ceebeegee | More Star Wars geekery

So ever since Thursday evening, I've been getting my geek on, watching my DVDs of the Star Wars movies.

I'm not crazy about the commentary tracks--there's way too much discussion of how they got arcane sound effect and not enough stuff about the fairy tale motifs and the Joseph Campbell and whatnot. And not nearly enough from Carrie Fisher--I loved hearing what she had to say but it wasn't much. I have a feeling they cut a lot of it, although she did say on the ESB track that she didn't understand a word of that long-ass, logistical speech she delivers to the troops right before the Battle of Hoth. She said she was just hoping she'd remember all of it--it's hilarious because she looks so focused, you'd never guess. Irv Kershner gets some interesting commentary about ESB, about the tried and true comedy bits, and the development of Yoda's character. On the ROTJ track, Lucas talked about how the Ewoks were originally Wookies--way back when he wrote the story outline for the original trilogy, the Wookies were supposed to be a primitive (i.e., pre-technological) society that helps beat the Empire, but he liked Chewbacca so much, he made him Han's co-pilot and therefore the Wookies couldn't be primitive, so he turned that idea into the Ewoks. And I should just say here I LOVE the Ewoks. I love their little tongues sticking out, and their gurgles. I went NUTS in the theater when I saw the babies too. I don't care if they're too cute. I wanna kiss 'em all.

The trailers are fascinating. The first one for Ep. 4 came out in '76--and it was before they'd scored it. Now I always thought John Williams was an integral factor in why Star Wars clicked so well (and didn't really get appropriate credit), but then, I'm a musician from a family of musicians, and I thought I might be biased. We had every one of those soundtracks, and listened to them all the time; I even learned the piano versions (I loved playing Princess Leia's theme). But when you see the footage without the music, it becomes clear how much of a contribution Williams made--the footage looks, well, cheesy without that symphonic environment that sweeps you along, that lets you know exactly what kind of story this is--an epic. The score almost functions as another kind of screenplay, and it certainly works better than the actual screenplay. The scene of Luke staring at the double sunset has no dialogue, just beautiful footage and that lovely, haunting theme. And that's the scene that everyone remembers.

There's another trailer/ad that's given the title "Forbiddden Romance" on the DVD menu, all about the "romance" between Luke and Leia. Um...yes, "forbidden" would be a good way to describe that. The first ROTJ trailer is early, when the movie was still called Revenge of the Jedi. And yet I read recently that Lucas said that the "Revenge" early title was a deliberate false leak, that true fans would know a Jedi would never seek revenge. Hmmm...

I've been reading the oft-linked Tomato Nation essay about why she doesn't like Revenge of the Sith and I think the writer misses the point. Sure, Lucas can't write and should've passed the baton. But that was established a long time ago--most of the flaws the writer lists are in the first movie as well. But ROTS gets the important stuff right--I thought it restored the sense of wonder, of fantasy and heart that I think was missing in the first two movies. You can quantify anything up or down, but with Star Wars, either it worked or it didn't. For me, this movie worked.

So, since my marathon geek-on started, these ponderables have occurred to me:

*In Ep. 4, after they escape from the Death Star, why does Han engage the Tie fighters in battle--why not just go into hyperspace?

*Those "short range" TIE fighters must be fast MFers, or else Alderaan is very close to Dantooine--Leia tells Tarkin the Rebel base is on Dantooine, Tarkin orders Alderaan blown up. This happens right after Han, Luke et al. leave Tatooine, because Ben sits down and says "something "terrible has happened." Then the next scene is the guy reporting to Tarkin that they founds the remains of a Rebel base on Dantooine and Tarkin realizes "she LIED to us!" (Note--Why is he so personally offended? Hello, you just blew up her planet!) Right after that, Han et al. come out of hyperspace into what is left of Alderaan. The timing of this seems off, unless, as I said, Dantooine is very close to Alderaan--but Leia must've known that, why not lie about a planet much farther away, to buy herself more time before they discover it?

*How does Luke fnish his training? He leaves Yoda early, gets his ass handed to him by Vader in Cloud City (Note--I LOVE that fight when Luke is in front of the window and DV uses the Force to throw all those heavy things at him. I'm not a huge Vader fan but he is just. So. Cool when he lowers his light saber and things start flying out of the walls. Very well directed scene). And then you see Luke going back to Yoda in ROTJ, "I'm here to complete the training." But he seems pretty complete in the Han Solo rescue mission! He has that operation well in hand, and also does very well against Vader in the fight above Endor, and has even constructed his own light saber. Jason theorized that perhaps the duel in Cloud City was a sort of final exam in lieu of training. Hmmm. I require answers.

*Leia clearly carries a compact, a brush and some lip gloss under that nun-like white dress in Ep. 4--she gets captured in her first scene and is without access to a mirror (and proper makeup application) until she's rescued. She looks flawless when she tells Han "they let us go" and when Alderaan is being destroyed. I have to admire a woman who has her priorities straight--I can always think better under pressure when I know my makeup is in place.

*More timeline sloppiness--the Han/Leia scenes in ESB after they leave Hoth are all in real time. They take off, they can't go into hyperspace, they go into the asteroid field and then hide in the cavern (which turns into the space slug). This takes, at most, the better part of a day. While all of this is happening, Luke flies to Dagobah and starts training and has been training for presumably several months when he has the "vision in the cave" experience. But he has the vision before they decided to go the Cloud City--unless they spend months in the space slug, that doesn't add up.

* As someone on my mb asked (and I wondered this myself), does Tarkin outrank Vader in Ep. 4? That seems odd--he's clearly in command of everyone save the Emperor in ESB, and yet Tarkin "holds Vader's leash."

I will add to this list from time to time. Because I am a geek, like my father before me.