A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

Was it Irvin Kershner who came up with the "Vader is Luke's father" plotline in The Empire Strikes Back? No. It was George Lucas’s idea. Lawrence Kasdan incorporated Lucas’s concept into his draft of  The Empire Strikes Back’s  screenplay. Irvin Kershner did not have any say into how the screenplay was written. His job as a director was to  interpret  visually what Lucas and Kasdan wrote (in Courier font and proper screenplay format) on paper.

On Quora, die-hard Trump supporter Eda Acuri asked this question yesterday: Why should the American public NOT take the Democrats interpretation of the Mueller's report? Quora has marked this question as being insincere. Here's my reply to Ms. Acuri: First, my fellow American, it’s not “Mueller’s report,” it’s the “Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In the 2016 Presidential Election,” by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III. If you’re going to ask loaded, insincere questions in an effort to defend  “the greatest President in American history,”  as some of you like to call Donald J. Trump, you can at least try for a modicum of accuracy when you write, especially on a public forum like Quora. Second, it’s not the “Democrats interpretation” of the above-mentioned “Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In the 2016 Presidential Election.” The way you phrased that question is as dishonest as it is grammatically incorrect, my friend....

Customs and Border Protection officers in Pharr, TX display the 384 packages of meth taken from a tractor-trailer at a border crossing point at the International Bridge between the U.S. and Mexico. Photo Credit: Customs and Border Protection On Quora, Don Morgan, a Trump supporter, asks: Is the discovery and seizure of 384 packages of methamphetamine weighing 924 pounds worth $18.5 million proof that our borders need to be strongly controlled as claimed by President Trump? My response: Considering that the tractor-trailer carrying $18.5 million worth of meth was stopped at a border checkpoint at the International Bridge by the Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations in Pharr, Texas, I would have to say  No. From CBP’s official press release: Release Date: May 21, 2019 PHARR, Texas —U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations (OFO) at the Pharr International Bridge intercepted a significant amount of methamphetamine in a c...

In Star Wars: The Radio Drama, there are episodes that tell how the Death Star plans were stolen in detail. Why weren’t these ideas used in Rogue One? © 1981 National Public Radio and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) There are several reasons why the Brian Daley-created bits of  Star Wars: The Radio Drama  were ignored when John Knoll, Lucasfilm’s VP for Creative Affairs and former special effects head at the studio pitched his idea for   Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  to his boss, Kathy Kennedy. One of them is purely conjectural on my part, but the others are based on the movie industry reality. Daley’s expository material for  Star Wars’  Princess Leia was not cinematic enough: Sure, the Imperial invasion of Raltiir, Leia’s initial encounters with Vader and Lord Tion, and Tion’s subsequent (and fatal) visit to Alderaan work well as a radio story, but it’s hard to see Lucasfilm shelling out a huge budget for a film with not that many action scenes. ...

American democracy is truly skating on thin ice if Trump supporters really believe they can react with gun-wielding violence if   "their" President is impeached.  On Quora, a Trump supporter with the unlikely name of "Anth Jesus" asks: If Trump is impeached and refuses to step down would you support his decision even if it meant armed conflict? This is my answer: A point that needs to be addressed before reading my answer: The term “impeach” does not mean “remove from office.” It means to “put an elected official on trial before a legislative body. Removal from office  is  the outcome upon conviction, but since there are two likely possibilities -  acquittal  and  conviction,  President Trump could be  impeached,  but not necessarily  removed from office  if he is  acquitted. First of all, Donald Trump is not going to be impeached. Based on what I’ve read in the official Mueller Report about Russian in...

A German language map showing the last two years of World War II in Europe. (Credit: Wikicommons Media) Why did the Western Allies take such a risk at Normandy? Why did they not just push through Italy? There were several reasons involved in the choice of invading German-occupied Europe via Northern France rather than from the Balkans or the Italian peninsula, all of which were based on geography and basic principles of military strategy, tactics, and logistics. U.S. soldiers wade toward Omaha Beach in Normandy, June 6, 1944. (Photo Credit: U.S. Coast Guard) The first basic consideration we must address is this: What was the mission of the Allied Expeditionary Force in 1944? This was the directive given to Gen. Dwight D. “Ike” Eisenhower by his superiors, the Combined Chiefs of Staff when he assumed command of the AEF in January 1944: “You will enter the continent of Europe, and undertake operations aimed at the heart of Germany and the destruction of her armed forces...

If the Star Wars series was remastered with every lightsaber choreography redesigned and dialogues given more attention, would it be profitable for the company making it? What? Hell, no! First of all, what you’re suggesting is not technically a  remastering.  What you are really saying here is  Why doesn’t Lucasfilm simply remake the entire pre-2015  Star Wars  series with new choreography and improved dialogue. Why on Earth would you suggest such a thing? I mean, just because a technically adept fan made his own version of  Star Wars  Scene 38 with computer animation software to make the iconic lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader more dynamic, and just because fans raised on video games and the faster, more intense lightsaber fights of the Prequels think it’s  amazeballs,  it does not mean that the vast majority of  Star Wars  fans   want a remake that “improves” the lightsaber duels or the di...

From Russia With Love (1963) Written by: Johanna Harwood (adapter), Richard Maibum, Berkely Mather (uncredited) Based on: From Russia With Love, by Ian Fleming Directed by: Terence Young Starring: Sean Connery, Pedro Armendariz, Daniela Bianchi, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya, Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Vladek Sheybal Tatiana: [Bond first meets Tatiana, who has crawled naked into his hotel bed] You look surprised. I thought you were expecting me. James Bond: So, you're Tatiana Romanova. Tatiana: My friends call me Tania. James Bond: Mine call me James Bond. SPECTREs tender trap: Daniela Bianchi in a publicity still for From Russia With Love. With the phenomenal success of 1962's Dr. No - a film that earned $59 million over a production budget of $1.1 million - producers Harry Saltzman and Albert R. Broccoli were approached by United Artists, the U.S.-based film production and distribution company which had helped EON Productions' first James Bond movi...

Have you listened to 'Star Wars: The Radio Drama'?  Does its subplot about the Death Star plans impact 'Legends'? If you’re referring to 1981’s  Star Wars: The Radio Drama,  of course I have! Brian Daley (1947-1996) Photo Credit: Beauregard Simmons, www.briandaley.com So have many other  Star Wars  fans, both at the time that Brian Daley’s 13-part adaptation aired on National Public Radio and later, when Highbridge Audio (a subsidiary of Minnesota Public Radio) released it on audiocassette and compact disc in the early 1990s. In fact, I have two box sets of the  Star Wars: The Radio Dramas.  One is the “as heard on NPR” edition that most people own on tape, CD, or MP3 audio files; the other is the pricier  Limited Collector’s Edition  set that presents the Radio Dramas as they were originally recorded, without the edits asked for by NPR stations for station identification breaks and other industry-related issues. In ca...