Slashdot Mirror
A Host Of Star Wars Bits
"First off, I'm sure many of you noticed that the Official Star Wars site has been completely redesigned. In addition to the Episode II Select picture number #40 (finally) being released, there's also some new pictures of some of the characters, specifically Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan, Hayden Christensen (as Anakin), and (yowza!) Natalie Portman (as Padme Amidala). There are also small pics for Christopher Lee (as Count Dooku) and Temuera Morrison as "a bounty hunter" (read: Jango Fett).
"The official site has the first (of what appars to be many) "Making of Episode II" shorts. Although it mainly shows George, Rick, and some others talking about minor stuff, as well as "the camera" and the "Courscant street set".
"TheForce.net has some nice concept pictures of what the Clone troopers look like with a doctored pic, a fan-made rendering, and painting that looks almost like one of Ralph McQuarrie's.
" Also, The Criterion Collection is releasing Akira Kurosawa's classic, The Hidden Fortress (also known as Kakushi toride no san akunin) on May 22nd, with an anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer. What does this have to do with Star Wars? This IS Star Wars. George Lucas has (admitidly) taken this film, added some touches of Flash Gordon and WWII dogfighting films, world religions, and *bam*, Star Wars: A New Hope. It also contains an interview with George Lucas (or as I like to call him, "The Plaid One") describing the influence of The Hidden Fortress on Star Wars.
"One final bit is still a rumor at this point, but its by far the best rumor, from the most reliable sources. The Episode I DVD rumors have been kicked around for a while, but we finally have unofficial confirmation from the top "spies", as well as Rick McCallum himself!. I usually wait for the official press release myself, but these rumors are coming from the best of the best, and even Rick himself implied that they've been completed. Still no word on the "classic trilogy" or Special Editions though...
"Hope that'll keep you busy until the trailer is released (estimated by November)."
Perhaps if she should eat the hot grits instead of pouring them down her pants.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers. -- Pablo Picasso
Wear Princess Leia's metal bikini. The girls will see that you're a sensitive new age guy who isn't afraid to be himself in public.
Either that, or dress up as Admiral Ackbar and start singing "Fish Heads".
The Hidden Fortress was mainly the inspiration for the two droids and their bickering comedy-relief relationship. That's just about it.
The Hidden Fortress largely follows the misadventures of two camp followers, who are basically scavengers, scumbags, and comic relief. They encounter the hero, a lone samurai general (Toshiro Mifune) travelling incognito, and get pulled along with him out of greed as they try and find a stash of gold in a (dum-dum-dum!) hidden fortress, really a kind of hole-in-the-wall hideout located in a rugged wasteland. There is also a bunch of bad guys, and a princess. There are a lot of twists and turns and treachery, and some nice sword and spear fighting at the end.
The two movies just don't fit together as neatly as people seem to believe. Star Wars has a lot of plot threads going: saving the princess, saving the rebellion from the Death Star, Luke losing his old life and becoming a hero and proto-Jedi, Han Solo demonstrating that he's not just a mercenary, Obi-wan coming out of seclusion and moving towards his final confrontation with Vader. In contrast, The Hidden Fortress is just about Toshiro Mifune's character accomplishing his quest, and, to a much lesser extent, the two camp followers trying to reap a reward through treachery and survive the results of their own actions.
Lastly, the tone of the two movies is very different. Star Wars is a saturday matinee romp, whereas The Hidden Fortress was a straightforward samurai flick with two offbeat characters for comic relief.
In short, you can see the influences, but they're really two different movies.
Jon Acheson
All opinions expressed herein are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled.
Some of the features I'm looking forward to:
Kevin Fox
--
Kevin Fox
Let's overlook the racism and the poor acting, for a moment.
Let's not. What racism and poor acting? Granted, I will never claim that ANH, TESB, RotJ or TPM have the best acting that hollywood has ever seen, but TESB was, IMHO, one of Ford's best roles. TPM featured some excellent acting on the parts of McGregor (who, I will readily concede has done even more accomplished work elsewhere) and many others. I'm not going to go into child actors like Portman or the boy, because they're children. They were both better than Shirley temple, but you just don't expect an adult's range of skill from a child.
As for racism, I think you're grasping for straws. There are racial stereotypes certainly, but it's hard to establish a never before heard of race and not stereotype it as "agressive" or "funny" or "ill tempered". It's one of the limitations of the medium. However, in order to classify as "racism", I think you would have to actually introduce an *existing* racial stereotype or clearly attempt to sway the audience to hatred on the basis of race alone. SW never does this, AFAICR.
StarWars portrays space as a site of warfare between different species and even between rival human factions.
Please cite a period of human history that suggests that warfare is likely to ever stop being a part of our lives. Once you come up with that example, you can tell me why we should portray it, the exception, instead of the other 99.9999999 percent of human history as the rule.
Of course, we're not talking about humans here (it being a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away), but I'll give you that much as a rhertorical point of common ground.
George Lucas, I think I can speak for everyone here on slashdot, and indeed with the entire breath of humanity: you should be ashamed of yourself for what you have wrought.
Don't go speaking for me. I'm not just a fan of the Star Wars movies (though, I am that), I'm a fan of the genre made up of hero-epic stories. Joseph Campbell has it right, we tell stories in order to explore our nature, and the hero quest is the aspect of our nature which we portray the most universally (though, you could argue that it's a particularly male point of view). Star Wars helps a new generation of viewers to explore that story in a time when Beowulf, Greek myth, Exodus, Robin Hood and the other classic Hero tales are considered pase. I applaud George Lucas and all of the others who have helped to bring Star Wars to fruition, and deeply urge anyone with the talent to try to further the quest in new stories about humanity's quest for enlightenment.
Disgraceful.
No, what's disgraceful is that such a poorly thought out post would be moderated up to a 5 just because it was cranked out before there was much to moderate.
I was just about to submit this as a news article, but since my submissions never get accepted anyway...
Fanfilms.com has several very good amateur short films set in the starwars universe. The one that really caught my eye though is the six and a half minute long film Duality about the final test of a new apprentice Lord of the Sith. The film makers put up some very good information about amateur film-making at their site, including modelling hints, costuming, storyboards, and script notes.
I'm really impressed with the quality of this amateur film; and if there are any more out there like this, I'd like to see them.
LibBT: BitTorrent for C - small - fast - clean (Now Versio
Here's a picture of Cassiopa and Sheba (from Battlestar Galactica)
5 45.html
;-))
Here's a picture of Athena (from Battlestar Galactica)
Here's a picture of colonel Wilma Deering (from Buck Rogers)
Compare the Buck Rogers one with this photo of Natalie (on the right) and this one from above.
The similarities have not been lost on a lot of people;
http://www.chud.com/board/ubbhtml/Forum1/HTML/001
IMHO - Natalie still seems much like a girl, compared to the others above that seem like women. Maybe it's because I grew up with them
Also it seems Battlestar Galactica is making a comeback;
http://www.kobol.com/revival/index.html
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
It may be troll heresy to admit, but I think Nat's a little too thin.
I prefer woman with a few more curves, maybe Tiffany Amber-Theissen, or even Rene Zellweger (as Bridget Jones).