the crimes of george lucas ('90s on)

star WARS i mean

am you should write an op-ed and subit it to the times or something

im serious -- i never really thought about star wars' "historical importance" but i think youre totally right

Yeah you could say the historical important mostly lies in the special effects, which were hand-crafted in-house and started a number of companies that have dominated the industry for decades. And yeah it's shitty to say "ah, that was no good" and go in and replace it w computers.

The funny thing is, every time I see any of the SW there are a bunch of things that are still wrong that they could easily fix rather than doing stupid stuff like the rock in front of R2. For instance there's a bit in SW where Darth Vader is talking to one of his men and after he is done talking the actor is still gesturing. That seems like a pretty simple fix. There's plenty of little bits here and there where the voice overdub is just a little too long for the reaction shot that follows it, etc.

Looking forward to this RLM stuff.

I recommend http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/ if you dare to take the geekiest plunge of your life. Really gets into GL's headspace.

the saddest thing for me personally is that while i grew up with & used to love these films, i now kinda fucking hate them and everything about them.

part of that is prob the geek culture over-embracing of SW (helvetica minimalist fan posters etc), part of it is the fact that you can't even see the original films now.

Ok that 3D review is just the old one with a fake 3D filter and a very few extra cheesy 3D bits thrown in.

that's the joke

Yeah you could say the historical important mostly lies in the special effects, which were hand-crafted in-house and started a number of companies that have dominated the industry for decades. And yeah it's shitty to say "ah, that was no good" and go in and replace it w computers.

exactly! if you're teaching a history of the past several decades of american cinema and wanted to talk about special effects--or dolby sound for that matter-- well star wars is a key film, the key film in some ways. but of course you won't understand the nature of its contribution if you see the revised versions.

indeed the extent to which the effects are "flawed" or obvious is itself an important part of the history. teachers have to able to explain the processes by which they were made and how that is and isn't revealed on screen.

sometimes i think we should have some kind of patrimony laws that allow for the preservation and availability (at least to researchers/teachers) of stuff -- a legal "right" that trumps the rights of the author. but that will never happen.

man i wonder how much vintage 35mm prints of star wars go for these days.

most of 'em are probably pretty beat up.

stalinist lol from that interview ned linked:

If you look at Blade Runner, it’s been cut sixteen ways from Sunday and there are all kinds of different versions of it. Star Wars, there’s basically one version — it just keeps getting improved a little bit as we move forward.

"improved"

RLM has put out an actual new thing - commentary track for Episode 1. Might be worth saving for the next time I'm home for the holidays and stuck on the couch and cable is showing the marathon of all these goddamn movies.

Lucas' late 70s plans for a Bondesque franchise are actually all kinds of awesome. Can't be bothered to dig up the quote, but I would love to see the minimal dialogue droids only film he proposed.

And you can sense his excitement in those early interviews for being the creator of a fun, quirky, unexpectedly mega-popular new thing, as opposed to the later burdened beard-faced Keeper of the New Western Myth.

it's great that he uses the Blade Runner example. For the blu-ray release, we got 6 (I think) versions of the movie: original, director's cut, restored with new effects, workprint etc. And Scott was appreciative of how fans could have their different favorites and no one was "definitive."

yeah that's a great counterpoint to the way lucas has handled star wars. in fact i know folks who have compared the different versions of blade runner in class -- so the fact that they are all easily available (and on blu-ray, no less) is a godsend.

i don't think any of the versions of B.R. have new effects though? there was the original workprint, the original scott cut that went unreleased, the version released in 1982, an edit scott made for a 1990s release which is a reworking of his original cut, and finally the so-called "definitive" version that scott put together a few years back. i'm not aware that any of these have new effects work. i thought it was different edits, essentially--and a revised soundtrack.

the bluray has new effects, but it's very subtle. Sprucing up the lighting in the cityscapes and stuff.

there's not like, little monkey shaped aliens running around in the background or anything.

ah, i see.

they didn't add a fat funny-accented replicant sidekick for comic relief?

he added in a whole new scene of Deckard wearing a negligee jerking off over a photo of his maybe-mom...changes EVERYTHING

that does make sense of the final scene where edward james olmos

spoiler

leaves an origami version of deckard's mom in the hallway. i always wondered what was up with that.

'improved'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np6vAuS0KNs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rd7Wh4vrVyk

Yub-Yub: Gone but not forgotten.

The GF and I saw TPM in 3-D tonight, mostly because we couldn't think of anything better to do.

I really wish we'd have thought of something better to do :(

Hopefully you guys got well lit before the show.

fucking yub nub

;_;

The GF and I saw TPM in 3-D tonight, mostly because we couldn't think of anything better to do.

I really wish we'd have thought of something better to do :(

― Millsner, Saturday, February 11, 2012 8:41 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

spending a night on the toilet due to diarrhea is probably preferable to seeing that film again. at least you can get some reading done.

re. those clips i don't think return of the jedi is really any better than the prequels.

oh c'mon

like on a visual level alone...

http://neofilm.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/return-of-the-jedi-poster.jpg

http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/star-wars-the-phantom-menace-movie-poster-01.jpg

it's amazing how consistently awful the visual design of every single thing in the new trilogy is: padme's costumes, jar jar, darth maul's makeup, liam neeson's face

http://dyn3.media.forbiddenplanet.com/products/17726540.jpg.size-300_maxheight-300_square-true.jpg

http://di1-3.shoppingshadow.com/images/pi/1e/d8/c7/46478690-260x260-0-0_Hasbro+Star+Wars+Episode+I+Sebulba+s+Pod+Racer+Wit.jpg

"we" got 6 versions of Blade Runner, eh

$ucker$

imagine how much better it would have been if Neeson played Qui-Gon like his character in Taken

xp i don't want my 'thing' to be to pop into fantasy threads and explain how the fictions people are talking about fail at realism, but it's interesting how there's a strong vein of form-follows-function in the originals. vs stuff like the pod racers, which come on.

even darth vader's costume (!) was a series of devolopments like: well, he needs a ventilator. and armor, also. so what if the ventilator and the armor are joined. huh that looks kind of cool. -- whereas darth maul's is just so plainly the result of straining to invent a 'cool villain look'

liam neeson and ewan mcgregor got so shafted when they agreed to do those movies, i think

like how long do you think you're attached to fuckin' star wars before you get a script

by that point how far past too late is it to call your agent and go 'hey maybe i don't want to be a jedi, you know'

and then when you've made one horrible film and you know you're stuck there for two more

I still remember a reporter breaking the news to Ewan McGregor that the second film was going to be named Attack of the Clones and his subsequent shock and disbelief. I think he had no idea of what he was getting into.

"we" got 6 versions of Blade Runner, eh

$ucker$

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Saturday, February 11, 2012 3:05 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i paid $12.50. they overproduced that thing, and you can get copies for nothing.

"we" got 6 versions of Blade Runner, eh

$ucker$

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Saturday, February 11, 2012 4:05 PM (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They all came in the same set...?

Lol

to be fair to ewan tho what would you do if you were cast as OBI WAN FUCKING KENOBI and you show up to the set the first day and find out you have to do a scene opposite the kid from jingle all the way and stepin fechit inside a blue room?

― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Wednesday, July 15, 2009 2:21 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can't be quoted enough IMO. Really, really makes you feel for these guys.