, I would go further... his work on the PT indicates that he was never a great director, in the sense of an auteur... he was just one part of the great team that made SW77... in my opinion, ESB is noticeably much better directed...

The raw material that the SW movies were based on may have come from Luca$h... but he has never been able to shape it... others have always done that for him... problem is, he always took the credit... and now he can't remember the truth... the result of this is his appalling attitude to the OOT... dismissing those wonderful films as rough drafts of his "vision"... the real artists of the OOT having to suffer the indignity of having gaudy, artless, computer-generated images smeared across their pioneering contributions to popular cinema in an act of outright vandalism...

It's not just that the SEs weren't needed... you understate the case, my friend...

Post
#347436
Topic
relationships between the OT and PT.
Time

Y'know, thinking about this has brought up something else for me... the way certain phrases from the OT have been repeated in every film of the PT... e.g. "I've got a bad feeling about this"... that really pisses me off...

In fairness, I think the blame has to be laid at ESB's door... I appeal to other members to confirm or refute this, but I think "I've got a bad feeling about this" has been repeated in every SW movie, by one character or another, since SW77... is that really necessary?... it doesn't make me laugh, I dunno about anyone else...

Post
#347431
Topic
relationships between the OT and PT.
Time
rcb said:

... The main point of both movies was to just meet the characters who will be in the next two films of the OT and PT... Han and Leia/Anakin and Padme. Only difference is the acting... i'm sure there's more we can contribute here.

I have to agree...

The main point of SW77 is not to meet the characters who will be in the next two films... as you're no doubt aware, Luca$h wasn't even sure there would be any more films, so SW77 was written as a story that could stand alone... conversely, the only point of the entire PT was to meet the characters we followed in the OT...

The second point I've picked out is your idea that the only difference between the Han & Leia and Anakin & Padme romances was the quality of the acting... while I may agree that it was one of the differences, it is by no means the only one... right from the get-go, we're required to believe that she's interested in someone she first met as a little boy (I mean, at least Luke & Leia didn't know they were brother & sister before they snogged, which is the ickiest moment of that kind in the OT)... she somehow, for reasons not made clear in the film, can look past the fact that Lil' Orphan Annie is a whining pain in the ass, not to mention that he seems okay with genocide as a panacea for grief... add to that not just poor acting but also poor writing, design, direction, editing, etc. and you've got enough reasons right there as to why AOTC and ESB are on completely different levels...

Lastly, you've managed, possibly inadvertantly, to explain why the PT was so superfluous... it's basically a bad rehash of the OT that only exists to set up the OT in the first place... which it didn't even need...

Congratulations! ;D

Post
#347428
Topic
Looks like the prequels are not aging well.
Time
Gaffer Tape said:

Sometimes I wonder if Han couldn't have been used better for what he was.  He was supposed to be the anti-hero of the first movie, and he did a pretty good job of that, but, of course, he redeemed himself at the end of the movie by saving Luke.  Empire still had some of that.  His original motivation was to get back to that, but it never really worked out.  And, of course, in Return, they'd pretty much given up on his character moving at all.  So, really, both the sequels wasted that character (as in, there's very little ambiguity in Empire and absolutely no development in Return) as it was originally conceived.

 

 You make some excellent points, Gaffer! I guess by it's very nature, ESB has the other characters tread water while Luke gears up for ROTJ... I think the romance and then parting of Han & Leia serves as their character development in ESB... other than that, they're only there to get Luke & Vader together for the big finale...

Post
#347149
Topic
Looks like the prequels are not aging well.
Time

I think Han breathes life into the OT... without such a character, it would be a distressingly earnest, po-faced affair... his character is there to subvert that aspect of such a grandiose, operatic story... I have to say, in my later years, the dialogue between Han and Luke about Leia as they travel to Yavin has delighted me more and more... I didn't really 'get' that when I was younger... I mean I understood it... superficially... but Ford really loads that short scene with playfulness and good humour...

The dialogue between him and Leia in ESB is so good... again, it brings humour and humanity into the film... "my hands are dirty too... what're y'afraid of...?"