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Star Wars, the Lost Interviews
smooth wombat writes "Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Release of Star Wars, Ballantine Books is publishing J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of Star Wars", which bills itself as "The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film." The book is the result of Rinzler's discovery of interviews that Charles Lippincott, Lucasfilm's VP marketing and merchandising in the mid-'70s, conducted with the film's principals between 1975 and 1978."
In the book, Lippincott admits that he actually fired first ...
Bark less. Wag more.
These are not the interviews you're looking for. Move along.
Archived interview with studio janitor:
Ho, I tol' dat Missah Lucas dat dey chould be' funnay guy in nex' movie! Meesah told him dat! Woo!
But he nevah reeplyy, how wude!
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
What acrobatics? Did we watch the same movie?
Thats the problem with editing. When he uttered his famous line, Admiral Akbar really said "It's a trapeze!". He then wowed the crowed with his death-defying acrobatics without a net.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Some photos and text up at: http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/mult
Back when Star Wars first came out, Starlog magazine spent an entire issue devoted to Stars Wars. They mentioned somewhere that Charles Lippincott was writing a book called "The Making of Star Wars", inspired by "The Making of Star Trek" book, but it never appeared.
I'm really glad to see that some of this material is finally seeing the light of day.
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
I am glad I was old enough to enjoy Star Wars when it was first released. I knew little about it other than it was supposed to be great. Saw it in a large theater. Like any great movie, in my opinion, it grabbed me right off and I knew this is something special. I always will remember the boarding scene with Darth and the storm troopers, right there you knew this was going to be good. Or to paraphase Bette Davis, "Hang on tight, it's going to be a great ride..." While special effects are good they don't hold a candle to the barroom scene where you need to see it several times to take in all that is going on.
Do you really have to ask? It will be the "enhanced" version of course. Lucas wants to pretend that the original versions never existed.
And this is why he fails...
Ok, enough of that.
Seriously, for him to completely forget the original production of the trilogy is exactly why I won't give another red cent to the man. The fact is that all he has done is bastardize the original three movies with these new editions that were "the original vision". And worse, he has given us the new trilogy that, while telling of a story, was sorely lacking. I mean, I think there are some good elements, but all in all, as a whole, they sucked.
It is really too bad that Lucas has missed the boat with celebrating the original versions of his films, which were highly revolutionary and landmarks of their time.
RonB
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
I've seen an advance galley proof of the book, and let me tell you, it's filled with fascinating material. Here's some nuggets:
Q: George, there are rumors going around that Luke and Leia are related in some way.
GL: (Laughs) Charlie, I can assure the fans that they are not related. Look at the chemistry between Carrie [Fisher] and Mark [Hamill] on screen! Everyone would feel ill if they turned out to be brother and sister or something like that.
Q: Fans seem to be fascinatated by Darth Vader. What do you think about him has captured everyone's imagination?
GL: People love mysteries. They always have. I learned that a long time before USC. Vader is full of them. Perhaps some of peoples' questions will be answered over time, but I think anyone who expects to get all the answers on things like who he (Is "he" even the right word?) is, what's his name, does he have a family, is or was he ever married, those sorts of things may be disappointed.
Q: What about the Force? Is it magic? Telekinesis? A God-given gift? Illusions?
GL: All of them. None of them. What I can say is that the Force is certainly not something that can be pinned down to anything physical or tangible. If we were to find out that magicians need an extra gland or anything else unusual in their bodies to do their stage tricks we'd all be disappointed, because that means they wouldn't be human any more. We couldn't relate to them. If there's anything the Jedi are, it's that they are as 100% human as you or me.
Q: The Negro community—
GL: Isn't the word "black" nowadays?
Q: —sorry, the black community—some have complained that there aren't any black people in the Star Wars world. What's your response?
GL: Charlie, I want to say that I have the utmost respect for black culture and Negr--blacks' contributions to American society. While, of course, there are no black Americans per se "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away," I can assure fans that anyone who looks black, or sounds black, will be portrayed in a completely-dignified fashion. I won't stoop to using demeaning cultural stereotypes of any kind in my work.
Q: Here's another question from a fan: "Do people in Star Wars use money?"
GL: Charlie, with all due respect to the fan, I want to emphasize how I am trying my best to depict on screen a completely new society. A completely new world. One of the many things different about this world is that it's moved beyond things like "money." Why, one might as well ask whether people will still be talking about "free trade" and "trade cartels"! I mean, come on! Talk about losing the audience! (Laughs)
Q: Speaking of money, what's your take on tie-in products? Toys, games, that sort of thing.
GL: I don't like them. As much as I love and admire Steve[n Spielberg], one thing I found distasteful about Jaws was all the commercialism around [the movie]. I mean, come on! A Jaws lunchbox? A book? Does a shark movie really need a novelization? Mark my words, you're not going to see anything like that for Star Wars. Well, maybe a toy or two for the little kids. But that's it.
Its still exists, but digitally inserted into Saturday's stories because that's where the editors originally wanted it, they just didn't have the story written or the technology exploit that made the story possible. You should consider this new version of Saturday's stories as "original" and forget about the flawed earlier version you saw.
I don't think Star Wars was ever considered by anyone, George Lucas included, to be real science fiction. It's chief influences (westerns, space operas, Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress) aren't sf. It is an adventure story, it's roots in Joseph Campbell's ideas about mythology, and should be judged as such. It shouldn't be criticized for not being something it's not supposed to be.
Curse those evil octopi!
> If you think about it, Anakin/Vader lost just about every fair fight he was in.
You're close, but I think he squeaks ahead
FIGHT!
Episode I
1. Anakin vs Droid ship: Anakin
Episode II
2. Anakin vs Padme in front of Queen: Padme
3. Anakin vs mercenary: Mercenary knocks him off, so he loses
4. Anakin vs Padme in attempt to get to first base: Anakin!
-. Anakin vs Padme on Tatooine in the cockpit of her spacecraft: Anakin concedes ("I've given up arguing with you"), so Padme wins by default. However, match is a draw because Anakin clearly used the Force to turn on Padme's "headlights"
5. Anakin vs that creature in the ring: Anakin
6. Anakin vs Count Dooku: Dooku
Episode III
7. Anakin vs buzz droids: Anakin
8. Anakin vs Dooku (rematch): Anakin
9. Anakin vs Mace: Anakin
-. Anakin/Vader vs random padawans: Anakin (doesn't count as it wasn't fair)
10. Anakin/Vader vs Obi-Wan: Obiwan
Anakin score so far: 6/10
Episode IV
1. Vader vs. Obi-Wan: Vader
2, 3, 4. Vader vs X-Wing pilot: +1+1+1 (at least)
5. Vader vs Han Solo: Solo
Episode V
6. Vader vs Han Solo: Vader (blocks blaster bolts with glove for the score!)
7. Vader vs Lando (debate): Vader
8. Vader vs Luke: Vader
Episode VI
9. Vader vs Luke: Luke
10. Vader/Anakin vs Emperor: Vader
Vader score: 8/10
Anakin/Vader score (lifetime): 14/20
So he didn't do too bad.
(I can't believe I wasted time doing this)
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.