Watched Star Wars IV with Katherine last week. Since all she knows about SW is (a) somebody brought Phantom Menace to her day care and she thought it was boring, and (b) endless Star Wars – Clone Wars ads on Cartoon Network, I thought it would be fun, some “Daddy/Kitten” time.
A mixed success.
She watched along with me for most of it, but her attention began to wander, paradoxically, as the Millennium Falcon is escaping from the Death Star, and her body followed suit as the Rebel ships headed for their mission toward same.
She seemed to be generally entertained prior to that. She liked the trash compacter scene. She liked the idea of Princess Leia, though she wondered why she didn’t wear a crown. She didn’t quite distinguish between the Death Star and the Imperial Star Destroyers. She liked the robots, though she wanted to know more about the silver Threepio at the very beginning. She thought the Jawas were creepy, thought the Sand People were scary, and was entertained by the Cantina.
My own impressions were more mixed. The DVD, of course, has all the latest-greatest digital tweaking that Lucas has done. My thoughts:
The movie varies between cheesy, exciting, and pretty. The lighting is, in many places, very 70s (shadows are a lot more common these days). The ships fly around improbably close to each other (we see much better space dogfights these days, too). The physical acting (the Darth/Obi-wan light saber fight, the shooting being done by Luke and Han) is often clumsy. There’s an awful plastic nature to so much you can see.
On the other hand, the dialog and acting are actually not too bad. The various talking heads scenes, Alec Guiness, and the Han/Luke/Leia bits are all enjoyable (even if Luke still comes off as a whiny, overemotional brat). The story is a classic. And some of the 70s clumsiness in fx has been masked by the digital updates. Though, while the Jabba scene has been improved from the original inclusion, it still doesn’t quite work (Han’s eyes and body don’t focus on him correctly). And, while some of the control panels have been digitally changed to show imperial typography and characters, there are still shots with numeric displays (the macrobinoculars, the “The Death Star Is Coming!” display) that have arabic numerals.
Speaking of fx, it’s not clear to me whether the various 70s computer graphics have been minimized to avoid the embarrassment to modern eyes, but it sure felt like it. It seemed like there were fewer shots of the various computerized targeting systems. I’m honestly surprised that, while they were tweaking other bits, they weren’t improving those. Not sexy enough, perhaps.
Oh, and I’ll chime in to echo that, no, Han shoots first. He doesn’t do it unprovoked, mind you, but he’s not going to wait for Greedo to pull his gun and fire first (or even simultaneously). But I digress.
That all said, Star Wars IV still works. It’s still a fun movie. It has a fundamental joy, drama, tragedy, and comedy that the more technically complex first trilogy has, so far, lacked. And I’ll have to try watching it again with Katherine in a few years …
>Luke still comes off as a whiny, overemotional brat
Yeah, he gets that from his father. “Obi-Wan never listens to me! He’s always telling me what to do!” Anakin’s not turning to the Dark Side, he’s turning to the Brat Side. Sheesh.
I don’t understand why Lucas didn’t include the early scene with Luke watching the space battle, which introduces his connection to Biggs, but did include the Han/Jabba scene, which has dialogue that duplicates that of the Han/Greedo scene. The former would make Biggs’s death have some emotional impact; the latter adds nothing we haven’t already seen (and Han calls Jabba a “human being,” as I recall).
In the X-Wing computer game, the targhetting system resembled that of the movies. In TIE Fighter, it was upgraded to a camera view. Subsequent versions of X-Wing had the targetting system upgraded to the TIE Fighter version. Lucas couldn’t have done the same for the movies?
And while he was at it, maybe digitally remove the string pulling that one droid…
I don’t understand why Lucas didn’t include the early scene with Luke watching the space battle, which introduces his connection to Biggs, but did include the Han/Jabba scene, which has dialogue that duplicates that of the Han/Greedo scene. The former would make Biggs’s death have some emotional impact; the latter adds nothing we haven’t already seen (and Han calls Jabba a “human being,” as I recall).
I haven’t looked at the DVD extras, but I seem to recall some info on that in the Special Release VHS tapes. The conclusion (as I dimly recall it) was that the footage that was left of it was too crude, and the acting nothing to shake a stick at, such that it was best left on the cutting floor.
I remember first reading that scene in the comic book adaptation of the movies (art by Walt Simonson), so I knew who the guy in the cheesy 70s porn star moustache was that Luke met up with at the Rebel Base. I always regretted that other folks didn’t.
As to why include the Han scene — I suspect the answer is (a) they could, (b) it lets them put in digital Jabba, (c) it lets them put in Boba Fett. You’re right that it doesn’t add substantially and repeats Greedo dialog (which was either odd scripting, or indicates a change somewhere along the line), but it let them do some “fun” stuff. The Toshi Stn. scene, on the other hand, has no sfx to it.
Yeah, but I really want to hear Luke’s friends call him “Wormy”!
I suspect that the Greedo scene was added when the Jabba scene was deemed unsuitable, for whatever reason.
I, too, read the comics, and so knew of the Biggs scene, as well as the Jabba scene (I seem to recall he was a yellow-furred dog-faced guy). And now Dark Horse has released the first issue of the Ep III adaptation. It’s straining my willpower to keep from reading it (especially since I’m not even sure if it will improve the movie to see it without knowing everything in advance).
I seem to recall he was a yellow-furred dog-faced guy.
Something like that. Much more of a Sidney Greenstreet with a Mask sort than a giant slug.
You may be right on the Greedo scene. I should go back and read the Alan Dean Foster ghostwritten novelization of the first movie, which had all sorts of early version of the script goodness.
I recently watched episodes IV, V, and VI on DVD. I thought some of the additions made some scenes too busy. One street scene outside the Cantina comes to mind, and the scene out in the desert with the dewbacks and the stormtroopers does too. As I remember it, the original street scene gave a great impression of a dusty backwater in the universe, but the variety of stuff happening out in the street in the new version makes it look much less like a dusty backwater in a hellishly hot place. My memory of the original dewback scene is that it gave a great impression of the vastness of the desert and the needle-in-a-haystack nature of the stormtroopers’ search. The new version made me focus too much on the dewbacks to get that impression. But the digital cleaning they gave to the movies sure makes them look great compared to the nasty videotape copies I saw the last time I watched them.
It seems odd to me that Lucas was happy with that whiney brat aspect of Luke’s character after the much more sophisticated teen characters in American Graffiti.
I think episodes IV, V, and VI all work as entertainment. This is pure speculation on my part, but I think the faults of episodes I and II are the result of Lucas allowing merchandizing tie-ins and what would play in Peoria to control some decisions rather than sticking to his own artistic vision. If I’m right, the Ewoks might be an early indication of how things might go in that regard.
I agree completely with the “too busy” aspect. I mean, fun and all that to see the various critters, but it went from “dusty Mexican desert village” to “Mexico City at lunchtime.” And, yes, we spend way too much time on the dewbacks (“because we can!”), to the detriment of the scene. (Why are they riding dewbacks, anyway?)
The faults in Eps I-II come from Lucas, I believe, wanting to tell a “sophisticated” story, and mistaking fx for drama. When he made IV, and even V-VI, he had to sell everything he was doing to the suits, and he had to bring strong screenwriting and directorial talent in. When he made I-II, he got cart blanche, which did not serve him (or us) well.
Lucas has an interesting vision, but he’s, at heart, a film editor. That does not make for a good director or screenwriter, unfortunately.
One thing that struck me while watching the “making of” documentary on the DVD set is how John Williams saved the movie. Watching the scenes without music was extremely cheesy (even those scenes that didn’t need effects). The dialog was so lame, otherwise.
The other interesting thing I found out was the Lucas was fined for the beginning text scroll in the movie because there were no opening credits. He got fined again for sharing credit with another director in Return of the Jedi. This happened also for Sin City. Hollywood politics. Pffft.
Actually, I had the same thought while watching the ep, though it was more in the direction of “a great soundtrack, from someone like John Williams, can add drama and importance to anything.”
I think it’s true that most movies, though, even “good” ones, rely on music for a lot of scenes (especially, but not solely, action scenes). Watching a “deleted scenes” segment on a DVD that hasn’t been rescored, often points that out.
I can imagine, on your other note, that the credit rules from SAG and the Directors Guild and whomever are so strict (like many union rules) in response to egregious abuses and rules lawyering from production companies (management), as well as favoritism and politics that still sneaks through. Not that they cannot sometimes be ridiculous, but I greater injustices would almost certainly occur otherwise.
If you’re right that Lucas mistook fx for sophistication, then that seems to me to be a far greater mistake, intellectually speaking, than allowing marketing concerns to control some decisions. That seems to accuse him of not being a master of his craft, while my accusation is merely that he was seduced by the dark side of movie making (heh).
Certainly your point about hiring good scriptwriters and directors and the existence of other people who could give Lucas good artistic feedback is a good one. But why do you say he’s at heart an editor rather than a scriptwriter or director? He directed American Grafitti, and wrote the first two Indiana Jones movies. Those seem to be pretty good writer and director credits.
Yes, the Williams scores for the first three Star Wars movies was certainly a big help in making them great. It’s hard for me to imagine those movies with any other kind of score. But on the other hand, he also scored episodes I and II, and that didn’t save them from mediocrity.
But it sure helped them. If nothing else, you could just shut your eyes and enjoy the soundtrack.
From the “bonus materials” I’ve seen about Lucas, he seems happier with post-production than production — with sitting in the cutting room (or whatever they call it today in this digital world) and playing with his sophisticated toys. He can *do* writing and direction, but I gather he’s not as good at it or as comfortable with it.