The only thing erroneous about what I said was that they were all written and directed by an American, when one out of the six was only written by Lucas, but not directed by it.
Er, no. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, though conceived by Lucas like all the others, was directed by Irvin Kershner.
Out of all six, the starring cast members were still American with the exception of Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon, Amidala, and Palpatine.
Obviously just how significant a role is meant by "starring" is debateable, but for the sake of argument, let's say, oh, actors whose participation is significant enough that they're listed in the major credits shown on the posters. With that, the "starring" actors include:
Hayden Christensen (Canadian) - Anakin Skywalker
David Prowse (British) - embodiment of Darth Vader
Kenny Baker (British) - R2-D2
Anthony Daniels (British) - C-3PO
Peter Mayhew (British) - Chewbacca
Pernilla August (Swedish) - Shmi Skywalker
Peter Cushing (British) - Grand Moff Tarkin
Christopher Lee (British) - Count Dooku
(Incidentally, though Natalie Portman was born in Israel, I think she qualifies as an American.)
At any rate, the bulk of the creative influence for the movies came from Americans, hence the absurdity of blasting people for looking at the movies from the perspectives of Americans. Even those who were not American and involved in the movies were from Western countries with similar enough political and social climates to the US's to the point that their national origin would in all likelihood not have been a differentiating factor in how they contributed to the movies. In other words, they came from countries with modern liberal democracies where people have similar standards of living to those in the US. We are not talking about people from the USSR, North Korea, Cuba, China, Somalia, Afghanistan, etc.
Agreed, but that's not relevant to the discussion. You were replying to a post that said:
AND FINALLY>>>> you people need to quit trying to apply EARTH and HUMAN values and concepts to what is supposed to be an ALIEN and NON_TERRAN society, these people were not meant to think like you and me, their culture is considerably different than the USofA
That's about the cultures and politics of the worlds in the movies, not about the cultures and politics of the world that imagined them. You responded as though it were some political statement about the US:
Get off your politically correct high horse when you are talking about main-stream American cinema.
But that has nothing to do with the point the parent was making, and I wasn't even directly addressing that part of it; I just pointed out that "(a)ll six movies were written and directed by an American and starred almost all American actors" was wrong. And it is.
I never said any such thing. I merely corrected your assertions they were all directed by an American (false) and starred almost entirely American actors (also false). I never said they weren't American movies, and I wouldn't say that; I know very well they are indeed American films. They simply do have substantial contributions from non-Americans, to the point that your post was grossly erroneous.
All six movies were written and directed by an American and starred almost all American actors (nevermind that 100% of the people involved in the movies were TERRAN). Get off your politically correct high horse when you are talking about main-stream American cinema.
Er, actually, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi director Richard Marquand was Welsh, and there are so many non-American actors throughout all six films I can't possibly name them all, plenty of them in major roles.
I guess we already knew C3P0 is running Windows Mobile. It's the only explanation.
Explanation for what? It sounds as though you're selling Threepio terribly short, but I don't know what the rationale is. Threepio is a terribly underappreciated character, though...
And, what - offering to accept used iPods for recycling and granting a same-day 10% discount on the purchase of a new one will eliminate the secondary market? In what world do you see this happening? This is far more about complying with recycling legislation (extant or forthcoming), responding to criticism on environmental impact, possibly getting a new source of parts for refurbishments, and just maybe even a desire to actually do something positive re: environmental impact than about the secondary market for used iPods. The overwhelming majority of people who have iPods with any life left in them at all that they wish to get rid of will surely prefer to sell them for substantially more money than the value of the 10% discount on a new unit.
And for that matter, what makes you think everyone is a "registered traceable owner"? There's no requirement to register an iPod, and Apple's not trying to "trace" anyone.
Actually, I'm not sure they do all that; in particular, I have my doubts about the population of China shitting 4.4 times as much. Are you saying the average Chinese person eats as much as the average US one?
Um, why the heck is this insightful? I guess to a mod that can't do simple arithmetic maybe. 300 CDs would hold a *lot* more than any iPod I'm aware of. In fact it's probably more like 3x the capacity of the largest iPod.
That depends on whether you're talking about CDs full of MP3s (AACs, Ogg Vorbis files, whatever), or regular redbook audio CDs. If the latter, then no, they're not going to hold as much music (in running time, not in space taken up) as a higher-capacity iPod can.
I think it hasn't been reported by now because to learn this, they first had to find long bones of a dinosaur that had died while it was developing eggs. Only a fraction of the fossils ever discovered would therefore reveal something like this, since the fossils showing this feature would have to come from a subset of dinosaurs that were developing eggs, which would be a subset of female dinosaurs of reproductive age, which would be a subset of female dinosaurs.
Note also that they discovered this feature when they split the bone so they could transport it by helicopter; they wouldn't have noticed anything unusual from just looking at the exterior of the bone. It's conceivable some of the other fossils of dinosaurs currently in museums and laboratories do also bear this evidence, and that no one has seen it until now because they haven't looked inside those bones. Since finding out whether this medullary bone is present requires cutting bones open, some fossils will probably never be checked.
And are you also going to require that in addition to making purchases of X dollars, that they spend Y minutes conversing with Z other customers each?
Even if the wi-fi junkies buy lots of coffee, that still doesn't solve the problem of the erosion of the atmosphere in the shop. Dozens of people independently sitting around looking at screens and not interacting with one another is evidently not what the people running the shop deem desirable.
When it first played in theatres, ANH was just titled Star Wars and there was no reference to "Episode IV" or "A New Hope". This was changed within a few months when it became clear that it would be possible to make more films in the same saga. Subsequent theatrical releases, and all TV and video, et al, releases, refer to "Episode IV: A New Hope" in the scrolling introduction
Almost. It wasn't a few months, but a few years; the movie was simply Star Wars from its original May 1977 release through its '78 and '79 reissues. Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was released in May of 1980, and then the original movie was reissued in April of 1981; it was in this April '81 release that it first bore the onscreen title "Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope" (though the impending title change had been reported earlier, of course).
Well, it's the same with movies, of course. A fairly typical movie DVD might sell at lots of outlets for about $20, and its soundtrack album CD might be anywhere from half to three quarters of that. I know of a number of movies for which the DVD of the movie is cheaper than the soundtrack CD.
Perhaps that's where Forbes got its info. Those definitely aren't the only releases, though; it very definitely did have separate reissues in '78, '79, '81 (this was the first one for which it received the full title), '82, and '97.
Lucas was one the hottest directors/scriptwriters even before Star Wars -- he would have had a long successful career even if the first movie bombed. Since ROTJ, he's had total and complete freedom, and the only thing he came up with was "Radioland Murders". Fear of failure, or spending too much time smoking dope and swimming around in a giant pool of money?
Lucas had one hit before Star Wars, and while American Graffiti was big, it wouldn't have singlehandedly saved his career from feeling any effects if Star Wars had flopped.
He did a lot more than just Radioland Murders after originally finishing the original trilogy. He did most of the Indiana Jones adventures (two movies and a TV series, or everything except Raiders of the Lost Ark) and Willow, in addition to serving as executive producer on several other films by other filmmakers, for starters.
From the first page of the slideshow sidebar linked from the last link in Slashdot's writeup:
How many times have you seen all five films? Repeat viewings are a staple of hard core Star Wars fans, and even casual moviegoers saw the original two or three times. Lucas counted on this by releasing each of the first three Star Wars films several times. Aside from the original release in 1977, he rereleased it once in 1982 and again in 1997 as a re-edited and digitally enhanced "Special Edition." Lucas did the same for the 1980 The Empire Strikes Back and 1983's Return of the Jedi.
Actually, there were quite a few more rereleases than that:
1977 - Star Wars original release
1978 - Star Wars rerelease
1979 - Star Wars rerelease
1980 - Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back original release
1981 - rereleases of both Star Wars (now retitled Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope) and Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back 1982 - rereleases of both Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope and Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back 1983 - Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi original release
1985 - Star Wars - Episode Vi: Return of the Jedi rerelease
Note also that 1971's THX 1138 and 1973's American Graffiti were both rereleased in 1978 as well, More American Graffiti was released in 1979, Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981 and rereleased in 1982, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released in 1984 (the only year from 1977 to 1985 that no Star Wars film got at least a limited theatrical release).
If CSUSA wants to take Reigelman to court, they must think they have proof that some statements on her message board are false, and they must think they have a legal right to justice.
They might, but that's not the same as they must. It's hard for one of us on the outside to tell the difference between them having a legitimate grievance about out-and-out falsehoods and them just not wanting any bad publicity and so suing or threatening to sue with a certain confidence the site and the parents can't afford to mount an adequate defense.
I do know there's at least a bit of music being offered through iTunes that one can't get elsewhere (not just "exclusive" alternate performances or remixes of widely-available material, but entire compositions unavailable at all elsewhere), though it's not the sort of thing to interest most people (then again, if it were, it would probably be more widely available).
They have some film and TV scoring that hasn't been released on CD, at least some of it for reasons having to do with the extremely limited market niche the music occupies. I do know at least one and probably several record labels that specialize in soundtrack releases still took a pass on Alexandre Desplat's score for The Upside of Anger because it just didn't seem to be something they could recoup their costs on offering pressed CDs, but presumably the costs involved in selling downloads are lower, so music like this can still get out to the handful of weirdoes like myself that actually enjoy listening to film scores.
(Disclaimer: that's my iMix; I put it up as sort of a reference guide for score fans who might not realize some of that stuff is available there but not elsewhere.)
They do actually make generic bricks and parts in abundance. The licensed sets actually don't use all that many special pieces unique to the licenses, just enough to tie them in. This is as one would expect - it's fairly costly for LEGO to create new pieces for sets, and when they do they try to get as much mileage out of them as possible, which means not doing huge numbers of new parts that are specific to licenses like Star Wars and Harry Potter that they won't be able to use for more than a few years (since the licenses will expire - they won't be doing those sets forever).
LEGO was already declining in popularity when they started doing licenses, and there's plenty of reason to think they've gotten a shot in the arm from them. I do understand the purist view that they shouldn't ever have done licenses to begin with, since LEGO's its own thing that really doesn't need gimmickry to be an excellent toy, but I don't think the licenses have hurt it as much as one might have expected, either.
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Er, no. Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, though conceived by Lucas like all the others, was directed by Irvin Kershner.
Obviously just how significant a role is meant by "starring" is debateable, but for the sake of argument, let's say, oh, actors whose participation is significant enough that they're listed in the major credits shown on the posters. With that, the "starring" actors include:
Hayden Christensen (Canadian) - Anakin Skywalker
David Prowse (British) - embodiment of Darth Vader
Kenny Baker (British) - R2-D2
Anthony Daniels (British) - C-3PO
Peter Mayhew (British) - Chewbacca
Pernilla August (Swedish) - Shmi Skywalker
Peter Cushing (British) - Grand Moff Tarkin
Christopher Lee (British) - Count Dooku
(Incidentally, though Natalie Portman was born in Israel, I think she qualifies as an American.)
Agreed, but that's not relevant to the discussion. You were replying to a post that said:
That's about the cultures and politics of the worlds in the movies, not about the cultures and politics of the world that imagined them. You responded as though it were some political statement about the US:
But that has nothing to do with the point the parent was making, and I wasn't even directly addressing that part of it; I just pointed out that "(a)ll six movies were written and directed by an American and starred almost all American actors" was wrong. And it is.
I never said any such thing. I merely corrected your assertions they were all directed by an American (false) and starred almost entirely American actors (also false). I never said they weren't American movies, and I wouldn't say that; I know very well they are indeed American films. They simply do have substantial contributions from non-Americans, to the point that your post was grossly erroneous.
Er, actually, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi director Richard Marquand was Welsh, and there are so many non-American actors throughout all six films I can't possibly name them all, plenty of them in major roles.
And yet a fuckload of people still went and bought it...
Explanation for what? It sounds as though you're selling Threepio terribly short, but I don't know what the rationale is. Threepio is a terribly underappreciated character, though...
And for that matter, what makes you think everyone is a "registered traceable owner"? There's no requirement to register an iPod, and Apple's not trying to "trace" anyone.
And yet they don't do this (lock individual iPods to individuals).
Actually, I'm not sure they do all that; in particular, I have my doubts about the population of China shitting 4.4 times as much. Are you saying the average Chinese person eats as much as the average US one?
That depends on whether you're talking about CDs full of MP3s (AACs, Ogg Vorbis files, whatever), or regular redbook audio CDs. If the latter, then no, they're not going to hold as much music (in running time, not in space taken up) as a higher-capacity iPod can.
Note also that they discovered this feature when they split the bone so they could transport it by helicopter; they wouldn't have noticed anything unusual from just looking at the exterior of the bone. It's conceivable some of the other fossils of dinosaurs currently in museums and laboratories do also bear this evidence, and that no one has seen it until now because they haven't looked inside those bones. Since finding out whether this medullary bone is present requires cutting bones open, some fossils will probably never be checked.
Even if the wi-fi junkies buy lots of coffee, that still doesn't solve the problem of the erosion of the atmosphere in the shop. Dozens of people independently sitting around looking at screens and not interacting with one another is evidently not what the people running the shop deem desirable.
Do you think reading long-inaccessible ancient documents by some of the intellectual forebears of our culture isn't a worthwhile use of the tech?
So help me, when I saw the reference in the write-up about landing a JSF, I first thought "Jedi Starfighter." I must need help...
Almost. It wasn't a few months, but a few years; the movie was simply Star Wars from its original May 1977 release through its '78 and '79 reissues. Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back was released in May of 1980, and then the original movie was reissued in April of 1981; it was in this April '81 release that it first bore the onscreen title "Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope" (though the impending title change had been reported earlier, of course).
Not that it's particularly important or anything, but I was under the impression Castro stopped smoking his famous cigars some years ago.
Well, it's the same with movies, of course. A fairly typical movie DVD might sell at lots of outlets for about $20, and its soundtrack album CD might be anywhere from half to three quarters of that. I know of a number of movies for which the DVD of the movie is cheaper than the soundtrack CD.
Or Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Perhaps that's where Forbes got its info. Those definitely aren't the only releases, though; it very definitely did have separate reissues in '78, '79, '81 (this was the first one for which it received the full title), '82, and '97.
Lucas had one hit before Star Wars, and while American Graffiti was big, it wouldn't have singlehandedly saved his career from feeling any effects if Star Wars had flopped.
He did a lot more than just Radioland Murders after originally finishing the original trilogy. He did most of the Indiana Jones adventures (two movies and a TV series, or everything except Raiders of the Lost Ark) and Willow, in addition to serving as executive producer on several other films by other filmmakers, for starters.
Actually, there were quite a few more rereleases than that:
1977 - Star Wars original release
1978 - Star Wars rerelease
1979 - Star Wars rerelease
1980 - Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back original release
1981 - rereleases of both Star Wars (now retitled Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope) and Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
1982 - rereleases of both Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope and Star Wars - Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
1983 - Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi original release
1985 - Star Wars - Episode Vi: Return of the Jedi rerelease
Note also that 1971's THX 1138 and 1973's American Graffiti were both rereleased in 1978 as well, More American Graffiti was released in 1979, Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981 and rereleased in 1982, and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was released in 1984 (the only year from 1977 to 1985 that no Star Wars film got at least a limited theatrical release).
Right, because Slashdot works hard to be much more even tempered and free from zealots than democraticunderground.com.
They might, but that's not the same as they must. It's hard for one of us on the outside to tell the difference between them having a legitimate grievance about out-and-out falsehoods and them just not wanting any bad publicity and so suing or threatening to sue with a certain confidence the site and the parents can't afford to mount an adequate defense.
And yet so comparatively few Macs out of the total pool get thrown away, compared to PCs. I wonder why?
Just so you know, hard drives and memory are upgradeable in iMacs.
They have some film and TV scoring that hasn't been released on CD, at least some of it for reasons having to do with the extremely limited market niche the music occupies. I do know at least one and probably several record labels that specialize in soundtrack releases still took a pass on Alexandre Desplat's score for The Upside of Anger because it just didn't seem to be something they could recoup their costs on offering pressed CDs, but presumably the costs involved in selling downloads are lower, so music like this can still get out to the handful of weirdoes like myself that actually enjoy listening to film scores.
(Disclaimer: that's my iMix; I put it up as sort of a reference guide for score fans who might not realize some of that stuff is available there but not elsewhere.)
LEGO was already declining in popularity when they started doing licenses, and there's plenty of reason to think they've gotten a shot in the arm from them. I do understand the purist view that they shouldn't ever have done licenses to begin with, since LEGO's its own thing that really doesn't need gimmickry to be an excellent toy, but I don't think the licenses have hurt it as much as one might have expected, either.