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Revenge of the Sith a "Blood Bath"

An anonymous reader writes "The BBC is reporting that the Revenge of the Sith is a blood bath and is to recieve a PG-13. One notable point from the article is Lucas is quoted as saying "But I have to tell a story. I'm not making these, oddly enough, to be giant, successful blockbusters. I'm making them because I'm telling a story, and I have to tell the story I intended." As he lit a cigar with a large stack of burning 20's."

52 of 780 comments (clear)

  1. Successful Blockbuster by fembots · · Score: 5, Insightful

    With a PG-13 rating, parents will be forced to go with their children to watch the movie, so not only you get the expected children tickets, you now have as many adult tickets too, and the extra drink and popcorn sales. Truly a great success.

    Now imagine if this superfan camping out for 139 days is under 13....

    1. Re:Successful Blockbuster by YouHaveSnail · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The thing is, the only people who are really interested in seeing the sixth movie (or third, depending on how you count) in the Star Wars saga are those that have seen the other five movies. Mostly, it's the people who were kids when "Star Wars" came out. We're all about 35 now. If we go with our kids, it'll be because we can't find a babysitter and so decide to drag our kids along with us rather than the other way around.

    2. Re:Successful Blockbuster by neoform · · Score: 4, Informative

      not to mention lucas get's 100% of ticket sales for the first two weeks, locks his movie in the largest screen in the house for 13 weeks and in some cases, get's a cut of the concession sales. (no, i'm not joking, those were the terms my theater agreed to in order to get the movie)

      --
      MABASPLOOM!
    3. Re:Successful Blockbuster by Gilmoure · · Score: 4, Funny

      Olds

      Is that what you yooots are calling us now?

      / Age 37 1/2

      --
      I drank what? -- Socrates
    4. Re:Successful Blockbuster by edremy · · Score: 4, Funny
      And the Action Figures?

      Don't know about anyone else, but my brother-in-law just spent 7 hours standing in line at the Star Wars convention to get a special Darth Vader action figure. He's 30, a married college grad in the Army and thus not exactly a kid.

      Perhaps it has something to do with getting back from a tour of Afganistan. I think his wife hopes it was.

      --
      "Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
  2. Meesa no tink so! by coupland · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yuh-hunh. Sin City and Kill Bill Volume 1 move over, this one's a blood bath. OOOOooooo....

    That's the problem with them damn Brits, they don't realize it's boobies in movies that's the real corrupting influence, not a little innocent killing and maiming.

    1. Re:Meesa no tink so! by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 4, Funny
      it's boobies in movies that's the real corrupting influence

      Amongst other things. Apparantly the Queen Amidala Hot Grits scene will be on the Star Wars III, Revenge of the Sith Unrated DVD.

      --
      If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
    2. Re:Meesa no tink so! by millennial · · Score: 5, Funny

      I heard something about Yoda and a greased-up doll... and the possibility that Mace Windu is gay.

      --
      I am scientifically inaccurate.
    3. Re:Meesa no tink so! by stlhawkeye · · Score: 4, Funny
      That's the problem with them damn Brits, they don't realize it's boobies in movies that's the real corrupting influence, not a little innocent killing and maiming.

      Not true. Swear words are also ruining American society.

      --
      "I have never won a debate with an ignorant person." -Ali ibn Abi Talib
    4. Re:Meesa no tink so! by SB5 · · Score: 5, Funny
      That's the problem with them damn Brits, they don't realize it's boobies in movies that's the real corrupting influence, not a little innocent killing and maiming.

      Not true. Swear words are also ruining American society.


      Fuck you.
      --
      If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
      it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
  3. "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along." by GweeDo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Freaking Jedi mind tricks...

  4. I don't see how anyone is suprised by Scott+Lockwood · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you've read the dog of a script, then you know that it's stunningly bloody. Don't click on that link if you don't want to know everything - the whole script is there.

    --
    But this is slashdot. A slashdoter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber!
    1. Re:I don't see how anyone is suprised by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      We've known what's coming since 1983.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:I don't see how anyone is suprised by Koiu+Lpoi · · Score: 5, Funny

      I did a quick search, and sadly can't find the part where Jar Jar get's decapitated. Can you help me find this? I know it's in there. It has to be in there.

  5. So long as... by DragonPup · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...Jar Jar meets a painful demise, I am happy.

    --
    "Useless organic meatbag" -HK-47
    1. Re:So long as... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Funny

      Me's so happy to be meeting with you Darth Vader.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:So long as... by nizo · · Score: 4, Funny

      I said it before, and I will say it again: explosive decompression; only that will make up for earlier obnoxious Jar Jar.

  6. The story he intended... by TripMaster+Monkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    From TFS:


    "But I have to tell a story. I'm not making these, oddly enough, to be giant, successful blockbusters. I'm making them because I'm telling a story, and I have to tell the story I intended."


    Yeah...we know all about the story you intended, George.

    --
    ____

    ~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey

  7. PG-13? by ilyaaohell · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If it was really a blood bath, it would be rated R. There's probably not gonna be anything more violent here than what we saw in Spider-Man 2.

    On the other hand, I think the previous two Star Wars movies have been some of the most violent PG-rated films since the introduction of the PG-13 rating in the 80s. So, if MPAA is continuing to rate Star Wars on a curve just because it's targetted at children, maybe my original analogy is wrong after all.

    --
    UNIX: A computer user is defined as a programmer. WINDOWS: A computer user is defined as a consumer.
  8. I, for one... by Stormwatch · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...would love to see Jar Jar Binks' death scene.

    1. Re:I, for one... by theendlessnow · · Score: 4, Funny
      ...would love to see Jar Jar Binks' death scene.

      I don't want to see Jar Jar dead or otherwise. How about a cremation urn in the background with a tiny disco ball hovering over it? We'll know what it is.

  9. Isn't this good? by Grakun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hate it when directors cut down a movie just for a rating. This is a good thing. "A lot of people saying how can you do this? My children love these movies. Why can you not let them go see it?" he said. He's not preventing them from seeing it. He's just warning the parents that it may not be suitable for them. The parents get to decide wether or not they want their children to see it.

  10. PG-13 is not binding (TFA is wrong) by oldosadmin · · Score: 4, Informative

    In my state (NC), at least, PG-13 is not a binding rating.

    (Theoretically) A 7 year old could walk up and get into it without a parent. It's not like R, where it is enforced parental guidence, it's just a strong SUGGESTION.

    --
    Jay | http://oldos.org
  11. No Suprise by kpwoodr · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does this suprise anyone? We all know the story already. Darth Vader doesn't become Darth Vader with out some serious action. A clone army is not going to win a war with out a large loss of life. Yoda is not going to just leave the hot zone to live on some God forsaken swamp planet because a few people died. We've all know that it would take thousands and thousands of dead clones and mutilated Jedi.

    On top of that, it has to be so bloody that we all lose hope. Otherwise, why would there be a "New" hope?

    Rise Lord Vader!

    --
    This sig has been removed pending an investigation.
  12. As he lit.... by essreenim · · Score: 5, Funny
    a cigar with a large stack of burning 20's."

    I love it when a good plan comes together.

    1. Re:As he lit.... by Cpt_Kirks · · Score: 4, Informative

      Nitpick time:

      "I love it when a plan comes together"

      Don't screw with Hannibal.

    2. Re:As he lit.... by hal2814 · · Score: 5, Funny

      I ain't gettin in no spaceship, Hannibal! That crazy foo Murdoch'll get us all killed. I ain't going up there with that sucka!

  13. But he can't tell a story ... by hal9000(jr) · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "But I have to tell a story. I'm not making these, oddly enough, to be giant, successful blockbusters."

    Unfortunately, Luca is not a good story teller. He is great at effects and the details that bring a vision to life. He really needed Spielberg.

    1. Re:But he can't tell a story ... by TheRealFixer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I would say he's actually a very good storyteller. The movies he's done (with the terrible exception of Howard the Duck) have had very appealing storylines, the themes have spoken to a lot of people. He is, however, not a very good screenwriter. Horrid, stilted dialog, endless cliches, dysmal romance. His directing is suspect as well. Visually, he's an outstanding director, but he doesn't work well with actors, often getting very wooden performances out of them

      It's why the most hailed of the Star Wars films was ESB, where he left dialog up to others and let a decent director deal with the actors.

  14. Re:Bzzzt by Masami+Eiri · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Enforcement? Its not Childer under 13 not allowed without a parent, its "Parental Guidence suggested for children under 13".

  15. Parents by Winterblink · · Score: 4, Funny

    Unfortunately it won't stop parents from bringing their five year screaming, whining kids to the theaters so they can throw popcorn around and kick our seat backs. Of course if the movie's as ultraviolent as everyone's making it out to be, they'll just add to the illusion of debris flying through the air and the solid punch of the subwoofer.

    --
    "I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
    -Hoban Washburn
  16. Yeah, Right... by blcamp · · Score: 4, Insightful


    As if seeing Qui-Gon Jinn being run through and Darth Maul cut completely in half wouldn't be disturbing enough to some kids (or even a few adults)... or how about Anakin's hand arm being cut off? Or Luke's?

    And those were just PG?

    And some of the discussion between Anakin and Amidala about thier "first times"?

    And that movie was NOT PG-13?

    Lucas is using the whole ratings "controversy" as yet another way to get more free publicity!

    And the media, and us, are eating it up...

    --
    The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
  17. Itsa beesa trap! by Tackhead · · Score: 5, Funny
    > So long as... ...Jar Jar meets a painful demise, I am happy.

    Spoiler Alert: Jar Jar drowns during the MonCal Water Spectacular gurgling "OH NOES! ITSA BEESA TRAP!", while a young Ensign Ackbar holds up a sign reading "9.8".

  18. Gosh! How unlike the real world by sagneta · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To think that this movie is somehow more violent than *this* planet is amusing. It is a restless day in which somebody is not blown to smithereens in Iraq yet I am supposed to feel outraged that the new Star Wars movie earned a pg-13 rating?

    My outrage well is dry for the moment. Sorry.

  19. Re:Arrogant bastard by Richard_at_work · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If people insist on going to see them regardless, then what incentive does he have to change his methodology? Many people on slashdot would go and see episode 3 if it was made from bad sock puppets and shoeboxes. Personally, I went and saw episode 1, came away disappointed and havent seen episode 2 yet, and I have no intentions of seeing episode 3 at all. I also havent bought any of the butchered 'remastered' versions of the origional trilogy for similiar reasons.

  20. Re:Bzzzt by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Problem Child 2"? I'd say the theater did you a favor no matter what you age was.

  21. Re:The only way to save the franchise.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "So why'd you leave Tatooine? Was it the desert?"

    "No."

    "The criminal element?"

    "No."

    "The poverty?"

    "No."

    "The slavery?"

    "No."

    "Well what was it?"

    "Some jackass threw Jar Jar Binks into a pit of man-eating Sarlacc. He's been screaming 'Meesa needs help! Meesa ouchies! Help meesa!' for the last 300 years. Only 700 more to go."

  22. Good point by M.C.+Hampster · · Score: 4, Informative

    That's a good point. The ratings specify for R that children under 17 are not permitted, while parents are simply cautioned about inappropriate material for PG-13.

    Source

    Of course, this is all still voluntary. There's no legal enforcement. However, I do know some movie theaters enforce the R rating (as I mentioned originally).

    --
    Forget the whales - save the babies.
  23. Joseph Campbell and the power of UGHHHHHH... by GPLDAN · · Score: 4, Informative

    Screenwriter magazine this month has an article on Star Wars. I spend my lunch hours in bookstores wayyyy too often.

    Anyhow, the article is about how Lucas wanted to perpetuate the ties to mythic storytelling in his saga. Even though in '77, his initial interviews talked about little more than a Western in space, once the connections to Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth started happening, Lucas didn't exactly go out of his way to deny it.

    I wonder if that, more than anything, overly influenced the latter trilogy. The epic fall from grace. Suddenly, I have visions of Lucas sitting around reading Milton and having inner dialogs about why Satan gets all the zingy one liners.

    There's a ton of ways to read into Star Wars. The ancient Sith / Jedi split invokes the Jesuits, right down to the robes and the dress. If you've read the final script, you know that (spoiler ahead)








    Anakin forsees the death of his beloved again and again (in very vividly written scenes) and it torments him, as he wants his children, but it starts to drive him mad, and he agrees to become Sith only to gain the power to change the future and save the woman he loves. But, in the end, when he thinks Obi-Wan has betrayed him, he force chokes her and nearly kills her. in fact, Sidious tells him later that his force choke DID kill her, which drives him right over the edge.

    There's a strong influence of Greek tragedy in this script. Cheating death, changing fate. Being at the height of your intellectual and phsyical powers in your late 20's, thinking that the world owes you, that you are the sole master of your destiny and finding your mortality is still all too real.

    The script is brutal. If it's shot that way, it would be a stark departure from the first two. The final scene between Anakin and Obi-Wan was suprising in it's adultness. He falls into the lava, his legs are burning, he can't get up. He's clawing the sand... all of his conceits wash away. No more rationalizations of how totalitarianism is somehow more benign, he just cringes and screams at Obi-Wan, hs face twisted and red "I hate you!!!". Obi-Wan leans down, a tear streaming in his eyes and responds "I always loved you. Like a brother." and walks away leaving him to burn.

    That's serious Campbell territory. The mentor relationship, the hero who fails the test because jealousy consumes him.

    So, when Lucas says 'I needed to tell this story', what I really think is happening is that he needs to fufill the power of myth aspects. This film is a violent fable. The father falls, the son redeems him. His fall needs to be brutal and ultimately apolitical. Anakin doesn't want power for power's sake. He wants respect, he wants everyone to love him and adore him. He has a God complex. There are many levels there.

    I have a feeling that this movie will leave everybody wondering all the ways the first two could be redone. Anakin should have picked up in his early 20's someplace NOT tattooine. His struggle as a slave, beaten and oppressed, would have forced him into spirituality (not chemistry) and a brutal desire for acceptance and hatred for oppression that ultimately twisted around until the only way he could fufill that was to become the oppressor.

    Oh, and the scene where he kills all the padawans, that could have been brutal if it had a flashback to his slave days. As it is, it's just disturbing and the script invokes Columbine somewhat, with the imagery focusing on his black cloak.

  24. The real reason for the rating. by LabRat007 · · Score: 5, Funny



    Queen Amidala: Oh no! some invisible force has removed my clothing!! I must put on some clothing.

    Degenerate Jedi: You don't need to put any clothes on (waves hand in front of face).

    Queen Amidala: I don't need to put on any clothes...

    Degenerate Jedi: Yeah know, they say once you go darkside you never go back.
    (que cheesy sci-fi music with inappropriate back beat)


    You get the idea.

    --
    "Capital punishment makes the state into a murderer. Imprisonment makes the state into a gay dungeon-master"
    1. Re:The real reason for the rating. by IronChefMorimoto · · Score: 4, Informative

      Oh for Christ's sake -- go see Natalie Portman nearly friggin' nekkid and stripping for Clive Owen in a 2-day rental of Closer http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376541/ at Blockbuster Video.

      Trust me -- no need to wait for Lucas to make Star Wars nerds wet dreams come true with revisions to Amidala's cloak or Leia's Hutt bikini in the "Star Wars 8th Edition Special THX Widescreen DVD Collection" to get you in trouble with the wife.

      My gawking during "Closer" was plenty enough to land me on the couch last Saturday night...where I watched it again, after the wife went to sleep, in the privacy of my den. ;)

      IronChefMorimoto

    2. Re:The real reason for the rating. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      ...
      > in the privacy of my den. ;)
      ^^^^^^

      You spelled "hand" wrong....

  25. Mischaracterizing George Lucas by kwiqsilver · · Score: 4, Funny

    George Lucas does not use cash to light his cigars. And I really wish people would stop characterizing him as such.
    He uses the $20 bills as toilet paper (due to their cottony softness). He uses orignial Shakespearean manuscripts to light his cigars.
    In the future, please be more sensitive.

  26. Re:Bzzzt by kwiqsilver · · Score: 5, Informative
    Of the top 20 movies by worldwide box office gross, there are two G movies, 7 PG movies, 10 PG13 movies, and one R movie.
    1. PG13 Titanic (1997) $1,835,300,000
    2. PG13 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) $1,129,219,252
    3. PG Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) $968,600,000
    4. PG Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999) $922,379,000
    5. PG13 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) $921,600,000
    6. PG13 Jurassic Park (1993) $919,700,000
    7. PG Shrek 2 (2004) $880,871,036
    8. PG Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) $866,300,000
    9. G Finding Nemo (2003) $865,000,000
    10. PG13 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) $860,700,000
    11. PG13 Independence Day (1996) $811,200,000
    12. PG13 Spider-Man (2002) $806,700,000
    13. PG Star Wars (1977) $797,900,000
    14. PG Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) $789,458,727
    15. PG13 Spider-Man 2 (2004) $783,577,893
    16. G The Lion King (1994) $783,400,000
    17. PG E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) $756,700,000
    18. R The Matrix Reloaded (2003) $735,600,000
    19. PG13 Forrest Gump (1994) $679,400,000
    20. PG13 The Sixth Sense (1999) $661,500,000
    So obviously PG-13 doesn't hurt ticket sales much (if at all).
  27. If the level of Sex by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Were commeasurate with the level of violence, Lucas would have an NC-17 on his hands, in the Puritanical States of Mullah Omar DeLay's America.

    So, instead, a token effort is made to protect children from severed limbs - while natural parts of a healthy life are [censored].

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."
  28. Re:First PG-13 by CrazyTalk · · Score: 4, Funny
    Just showing y'all where it fits in the heirarchy - not the strongest, not the weekest.

    Or, as we used to say when we were kids:

    G = Good
    PG = Pretty Good
    R = Really Good
    X = Xcellent

  29. **** MAJOR SPOILER WARNING!!! **** by ylikone · · Score: 4, Funny

    Young anakin is actually DARTH VADER!!!

    --
    Meh.
  30. Re:Bzzzt by The+Angry+Mick · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Adn let's not forget that PG-13 came into being because of Lucas and Speilberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Here's a history of the ratings system from Answers.com.

    --

    I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.

  31. Re:Bzzzt by kwiqsilver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not completely useless. It is true that the values are not adjusted for inflation, and that would be a useful update, but it doesn't need to be adjusted for ticket prices. If you're doing that, you should also adjust for G movies selling a larger percentage of matinee tickets (at a lower cost).
    It's not supposed to be a measure of how many tickets were sold, otherwise it would be measured in tickets sold. It is a measure of how much cash the movie took in. Which do you think a studio cares more about: ticket sales or dollars generated?
    For a very rigid economic analysis of movie profitability and its relationship to film ratings, that list would not be a good source. But for the purposes of this discussion of whether the PG-13 rating will hurt RotS, that list is a very good indicator that a PG-13 rating does not harm ticket sales.

  32. There *IS* a legal basis for enforcing R/NC-17 by raehl · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why single out PG-13... _all_ MPAA ratings are jsut advisory notations with no legal basis.

    You mean no CRIMINAL legal basis. Theaters must enforce R and NC-17 ratings for movies distributed by members of the MPAA as a contractual condition of being able to show movies distributed by MPAA members.

    Theaters are under no obligation to the distributors to regulate who may see G, PG, or PG-13 movies.

    That's not to say a movie theater couldn't decide on it's own to not allow 12 year olds to see PG-13 movies, but if any do enforce such a policy, it's extremely rare, and entirely voluntary on a theater-by-theater basis.

  33. Re:Bzzzt by pizzaman100 · · Score: 5, Informative
    Here's the adjusted list (domestic):

    Title, studio, adjusted amount, year of release

    1. Gone with the Wind MGM $1,262,778,900 1939^
    2. Star Wars Fox $1,113,247,500 1977^
    3. The Sound of Music Fox $890,096,100 1965
    4. E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Uni. $886,589,600 1982^
    5. The Ten Commandments Par. $818,750,000 1956
    6. Titanic Par. $802,161,800 1997
    7. Jaws Uni. $800,492,600 1975
    8. Doctor Zhivago MGM $775,846,600 1965
    9. The Exorcist WB $691,054,200 1973^
    10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs Dis. $681,250,000 1937^
    11. 101 Dalmatians Dis. $624,482,800 1961^
    12. The Empire Strikes Back Fox $613,629,000 1980^
    13. Ben-Hur MGM $612,500,000 1959
    14. Return of the Jedi Fox $587,871,300 1983^
    15. The Sting Uni. $557,142,900 1973
    16. Raiders of the Lost Ark Par. $550,886,600 1981^
    17. Jurassic Park Uni. $538,786,500 1993
    18. The Graduate AVCO $534,468,200 1967
    19. Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Fox $530,138,300 1999
    20. Fantasia Dis. $519,021,700 $76,408,097 1941^
    21. Source: Box Office Mojo

  34. May the 4th ... by Draoi · · Score: 5, Funny
    ... be with you!!

    (Sorry, sorry. It only works once a year!)

    --
    Alison

    "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein