What was Lucas thinking with the Porkins character in Star Wars?

[Urbanredneck]

@terentii

This scene was filmed, but ended up on the cutting room floor. So was the scene where Luke was out checking the condensers and caught a glimpse of the battle taking place overhead.

I bet that cut piece of film would be worth millions today.

[Miller]

They’re on YouTube.

[TBG]

I’m not sure what his actual character name was, but to me Greg Grunberg’s [del]rebel[/del] resistance pilot’s name is Porkins Jr.

I like GG, btw, but just found that cameo (one of JJabrams’s signature moves) to be a little jarring.

[Acsenray]

@Bijou_Drains

When Episode I came out in 99 I remember reading a few articles about how some characters were racist - for example the guy who owned Anakin’s mother had a hooked nose so that was making fun of Jews. And the Trade Federation bad guys were supposed to be Asian.

I just watch these type movies for fun and I don’t really look for all these “hidden” messages.

The blatant ethnic stereotyping is hardly “hidden.”

[Morgyn]

@Miller

They’re on YouTube.

That entire scene with Biggs, all I could hear in my head was Edna Mode saying, “NO CLOAKS!”

[Terminus_Est]

@TBG

I’m not sure what his actual character name was, but to me Greg Grunberg’s [del]rebel[/del] resistance pilot’s name is Porkins Jr.

I like GG, btw, but just found that cameo (one of JJabrams’s signature moves) to be a little jarring.

My biggest disappointment with The Force Awakens was that the fat pilot didn’t get blown up.

[standingwave]

@Death_of_Rats

I actually watched this again yesterday. Porkins does not have a chinstrap at all and Gold 5 is the one who is flying with the chin strap dangling. So it may just be a lack of disapline in the Rebel fighter corps (or a one-size-fits-all mentality in the costume department).

I’m telling you, it’s the same reason Leia doesn’t wear a bra.(Lucas) explained that in space you get weightless, and so your flesh expands. What? But your bra doesn’t, so you get strangled by your bra. That’s why I couldn’t wear a bra in the first Star Wars.Think about it. It’s a weightless environment. If your bra doesn’t kill you, your chin strap will!

[Johnny_Q]

I remember reading the comic adaptation of Star Wars and after Porkins bites it, the next panel shows Biggs thinking “So long, Piggy.”

Even in universe, Porkins got no respect.

[BMalion]

@Just_Asking_Questions

What did you do with the rest of the 2 hours 4 minutes when Porkins wasn’t on screen?

Pined.

[Lemur866]

@Urbanredneck

I bet that cut piece of film would be worth millions today.

Here you go.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

I think Lucas just wanted an easy fat-guy joke. It was 1977, after all - not unusual in movies back then.

All these years, I had no idea Porkins from Star Wars and the Army Intelligence “Top men” guy from Raiders of the Lost Ark were played by the same actor! Ignorance fought.

@CalMeacham

I was at the Arisia science fiction convention this weekend, and saw a T-shirt advertising Porkins Ribs – “Red Sauce Standing By!”

Here you go: http://www.offworlddesigns.com/porkins-bbq/

[outlierrn]

He probably watched a few episodes of CHIPS with the Grossman character.

[Miller]

@Elendil_s_Heir

All these years, I had no idea Porkins from Star Wars and the Army Intelligence “Top men” guy from Raiders of the Lost Ark were played by the same actor! Ignorance fought.

Bonus trivia I just learned: General Veers, the AT-AT commander from Empire, was the same actor who played Donovan, the Nazi-collaborating industrialist in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

[Kamino_Neko]

@TBG

I’m not sure what his actual character name was, but to me Greg Grunberg’s [del]rebel[/del] resistance pilot’s name is Porkins Jr.

Temmin ‘Snap’ Wexley.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Miller

Bonus trivia I just learned: General Veers, the AT-AT commander from Empire, was the same actor who played Donovan, the Nazi-collaborating industrialist in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Yes. He’s also Grand Maester Pycelle on Game of Thrones these days.

http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsG/6648-9434.gif
http://www.pedestrian.tv/images/article/2013/08/17/pycelle_got-642-380.png

[MrAtoz]

@Lemur866

Here you go.

I like how, in the final scene in that video, Red Leader tells Luke, “I met your father once, when I was just a boy.”

I wonder if that was before or after his father slaughtered a bunch of innocent children?

[CalMeacham]

@Miller

Bonus trivia I just learned: General Veers, the AT-AT commander from Empire, was the same actor who played Donovan, the Nazi-collaborating industrialist in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Hey – Julian Glover’s a well-known actor, not trivia. He was also Kristatos, ultimately revealed as the Bad Guy in the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only. Way back in 1967 he was the officious Coloenel Breen in Quatermass and the Pit/Five Million Years to Earth, who maintained that the alien space ship found at Hobb’s End subway station was a Nazi propaganda weapon, until he got his comeuppance when it activated.

He’s in lots of other stuff (most recently Maester Pycxelle in Game of Thrones, as noted above).

[muldoonthief]

General Rieekan is also the Colonel who gives private Joker a hard time in “Full Metal Jacket” when they’re examining all the dead bodies. As well as the rich American who wanted a Waldorf Salad on “Fawlty Towers”.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@MrAtoz

I like how, in the final scene in that video, Red Leader tells Luke, “I met your father once, when I was just a boy.”

I wonder if that was before or after his father slaughtered a bunch of innocent children?

In the SW:ANH special edition, that bit is snipped, although Luke’s reunion with Biggs, and Biggs’ vouching for Luke’s piloting skills, stayed in.

[Lorne_Armstrong]

Three things I never understood about the end of Star Wars:

1. Why is there a rebel pilot from Texas? Is there a Texas in outer space?

2. Who is the Y-Wing pilot who survives the battle? I have never figured that out.

3. Why does Luke appear to have an orgasm after the torpedo enters the port?