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zombie84

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21-Nov-2005
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Post
#266329
Topic
Info Wanted: Question about 1980 uncut Empire
Time
The fourth draft is available online so who cares.

Here is the thing--whenever you see these scripts being sold by collectors, they are not fascimiles from the studio vault. These scripts are available online and sellers just print them off. You pay for the paper, the ink and the binding, but these are not some secret rare thing, otherwise they would sell for hundreds of dollars. The fifth draft has been available for years--Lucasfilm published it in the 1980 ESB Notebook, in the Empire Strikes Back Illustrated Screenplay, as a stand-alone script, and as part of The Annotated Screenplays. Same goes for ANH and ROTJ. The problem is that these official releases by Lucasfilm are not the true final drafts, they are the final draft edited to the film edit, so you just get what is on screen and not the unfilmed material. The only true final draft we have is for Star Wars because in the late 70's, every single draft of the script, from the 1973 treatment to the 1976 shooting script was leaked and has been circulating on the collectors circuit. Since then Lucasfilm security has been very tight, though luckily a fourth draft of ESB managed to get out, as well as a revised rough draft of ROTJ (which is missing a page or two at the end).

Its not likely that any of the unaccounted for drafts will ever be let out, and because an edited version of the final drafts have been released by Lucasfilm there is not even much demand for them. Supposedly, Leigh Brackett's first draft is available to read at an archival library of some kind, i think at a University somewhere in the southern US. I'm suspicious that this is merely an internet rumour however, and regardless the rumour is that it cannot leave the library grounds so you can't photocopy it or anything. This is the real Holy Grail of star wars scripts, the draft of ESB where Darth Vader was still a seperate character from Father Skywalker. But anyway. The only way to obtain any of the unreleased drafts is if rare personal copies from crew members are auctioned off--i.e. Gary Kurtz' auction from a while back, which i am still fuming that i happened to be broke at that time.
Post
#266324
Topic
Seeing the Saga in order - a review by a first-time viewer....
Time
Originally posted by: Davis
My opinion?

There are hundreds of different ways that the PT could have been done, some of them not ruining most of the plot points, and most of them far superior to what we got.

Good movies could even have been made using Lucas' rotten PT storylines- if it was done right. If it was done in an entertaining way. But he not only botched it conceptually, he botched it COMPLETELY in the execution.

What would have made a much better PT, IMO, would have been to return to his original 70's Star Wars concept, which was "Errol Flynn in Outer Space". This is a huge oversight of the PT. If you watch the original "Star Wars", the influence here is so obvious it isn't funny. "I'm Luke Skywalker- I'm here to rescue you."

Develop new characters, new locales, smoky nightclubs, mad scientists... all of that "old movie" stuff that Lucas was drawing on back in the 70's and remaking for a new audience.

So I think that's a huge reason the PT was crap.


That was the experiment that was Attack of the Clones and look at how that turned out. This is the fundamental problem with making the PT part of the series--even though ANH is sort of light and serialesque, the OT as a whole is a serious fantasy drama. When you have the most dramatic, tragic and heartwrenching part of the story--the PT--told with the quickest and lightest of development, you end up with a complete train wreck of a narrative and of style, such is the case with Attack of the Clones. From beginning to end, Attack of the Clones is a pulp and B-movie homage, it was Lucas' attempt to return to the pulp influence of ANH, except that he forgot that while ANH referenced this material it was still told with heart and with an overridingly modern fairy-tale quality. Attack of the Clones, at times, goes so far in its emulation that it comes across as reading as though it was made for audiences of the 1940's.

Post
#266316
Topic
Seeing the Saga in order - a review by a first-time viewer....
Time
If he had made the PT competently then i would say go for it, remake the OT. But the PT was shit. Why the mother fucking hell would we want him to mess up not one but two trilogies? It would be the most collossal tragedy in the history of the movies. Picture all that is wrong with Attack of the Clones, but now told with the plot of ESB and having Hayden playing Luke. It makes my brain twitch with fear. Lucas should stay the hell away from Star Wars and go back to trying his hand at experimental art films, like he has been claiming he will be doing since 1974, 1978, 1983 and 2006.

Its not that the PT story was not designed well for the medium of cinema, because it was. Lucas had one of the most powerful stories in the history of the medium, something as impactful as Godfather II, but he fucked it up. Why? Because he just isn't talented and competent as a writer and director to do it. Speilberg could have done it, Coppola could have done, hell Rick McCallum may very well have been able to do it (considering he was doing low budget indies in 1990), but no matter what the material was, whether it was Indiana Jones IV, Episode I, or his impending Red Tails film, no matter what material he had he still would have fucked it up because George Lucas in 2007 simply can't do it.
Post
#266256
Topic
Seeing the Saga in order - a review by a first-time viewer....
Time
Aragorn and the humans don't figure into the books as prominently. The movie made him into a sort of chivalric Knight of the Round Table co-star but the books are told mostly from the perspective of Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin as the view this grander battle going on around them. The films placed more emphasis on the battles and action and so the side story of Aragorn was brought more to the foreground as a sort of co-star to the final two films. Also, the first half of Frodo and Sam's story, up until Frodo's capture after being stung by the Shelob, occurs in The Two Towers, and after the final battle where Sauron is vanquished, teh Hobbits return to the Shire to discover it has been torn apart and is under control of Sauromon, whom is finally killed. Jackson actually changed quite a bit but in my opinion it was defintily for the better (especially the anti-climatic "scouring of the Shire" section, with its Scooby Doo-like reveal of Sauromon).
Post
#266223
Topic
The Go-Mer-Tonic™ Thread - Today's Topic: Whose your favorite author and why?
Time
I agree that it is difficult and impossible to rehabilitate a person like a child molester or a serial rapist. The desires that make them compelled to do those things are a part of them in the same way that all of our sexual habits and orientation are part of us. You can't habilitate a gay to be straight, you can't habilitate a straight to be gay and you can't habilitate a pedophile to be normal--in the true sense of the word. But capital punishment is not the answer. Because you can habilitate them to control those desires. If heterosexuality was outlawed today, we would not be able to truely habilitate the heterosexual population to be gay, simply because they are not. But you could brainwash and control them to either engage in homosexual activities, even if they are not truely homosexual, or refrain from heterosexual activity. I think people in these circumstances can be trained to function in society--you can't cure them, but you can control and manipulate them to consciously refrain from their habits. They will still be dangerous in the sense that there is the potential that they could strike again, because deep down the desires are still there. Thats why most forms of "rehabilitation" seek to repress and control said desires so that they have been relegated to such a level that they can be confidently controlled--sometimes this works, and the offenders are released and become worthwhile members of society. Sometimes this doesn't work and they are never released. Sometimes this appears to work, they are released, and then they strike again. It is easier just to "kill them all and let god sort them out" but i like to think that in a supposedly civilised society we are prepared to spend more money to lock them up than to commit murder.

As this relates to Go-Mer, of course he will always be Go-Mer. I have known him from the TFN days since 1999 or so, and he hasn't changed one iota in those 8 years, and we won't ever. We can only hope that he merely refrains from posting stupidity, which indeed he has to a certain degree if you could see him on TFN circa 2001.
Post
#266211
Topic
Seeing the Saga in order - a review by a first-time viewer....
Time
There was no need to tell the backstory but it has the potential to make a very interesting story, and theres a reason why Lucas was compelled to tell it and why we all looked forward to seeing it. The story of a brilliant prodigy, a valiant hero who fought for good in the last days of a majestic kingdom but was corrupted by greed, manipulated by an evil ruler and cast into darkness as war transformed democracy into fascism. The height of the Jedi knights, the clone wars, seeing young Ben Kenobi and horribly transformation that Anakin underwent--its pretty amazing stuff. This has the potential to be far better than even the original Star Wars, albeit in a very different way. Handled correctly, this could have been like Return of the King, a sweeping epic filled with action and tragedy but with a touching human drama at its center. ESB totally altered the context of ANH, but we all accepted it because it was done so well. Whether Lucas told the prequels as true backstory via flashbacks or a disconnected seperate series or if he told the prequels as the first part of a six part saga, the fact remains that whatever he did we would have accepted if it was done well.

Could the prequels fill out three films? Some say the story was stretched thin--i agree that the optimal way to tell this story is to make one grande prequel, a sort of three hour Episode III. But there is a lot of stuff before that that is very good--the machinations of Palpatine, the downfall of the senate, the transition from peace time to political tensions to outright war, the discovery of Anakin Skywalker, the adventures of young Obi Wan and young Anakin. Once again, there is a very good reason why Lucas didn't just make a single film, and there is a very good reason why we all thought a prequel showing these things would be great. If handled correctly, this could have been equally as good as a solitary prequel, perhaps better as it would be grander, richer and more developed. Return of the King could be designed to sort of work by itself, jumping in the middle of the story the way a stand-alone-Episode III or the original Star Wars did, but it enriched by the two films which came before it which start at the impetus of the whole plot and follow it to its conclusion. I really hate to keep comparing the prequels to LOTR, and i don't really think that LOTR films are the greatest in the world, but they are along the lines of what the prequels should have been like. FOTR is light and whimsical, for the real gravity of the story has not yet entered, and we meet all the characters and have all the beginings and exposition and history fleshed out, but its told with heart and humour, and there is still a pervasive undertone of darkness, a serious drama that undercuts the lightness of the humble beginnings. TTT of course is where the plot begins to thicken as characters begin to change, the drama begins to unfold and things start going wrong--its tense and exciting and compelling. Then ROTK finally brings the story to its climax as all the storylines built up for two films finally are consumated and the epic battle is fought--Episode III of course, being a tragedy would not have the optimistic half hour coda: imagine how powerful the film would be if as Frodo is dangling of the edge of the crack of Doom, he falls in, only to be dragged out as the monster that Gollum was, while the last stand of Minas Tirrith is defeated and all the characters are killed except for Gandalf and Aragorn who limp away in retreat as the world is overtaken by Sauron. It would have been a heartwrenching and powerful film. If Lucas had constructed the prequels with the same gripping drama and human center that Peter Jackson gave his Rings trilogy--flawed as those films may sometimes be--we would have all welcomed with open arms the new six-episode Tragedy of Darth Vader.

The prequels, the way Lucas chose to make them-- due to his limitations as a writer and director, his poor choices, and his lack of serious collaboration with other creatives in construction of the story--do not dramatically work in the way that they were intended to, in the same way that Lord of the Rings trilogy does. Because of this, it is preferable that the films, as they now are, not be part of the original trilogy storyline, but told as a seperate series or incorperated as flashbacks in a sequel-prequel-trilogy. Even then however, the many flaws of the trilogy will not go away--the won't affect the original films in as damaging a way as they do now, but the fundamental failures of the series will remain. The films of course have many good moments in them because Lucas is not a total hack; occassionally things come together. TPM is kind of cute as a childrens fantasy film, Attack of the Clones has some nice B-movie homages and a pretty interesting side story on Tatooine, and Revenge of the Sith has many gripping action scenes and even some refreshingly compelling human drama in it. This is why so many fans cannot let go of the films completely--I've talked to many "gushers" recently whom i sense are realising that the films overall are not all that great, but they feel torn to allegiance to them because they love Star Wars and because the prequels have these occassional moments of goodness that make you want to watch them once in a while. But the films failed simply because they were not written well or directed well. Its as simple as that. The material was mishandled and the human drama was completly lost.

I like the idea of combining the sequel and prequel trilogies--its twenty years after ROTJ, and we see how Luke and company are rebuilding the galaxy. Maybe Luke has begun anew the Jedi order and his young student, perhaps even his own son whom he is training, asks him about his grandfather, maybe twenty minutes into the film, thus beginning the real thrust of the story as Luke sits him down and narrates the sordid story--the way this device was wonderfully used in The Princess Bride. We could occassionally cut back to Luke and his son as the youngster interupts the story at key points, and when the prequel tale finally finishes it could cause Luke to reflect on where he and his friends are bringing the New Republic and the New Jedi Order, so that the past is not repeated, as we finally say goodbye to the galaxy in a brief twenty minute coda.
Its a true shame that we have to continue to fantasize about the how the prequels could unfold after they have already been told. Of course defenders of the franchise say that we had preconcived notions and high expectations: to which one can only say "duh." We sure did. But just as Empire Strikes Back not only had a lot of preconcieved notions and high expectations riding on it, it wasn't at all what was expected, but this is considered the strongest film in the entire series. After The Two Towers, there was a lot of expectation for Return of the King, and since the story had already been around as novels that were beloved by millions of fans all over the world, there definitily was a lot pre-concieved notions, and especially when Jackson had to change so much of the structure to accomodate the medium of cinema rather than literature. But the film was a smashing success, and although some fans had criticisms about this and that and although the film may not be quite as good as some hyped it out to be, it is indeed a gripping, exciting and touching human drama that still manages action and scale twice as big as the entire prequel trilogy combined. You don't win best picture and best director for a so-so film--even if you think it didn't deserve all its praise, it is enough to say that the story was successful in its telling. So my point is that it is definitly possible to tell a prequel story that would have been praised and enjoyed and defied our expectations and was touching and moving. Lucas simply failed as a storyteller, as a director and writer.
Post
#265972
Topic
Ep 3 death star !
Time
The EU can come up with whatever contrived explanation it wants but the fact is that by the films themselves, nothing about either Death Star construction makes any sense. At the end of ROTS its about 25% built--you have the main inner superstructure, which is the most major section of the construction, plus a good start on the outer and inner hulls. So how long has this thing been under construction for? Since the ten year period when Palpatine came into office? We don't know. Then its complete twenty years later but it gets blown up and then in a couple years another even bigger one is nearly complete. Were they both constructed at the same time? How the hell did they build the other one so fast? Nothing is ever even mentioned about this huge development. You have clutch at straws and invent your own explanation to fill these holes--"oh they learned a lot from the first construction," "oh there was labor difficulties and rebel insurgents" etc. You might as well not even have plot continuity if you are just going to be doing this.
Post
#264961
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Time
Originally posted by: MTHaslett
Trooperman has always made it clear he wants to hear all opinions and criticisms. I always keep in mind that he's doing a mountain of work and that it's a massive task to make a dubbed voice fit in with a production mix -- AND a very discouraging task as well. So it might do some good to always mix honey in with the vinegar so to speak.

Trooperman's limited resources have kept him from getting an actor to do all his dubbing-- but he has been using his own voice for Anakin. He says it's naturally that deep-- not "put on."

I wonder, Laserman, have you ever found techniques that help you "deal" with voice acting that you are "forced" to use? In other words, Trooperman is using the voice you heard and object to-- but do you have advice for making that track blend in with the others? (I'm not a mixer, so I may be using terms all wrong-- but I hope you get what I'm asking).


Oh, I completely understand. You work with what you have. I don't think the voice is electronically lowered, it just sounds like someone doing a cheesy voice in an octave lower than their normal one. If this is the case then i think it would benefit from a natural intonation. But this wouldn't exactly "fix" the issue. The issue is that the delivery is honestly worse than Hayden's, which is no surprise considering its a non-actor fan editor doing it. Its a very commendable effort to put yourself out there like that, but honestly if this is the "fix" then what is the point of re-doing it? Hayden's would be preferred, and it would blend better. The plus to re-dubbing all the dialog is that you are free to re-write it but I would say that what you gain through re-dubbing you more than loose in sheer implausibility. Listening to the footage made available, even things like "he's in there" and "yes master" come across as so jarring and out of place that i am dreading listening to the romance dialog, no matter how improved the scripted dialog may be. As a genuine "fix" to the film it is probably worse than what was originally there, although i will reserve true judegement until i see the whole thing, but I can't imagine it is drastically better than what was already previewed. Hence, as a genuine "fix" to the film it won't work in this aspect, it will merely be an interesting "alternate take" by a fan.

My suggestion to all of this is this: leave the raw materials and the edit open. Release the version being worked on when it is done, and then in the future it may be possible to get professionals--or at least those better than the editor--to come in and re-dub. This is by far the most extensive fan-edit i have ever seen attempted and I've been following it since it was proposed--but when i saw that the dialog was going to be re-written and re-dubbed to such an extent my fears were that it was going to come out sounding exactly the way it does now, which is amaturish and totally jarring. But audio dubbing is easy to fix. Hell, maybe some fan will see the edit and splice an improved version of the sound track together.

Anyway, i don't think i am telling anyone anything new. Anyone that watches the thing will know that the dubbing, at the very least, is "less-than-perfect". I'll be harsh and say it sucks because i believe in this project enough that i know it can be the best fan edit ever constructed if these glaring inconsistencies are ironed out. It was a bold thing to try to do, to entirely re-dub the main character, and it failed, but it can luckily be improved upon and re-done in the future. Maybe there are people here who could provide a better dub--i know when Trooperman first proposed it he asked around and everyone said "oh no, I'm not an actor," but maybe now they'll say "you know I'm not an actor but i think i would be more appropriate than Trooperman himself." If you look at all the fan films out there you occassionally run across some actors who are at a respectably professional level (ie Pink Five or whatever its called, amaturish though it still may be, is remarkably professional for a fan film)--perhaps if they see the final cut and you start asking again people will be more voluntary for their skills. I don't know what the complete history of this project is, but there are plenty of fanfilm discussion boards where you might find people, or people who know people, that can provide a more adequete level of skill for voice acting. Just a thought. Anyway, don't mean to sound too negative, i am very much optimistically looking forward to the completed project.
Post
#264955
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Time
Its not shitting on it when its constructive and when you are otherwise in glowing support of the project. I think this is a fabulous project and my only hope is that the edit is left intact and the sound mix left open so that some time in the future it can be retrurned to and brought to the same professional level that the rest of the edit attains.
Post
#264572
Topic
Info Wanted: Question about 1980 uncut Empire
Time
The fourth draft wasn't used to shoot any of the film. It was written months before production began. A new draft was penned just before shooting. The fourth draft is the fourth draft, not a shooting script. And it goes out the window even on Hoth--theres different scenes of the rebel P.A announcers fighting Imperials and many different such scenes. Productions don't use one draft to shoot one section of the film and then another draft to shoot another section--if theres stuff in the fourth draft that they liked then thats carried over into the next one. But keep clutching at those straws.
Post
#264553
Topic
Info Wanted: Question about 1980 uncut Empire
Time
The fourth draft wasn't used to shot any part of the film. Its pretty wildly different from the film, containing many sequences that were changed, cut out and heavily refised, and even a look at the dialog itself reveals a pretty different incarnation of the film, close as it may be to the final version--this is no surprise considering it was written six months before production, and even before major pre-production had begun. A version of the fifth draft is available in all those "Star Wars script books", including The Annotated Screenplays itself.
Post
#264345
Topic
Info Wanted: Question about 1980 uncut Empire
Time
Originally posted by: rancher
Originally posted by: Jambe Davdar
Originally posted by: Sluggo
I don't trust the wiki.


Neither do I, but this Movie Score magazine articles preceeds it. The Wiki entry is taken almost word for word from this article, not the other way around.

Lets face it, we won't know unless one of us tracks down a 70mm print and takes a look. But this is the next best thing.


Thanks guys for looking into this further.

70mm versions

#1 - Advance Cut (The likely intended sneak preview cut small # of prints)
Edmonton (Canada)
maybe Chicago (U.S.A.) at one or two theatres (Amazon claim provided by Laserman)
claim from Germany - link from a previous post & provided by Laserman

This advance cut may be the same as the one shown May.6th, 1980 @ The Fox Studios.

I'm sure many here have given this a glance or two. This was a fun read for me. I'm convinced that this is the shooting script & pretty much the advance cut of the film without a doubt.

the link:
http://starwarz.com/starkiller/scripts/empire_fourth_draft.htm

the others:

#2 - Unfinished Cut (1st. wave of release)

#3 - The Expansion Cut (Official Cut - the 2nd. wave of release & likely the only cut used again for future re-releases)


That script is the fourth draft, written way back in November of 1978 i believe. There was another revision done, then a fifth draft written in february of 1979 in preparation for shooting in March. The script itself underwent some fairly extensive changes even from the shooting script however (the real shooting script that is, dont know why the fourth draft is mislabelled as such).
Post
#264246
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Time
Awesome stuff, really really good! Love the new envisioning of the nightclub! I don't know where you culled all that additional footage and i don't even care! Works very well. Terrific look as well--gets away from that awful, awful digital look, with all its red. Fucking brilliant choices here.

But, the Hayden thing....yeah.

Doesn't work for me. Comes across as dubbed, and not only dubbed but dubbed by a fan, and not very well either. The voice is all weird and low-pitched and it almost sounds as if it is meant to be a joke or some kind of funny-sounding parody. No offense, obviously I understand that it is so that there can be freedom in completely re-writing Anakin but if this is the result i would much rather have Hayden Christenson. I dunno, i hope you can improve this, both in delivery and tone and the way in which it is mixed into the film. Don't mean to sound harsh on all your work or anything but the acting and recording level really doesn't blend. But in all other areas everything is a total success! I'm sure the final product will be still be better than the piece of shit Lucas crapped out into film cans in 2002 (oh wait, he didn't even use film cans anymore).
Post
#264032
Topic
Info Wanted: Question about 1980 uncut Empire
Time
Originally posted by: marcmartin
And while i am 100% convinced that the cut described in the original post does not exist nor ever did/q]

Note that the Wikipedia entry for "Changes made from the 70mm version of ESB" lists a LOT
of changes from the 70mm version. One of them listed there that I recall seeing on a bootleg
was the part where 3PO had an extra line in the asteroids, saying "there's no where to go":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_changes_in_Star_Wars_re-releases#The_Empire_Strikes_Back

Marc


Yes, these are all consistent with what we know. Mainly audio changes, most of which appeared in the SE, as well as a few differences in wipes/dissolves versus cuts, a few less-refined FX shots, and a single missing shot of Han and Leia observing Luke in the bacta tank, which as i pointed out earlier was already an established difference--due to this ommission, the sequence focuses strictly on the robots and technology, cutting from 21B straight to the droid arm extending and then the closeup of Luke, perhaps explaining why this scene is remembered so differently. Again, this basically puts to rest this whole silly thing.
Post
#264014
Topic
Info Wanted: Question about 1980 uncut Empire
Time
Originally posted by: marcmartin
Originally posted by: Sluggo
Sweet! More conveniently lost documentation.


Well, I'm sure that magazine article talking about the changes they made to the movie
after the premiere still exists SOMEWHERE. Probably the Cinefex issue for ESB... (which
I still do have...)

Marc


That might be an actual good source, as it seems that any missing/added shots would be mostly of the FX nature. If you have the time look up that issue (i know it is a lengthy and somewhat dry read).

As for "i too remember having proof of this but i lost it long ago"--well, appreciate your effort but really its just more of the same. "I remember proof" is exactly what is being contested here, because "remember" in these types of contexts is extremely unreliable. As for other dudes on the net remembering the same thing--the Bugs Bunny experiment that Laserman posted basically shows how this is possible, as is the Biggs footage false rememberance that i also cited, plus all those who claimed that the 70mm ANH was different (a bootleg confirms it was not). The evidence just keeps stacking up against this stuff.

And while i am 100% convinced that the cut described in the original post does not exist nor ever did, i am open to the possibility that the 70mm version may have had an extra shot or two, or a couple missing shots/composites. Certainly no proof has come in favor of this, so until that happens we must take all the evidence against such a possibility as meaning that the prints were the same, but this is at least a more realistic avenue to explore, if only out of sheer curiosity. The widescreen review article might be interesting, but i have a feeling that that too might be written retrospectively from a fans perspective.
Post
#264008
Topic
About the moonlandings
Time
Originally posted by: Stinky-Dinkins
In all seriousness though, the original audio of the video was completely altered. This is actually how it happened:

Original Moon Landing Audio.



Wow, that was very interesting. I always wondered how those guys actually reacted--now i finally know!

My favourite: "I am talking to you from the surface of the fucking moon. Jesus H Christ in a chicken basket!"