Star Wars Deleted Scenes, Return of the Jedi and THX 1138

Within the youtube rabbit hole, I found a trilogy of Star Wars deleted scenes compilations. If you're interested, there's "16 minutes of A New Hope You've Never Seen!" "12 Minutes of the Empire Strikes Back You've Never Seen!" and "10 Minutes of Return of the Jedi You’ve Never Seen!" (above).

It's all pretty much for hardcore Star Wars fans only. Nothing crazy here, just small subplots and insignificant bits of dialogue. I did find one thing though that is worth noting.

When I was a kid, growing up in the days before the internet, the word went around - I don't know where it came from and how it moved - that George Lucas' student film was called "THX 1138" and he had hid references to it in "all" his movies. From that point, the hunt was on, to find the hidden references in all the Star Wars movies.

• A New Hope - Luke (posing as a Storm Trooper) claims that Chewbacca is a prisoner being transferred from "Cellblock 1138." I remember being surprised that "THX" was left off but there it was, obvious enough.
• The Empire Strikes Back - A little trickier this time. During the Battle of Hoth, an officer is heard to say "Send Rogues 10 and 11 to Sector 38." It required close attention and some processing to decipher but it was plain enough.
• Return of the Jedi - Nothing.

There I was scrutinizing every line of dialogue, looking at every sign, trying to pause on shots of computer screens while watching on blurry VHS... and I found nothing. And not just me but all my friends.

Fast forward a few years and the internet exists. I "google" (or whatever it was) the answer. Other people are online looking for the answer and also stumped. I seem to remember some person claimed to have found the answer because of a new, higher quality home release. The number flashes on a computer screen briefly, they say. I didn't have access to that version and never confirmed it later - all I saw was gibberish on every screen.

A few years after that, someone else claims the answer, "1138" was printed on the bounty hunter's helmet. It was discovered via photographing the prop in better lighting. Well, that's disappointing because that remained strictly behind-the-scenes - they gambled on the lighting, shot angles, shot selection and so forth, and lost. But if that's what they did, it is what it is.

Why is this relevant? Because now it's like 30 years later and at 7 minutes into the above video, I hear Moff Jerjerrod say, "Open the power discharge gates. Flood sectors 304 and 1138. That should slow them up a bit." Unreal. After all that time, the mystery is finally solved. Sure, it's still not a reference in the movie, but it's clear, it's spoken - just like in the other two movies - it's on film. It's great. It was in the script, it was filmed and it just happened that that scene was cut from the final edit..

Editor's Note: This "newest" Easter Egg is not noted on Wookiepedia. Am I a bigger nerd than the entire community of editors of Wookiepedia? In fact, I don't see anyone else mentioning it anywhere, but I'm not digging too deep.

Mr. Plinkett's What Happened To Star Wars?

 

I largely agree with Mr. Plinkett, aside from the fact that I have no opinions on "Andor" and "The Acolyte" because I haven't seen them. I am an old Star Wars fan who is not passionate enough to continue through the crap and also not passionate enough to complain about the crap. I've made my peace with reality, although this review brings the mourning back to the surface, ironically enough.

I miss the humorous Mr. Plinkett videos. This is solid anal-sis but it's a bit depressing, to be honest.

If Star Wars Had Danger Zone

Star Wars with Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone."

Re:View - Andor

 

I'm posting this with complete ignorance - I haven't seen any of this show, I have no opinions of it. But it's an interesting hour-long discussion about the Star Wars.

The Prequels ambitiously attempted to tackle two very big subjects. 1) How the Republic (or any Republic) devolves into tyranny. 2) How a Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader. And, again, it's like poetry, they rhyme - it's the Fall on the micro scale and the Fall on the largest macro scale.

But the attempt at great themes is a very minor credit, as the execution is terrible. And most of the most terrible movies are the most terrible movies because they are similarly ambitious. "Plan 9...," "The Room," "Birdemic." The humor is in the gap between what the movie tries to be and what it turns out to be.

Star Wars Dating Do's and Don'ts

Someone has put together of the classic sequence of Star Wars Do's and Don'ts for men looking to date women.

https://www.reddit.com/gallery/15tf7jk

The subtle escalation leading to a sudden crescendo gets me every time. It's so good.

Extracted from the Plinkett Review of Star Wars Episode 2.

Popcorn in Bed - The Empire Strikes Back

 

This is too fun. I can't think of anything else to say. I am speechless.

Late Night - Conan Visits Lucasfilm

Here is the link.

There is some debate out there about whether Jordan Schlansky is a real person. This is evidence that he is. This video is from before he was a regular on the show (or even known). And it's clear that you can't write this. I mean, you don't know the Darth Vader suit details ahead of time, research every detail and then give someone lines to say in regards to those details. You need an actual obsessive nerd to be able to react in real time.

I have no doubt that Jordan's developed a shtick and is playing things up for comedic effect these days but the essence of the Jordan Schlansky character is a real person.

Conan - Jordan Schlansky Star Wars vs. Star Trek

Jordan Schlansky briefly explains the difference between Star Wars and Star Trek (and why Star Wars is superior).

RLM - Terrible Han Solo Movie Ideas

Mike Stoklasa and Rich Evans discuss some terrible ideas for the new Han Solo spinoff movie.

"IT'S SO BAD, IT'S GONNA HAPPEN!"

The Star Wars Holiday Special

Have you heard of The Star Wars Holiday Special? Star Wars is such a huge phenomenon and Christmas is such a huge holiday, you'd think it'd be common knowledge. But it's a testament to how unbelievably awful the special is that it's almost completely unknown.

And it is unbelievably awful. I've watched it two or three times in my life and I can't remember hardly anything about it. It's as if my brain recognizes it as psychological poison and actively purges it from my memory for my own good.

The Red Letter Media show "Best of the Worst" devotes two entire episodes to The Star Wars Holiday Special and they are two of my favorite things on the internet.

A few cursory notes to be aware of. The Star Wars Holiday Special first (and last) aired in 1978 - the year after the first movie was released to theaters. It actually aired before Thanksgiving of 1978. It would seem that the "Holiday" it refers to would be Thanksgiving but over the years that distinction has been lost and it's assumed to mean Christmas.

The special mostly focuses on Chewbacca's family who speak in barks and growls for long stretches with NO subtitles. In addition to incomprehensible noise and brief cameos by the real Star Wars cast members, it also stars people all the kids in the 70's wanted to see - Bea Arthur, Harvey Korman and Art Carney.

Without further ado, a "round table discussion of the Star Wars Holiday Special". Sure it's 43 minutes long (80 minutes if you watch part 1 - which is also hilarious), but you know sometime this week you'll need something to watch. Happy Life Day...



"Not-Diana-Ross singing some kind of erotic soul song to an elderly Wookie who's [...] in a science-fiction machine - that's not what comes to mind when I think of Christmas."

Star Trek / Star Wars

Star Wars Episode V Title Sequence

In honor of the new Radiohead album, here's an "alternate" version* of the "Empire Strikes Back" title sequence.

Watch in full screen.

Star Wars - Episode V "The Empire Strikes Back" Homage (Title Sequence) from KROFL on Vimeo.

* None of the Star Wars films have a title sequence.

When Radiohead released the song "Spectre" for free on Soundcloud, the message they posted with it ended with "May the Force be with you." for no apparent reason. Funny.

Conan - Jordan Schlansky Product Review #3

Jordan Schlansky reviews the eFx Darth Vader replica mask. It's the most heated review to date.



There's a fun irony in what Conan says and I don't think it was intended. Conan jokes that someone on a Star Wars forum would be named "JubJub86". "Jub jub" is not a Star Wars term, it's just a nonsense sound that Conan likes to use for comedy. But because of this, because it's his word, he asked J.J. Abrams if he would work "jub jub"into the "Force Awakens" script. J.J. Abrams granted his request and so "JubJub" IS a Star Wars term and would be a forum name that someone would use.

The Original Star Wars Crawl

The changes George Lucas has made to Star Wars over the past 20 years suck. Not only that, but anyone who wants to buy the original trilogy on DVD or Blu-Ray can't, because Lucas refuses to release anything but the ruined versions.

That's why a group of Star Wars fans began a project to release the original Star Wars movie from the original 35mm film. Pooling their money to buy a theater copy, they then went through the long process of cleaning the movie and transferring it to a digital form. This process is complete and their version has been released to the internet.

Finally, I can watch the original Star Wars movie that I've been watching since I was a kid... but there is one way in which the "original" is in a sense still "different"....

The fan-made version of Star Wars comes from a film reel from the original 1977 release of the movie. Since the text "Episode IV: A New Hope" was added to the opening crawl in 1981, and every version of Star Wars I've ever seen was after that, this means that I've never seen what the original opening crawl looked like to moviegoers when it first premiered in the summer of 1977.

Until now.

Star Wars Original Crawl 1977

George Lucas - Thug Life

Self-explanatory.


Incidentally, this is not the first time Lucas has used the "I'm making films that will not be seen" line. I think he's serious and it's so cringe-inducing.

Tonight Show - Harrison Ford

Harrison Ford on the Tonight Show to promote the new Star Wars movie.






It's nice to see Harrison Ford on a talk show acting like he cares to be there a little. In fact, it's nice to see him on a talk show acting like a living person on the planet. Often he acts like a hostage who's already given up the will to live.

In the second clip Jimmy says "We have to do a Greedo shot first". Such a great line and it seems the audience doesn't even catch it.

Red Letter Media Watches the Star Wars Trailer

Red Letter Media films their live reaction to the new and final Star Wars trailer...

Harrison Ford on Star Wars

During an interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Harrison Ford refuses to answer questions about "Star Wars":

Tracy Morgan Explains Star Wars

I've seen the Star Wars Trilogy countless times but sometimes you just don't "get" something until someone comes along and articulates it so well....

"If you got a ghost telling you not to do it, don't do it, holmes. You ahead of the game!"

That's Impossible... Even For A Computer.

We can all remember where we were when we first saw the amazingly realistic CGI on the first Star Wars movie.

In this video, the main man Larry Cuba, explains how it was all done:

The special effects for this shot, and the techniques used for pretty much every special effects shot in Star Wars, had to be invented as they went along. In case after case, people set out to create something without knowing how it can be done and then invent ways to do it. The creative process is usually interesting but the special case of "Special Effects", for me, approximates magic more than almost any other.

The creative solutions revealed in this video are surprising for two reasons:

1) How high tech the solutions were. I would have guessed that these were the days before 3D software and digital-pen-like interfaces but clearly both were available. The computers were even powerful enough and the tools were already developed to manipulate 3D images real-time which, again, I would not have guessed.

and

2) How low tech the solutions were. How do you take images from the computer and put them on film? I don't know, put a camera in front of the monitor and take a thousand stop-motion pictures of the screen, I guess.