And on that path lies only dancing baloney and disappointment.
I do have a copy of the Original Release on DVD. Unfortunately, it’s a direct copy from the Laser Disc, so picture quality is… not terrible. But Han shoots first, and that’s the important part.
Very true. Star Wars was better paced and flowed better than A New Hope: Special Edition. I firmly believe that directors, like authors, should not edit their own work.
There’s a great riff on this scene in the Family Guy Star Wars thing. Luke looks behind him to see the whole orchestra who then play The People’s Court theme.
“Know when to stop painting.”
(Spoiler for The Last Jedi)
Luke gazing upon twin suns (or maybe moons) while he entered The Force at the end of *The Last Jedi *was a perfect nod to the widespread appreciation of the original scene from Star Wars.
The OP hasn’t gotten to Han Solo yet, but I don’t know when I’ll be in the neighborhood again.
Watching the movies with my daughter, a decade or more after the last time I’d seen them, I was amazed at how bad Harrison Ford’s acting was. Hamill wasn’t great, but he was OK. Ditto Fisher. But Ford’s lack of chops was embarrassing.
A short time later, I saw a long-form interview (60 Minutes or Sunday Morning or something) with Harrison Ford. He talked about improving as an actor. Paraphrasing follows:
Interviewer: Are you a better actor now than you were before?
Ford: I hope so.
Interviewer: Were you a bad actor earlier?
Ford. Hell yeah.
Interviewer: Name a movie in which you turned in a bad performance.
Ford: Have you seen Star Wars?
I do plan on picking this back up soon, just FYI. But I don’t agree with your assessment of Harrison Ford (or his.) I think his performance was pretty good. He would not have become such a wildly popular character and cultural icon if it wasn’t.
It’s unthinkable for me to imagine anyone else playing that role. According to Wikipedia, a whole menagerie of other actors were considered: Al Pacino, Christopher Walken, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, Kurt Russell, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Robert Englund, Nick Nolte, and Burt Reynolds. While it’s obviously impossible to speculate what Han Solo would have been like if he were portrayed by some of those actors - and some of them are truly ridiculous choices (Christopher Walken? Bill Murray?) - I just can’t conceive of any of them giving the role the same kind of swaggering charisma that Ford did.
Anyone who can perform cheesy stilted dialogue and craft a compelling character is a good actor. Harrison Ford is too hard on himself, his performance helps ground Star Wars as a believable lived-in universe.
Ford has always had a weird hate for Star Wars, which I really don’t get. He was perfectly good in the film.
ETA: Actually, Ford developed his disdain for “Star Wars” at some point after “Empire Strikes Back.” It’s been theorized that after he became a star in his own right due to “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Blade Runner” he saw “Star Wars” as being boring, or perhaps beneath him.
Of all of them I could see Kurt Russel pulling it off without much trouble. He’s played those kind of roles all his life.
There was an SNL skit that parodied other actors’ screen tests for Star Wars, including Christopher Walken (played by Kevin Spacey) testing for the role of Han Solo.
Very true. Williams’ score is exceptional and gave the movie a gravitas which I’m not sure it really deserved to be honest.