Watched a show on the History Channel about the development of Star Wars starting with George Lucas' history prior, all the way through the Special Edition stuff released in the late 90's. It was focused on the original three and said almost nothing about the three prequels.Some funny stuff, one that struck me particularly.
The scene on Tatooine where Luke gets knocked out by the Tusken Raider (sand person) just before Ben Kenobi scares them off with his funny sounds. There is a shot where the Tusken Raider holds his stick over his head and makes several motions with it and a rather alarming hooting noise. The actor playing the Tusken raider only lifted his stick over his head and kept it there. They added the repeated motion by looping that motion in editing. This was after the original editor was fired.
Also - Episode IV won 7 Academy Awards, mostly for technical stuff, but also for Production Design. It was even nominated for best Picture.
Also - Harrison Ford and the writer wanted Han to die at the beginning of Episode VI but George said no.
This was on before a show called How William Shatner Changed the World. It was really how Star Trek changed the world, meaning non-invasive medical treatment (other than Spock's Brain - of course), cell phones, multi-culturalism, interracial relationships, etc. Hosted by William Shatner in many places that seemed to be original locations, with several mentions of the Gorn.
Bill being a ham of course.
4 comments:
That Star Wars doc comes with the DVD box released a while back. I think you noted once you're not into collecting DVDs (which means you'd probably find my life terrifying), but the box was nice, the caveat being the original Star Wars trilogy is long-gone. That trilogy is replaced by the current versions with all the new effects, extra scenes, sexier 'splosions, etc. (Lucas loves to tweak. And tweak. And tweak. I imagine him sitting at home, constantly bringing up the on-screen menu on his tv 30 times during a program.)
There was a funny South Park episode about Lucas' and Speilberg's inability to leave things as they were.
I'm torn on the Star Wars thing. It's pretty evident that he couldn't afford to (or actually do) many of the things he wanted to do originally, and when the opportunity arose, he had the ability to realize his original intent more completely.
The cynical part of me says there's little justification for not selling both versions, and that the revised version was just a way to make money.
Give George lots of credit. The prequels may not have been great movie making (mostly bad script writing) but his ILM empire has spun off such positive things as Pixar, for which he made far less than he could have, and which has made some simply wonderful movies.
You (Stephen) have spent time in the archives. Nope, don't own many DVD's. Too likely that the technology is going to change and there aren't that many movies that I'll watch more than once, unless it happens to show up on TV at some time when I'm feeling weak.
Oh, I'm no Lucas basher. The Star Wars films are, at their core, independent films. Financed more or less out-of-pocket. Lucas had the vision to keep a tight reign on all things "Star Wars" so he could build his studio his way. And yes, we have Pixar. That said, I do agree (generally) with Terry Gilliam who stated that going back and tweaking your film is cheating. However, my ultimate stand on an artist's work is that the artist can do what he/she wishes to his/her work.
I collect DVDs, and I am sure I'll collect HD-DVDs. I have a problem and cannot stop.
You know my thoughts: like almost ALL of my peers, I have a serious soft spot for the Star Wars series, and specifically the first three. That said, George Lucas and me have not been on speaking terms for a number of years.
As for Star Trek, the original series: Love Em! And William Shatner of 1966-1969: underrated as an actor. William Shatner now? I absolutely can't come close to taking him seriously, which may or may not be his intent.
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