Wait, the franchise had been ruined 12 times over for you… before Phantom Menace came out?
I assume they used the train that was available for filming rather than the correct one.
As for the banquet scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, it’s been years, perhaps decades since I saw the movie but it occurs to me that everyone else at the table was under the spell of whatever black magic was being used, and their comfort with the weird food (which is not, as far as I know, even appropriate for any culture in India, of which there are many) demonstrated that.
They appear about a third of the way through the Phantom Menace IIRC. The franchise had been well and truly ruined by then (though it definitely went down hill from there)
And in that sense, it serves a genuine narrative function - after all, Brian needed some way to escape from the tower.
I thought the scene was meant to be a slam of the “Chariots of the Gods/Was Jesus an alien?” nonsense that came to prominence during the '70s and unfortunately hasn’t gone away.
In the original movie Darth Vader recognizes Lukes forciness just flying in a straight line behind him, so its already established that it can be sensed in someway by others.
I getvit now; attempting to de-mystifying a primarily mystical key aspect of the story pissed people off.
What’s the line?
Yeah for me it was a brilliant addition to the film, adding to not only the general irreverence and chaos, but also how so many events in Brian’s life were out of his control.
I was maybe 19 when I first saw it and that scene had me in tears.
The Fan explanation I heard at the time was that Obi-wan Kenobi was himself a clone – “Obi-wan” is really “O. B. 1”, as in “Old Ben One” (they called him “Old Ben who lived out near the Dune Sea”, if you recall), so he was the first clone from the original Ben Kenobi.
“Obi-wan” was just their way of rendering it, the way C-3PO became “See Threepio” and R2D2 became “Artoo-Detoo”
It would’ve been much cooler if they went that route.
Just like, is it a bunch of menacing phantoms (or just one?) or an insubstantial menace? I run into the same issue (speaking of MST3K) with the Phantom Creeps…
I know for a fact that whatever any of us in 1977 imagined the “Clone Wars” were, it would have been better than what we got.
And I’m sure that whatever we all thought, no one imagined that the clones were on the (supposedly) good side! The Jedi and daddy Organa are supposed to be fighting clones, not fighting alongside clones. It should have been “You served my father in the droid wars.”
I’ve mentioned this in another thread, but I recall reading somewhere that the spaceship scene in Life of Brian wasn’t in the original script. Originally, he was supposed to survive the fall by a cartoonish Rube Goldberg happenstance, falling, bouncing, and swinging down the scaffolding until he landed battered but alive at the bottom. Apparently the cost and difficulty of the elaborate stunt work made them switch to the UFO as a cheaper alternative.
“You lucky bastard!”
They could’ve just done one of their signature animations for the falling sequence.
I see your point, artsy but went on far too long. I also objected to Lois smoking.
Worth watching once, after you have seen the Original. Then go back to the original.
I concur.
Too many Star wars “fans” are haters.
Imagination is nearly always better than reality.
This is a big part of what makes the midichlorian thing so extra stupid to me. It’s already been established that force users can sense each other and tell how strong another one is. All that had to happen was for Qui-Gon to hold Anakin’s shoulders, make a concentration face, and say something like “the force is stronger in this one than any I’ve sensed before. Not even Master Yoda is this strong with the force, I think he was born from the force!”.
Drop a few lines, change a few lines, and it wouldn’t have fixed the movie, but it probably would have removed the biggest audience groan, without changing any part of the plot or action. I really wanted to like the movie, but I think midichlorians is when I realized I was not going to.
Hated the skateboarding elf and the thrown dwarf, but was unbothered by reforming the line. Liked it actually.
The cavalry charge was successful beyond all expectation, and the battle swung from apparently lost to apparently won. Then the war pachyderms appear, sweeping horsemen casually aside. What was Theodan (who 10 minutes earlier was ready to sacrifice himself and all his riders) supposed to do? Call for a retreat into the hills?
Reforming the line made sense. The task seemed, again, hopeless, but organizing the ranks was the rational starting point to face the new threat.
Which is why it’s so funny.
Other people have already mentioned reasons why that scene is there. I’ll include a couple more reasons: (1) Star Wars had just come out and been a big hit a couple of years before, so space battles in movies were all the rage at the time, or (2) to give Terry Gilliam something to do.
Or see this, from The AV Club:
For two unexpected minutes, Life Of Brian becomes a chintzy sci-fi epic
I ain’t too proud to admit that because of your comment, and all the others before you, I’ll watch TLOB (for the hundredth time) and try to see it with a different attitude. Not making any promises, mind you.
And I just read the AV article. Hmm.