I’m a bit late to the ethical discussion, my observation is that the Rebel/Light Side types are consequentialists rather than adherents to any established deontology. But hey, that most likely reveals my own tendency toward pretentiousness rather than the intent of the filmmakers.
Anyway…
Last week, I managed to get a DVD set of the original trilogy transferred from Laser Disc. The last time I saw the originals was on VHS sometime in the early '90s. After watching most of A New Hope, what struck me was how much better the pacing was in the original cut. For example, the entry to Mos Eisley (sp?) was just fine in the original: Kenobi’s lines set the scene in a wide shot, they fly in, they meet the troopers, then they enter the cantina. There simply is no need for additional shots establishing the scenario. We can imagine the rest of the city for ourselves, George, the additional stuff just bogs the picture down. I understand that he is trying to capture the broad vision he was incapable of in the '70s, but it doesn’t mesh well the existing footage. He did an incredible job with the budget and tools available at the time, there is a certain charm there which will most likely be lost if Lucas continues to disavow his initial product. That’s a bit of a bummer, in my opinion.
…A bounty hunter puts a gun on Han, then starts a conversation without frisking him? The little green guy was just asking to die, Solo put him out of his misery.
I did the same thing a few weeks ago: borrowed my friend’s DVD trasnfers of the laserdiscs and watched them after only having seen the Special Editions for the past seven or eight years. The pacing is, in fact, tons better. Aside from the Mos Eisley scene, Jabba’s Palace in ROTJ really, really benefits from not having that god-awful song and dance number (which I’m surprised doesn’t get brought up that much when discussing SE travesties).
Sorry, almost shot Diet Coke out of my nose when I read that. I really hope you’re going for a Whoosh here.
Lucas’s directing style is nearly that opposite of that. He storyboards all the shots ahead of time (a regular moviemaking practise) and then sticks to them fanatically. It’s his vision dammit, and no piddly little actor is going interfere with that. To Lucas, improvisation, or even creative input from actors, is the Tool of the Devil[sup]TM[/sup].
For example, I remember hearing Liam Neeson talking about TPM and how resistant Lucas was to any suggestions. Neeson wanted to put his hand on Anakin’s mother’s (Shmi’s ?) shoulder in one scene - but Lucas hadn’t envisioned it that way. It ended up being a huge “discussion”, and I think Neeson’s suggestion ended up being used, but it was very clear that this wasn’t a common occurrence during the production of the movie.
The only time I ever heard of Lucas allowing an actor to work out their character’s “style and taste” on their own was when Samuel Jackson got his purple lightsaber.
