A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

In Quora, Bryce Howell asks: Why has George Lucas made so many changes to the original trilogy? My answer: Because as the filmmaker who conceived, created, and - in the case of  The Empire Strikes Back  and  Return of the Jedi -  financed the  Star Wars  films, George Lucas was entitled to make changes. It is a matter of historical record that  Star Wars,  aka  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope  underwent a series of alterations even before 1981, which was the year that Lucasfilm convinced 20th Century Fox to reissue the film with its  Episode IV  subtitle. Before that, Lucasfilm had had to fix the audio mix, make sure that all the prints (both the 35 mm and the 70 mm) matched, missing lines of dialogue restored, and other minor adjustments that were needed at the time. Followers of  Star Wars  history, as well as viewers who listen to Lucas’s audio commentary tracks on the DVDs and Blu-ray home media releases, also know that Lucas always thought that the special effe

On Quora, member Thomas Fay asks:  Do you keep count of how many times you watch the Star Wars movies so you can say you've seen them “X” times? Not since I bought my first (used) VHS video cassette of  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope  back in 1984. Before  then, when VCRs were still expensive toys that only people with lots of disposable cash could afford, most  Star Wars  fans of the 1977 Generation only saw the Original Trilogy in theaters - as many times as they could. Star Wars -  as the first film was originally titled before its Summer of 1981 re-release - premiered on May 25, 1977, although it didn’t hit theaters in some cities (such as Miami) till early June. 20th Century Fox was  not  expecting it to be a big summer hit, so it acquiesced to Lucasfilm’s request that it release the movie close to Memorial Day weekend. (Fox believed that its Summer of 1977 would be its adaptation of Sidney Sheldon’s  The Other Side of Midnight, and since its board of direct

© 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp.  Recently, someone asked this question on Quora: Is Star Wars based on a comic book? I, of course, replied: What? Holy Mother of Skywalker, of course not. Star Wars  was not based on an eponymous pre-existing literary work that a 30-something George Lucas happened to come across at a used book store whilst trying to come up with a follow-up film to his 1973 hit  American Grafitti. Rather,  Star Wars  as we know and love it (?) was created by Lucas himself, starting in 1971 with some early (and bizarre) story ideas for a space-fantasy film that would be the antithesis to his dystopian (and unsuccessful) sci-fi film  THX-1138,  which his friend Francis Ford Coppola produced and Warner Bros. released that same year. Considering how large   a shadow  Star Wars  casts upon modern pop culture over 40 years after the original movie premiered on May 25, 1977, it’s hard to believe that Lucas’s original plan to make a fun, escapist, tongue-in-c

Who were other candidates for composing the music of the original Star Wars movie? Besides John Williams? None. George Lucas, who had a keen understanding of the intimate relationship between movie imagery and music, planned to follow Stanley Kubrick’s example in 1968’s  2001: A Space Odyssey  and use different compositions of classical music throughout the film. A little Holst here, a little Wagner there, some Tchaikovsky in this bit, and so on. One of the original ideas that Lucas had for the Star Wars - which was based on his use of rock 'n' roll songs in American Graffiti , was to use different classical music compositions to match the visuals. And in fact, during the early stages of assembling the film after principal photography was complete, Lucas created a "temp track" that consisted of pieces such as Gustav Holst's Mars: The Bringer of War from his suite of tone poems The Planets.  This approach worked well for  2001,  but it’s do

One of the most annoying trends that I've noticed while perusing social media sites such as Facebook and Quora, particularly the latter, is that franchise fans want to be spoon-fed every detail of a character arc instead of using their imaginations, as we dinosaurs from the prehistoric days before the Internet did when we watched a film. I don't know if it's because they don't understand the limitations of the medium, or if it's because the "I want every detail explained to me" crowd wants to find "plot holes" and inconsistencies.  Yesterday, for instance, I saw this question on Quora: Why does Leia not mention her family and friends, as well as her home, have been destroyed in the films? I wasn't going to write an answer, but I found myself so annoyed by the question that I ended up spending a good hour or so coming up with a rebuttal. Here is what I said: Why should Leia be constantly talking about the destruction of Alderaan a

Someone on Quora asks:  What do you think of the Star Wars Episode IX trailer? As someone who has seen every  Star Wars  trailer for the live action Episodes since 1976, I can honestly say it’s par for the course for a Lucasfilm  Star Wars  trailer. In essence, it follows the conventions of the  Star Wars  teaser trailers that have come before. It gives the audience glimpses of what the filmmakers have to offer without giving the narrative away. Obviously, there are stylistic differences between the teaser for the first  Star Wars  Skywalker Saga film and the one for the last. For instance, there’s no “voice of God” narrator in the teaser for  The Rise of Skywalker ; instead, we have Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, reciting some dialogue that gives viewers a hint about the thematic content of the film  without  spoilers. I also like the fact that the  Episode IX  trailer is itself a callback to the teaser for  The Force Awakens. And I love the twist at the

© 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Would audiences be interested if Disney-Lucasfilm remade Star Wars Episodes IV, V and VI with modern film-making techniques? Judging from the reaction of many  Star Wars  fans to the changes that franchise creator and founder/retired CEO of Lucasfilm, George Lucas, made when he decided to improve 1970s-era special effects shots that he felt fell short of his vision with late 1990s-era CGI effects for the 20th Anniversary Special Editions, I’d say…”No.” The  Star Wars Trilogy  is already one of the most “tinkered with” movie series in the history of the industry. Since 1977,  Star Wars  alone has undergone many adjustments, ranging from necessary fixes to its audio track, accidental deletion of scenes and re-insertion of said scenes, a 1981 title change from  Star Wars  to  Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope,  a tweak that was first previewed in 1979 when Ballantine Books published Carol Titleman’s  The Art of Star Wars  and officiall

 'During Vader's confrontation with Admiral Motti, why doesn't the Dark Lord choke Governor Tarkin when he intervenes?' Because, as powerful and menacing as Darth Vader is, he can’t Force-choke anyone who is equal in stature, or even above Vader’s standing in Imperial hierarchy, even if he is tempted to. It’s just not something one does in a chain of command, and especially not in the ruling circles of the Galactic Empire. Understand. In  Star Wars,  aka  Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,  Vader is not the big bad villain representing the Empire. That role belongs to Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin, Governor of the Imperial Outland Territories, author of the Tarkin Doctrine, and commander of the Empire’s new Death Star battle station. He is also a confidante and friend to Sheev Palpatine, aka His Imperial Highness, Emperor Palpatine. © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp.  In  Episode IV; A New Hope,  in which the “I find your lack of faith disturbing” altercat

© 2007 Del Rey Books and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) How did George Lucas envision the Star Wars franchise while making the first movie? To be honest, I don’t believe that Lucas had a grand blueprint for a “franchise.” When he was writing and directing  Star Wars,  aka  Star Wars -Episode IV: A New Hope,  he had a vague outline for the Prequels (proof of which is the prologue to the novelization of  Star Wars ), the four drafts of  Star Wars,  and ideas (not a complete screenplay that he pared down into thirds, as he has claimed) for possible sequels. That’s it. No more, no less, as a certain Jedi Master that sounds suspiciously like Fozzie Bear as a Zen master might have said.  Between 1973 and 1976, and especially when he was shooting Star Wars, Lucas didn’t have a grand scheme to make a nine-part Saga with secondary Expanded Universes all over the media. He had  hopes  that  Star Wars  would be a decent enough hit at the box office to be able to make all kinds of films, inc

Before the advent of home video, in any format (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, or digital download)? That’s easy. Star Wars. Or, as it’s been officially renamed (since 1981): Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope. © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corporation Now, Star Wars was not the first movie that I saw more than once in theaters (for the purposes of this answer, home video/television broadcasts don’t count). That honor, for lack of a better word, goes to this 1977 movie, which opened a couple of weeks after George Lucas’s space-fantasy film. © 1977 MGM//United Artists When Star Wars premiered in May of 1977, I was more into military history than I was into science fiction/space fantasy. In fact, I didn’t want to see Star Wars that summer - even though almost all of my friends told me it was a “must-see” event. I saw A Bridge Too Far twice within a period of two weeks. My mom was not terribly thrilled to drive me to the theater to see the same flick twice, but since she was mere

In A New Hope, why does Obi-Wan call Lord Vader 'Darth' as if it's a first name and not a title? Lord Darth Vader enters the captured Rebel Blockade Runner after its capture by an Imperial Star Destroyer above the desert planet Tatooine. © 1977 20th Century Fox Film Corp.  You have to understand that in 1977 when  Star Wars  was originally released,  Darth Vader  was the character’s given name. It wasn’t a “Sith” alias; it was just a name, on par with “Luke Skywalker” or “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” Now, in George Lucas’s original screenplay and the novelization, Vader is said to be a Dark Lord of the Sith, but 42 years ago, audiences and readers were not told what the Sith were or even how many of them existed in the  Star Wars  universe during the Empire’s reign. The most information that was given to us - and that was in Alan Dean Foster’s novelization - was that “fear always followed in the wake of a Dark Lord’s passing.” No details about Darth Bane’s Rule of Two or t

The Galactic Empire's Death Star 1 battle station in its final stages of construction. © 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. Why wasn’t the Death Star re-engineered after the Rebels exploited the flaw with the thermal exhaust port? Actually, the Death Star  was  modified heavily after the destruction of Grand Moff Tarkin’s DS-1 at the Battle of Yavin. Although the movies don’t address this - there’s a three-year time jump between  A New Hope  and  The Empire Strikes Back -  it’s extremely likely that the Emperor called his most senior advisors and formed an Imperial Death Star Investigative Committee to discover how a single Incom T-65 X-wing fighter was able to destroy the Empire’s ultimate weapon with two proton torpedoes. Such an investigative body would have had access to archival copies of the DS-1 plans, perhaps provided by the Emperor himself. The original plans were destroyed along with the Imperial Citadel on Scarif shortly before the Battle of Yavin, but it’s not a stretch