Have you ever looked at an Ewok. I mean, really looked at one?
Ugly mutherscratchers if you ask me. And they almost ate Han. They almost ATE him. Rotisserie style.
Fugly, disgusting, violent savages.
They probably smell awful too.
This is my extrapolation but it seems that things were really desperate for the rebellion and with the destruction of Alderan emotions were running high as well. Its clear Leia knows she is leading the empire straight to them, but she believes its more important to finally get the DS plans in the hands of the rebel scientists. Perhaps its the only base shes knows for sure is still there(her capture may have triggered mass evacs) OR it could be the designated rallying point. She could be worried that with the empire watching them if they try to ditch the ship and take another or land at a spaceport the empire will be on them instantly, they also have no money to barter.
OK, ok, ok.
I was wrong.
The Ewoks aren’t cute.
If they were about 5 feet tall or so they would be terrifying.
But, as a 5’ 8" male human, they seemed like… pets. Or easily dismissable fellow sapients.
This is something that has changed in MY psyche since I first encountered Star Wars.
35 years later, I am a more tolerant and (shall I say) better person than I was when I jeered at the idea of interjecting ‘Care Bears’ into MY beloved world.
Looking back on them now, they are pretty nasty critters.
Almost Vietcong in their ability to do asymmetrical warfare.
The log traps are quite reminiscent of punji traps.
Good thing they were on ‘our’ side.
Those beady, dark eyes. That bulbous glans-shaped nose. Their stubby buck teeth and nappy fur. Sure, they’re short, they waddle, and they say things like, “Ig chop nub nub”, but damn, if I had a blaster, I would’ve shot a laser shaped hole through every one of their heads on instinct.
If it weren’t for C3PO, all would’ve been lost because the natives were… hungry.
Other shining moments of ROTJ:
- Jaba the Hutt
- Rankor
- Sarlacc
- Speeder bikes on Endor.
- The uncompleted Death Star. It just looked cool.
- A satisfying climax and resolution to Luke / Vader.
- It’s a trap!
- “I am a Jedi, like my father before me.” “So be it… Jedi!”
- Han: “I love you.” Leia: “I know.”
Worst. Love scene. Ever.
Until the prequels.
Perhaps the most hilarious thing to me is how dated and ridiculous the CGI effects put into ANH look now(especially that godawful Jabba scene) when the original film holds up amazingly well and looks so “real” and timeless. :smack:
Yeh, but nice reversal from ESB. I just assume Han jumped Leia’s bones as soon as the credits roll.
Although Harrison Ford certainly did bring a degree of roguish humor to the films that was sorely missing from the prequels, this should not diminish the gravatis that Alec Guinness brought to Obi-Wan Kenobi. Although he later decried having to say “those awful, banal lines” he endowed the character with a deep history and secrets which made a counterpoint to Ford’s casualness and Mark Hamill’s youthful excitement. And Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin, who alone was uncowed by Darth Vader, made the threat of the empire seem real. Indeed, the even the weaker actors of the original films were sufficiently well-cast that they didn’t stick out, whereas many of the actors in the sequels seemed to be dryly reading lines and looking for an exit.
What has been said about the greatness of the original films is already sufficient; I can only agree that by parenthetical reference to a larger universe and history it concocted its own world and epic sense of place in the way that no other film, and only a few novels like Dune and Niven’s Known Space had. The biggest problems with the prequels were exactly that they existed purely as prequels; filling in a backstory that didn’t really need to be explicated, and with an end that was obviously and inevitable. The stilted dialogue, unnecessary characters, gratuitous special effects, and egregious overplotting just served to diminish the entertainment value of those films in the same way that the Dune prequels and Niven’s increasingly incoherent Ringworld sequels do for those universes.
Stranger
Possibly, but had Anakin been handled better, and had we gotten a better sense of his charming character and his close friendship with Obi-Wan, the movies would have been far more solid and made Vader that much more tragic of a character. As it was, we saw a douche become an evil douche.
Tartakovsky’s animated Clone Wars series did a vastly better job of this. They gave a lot more credibility to the prequel setting and characters.
I don’t see all the hatred for Ewoks. “Wooo they look like Teddy Bears!” You know what also looks like Teddy Bears? REAL fucking bears! Bears that carry spears and fire arrows at you like furry little Mohawk indians!
It only works because of the best love scene ever from ESB:
Lando Calarissian, coolest Black man in the universe.
“It’s a trap!”
Battle of Hoth
I thought they smelled bad on the outside
The first three films just had so many memorable little moments that the newer films just didn’t have.
I think the magic of Star Wars was, by and large, the result of John Williams.
You could take Episode IV, leave everything exactly the same, but change the music and it would not have been nearly as memorable or successful as it was. The same can be said for Raiders of the Lost Ark.
[Disclaimers: I don’t see how ESB is a thrillion quillion times better than the other movies, and frankly I find the idea of Star Wars as a depressing, hopeless nightmare a bit unnerving. I had no problem whatsoever with the Ewoks, whatever Lucas’ intentions were, and I’m especially puzzled as to how nobody seems to have a problem with Jabba. I don’t feel to strongly any way about the prequels…they’re silly and largely pointless but have some really nice set pieces and action sequences, and that’s all that really needs to be said about them.]
I wouldn’t call the original trilogy great. Pretty good, yeah. It’s a number of things. The special effects were groundbreaking for the time, the story was easy to follow and had a black-and-white morality (which you NEED for an adventure fantasy like this), the hero, though flawed, was a genuine hero and someone you could pull for, and of course Han Solo stole the show in every scene he was in.
One thing that doesn’t get mentioned much is the the evil Empire, was a massive, pervasive threat and came close to completely victory a couple of times. In ESB, the heroes needed a truckload of luck and daring just to escape Darth Vader’s clutches. Especially for a planned trilogy, properly building up the Big Bad is essential to making us care about them, to really want the hero to take them down, to be crushed when he initially fails, and to make us cheer the louder when he finally triumphs.
Other than that, it’s largely a matter of taste. Do you like tense shootouts between spaceships? Duels with exotic swords? A young man going on a journey of discovery and being startled by what he finds? Massive dustups between scrappy humans and bloodthirsty aliens?
Not that complicated.
No doubt the score adds a ton to the film. I can’t remember where, perhaps the special features when the “enhanced” original trilogy came out on DVD, but I saw the first trailer with temp music before John Williams had written (or completed?) the score.
It felt so hollow and not Star Wars. It was truly odd.
That said, the greatness achieved the first go 'round seems a holistic result of a lot of key things that all just clicked together. I give props to Lucas for assembling the perfect team for the score, concept art, visual effects, sound design, the cast & crew, and of course… his universe. I really think it’s a rare case of ‘the whole is greater than the sum if its parts.’
Not so lucky this last round. Yeeesh.
Well, the thing is, the Lucas of 77 had a giant budget and incredibly advanced technology for his time, and used them tremendously well.
As pointed out, one of the best things about the original trilogy (well, first 2 1/2 or so), was how well the special effects were used to create a sense of a real world, without getting in the way of the story. Every physical thing -vehicles, buildings, even droids - had dirt, dents and texture that looked like they were actually used. Even the holographic chess game had glitches and scan lines that made it seem like a real machine, not some painted-on-the-film too-perfect effect. Yet I don’t think there was a single scene where a special effect was the center of the scene. When Ben Kenobi first shows a lightsaber to Luke, Luke spends most of his reaction time looking at the turned-off handle; even when an entire planet is blown up on screen, it almost immediately cuts away to Obi-Wan reacting to the human loss, not the gee-whiz physical stuff.
I’ll also add that there was a great visual freshness and vitality to the first movies, too. The opening scene is, IMHO, one of the best scenes in movie history. Instead of a little ball in space, like every other planet in movie history, we’ve got something vast filling the bottom of the screen, with an amazing subtle glow to the atmosphere and barely noticable curve that feels very real. Then, out of nowhere comes a spaceship, not coming toward us at a carefully designed 45 degree angle like some kind of marketing brochure or cover of a model kit, but going past us as if we’re really there. Then, just as we’re adjusted to the angle and scale, the star destroyer shows us what a massive threat really is.
I mean, right there, in a few seconds, we’ve gotten the message that this film will not be ball-on-a-string effects, but is going to bust its hump making things seem real for us. But also, it’s used those to really effectively convey in just a couple images the story of humans fleeing from a huge, merciless organization.
Oh, gosh, yes, Quercus, I agree.
That was an amazing opening sequence.
With the John Williams theme added, it is perhaps one of the best ever done.
You know Lucas and his team pretty much came up with the way to make those models look real.
Pretty danged amazing for 1977.
One other factor is that in the years leading up to Star Wars, there simply were no really good/cool movies being made for kids any older than about five. Look at the major Hollywood releases of the 1970s up to when IV came out - movies like The Godfather, The Exorcist, Blazing Saddles, Jaws, Rocky. Other than the fart jokes in Blazing Saddles, there was absolutely nothing that a 12-year old could really relate to (even Rocky - remember how realistic and violent the fight was?) And this era was the absolute nadir for Disney. Look at their releases in the 1970s. Even if you had a sports movie featuring a Little League team - a movie that today would be aimed at young teens - back then it would be The Bad News Bears, which was in no way made for kids.
Star Wars changed all that, and really changed the target audience for blockbuster releases.
Opening scene. Be honest, the first time you saw the movie how many people in the audience were unconciously looking up or scrunching down in their seats. The movie grabbed you by the balls in the first few seconds and never let go.
A positive uncanny valley. If you were asked to picture a dirt farm or bar in the middle of the desert a million miles from nowhere, it would probably look like the dingy dusty scenes we see on Tatooine. But with the aliens and droids it seems unreal yet familiar.
Less is more. With a limited budget, every shot or special effect had to be perfect. TIE fighters models simulating aerial dogfights. A lot of subtlety in the performances with little looks from Ben, Han playing with the stucco while talking to Greedo, Leia’s distain with “Aren’t you a little short to be a Stormtrooper.”
If we want to go all Joseph Campbell, I could also point out all of the archetypes that Lucas included.
Luke’s reply was “What? Ohhh, the uniform…”
The uniform fit. Apparently, they did indeed have short stormtroopers. So what the heck is Leia talking about?
Fanwanking, but my guess is she was just throwing any kind of defiance at her captors she could. Insulting the stormtrooper who came to get her would fall in that.
And it’s not so much that the uniform didn’t fit, but I’m pretty sure Luke was confused at being called a stormtrooper, not short.