Star Wars Original Trilogy Review

You're listening to the decaf radio network of

podcast And welcome to part one of the seventy

-fifth episode of M -Wire, brought to you by

the Geekcast Radio Network. I am your host, DFJ

and Mike, and today I'm joined with Steve Megatron.

Hello. Hello. Kevin Optimus Solo Thompson from

Tooncast, Telecast, and BehindTheVoiceActors

.com. Hello. What up? And Mike, yes you know

him, Birdman Dodd from pretty much every fucking

thing else. Bite my ass. No thank you, it's too

salty. Oh my god. That's hot, Mike. So yeah,

we're going to be talking about the original

trilogy in this part of episode 75. What do we

want to say about this before we get into the

actual film discussion as far as overall memories?

Mike, I guess you can go first. Star Wars is

awesome. If you don't watch it, clearly you're

handicapped in the head. It's one of the greatest

films ever created. It's probably one of the

most historical films ever made in terms of special

effects, editing, sound design, music. It's a

landmark achievement. It may not be the best

written film in the world, but it certainly has

its share of technical merits as well as filmmaking

accolades from pretty much every film critic

around there. If there's a film critic who doesn't

like Star Wars, he probably has a very small

penis. hi roger ebert i was about to say that

too well he has a small penis now i've called

him out what about you kevin yeah it's pretty

simple anybody that doesn't like star wars i

could care less about their movie opinions It's

like Mike said, it's revolutionary as far as

what it did for the sci -fi genre, what it did

for special effects. I don't know how you don't

like it. You might not like parts of it. You

might like some of the movies better than others,

but you have to like at least some part of it.

Yeah. And if you like Star Wars, your dick automatically

gets longer by two inches, just saying. Yeah,

it's the power of the force. It is, see? That's

what she said. Oh god. And Steve, what about

you? I would have to say that it's definitely

a part of major geek culture, and that's something

that you'd, you know, if you're geek and you

haven't heard of Star Wars, then you automatically...

Turn in your fucking card? Exactly. It's been

your fucking loser. There's no other franchise

that has a bigger geek following than Star Trek

and Star Wars. And let's face it... And it creates

such a... controversy between the two. I'm just

saying no other movie or franchise has a following

like those two do. Well you could make arguments

for other ones but I guess in terms of films

I mean if you're talking about large huge following

you can maybe make an argument for maybe Spider

-Man or Batman. Yeah some of the Marvel or DC

stuff yeah. But I mean, as far as overall, like,

epically classic films, now, of course, when

we get to the prequels that might change, but

like, the original trilogy, let's face it, I

mean, Star Wars, you know, no disrespect to Star

Trek or anything, but Star Wars pretty much invented

geekdom, I think, because this is really where

geekdom really started, honestly. It took Geek

mainstream, because there were shows long before

this that were considered nerdy. I mean, as of

this recording, Doctor Who has been around for

47 years. That series has been running since

63, so Geek's been around for a long time, but

this, I think, brought Geek mainstream. Yeah,

yeah. Really quick, I have to... I think I...

I'm not sure. I originally, oh no, I'm kind of

having an off day today. But I originally saw

the first trilogy, oh god, when I was like, I

don't know, maybe six or seven. And I absolutely

love them. And I might have told this story before,

I'm not sure, I may tell it later in this episode.

I was at a movie theater at one point. I think

it was like right around when episode one got

released in 99. I saw a poster for Revenge of

the Jedi. And I'm like, wait, that's not the

title of the damn movie, because I did one of

those double takes. And then I went up close

and looked at the poster. It says, coming May

25th, 1983. And I'm thinking, wait, that's already

gone by. What the hell is this poster doing here?

And that was you lose credit for not stealing

that Well, well and it just kind of it goes I

mean I wish I would have been alive in the 70s

when these came out But just for a kid in the

70s who had seen Nothing like this to be sitting

in the theater the first time and experience

this that had to be absolutely insane. Yeah I

mean, we're a little bit spoiled because by the

time we saw it, you know, we were exposed to

a lot of other things as far as, you know, TV

cartoons and movies. But even for us, it was

still something that was, you know, unbelievable.

But just think about someone, you know, in the

generations before us, it had to be ridiculous.

Oh, exactly. So without any further ado, up next

you're going to hear the trailer for Star Wars,

also known as episode four, The New Hope, or

A New Hope, or whatever the hell it's called.

Like I said, I'm having an off day today, so

we'll be back after the trailer. Luke Skywalker

was just a farm boy until he received a mysterious

message from a princess. Help me Obi -Wan Kenobi.

She's beautiful. Star Wars, starring Mark Hamill.

I'm Skywalker. I'm here to rescue you. Aren't

you a little short for a stormtrooper? Harrison

Ford. I think we took a wrong turn. Carrie Fisher.

You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down,

I shall become more powerful than you can possibly

imagine. 20th Century Fox presents the most extraordinary

motion picture of all time. Star Wars. Here's

where the fun begins. No legendary adventure

of the past could be as exciting as this romance

of the future. Here they come! May the Force

be with you in Star Wars. So setting the stage

for Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope. We know

that everybody already knows all this, but this

is just part of our format here at Movie Weekend

Review. I have to read this little blurb here.

Originally released as Star Wars, it is a 1977

American epic space opera film written and directed

by George Lucas. It is the first of six films

released in the Star Wars saga. Two subsequent

films complete the original trilogy while the

prequel trilogy completes the six -film saga.

It is the fourth film in terms of the series'

internal chronology. is its use of special effects,

unconventional editing, and sci -fi fantasy storytelling.

The original Star Wars is one of the most successful

and influential films of all time. Yeah, um,

let's see, where do I want to start with this?

Special effects, yeah, 1970s special effects

really suck. But the Red Astrid edition was good.

I mean, are you out of your fucking mind? 1977

special effects compared to today Fucking suck.

Well, hold on though. You can't you can't lump

the special effects done in this movie with 1970

special effects Because the special effects in

this movie blew everything else out of the water

that had been done groundbreaking for Star Trek

I'm sorry, but if you look at the original theatrical

cut of New Hope all that you see is a giant explosion

when Han fires on Greta Whereas in the remastered

edition you can actually see two laser shots.

I'm sorry 1977 special effects when it comes

to gunshots sucked comparing it to today You

can have an argument, but you can't say they

sucked for their time period No, that's not what

I'm saying. I'm saying compared to today Well,

anything done 50 years ago or 30 years ago or

even 20 years ago is going to suck compared to

today. Even Star Trek back then sucked. I mean,

look at the comparison between the old and JJ's.

Yeah, exactly. Either way you go, even you look

at the original Star Wars and the Remastered,

there's a huge difference in quality. Yeah. But

I guess my point is if you're going to judge

the movies that we're talking about right now,

you have to judge it in the window in which they

were created. Aye, aye, I definitely agree to

that. And Mike, you bring that up a lot when

we're talking about cartoons, that you can't

compare a cartoon from one generation to another,

and I think it's just as fair in the movie to

have that same rule. But I mean, I agree with

you. If you're going to compare it to today,

nothing can compare to what computers can do

today. But they did pretty good for their time.

Well, Dodd, why don't you just summarize the

plot? Just so we can get it out of the way Well,

all right. Well basically a long time ago in

a galaxy far far away There's an evil Empire

known as the Empire And basically there's a group

of Rubbles read led by Princess Leia and other

important kind of leaders in the Star Wars galaxy

and basically they're trying to overthrow the

Empire which is basically this evil, tyrannical

government that basically they're a bunch of

Space douchebags for lack of a better term and

turns out they've stolen some really important

data To this battle station called the Death

Star this huge weapon capable of destroying a

planet like a single shot Which makes basically

the Imperial Starfleet and anything that can

go against it look like nothing big deal We can

blow up a planet. What are you gonna do about

it? So the rebels get this and figure okay if

we can take this thing out that we lose their

power It'll give people hope the ability to fight

back so Leia has these plans on her on her spaceship

and she's being chased by Darth Vader who's like

one of the big higher -ups in the Imperial hierarchy

only next to probably the Emperor and the Grand

Moffs. So they start running and she's trying

to get away and she figures she's gonna go to

a place called Tatooine to look for a guy named

Obi -Wan Kenobi. Obi -Wan Kenobi is a person

who fought during the Clone Wars which was a

vast conflict which you know all the Jedi were

killed and the Empire was established. So she

goes there looking for them and unfortunately

her ship gets captured but she finds two droids,

R2 -D2 and C -3PO, which she can hide the plans

on using this holographic recording of the data.

So she sends them away to the planet in the escape

pod and lets herself get captured by Darth Vader.

They think the pod that gets fired off is just,

it's a random accident, whatever, goes to the

planet, crash lands, R2 and 3PO. Start wandering

the desert well trying to get out of there enter

Luke Skywalker Blonde hair blue -eyed Nazi poster

boy now Basically, he is the hero of our film

and you know, he's a simple farm boy He's been

told, you know, you don't want to go out there

his parents or sorry his his Adoptive parents

uncle Owen and aunt Beru have basically said

okay Luke You're gonna stay here on the farm

for another season though All Luke's friends

have left to go join the Imperial Academy to

be pilots stormtroopers or whatever They basically

left planet and he's left all all all by himself.

So Someone else pick up, because I'm having a

little bit of a brain fart here. And then we've

got the droids. R2 runs away because he's going

to look for Ben. And then Luke has to go out

with C -3PO to look for R2. And then the Sand

People attack them. And then Obi -Wan shows up

kind of like Delcea in Power Rangers the movie

and makes all these weird sounds in the Sand

People. The Sand People go away for a while.

And then Obi -Wan gives him his father's lightsaber

and tells him of the Force and all this and all

that. They find out that Stormtroopers are there

because they attacked the Jawas who originally

sold the droids to his uncle. So Luke has to

go back to his home, finds that his aunt and

uncle are basically burned to a crisp. He has

nothing left there, so then they head to Mos

Eisley and enter who fired first. Fuck Greedo,

by the way. So they go to Mos Eisley. Obviously,

Luke is going to sell his speeder and he's not

coming back to Tatooine again. They befriend

Chewbacca. Luke has a weird encounter with some

weird looking guy and his pet. I don't even know

what the hell those two are. Just your typical

bar scum. Yeah, typical weird -looking space

bar scum. I would have hung around the bar way

too long. There's one of those at every bar.

It's kind of like Dodd. It's true, back in my

college days. So, after promising money to Han...

to take them to Alderaan. They have to actually

hide out for a bit because stormtroopers are

now searching for them. And then they blast out

of Mos Eisley and after that I'm drawing a brain

fart. I don't know. They blast out of... I was

going to say I refuse to speak because he brought

up Power Rangers in the Star Wars episode. That's

what it reminded me of when I saw it. I mean,

basically, at that point, they go on their rescue

mission of Princess Leia. Yeah. And then we have

the cool scenes where they basically dress up

as stormtroopers and try to try to free her from

the prison. Meanwhile, we kind of skipped over

the whole interrogation of Princess Leia earlier

on by Darth Vader. But, you know, that's kind

of whatever. And then it's just the whole. trying

to rescue her they go down in the garbage chute

you know they almost get eaten by or Luke gets

grabbed by the garbage monster and then they

almost all get squished and of course R2 comes

to the rescue like always that is the only scene

in this entire film that I had to fast forward

because I hate that fucking garbage chute scene

it is way too long I don't know why but I think

that scene bothers everybody yeah it was just

like one problem on top of another basically

uh... but eventually get out of there then we

have like the the whole race to try to get back

to the money of falcon we have the tarzan swing

from windowed her from doorway to doorway uh...

stars and swing number one there's another one

in it later in one of the other movies And you

know, then we have Luke, Leia, Chewbacca, Han,

and the droids entering the hangar for the Millennium

Falcon because Obi -Wan has done his deed that

he needed to do to help them, and then we get

the whole Luke scene, Obi -Wan and Vader. I guess

you can call it fighting. It was more of a, no,

don't do that scene. It was a half mechanical,

half human, past his prime guy fighting an old,

ancient guy that hasn't fought in... many many

years it was pretty pathetic but anyways Obi

-Wan basically commits suicide and invader smacks

him down Luke sees it enter onto the Millennium

Falcon get out of there and then the whole rest

of the movie is just the basically the attack

on the Death Star well the whole one of the problems

and we're going to talk about a lot of these

as we go along but like I watched the the remastered

version of this I didn't watch the theatrical

version and I had to rewind it several times

during when they're aboard the Millennium Falcon

because why did Lucas take out where, you know,

Luke says, hey, I got one. And then Ton goes,

oh, don't get cocky. Why did he take that out?

That's not taken out. Yes, it is. It's not in

my version. I rewound it five times to make sure

it skips over that part. You got a fucked up

version. It's an it's been in every version I've

ever watched. It's right here. It's not in the

Three pack trilogy you got screwed just like

when they sent you the two top halves of your

matrix set Fuck you, buddy But anyway, yeah Yeah,

it just kind of comes down to they've got to

destroy the Death Star and let go of your feelings

and blah blah blah blah use the force and You

know, get it in one shot. Here for pussies. Not

only do they set it up as the hardest shot ever,

but then they're like, I'll just do a blind.

Exactly. And I have to say, and I know Dodd's

gonna really disagree with me, I'm sorry, throughout

this entire trilogy, the original trilogy, the

X -wing is the only plane I like. All the other

wings can kiss my ass. See, that's because they've

built it up because, well, for those of you that

don't know the Expanded Universe, which I'm doubting

you do, Blanchard, the X -Wing was actually given

to the Rebel Alliance from Incom, which stole

a shit -ton of them, so it was the newest space

superiority fighter. This was what was supposed

to replace the TIE fighter for the Empire, so

of course it's gonna kick ass. I mean, the Y

-Wing has been around since the Clone Wars, so

that's why it's not as good, but come on, you've

got a thing that's... And the A -Wing was developed

just before the Battle of Yavin by Admiral Ackbar,

I think, and it wasn't put into widespread use

until just after that. So you've got to give

the thing credit. I mean, 25 years, if not more,

of service as a space superiority fighter and

bomber, where the X -Wing, hey, we've just got

this thing out the door for five minutes. Come

on. Respect where it's fucking due. Whatever.

Sorry, we're gonna have a few of those moments.

Yeah, so um So they destroyed the they destroy

the Death Star and Then they go to this celebration

which after watching it a few times. I hate the

end of this movie It's just so stupid and weird

but you got to understand that I Understand why

you don't like it, but I'll give them a break

on this one because at the time he's he has a

suspicion that this might be the only one he

ever gets to make so he kinda had to make it

so it could almost stand by itself and just be

the end of the movie and the end of the story

and that's in case it flopped and he never had

a chance to make anymore and that's fine i understand

that and that's why Like when I talk about Star

Wars, I'm talking about this film because obviously

when it first got released and it was first on

VHS, no one knew anything about Episode IV, V,

you know, I mean nobody knew Episode IV or New

Hope. Yeah, this was just it. Yeah, this was

just Star Wars and that's what it has always

been to me. It's always been Star Wars, The Empire

Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. It hasn't

been Star Wars, Episode IV, Episode V. Yeah.

The actual the studios made that call because

Lucas wanted it to say episode four a new hope

on the original release in the theaters in the

70s and The studio wouldn't let him do it because

they said people were gonna be too confused.

Yeah but I Don't know I I actually wouldn't I

wouldn't have minded it I don't think I mean

I can't say cuz I wasn't alive and when it came

out but I think it would have sparked my interest,

like ooh, episode four, what's coming before,

what's coming after, you know, that type of stuff.

And then you'd wonder why the hell they started

that late in the game, you know what I mean?

Yeah. I think I could agree with the kind of

studios that can drop the episode four. Right.

Because it is kind of confusing when you think

about it. And that wasn't inserted until, I believe

until it came out on, I want to say when it was

released on DVD, it was the first time they put

episode four into the actual scrolling title

at the beginning. Because it wasn't in there

in the theater. I want to say 97 when they did

the special. When they remastered it and put

it back in the theater. Yeah, I think that's

when episode four finally showed up in the actual

scroll because it had never showed up there before.

Yeah. Actually, it's funny. Kevin said obviously

he wasn't alive when this came out. Actually,

it's funny. A buddy of mine, his birthday is

February 22, 1978. Which means he was conceived

in May of 1977. Nice. A little after loving Star

Wars. Was that Birdman died in the theater back

then? No. That's right. I went back in time when

I see my lightsaber ladies Spread your y -wings

and go right into the exhaust. Oh That's right

Jesus see there's some benefits of the y -wing.

It is a good thing that this show is explosive.

Holy crap Let's talk about the cast for a bit

here You've got Mark Hamill Harrison Ford Carrie

Fisher Alec Guinness or sir Alec Guinness as

he is now David prowess Earl Jones James Earl

Jones Peter Cushing Anthony Daniels Frank was

it Frank Oz that did well he's not in this one

Do what? I'm sorry Frank Oz was Yoda me are you

about David Prowse or James Earl? I was trying

to think of who was in who was in R2 because

I thought it was Kenny Baker Kenny Baker, yeah.

Oh, okay, Kenny Baker. Although he was only in

R2 some of the time, if you watched very carefully,

sometimes R2 is depicted having two legs out,

and sometimes he's depicted having three legs

out. It's only when it's the two -legged one

that Kenny's actually inside him. Oh, okay. When

it's three legs, it's all like remote. It's all

mechanical. Yeah. All right. So Steve, what do

you think of just the casting choices for each

character? Um, honestly, I don't think they could

have chose anyone different. Christopher Walken

is Han Solo! No. That would have been just freaky

and weird. That would have been awesome! No,

yeah, I agree with Steve. That would be freaky

and weird. And the only reason why Mike even

brought that up is because, um... SNL? No, because

in the notes it says Christopher Walken was...

Was supposedly going to be actually was Wow Complete

your thought damn it shut up as Darth Vader Well,

I wasn't sure because I was reading through it

and at first I thought he was gonna be considered

as Han But then I thought he was gonna consider

his Lando, which that would just be even weirder

funny if he was Luke Oh my goodness. Actually

I think Han Solo is probably and Alec Guinness

are my two favorites as far as the cast goes

here. I've never been, now I like Mark Hamill

when he does voice work, but I was never a Luke

fan as far as him playing the role of Luke. In

this movie, I am a fan. I wasn't until Return

of the Jedi. Right. I'm a fan of him as he grows

up a little bit, because obviously each one's

a little, you know, has a few years in between

him and whatnot. So he's basically about eight

or 20, 10 years older by the time we get to the

third movie that we're talking about. But I did

not like him in the one that we're talking about

right now, A New Hope. I thought at first I was

like, did they have to get this guy to play this

guy? He was the only one I had a problem with.

Yeah. What about you, Mike? I kind of thought

Carrie Fisher was a little bit Weak in certain

points it is. I mean she was kind of pretty but

I don't like her in the ending of this movie

She just has this I don't know just the last

five minutes with this movie kind of bugged me

with her but The problem I have with her in this

one is that I mean, obviously we don't know that

we don't know this at the time But looking back

they're supposed to be twins and they're supposed

to be the same age and I always viewed her as

The way she acted. A little bit older. Yeah,

she's a little bit older than Luke because Luke

was this little whiny bitch boy from the farm

and she's this, you know, important political

figure and it just always kind of had a little,

you know, not at the time because I didn't know

they were supposed to be twins, but as soon as

I found that out, I'm like, really? Yeah. Oh,

I guess. I'd say. Sorry, go ahead. Oh, I was

gonna say another person. I really really liked

in this was I love David Prowse's performance

as Darth Vader as the physical actor in this

because you really get this menacing physical

presence off him And James Earl Jones is fucking

Vader's voice. That's just hardcore. Yeah, it's

just the shit right there There was really nobody

else that could have done that voice no Richard

Dreyfus Christopher Walken. No. What are the

plans to the Death Star? Rodney Dangerfield?

Luke, I am your father. I just get no respect

from the Empire. Rodney Dangerfield would have

been a wicked Moff Tarkin. I'll tell you, too

far away to make a military demonstration. We're

going to recast this entire show. Arnold is Darth

Vader. The hand movements would have fit Arnold

the the hand movements for Vader they were always

kind of a little weird What about you Mike or

your Blanchard, excuse me, I I Like how Leia's

progression over the films happens Specifically

to her hair, she doesn't have the damn earmuffs

in the next two films, thank God. She doesn't

have the honey bun ears. Oh my God. A lot of

statement. Yeah. Still kind of hot. Yeah. I like

the relationship that obviously blooms between,

as far as friendship I should say, between Han

and Luke. You know, technically, Han is this

kind of much older guy who's really, really cocky

and he's just trying to teach Luke and Luke is

learning from him and everything else. What confuses

the hell out of me is from watching episode three,

and I know we're not going to talk about the

prequels until later on in this episode, but

just watching from that and then going into this,

Don't remember like what? What Luke's like foster

parents what they said in episode three as far

as who is because I'm watching this and I'm thinking

wait How the hell is that his real uncle? They

basically just left him with Obi -Wan and he

said he was gonna take him take him away. Yeah

back to you know So they didn't really introduce,

I mean they showed them, they show Obi -Wan taking

them to Aunt and Uncle and handing them to Beru

and Lars in episode three. Right. You know, in

front of their slightly different version of

their hut type, whatever you want to call it.

So I mean they do show them a little bit. Yeah.

Yeah. I almost thought it would have been cool

if they had shown them with... And I know again,

this is getting off topic as far as talking about

prequels, but if they would have shown him with

Shimi's husband That would have been interesting

Say what with Anakin's mother's husband from

episode 3 from episode 2 Oh that guy Wow, if

they would have showed if they would have showed

Luke as a baby being given to him. Yeah Okay

I guess it would have made more sense. I could

see what you're saying there because I mean if

you're thinking, you know, obviously it would

be relative through marriage because obviously

Anakin's mom married the guy but It would still

be a direct relative and not like an adoptive

foster parent thing Yeah Overall, I have to say

Han and Chewie are my favorites in this one.

Just the interaction that they have It's hard

to go against Harrison Ford and Han Solo, just

his character is such a, you know, just such

a badass character. Thank God they didn't give

him a whip. That would have been kind of weird.

Said he had a... Indiana Solo. Said he had a

movie camera gun. Oh, don't even get me started.

Oh, God. I'm sorry, that's the worst. And I couldn't

even get a screen cap of the gun in the film

to even really compare it to the Mighty Mug accessory,

but... It's supposed to be his Blastek DL -44.

It's based on a friggin' Italian Mauser machine

pistol. No, it looks good. I like it in the movie.

It's just that Mike showed me the Mighty Mugs

picture of Han Solo and he is definitely holding

a movie camera. Yeah, I think we said on Twig

it's the same camera that April O 'Neil has.

It's just as goofy. Nice. So let's talk about

some good, bad, and ugly stuff, and I'm sure

this is where we'll talk about the multiple changes

from the original vision to what we have today.

And again, I guess I'm gonna have to go back

and look and see if that one scene is in there,

but I seriously, when I watched this movie, I

do not, because like I said to Kevin earlier,

I rewound it like five times, and I did not hear

that exchange between the two of them. Temporarily

fell into a coma when that happened apparently.

No, I was wide awake. It's there. I'd put money

on it I don't have any but I'll put it on What

other changes did Lucas make this one besides

the fact that that grito shook first? The very

first one that is noticeable is when Obi -Wan

and Luke are arriving at Mos Eisley, before they

actually go into the Cantina, there's all kinds

of new creatures on the outside of that. Right.

Including the... The Ronto? Yeah. Yup. And that

one's... He looks misplaced to me. Don't know

like some of I'm gonna have mixed reactions to

all the different 2007 edits I guess is what

I'm gonna call them um some of them I like some

of them I don't like some of them look like they

fit and some of them don't and And the animals

outside of Mos Eisley to me looked weird. I Don't

I don't know what you guys thought or if you

guys remember that part, but they looked a little

out of place to me Yeah, it just, it seems a

little too much in a way. I mean, there's one

scene, once again, referring to the Ronto. You

see this guy on a swoop, and I don't know whether

this was intentional, but he looks an awful lot

like a character out of the N64 Shadows of the

Empire game, but I don't know. I mean, that may

just be... You know, the inner video game nerd

struggling to get out there. But another thing

is they added some new aliens into the Cantina.

They fixed up a couple kind of different ones

there, too. There is an interesting note on the

Cantina, though, because apparently they were

at the time when they originally filmed this,

it was hard for them to come up with as many

creatures as they needed to make the place look

full. And I don't know how many of you noticed

or remember the little devil character. That's

in the Cantina. He's completely red and has horns.

He looks exactly like what you would picture

a devil looking like The Devorian, yeah. Yeah,

apparently they According to the DVD commentary

they the only reason he made it in there is because

they were desperate for more characters and someone

had this like devil like Mask or costume or get

up or something like lying around for something

else and they just kind of threw it in there

so and he's like even though I can't remember

if it was George Lucas or one of the Costume

guys or effects guys. He's like, yeah He's completely

out of place and doesn't really fit in with the

rest of the characters there, but we were just

scraping for anybody So I thought that was kind

of interesting. But yeah when they came back

in 97, they added a bunch more I always thought

the devil character was kind of weird when I

saw him even as a child like seeing that I was

like, whoa That looks like more so something

you'd seen Star Trek. Yeah And then there's of

course like you said the whole shooting with

with Greedo. And then there is the entire Jabba

the Hutt scene that has actually gone through

multiple different versions. Yeah, that whole

scene was one of the first that stood out to

me that was different in the special edition

when I watched between the two. Yeah, do you

guys remember seeing the first Jabba they put

in there before they immediately changed it?

No. No. Oh my goodness. The very first Jabba

that was in that scene was so fake looking and

nothing like any of the other Jabba's look like.

It was terrible. And then they redid it and changed

Jabba's look to the one that's on the actual

DVD set that I have. So there was a couple different

versions of that. The only good thing I like

about that scene is Boba Fett shows up in that

scene. Does he? Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah,

he does. He just kind of walks out. Yeah, he

just kind of walks out. The reason I don't like

that scene though is because Han Solo is basically

interacting with Jabba, but they're basically

taking Han Solo's movements from originally when

he was talking to a person, because originally

when they filmed that scene it was a person,

not Jabba. So he's interacting with what he's

viewing as a person and then they took those

movements and then they inserted this big Java

guy. So some of Han's hand movements and the

way he moves around seem like they're a little

off and I hate when he steps on Java's tail.

Oh, that was a little bit goofy. I love that

part though. I hated that part. I love that because

it's like... It's kind of like he's walking up

steps, walking up a low flight of steps and walking

back down. But those are the only ones that I

can think of. You know, the Mos Eisley before

they went in the Cantina, the actual inside the

Cantina with Greedo and the Jabba, those are

the main ones that they put into this one. They

do some other stuff in the other movies, but

I can't think of any other ones in A New Hope.

So those are those are the only changes the main

ones I mean there might be some little minor

things here and there with laser blasts or stuff

like that But nothing that you're gonna like

when you see it. You're gonna be like, oh my

goodness Well, they they kind of redid some of

the fight on the death stars seems like they

redid some of the outs the Exterior shots where

they have the kind of x -wings doing more acrobatic

stuff. So they did change a little bit there,

but they basically fine -tuned laser blasts and

stuff like that. Yeah. Steve, what was your favorite

scene in this movie? I would have to say definitely

the space scene. The end run attack on the Death

Star? Yes. I would definitely say that was my

favorite scene. I like the fact that I don't

know, I just like space battle in general. Yeah,

I think the space, and that's what kind of at

the time made it such an epic film, I think,

because people hadn't seen a space battle of

this magnitude on a big screen. Yeah, yeah. No,

I just thought that was pretty cool. I think

my favorite scenes are, first of all, Darth Vader's

entrance in the beginning of the movie is just

epic. His black suit against the white background

of the ship and him just coming in all cool.

I thought that was really cool. And I think the

other one, actually I think that's probably one

of my favorite scenes in the whole movie. I don't

know if the scene where Han is talking to the

galactic people that he's talking about, oh we

got a spill down here and all this and all that,

when they're in the detention area, I don't know

if that was improvisational, but I kind of like

that a little bit as far as Han just kind of

making shit up off the fly. Yeah, yeah, that's

probably one of my favorite scenes to where he's

like, yeah, we're all fine here right now How

are you? Look we're gonna have company but for

me, I probably have to say the The fight scene

the the end run against the Death Star that that

was my favorite scene probably. What about you

Mike? Um, I'd have to say mine is the scene where,

where like Obi -Wan dies, actually. Yeah, that's

probably my favorite scene. You're depressing,

motherfucker. No, that's the most... That's the

biggest scene, though, for you. That's the one

that shocks you in the first movie. Yeah. Well,

because they kill one of the major characters

right off the bat, pretty much, and it leaves

you feeling for Luke, because this guy's been

basically a father figure the entire movie. Right.

And you're kind of waiting to see how he reacts

to it. And that was actually not in the original

script. Obi -Wan was not supposed to die in this

movie. In Lucas's original script, Obi -Wan lives

through... He lives all the way to the end of

this whole trilogy. But I guess in this movie

he was thinking that there wasn't anything to

do with Obi -Wan at this point. as far as there

was going to be a kind of a big dead space. He

wanted him to be around to be able to to kind

of teach Luke and be able to say certain things

to him. But he's like he was running out of ideas

as far as like usefulness for Obi -Wan. And that's

when he decided to to kill him off. And even

Alec Sir Alec Guinness was kind of like bummed

about it and whatnot. But, you know, I guess

he understood in the end. So that was originally

not in the script at all. At least he got cameo

roles. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Let's talk about the soundtrack

for this. Apparently, from a recommendation from

Steven Spielberg, Lucas hired John Williams,

and the soundtrack and just the music in general

for this, not just this film, but the entire

trilogy, is just amazing. Yeah, and it's won

awards for this and everything. John Williams

is a god of music. What's your favorite piece

of music, Mike, from this film here? I would

have to probably say Luke's theme, I think, which

is called the Binary Sons is probably one of

my favorite. The attack on the Death Star is

another really good piece. But one of the things

that we're not talking about, and it's more related

to sound, is the sound design from this movie.

Like, if you can just listen to this movie with

an isolated, just, like, if you take out all

the dialogue. Just listen to the sound design.

Like Ben Burt is a fucking god when it comes

to designing stuff like that. Like how he created

the fucking lightsaber hum, it was like a bare

transistor tube or something like that going

near a freaking power line listening to R2's

whistles. I mean, Vader's breathing is like...

messed up scuba gear, pitched down, and just

all the little things in this movie, just listening

to doors, listening to how things are, listening

to the whine of the Falcon's engines, stuff like

that. There are just so many little intricacies

in this movie that I would have loved to have

sat in the sound booth and just been there with

him as he cut together the rough cut for the

sound. Yeah, and if people out there are interested...

I'm a sound nerd, by the way. Yeah, and if there's

other sound nerds out there, that's what is really

good about the documentary on the Silver DVD

edition, because the documentary is Lucas, Carrie

Fisher, who doesn't really say much, and then

one of the visual guys, and then Ben Burt, and

he goes into a lot of where he got the sounds

from different things. Because basically him

and Lucas talked the most over the course of

the three movies And it was very interesting

seeing where they got some of the some of those

sound effects Yeah, yeah, that's one of the things

I really noticed actually about you know when

I watched this back was just all the different

sound effects and honestly, I think that Every

single door in the Star Wars universe has to

be airlocked Just about. Because you hear that

kind of like airlock sound when a door opens

or closes. Yeah. Kind of like that relief of

pressure or something. I don't know. It's kind

of weird. We can't go without mentioning the

Cantina music either. It's okay. Okay. It's okay.

It's pretty upbeat and cool to listen to though.

Yeah, at the time, like as soon as that hits,

you're like, yeah, you get very upbeat, you're

excited and it does a perfect job of setting

the mood for that scene. And I don't know, when

you get that in your head, at least when I get

that in my head, I can't get it out. Except then

I started thinking about the, what is it, the

Weird Al version of it. Oh God, Steve. Which

Weird Al version? I think it's the Weird Al version

or something. He has one. Two Star Wars related

songs. One of them has to do with a character

and one has to do with episode one. Oh, okay.

I think it's... I think it's... Oh, it's been

a long time since I heard it. I don't know. Because

there's Yoda and then there is The Saga Begins.

And those are the only two that I know of. I

think it's the Yoda one. I think it's the Yoda

one. But I just remember him being like, yeah,

singing the song. I'm not going to sing it for

anybody, but... That's all right. I'll include

it in the episode. Okay What else do we want

to talk about as far as like behind -the -scenes

stuff There was a lot of tension on set when

this movie was like being made Yeah, I know that

for sure like people are like yelling getting

ready to kill each other actually didn't Lucas

like divorce his wife Not too long after this

or this led to it It might have, but this has

a completely different atmosphere than the other

two that we're going to be talking about as far

as the original trilogy, because this is the

one where the tension was the highest, because

this is the one where everybody's doing something

that they don't know if it's going to work, they're

on time schedules, they're on the smallest budget

out of all six Star Wars films, and this is kind

of, you know, everybody's... taking a big risk

here and kind of guessing and hoping so the tensions

huge and i would imagine that you know the you

know the people in charge of lucas and the other

people that were you know making some of the

shots were necessarily the nicest people to be

around it during the shooting it just because

of the the the mere tension of you know this

is this is your baby and you want to succeed

and you have no idea what kind of reaction is

going to get plus they're filming in all kinds

of nasty weather oh yeah Like the beginning there's

just horror stories of the stuff that they were

doing in Tunisia Yeah, I can imagine like I think

he he left Tunisia with half of what he needed

Because he just ran out of time and he had to

go back later and try to pick up the other half

of stuff Because of the storms and because of

you know Like anytime you see Harrison Ford or

Mark Hamill or Carrie Fisher, you know in an

environment And you might think they look cold

or they look, you know, it looks windy or, you

know, they are cold. They are hot. They are,

you know, they're living in the elements. There

was nothing fake about that. Yeah. Yeah. You

got any trivia for this, Kevin, for this first

film? There was three different mixes as far

as the sound goes for this movie when it was

released to the public. because of at the time

different theaters had different abilities. So

depending on where you went you would have heard

three different versions of the film including

possible dialogue stuff that you would have heard

at one place that you might not have heard at

another place or laser blasts or sound effects.

So depending on what type of theater you went

to you might have had a different movie going

experience back then. That's I thought that was

one of the most interesting things I saw at least.

Yeah. The only other one I can think of is that

the Death Star was originally not going to be

in this movie. That was originally only supposed

to show up in the last one. Oh, yeah. But it

was an epic and needed piece. Yeah, that's true.

Oh, I did think of one other one. The actors

having to redo or redub their dialogue because

of the noise of the droids. Any scene that like

C -3PO especially was in, The dialogue was practically

unusable because of all the clanking around of

his outfit. And, you know, there was other characters

that we'll have later on that caused the same

effects, but any time there's a scene with lots

of droids or lots of different, like, creatures

or whatever, a lot of times their outfits would

cause the sounds in the dialogue to be unusable,

so that kind of sucks for the sounds for Ben

Burton and the other people. Yeah. This film

was actually one... six academy awards and was

one nominated a bunch of other ones as well i

mean the awards list for this thing is just never

ending uh... i guess one best supporting actor

images all kinds of awards for this so it remembered

i remember one more thing uh... you know the

the compact seen that we're talking about earlier

the trash compactor. Mark Hamill actually blew

a vein in his eye during that scene. Or a vessel

or something in his eye, and he had a big red

spot on his eye for the rest of the filming.

But the only thing they had left to film, I think

at that point, was the award ceremony. So I guess

you can't really tell on screen, but Carrie Fisher

was talking about it, that he actually blew a

vein because he was so into the... It was when

he was getting strangled by the thing and kind

of coming up for air. Wow. God, after seeing

Star Wars, director James Cameron quit his job

as a truck driver to enter film industry. Wow.

That's kind of interesting. I also quit my job

as a truck driver. Well, and the sad thing is

he worked one of the, you know, lower jobs that

us normal people would have to work. And now

he's made the highest grossing movies of all

time. yeah for sure which is just disgustingly

like awesome but it you know i don't know i am

not too fond of one of the films but once i mean

this one had a huge influence i had a huge influence

on everything that's come out since then i had

a huge influence on directors obviously the sci

-fi genre um you know and heck even sis klineber

gave it a good review Thank God. Hell, that's

a miracle in itself. And it's given us so many

parodies that it's just ridiculous. Robot Chicken

did it best. You suck, Family Guy. Spaceballs

did it best, actually. Family Guy parody of this

is complete ass. Yeah, Family Guy sucks in general.

It's not to say there weren't some funny moments

in it, but I thought the Robot Chicken one was

just better thought out. Yeah. Let's talk about

the AFI recognitions for A New Hope. In 1998,

it was ranked at number 15 on the 100 movies,

100 years, 100 movies. 100 years, 100 thrills

in 2001, it was number 27. Heroes and Villains

in 2003, Han Solo was number 14, and Obi -Wan

Kenobi was number 37. 37? In a row? I'm kind

of mad that Darth Vader wasn't on there. Um,

yeah, that's kind of weird It's the best movie

quote Yeah, may the force be with you number

eight. I Do agree with the next one though the

film score film score number one. That's that's

great Hundred years a hundred cheers. It was

number 39 and oh six 100 years 100 movies 10th

anniversary edition. It was number 13. So it

only only moved up two spots That's weird though

for it to move up because usually would think

it only things would move down as more stuff

comes out Yeah, it's odd that something would

all of a sudden switch from below it to behind

it. Yeah AFIs 10 top 10 in 2008. It was number

two for sci -fi film. So that's Pretty good.

I wonder what number one was 2001 Yes, or it

was either space Odyssey or it was 20 ,000 leagues

under the city one of those two is number one

Because I remember seeing that they did they

did all the different genres. They did like animated

They did romance they did sports and whatever

and it was either 2001 leagues under the sea

or or 20 ,000 leagues under the sea or 2001 space

Odyssey We have a segment here, and Kevin came

up with this actually, because actually the format

for MWIRE that we have now I stole from 65 years

in the future. The IGN replacement crew, the

choices are one, two, three, or four. One being

the worst and four being the best. And I think

all of us are gonna give this a four. Yeah, I

mean, we'll talk later once we talk about all

the three original trilogy movies as far as which

one each, you know, each one is our... Levered

out of the three and whatnot, but I think every

movie that we do in the Star Wars is gonna be

a well in the Original trilogy at least is gonna

be a four. Yeah And as we said, I'm actually

just gonna get this out of the way now It is

the original trilogy is on DVD. It was obviously

originally on VHS I don't know were there ever

any betas of this. I know there was a couple

of laser discs I'm not sure it wouldn't surprise

me Yeah. The DVD set that I have is the three

-pack original trilogy, four, five, and six.

I know, Kevin, you have the big box set, the...

Big silver one with the extra bonus feature disc.

Right. Right. It has all the... I think that

was the... Oh, I don't remember when it came

out. Dang it. It might have been... I don't know

if... That was like a... Shoot, I think that

was 97 was a 97 or 2004 I have the 2004 one and

I recommend it. It's good. Yes If you can find

it for a decent price Mike, do you want to talk

about any of the other marketing bits as far

as like the novelization or any of the games

for this specific film or anything like that?

Well, I remember Star Wars Arcade being tremendously

popular after this game came out. It was a vector

-based graphics game and it was actually the

first game to have digitized speech from any

movie. It had a really scratchy version of...

Obi -Wan going, you is the false. And it sounded

really awkward. Now, I've actually played a sit

down arcade game of this way back in the late

80s. I remember playing this at I can't remember

where it was, but it was in Owen Sound, which

is pretty cool playing this. Obviously the toys

because Fox didn't think this movie was going

to do well. So they gave all the merchandising

rights to Lucas. You dumb fuckers. They also

gave him all the sequel rights originally and

he fought for the sequel rights only because

he was afraid he was never gonna get to make

the extra movies So that was good. Otherwise,

he would have had no say on the second and third

one Yeah, so Lucas definitely knew what he was

doing in terms of marketing and I've seen some

really weird Collectibles for this. I think there's

even a Star Wars dog food. I'm not even kidding

It was available in Germany or something like

that. There's a guy you should check out. Unfortunately,

he's leaving Lucasfilm, I think, in April of

next year. Steve Sansweet, he's got, he's like

the biggest Star Wars collector in the world.

He represents, like, the Star Wars fan club,

stuff like that. It's pretty intense. Some of

the really weird and rare collectibles that are

actually out there for this movie. Actually,

there's another podcast you guys should check

out. It's called SW Action News, run by Arnie

and Marjorie, and these guys are like... the

experts on like Star Wars in terms of people

that I know. And just the amount of weird stuff

you find out from there, plus they've talked

to a bunch of like authors and stuff like that.

But just hearing other things that, you know,

come out about the original trilogy years later,

like weird props, stuff like that. I'm trying

to think of something really unique about episode

four that I can probably kind of close this off

with. Um, I remember there was a series of lightsabers

built, and I can't remember what company made

them. It was some Jap - Japanese company. And

they're actually like neon tubes. So you couldn't

fight with these things. Otherwise, lest you

would hail a deadly poisonous gas. But they were

short and stubby, but they looked really cool.

And I wish I could remember what company built

them. And multiple companies over the years have

held the license to produce props from this movie.

Like I said, there's been master replicas, there's

been icons. Now it's reverted back to Hasbro.

I remember some of the L .E. Sabres I've actually

seen actually on my desk right now. I have a

new hope. Obi -Wan. Kenobi weathered lightsaber,

which is incredibly friggin rare The only lightsaber

I've ever built is a Luke Skywalker a new hope

Lightsaber, I think I have one extra bubble on

the strip. So technically it's more accurate

to the Empire Strikes Back and Yeah, it's pretty

intense things. I mean and prop makers love this

movie because there's so much cool shit You can

just see in the background. I've seen people

build working Jawa ion blasters that make sounds

and everything obviously there's the 501st and

their stormtrooper armor um there's just a lot

of really neat props associated with this movie

and i would kill to get my hands on some of the

original lightsaber props even just the resin

ones yeah um so final thoughts on a new hope

steve what are your final thoughts um i would

definitely say that uh This particular one seems

more of a, at least before he did the following

films, seems more like it could stand on its

own, even without the other films. However, it

is a nice piece of sci -fi that we've already

discussed has influenced future films, but it

also includes all kinds of other Awesome elements

you have, you know action you have You know a

couple funny scenes you have, you know freaking

bounty hunters you get space battle you get Yeah

Leave it to you, but um Then there's you know,

the epic Death Star. I mean What's cooler than

the fucking Death Star and lightsabers? So I

mean, you know This particular film just kind

of sets the rest of it in motion. And regardless,

I guess my final thoughts are, regardless of

what your opinions are as far as A New Hope compared

to the other five, you can't argue with history.

It still sits at number four all time as far

as domestic growth and number two if you adjust

for inflation. So you can't argue with those

numbers. Nope. What about you, Mike? I think

it's probably one of the most important movies

that's ever been made. Is it the best movie in

the world? No. But it's still an entertaining

film. It's something that can be shown to children.

And everybody knows, just by hearing three seconds

of music, what this is. You hear a sound effect.

You know exactly where that is. It made the Wilhiem

scream famous again. It's done so much for film,

it's done so much for editing, sound design,

music, and it's, like I said, it's a very historical

film. Like I said, not the best movie in the

world, but goddamn is it fun to watch. Yeah,

I mean, not the best dialogue, not the best acting,

not the best a lot of things, but still one of

the best movies of all time. I think one of the

things I like, and I'll probably repeat this

throughout the original trilogy, is one of the

things I like best about this film was the space

battles. I wasn't so keen on the whole tattooing

stuff. I wasn't so, because I swear, and I know

it's space balls that just has spoiled me, but

I always want to see those stupid Jawa's say

dink dink. Oh my goodness. I think I know a Jawa.

I know several. Can we leave this subject alone?

Shut your pie hole. This isn't Twig. So with

that we are going to head to the Empire Strikes

Back trailer. Luke Skywalker and Han Solo rescued

the princess, destroyed the Death Star, but their

story didn't end there. Now, the creators of

the biggest smash hit of all time bring you the

next episode in the Star Wars saga, The Empire

Strikes Back. The continuing story of our band

of heroes, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia. Han

Solo, C -3PO, R2 -D2, and Chewbacca. And introducing

Lando Calrissian. It's an epic of romance. Of

heroes and villains. They cross trackless voids

to unknown worlds. A Galactic Odyssey against

oppression. new sprawling space adventure in

the Star Wars saga, The Empire Strikes Back.

Coming to your galaxy next summer. Up next in

the original trilogy is Star Wars, Episode 5,

The Empire Strikes Back. Yay! A .K .A. Where

Shit Goes Bad. And I gotta say, you know, we

kinda mentioned earlier about the scrolling and

the story in the beginning and not having the

episode numbers on the original prints and then

putting them in later. Well that was only for

A New Hope. Oh, it was only for A New Hope? Yep.

Okay. Episode 5, you got to put episode 5 and

put the title and everything. Oh, okay. I gotta

say that I must've at some point not watched

these in order. I know I saw Star Wars New Hope

first. I know I did. But just reading through

these credits, these opening credits, I was like,

what? What's going on? What is all this? Cause

the thing with Lucas' original vision for New

Hope, like we said before, he wanted the episode

4 thing on there. And I think at some point I

saw something before the re -release that said

episode 4 when I was a kid. I could have sworn

I did. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but...

Just like you didn't hear that damn scene. Whatever.

Anyways. So yeah, The Empire Strikes Back is

a 1980 American epic space opera film directed

by Irvin Kershner. The screenplay based on a

story by George Lucas was written by Lee Brackett

and Lawrence Kasdan. Of the six main Star Wars

films, it was the second to be released in the

fifth in terms of internal chronology. Mike,

what are your initial remembrances of Empire?

Well, allow the blast of me to start at Mike

at ThisWeekInGeek .net. I originally hated this

movie when I was a kid. And it wasn't until years

and years later upon rewatching it, realizing

this movie's fucking awesome. I was just stupid.

You know what? The thing that this movie really

captures for me is it just has the best pace

of any of the Star Wars movies in my opinion.

Yeah. Excuse me, simply because it goes by so

quickly. And the thing that always got me really

excited was the snow battle on Hoth. It was my

life's ambition to get a Rebel snow speeder for

years. And my master replicas offered theirs

up at like $600 a couple of years ago. It took

all my restraint to not buy that. And in fact,

last year I actually bid on a ADAT, which is

the All -Train Attack Transport, which is the

big walker. I found a studio scale one, which

would have been made by the special effects team.

I almost bought this sucker, and it would have

cost me $200 to ship it. I don't care! It is

the most beautiful piece of film memorabilia

I have ever seen. So Empire to me is where I

really fell in love with props too. Like I said,

one of my first lightsabers was built from a

new Hope but it's more similar to the Empire

Strikes back saber because Luke's lightsaber

does have some differences on it and back when

I used to mod fx -sabers .com My Luke ESB saber

was my holy grail. It took me years to find this

sucker, and thanks to a lovely woman over at

Master Replicas, I was able to get one for nothing,

no less. And my first FX lightsaber that my ex

-girlfriend bought me was a Vader ESB. I remember

just so many things about this movie that just

really just kind of grabbed my attention, so...

This movie's fucking awesome years later. I wish

they hadn't redubbed Boba Fett's voice in the

new ones. But I'm willing to let that go because

I love Tamora Morrison. But this movie's awesome.

And it's probably my second favorite Star Wars

movie because my first one is probably going

to make me lose some nerd cred. But we'll get

to that next week. Well, not next week. It'll

be the next part of the episode. Way to keep

the radio magic going there, Mike. It is certainly

not Return of the Fucking Jedi. I'll tell you

that right now. For me, as a kid, I think some

of these, when I first saw it, when I had to

be pretty young, I didn't realize when one movie

ended and when another began because the first

couple times I ever watched them, I watched all

three right in a row. so it took me a while to

realize which parts were which movie because

as a kid I didn't I didn't get it I didn't I

didn't know So what you're saying is they kind

of all blended together for you? Well, when I

was a kid, I just didn't know where the exact

cutoffs were. I kind of knew that the ceremony

at the end of the first one kind of separated

that one. But for a long time after that, it

kind of was all just one big story. But the Hoth

battle scene like Mike brought up, that is one

of the ones that sticks with me the most. That

was just such an epic, awesome scene. I love

when they're taking down the walkers. You know,

with the snow speeders, that's just an awesome,

the whole thing's awesome. I just love Hoth.

Period. That whole sequence. It doesn't matter

if it's the battle sequence or just opening on

that planet. You know, the whole thing with Han

and Luke. I just love that opening scene. What

about you, Steve? Alright, this is where I'm

going to start getting hay -mail. Steve at geekcastradio

.com. Yes, send it in, flood it. Well, we're

all going to have our different favorites and

our different dislikes. Yes. This one, I can

honestly say I hated that fucking planet. I hated

Hoth. I did not care for it whatsoever. It's

because you probably hate freedom too, don't

you? No, I just hate the whole idea of a big

fucking ice planet. And freedom. Shut up. You're

a freaking Canadian. Be quiet. You don't know

nothing about that. I'll take my bacon and my

hockey and go elsewhere. Yeah, that's something

I need to bring up. I should have brought up

in the intro. This is the only podcast as of

this point that Mike Dodd has been doing that

he's outnumbered by Americans because over on

Twig, Spada and I are outnumbered by those goddamn

Canadians. You can't take your bacon without

taking Celine Dion. No, you take her. So what

were you going to say, Steve? But anyways, no

offense to Canadians. I was just throwing a punch

in the stomach. Don't save face now. You already

said it. Oh, shut your pie hole. But no, I don't

know. You start out with that goofy looking creature

where Luke ends up hanging upside down. Solo

has to stuff Luke inside the monster. So you

got a little bestiality going on there and then

you got freaking I don't know just a lot of the

battle on the planet. It looks like people were

moving models around and and it just oh they

were Yeah certain parts of yeah certain parts

look look more fake than others throughout this

whole trilogy, I think You know, kind of getting

into a little bit, I guess, getting ahead. But

like the monster that you're talking about, the

Yeti guy, when he gets his arm cut off, to me

that looked a little fake. And also the Tonton,

a lot of the scenes where he's in, I don't think

look very genuine. But that's, you know, a product

of the time and you can't really get past that.

But there is a couple of moments that look fake.

No, so I mean, in that sense, that's just more

so what I can't get past. It's not necessarily

that it's just bad. I don't care, for the most

part, for that particular planet. Gotcha. They

could have put it anywhere else, except for where

episode six takes place or whatever. And I do

see that they were trying to go for something

different, which they accomplished with it. I

just, I don't know, just, I never liked it as

a kid, and I'm still not a fan of it now, but

I can at least sit there and watch it now. I

think I was a big fan of the 80s. I think that's

what sold the planet for me. I was too. And I

think the thing with the original trilogy is

you gotta understand. Even like when we meet

Luke in New Hope, the rebels are constantly moving,

and that's... That's a point through all three

films. You have Yavin in New Hope, you have Hoth,

and then wherever else, obviously they go to

Cloud City, and then you have the moon of Endor

in Jedi. So the rebellion is constantly moving

to get away from the Empire. So that's just a

constant thing. Yeah, there was going to be something

that took place on an Anna Snow Iceworld, no

matter what, whether it was in this movie or

another one, because that's something Lucas was

big on, is having different environments. like

he he says a couple times in the commentary at

the original trilogy you only could work with

the ones you could get to realistically on earth

so you could only use the ones we're used to

you could use a desert you could use a snowy

area you could use a forest you know it wasn't

until the prequels were all sudden you could

make your own environment right yeah uh... michael

and just summarize the plan for empire since

you love this movie so much Shit goes bad is

the best way to sum up this movie the rebels

have been on the run From the Imperial fleet

despite having a stunning victory at Yavin the

Empire decided hey, we're gonna bring every star

destroyer We can to kick your ass and have a

traffic jam in the air Pretty much. These guys,

they're being chased from planet to planet. The

planet, they're doing hit and run raids against

the Imperials. They don't have any real military

stronghold. Everything is kept on the transports

just in case they got a bail. So the rebels are

located to a planet called Hoth, located in clearly

the Hoth system, and the Empire is sending out

thousands of probe droids. The probe droids unfortunately

come across one of the rebel power generators,

and Vader's fleet picks - up on it on his flagship,

the Super Star Destroyer Executor, and he rounds

up his personal fleet to go after them. So the

rebels are like, oh shit, we got to get out of

here. And uh, well basically, the rebels get

their asses handed to them. They have a massive

ground assault using Adats, Snow Troopers, etc,

etc. But people get separated. Now, one of the

things I forgot to mention in the beginning there

is Luke gets, uh, he goes to check out an asteroid

but gets knocked out by a Wampa, which is a creature

indigenous to Hoth. and tries to eat him. Luckily

Luke gets away by killing this thing with his

lightsaber by cutting off his arm. And he gets

a vision of Obi -Wan Kenobi who says, you must

learn from Yoda. Go to the Dagobah system. So

he's like, what the hell is that? And then passes

out. So Han has to rescue him. And... So kind

of flash forwarding back to the Imperial assault

Everybody gets separated Luke is shot down over

Hoth in his like snow speeder So he has to basically

get away But he takes an X -wing with R2 and

goes to the Dagobah system once the planet is

more or less clear Luke or sorry Leia, Han, Chewie

and the droids take off in the Falcon because

Leia stayed behind to make sure everybody from

the command structure got out and while the Imperial

fleet has been slightly damaged by the planet's

ion cannon, a chunk of them are destroyed going

up. So they try to escape them, but unfortunately

they don't have a whole lot because the hyperdrive

on the Falcon doesn't work, plus they're too

close to an asteroid field. So doing a jump to

hyperspace would result in a rather messy explosive

death. So while dodging asteroids and everything,

they hide out in the asteroid field. And Vader's

like, we'll find them, we know they're here,

it's just a matter of time. So, Luke finally

goes to the Dagobah system and seeks out the

mysterious Jedi Master known as Yoda, who, if

you watched the prequel trilogies, was kind of

a badass. Here he's more of an old elf. He's

an old drunkard. Yeah, he's kind of a goof, which

really takes away from Yoda when you look how

badass he used to be to this silly whatever he

is. But anyway, he's still awesome, still awesome.

So he starts teaching Luke about the ways of

the Force, and Kevin, your turn. uh... basically

as this is going on as lucas learning from yoda

uh... the group that we mentioned before leah

and shooey and the droids uh... end up actually

after they have a bastard field and getting eaten

by the snake monster guy whatever they end up

in cloud city to make a long story short and

they're meeting up with hans old buddy pal allando

And that is when we have the whole scene where

Lando turns on them and Darth Vader shows up

in Cloud City to take Han and the rest basically

captive. About the same time during Luke's training,

he gets an inkling that his friends are in danger.

Obi -Wan and Yoda are urging him to complete

his training and that he will only cause more

problems and that he's not ready to basically

save everybody, but if he stays and does all

his training, then it'll be an easier route to

saving his friends. But Luke, as always, is a

young guy full of his own ideas and he can't

stand the thought of his friends being in trouble,

so he takes off to Cloud City. So that's basically

the end of his training for this movie. And then

we have Han going into the old carbon chamber

or being you know frozen carbonite freezing chamber

and Lando then having a change of heart just

as Han did in the previous movie and Lando now

is trying to help Leia and the droids meanwhile

Luke shows up and has his battle with Darth Vader

and gets his hand cut off, just like everybody

gets their hand cut off in the Star Wars legacy.

Did I leave anything out? Well, I was going to

make a joke. It's a good thing Lorraine of Bobbit

isn't in Star Wars. Yeah. Why couldn't anybody

ever get their leg cut off or something? Why

does it always got to be the hand? Because apparently

they don't want them to keep their hands. I understand

some of them. I understand Luke and... You know

Darth Vader and the connection there, but like

even the dang Watch Macaulay got his arm cut

off. Why can I never remember the wampa or the

Dude's name they just wanted to do it like father

like son moment. Yeah, so basically Yeah, and

basically the plot ends with no resolution you

basically have Luke trying to recover, you know

as he's been rescued you have being taken to

Java and Carbonite, you know, with both taken

in there, and you're left kind of hanging in

there for, what was it, three years? Yeah, it

was three years. Jedi came out in 83. Mike, what

was your favorite scene? Or do you have a specific

favorite scene, or do you have more than one

out of Empire? There are a couple for me. Obviously,

the Battle of Hoth. What more can I say? It's

fucking awesome. Fantastic use of miniatures

and practical effects. That's one of the reasons

why I love it. And stop motion. My favorite scene

in the whole movie is where Lando betrays them.

And they open the door, and you just see this

look on Han's face, and he starts shooting with

his blaster at Vader, and Vader's absorbing the

blaster bolts, and he's like, we would be honored

if you would join us. I fucking love that. Just

the menace in Vader's voice, and then Boba Fett

comes out. And lastly, the fight in the carbon

freezing chamber. is probably one of the best

lightsaber battles in the OT, because these guys

are not fully trained Jedi except for Vader when

you think about it. But still, it was very awesome

just seeing the red and blue clash together.

And it was just very impressive. Where Vader

says the force is with you young Skywalker, but

you're not a Jedi yet And that's the that's the

one scene that made me fall in love with Vader

just how much of a badass he is The whole time

I was watching that scene the whole thing the

whole time I kept thinking oh wow this would

make for a really good Star Wars red versus blue

episode For those of you who don't know red versus

blue is a spoof off of halo Crickets here Anyways

What about you Steve what's your favorite scene?

Um, I would have to say the entire Yoda scene

Mmm, I agree just just because of the introduction

of the character in in this trilogy would have

to say the epic battle at the end, which leaves

you really wanting more, especially with Vader

revealing that he's Luke's father cutting off

the hand. Luke just kind of dangling there, which

was strange for the one -handed man. Overall,

that was pretty… anything at that time with that

life -threatening of stakes and especially with

a father -son battle on two sides of the coin.

Practically having Vader toying with Luke, kind

of just pushing him to see how far he'd go. Because

he could have finished him easily, he just didn't

want to. Right. The classic bad guy mistake.

Yes. What I really loved about this one was the

whole Cloud City stuff. My only really complaint

about that is what did C -3PO stumble upon? I

mean, seriously, because, you know, you get there,

you know, they get to Cloud City and, you know,

Lando's all buddy buddy with them and everything

else. And then 3PO goes off on his own. He gets

captured and basically dismantled. But what the

hell did he does anybody know what knew that

the Empire was there? Yeah, I think in the expanded

universe. He stumbles upon a stormtrooper staging

area I think that's what happens like they're

just kind of getting ready or he stumbles across

Boba Fett or something I can't remember precisely,

but I know what's covered in the expanded universe

fiction Okay, he basically learns that they're

in trouble Is the gist of that I mean yeah, it's

kind of he kind of says that when when Chewie's

putting them back together, but it just, for

me when I was watching the film earlier, I was

like, what the hell's in there? I'm guessing

they probably had something actually filmed and

that didn't make it to the final film. Yeah.

And it's one of those where if you know it happens,

you don't realize that the audience might be

a little bit left in the dark. You know, after

you get all the cuts and you know everything

that happened, you might not see it through the

audience's eyes. Yeah, I Think my favorite spots

because I know Mike's not gonna ask me I was

waiting for you to say it actually my all my

thunder was stolen because my favorite scene

in the whole movie is birdman scene where Did

they open the door invaders sitting in the the

the hall there at the end of the table? That's

just that is It might be my second favorite movie

in the entire six movie or second favorite moment

in the entire six movies It's just badass when

they walk in and Darce there and Boba Fett's

to his side and he's just like deflecting the

bullets. That is Epic. I love that scene And

so as soon as as soon as Mike mentioned that

one, I'm like, okay I'll come up with another

one and then Steve goes Because my second favorite

scene would be the interaction between Yoda and

r2d2 I love uh... that scene it cracks me up

and i love how they introduced yoda i'm maybe

a anti or a different opinion is the two mics

i actually like yoda better in uh... as an old

senile man than i do as the younger version Don't

mind him when he's wise but just the all and

I know what they were going for here They were

going for does Luke have the patience to deal

with someone like this? Because obviously if

he didn't have the patience to deal with someone

the way Yoda was acting all old and senile and

oh You know just like a little kid. Oh, let me

in this let me have this. No, it's mine No, it's

mine and whatever else. Well, it's also the the

classic the idea of a hero being thrust or you

know put in a situation where you have a figure

that is you know not what you expect to see how

you would react to that character and if you're

gonna judge the book by the cover it's kind of

that whole you know is he gonna make fun of you

know to take him seriously how is he gonna react

when in fact this is the the guy he's looking

for type thing yeah yeah um as far as uh... You

know the overall story i thought it was like

you know like like we said like dot has said

very well paced very well done. This one to me

is actually like and i know i don't know if i'll

get flagged for this now but this to me is is

kind of like back to the future too. at the end

where you're like, oh, well, I want to see what

happens now. It isn't just like it's obviously

they had to conclude it with with chapter six,

but it isn't like the first one where I think

the first one and kind of just like ends. It

just stops. Well, it's a completely different

dynamic here because, you know, like like we

said before, during the first one, that is there's

a possibility that that's your only film. Right.

After the first one went out there was no doubt

anymore every movie Lucas wanted to make he was

gonna be able to make Right as far as Star Wars

goes so for this one there is no fear of not

being able to make episode 6 So you could leave

it as whatever you wanted and you knew you were

still gonna be able to finish the story in the

next episode Yeah, I mean it did take a completely

different style though as far as the the other

Star Wars or the other ones in the original trilogy

as fact as far as having all of the main action

at the beginning The big battle scenes at the

beginning instead of the end like we had with

the new hope and that way it left it for the

whole rest of Empire to be all about character

depth and the developing of the different stories

Which I kind of liked it that way. You don't

kind of notice it at the time because you're

so into the story by that point that you don't

realize that you haven't had a big huge like

space battle or a big battle like they have in

Hoth at the beginning. You almost forget that

it's been dialogue for a great deal of the movie.

Right, yeah. Well, and it kind of takes up where

episode one or episode four left off with all

the massive action and it just kind of slowly...

know brings it down right and then gets it on

to the it flows really nice between episode four

and six yeah it does getting into the cast there

are only a few cast members we really need to

talk about because obviously Hamill Ford and

Fisher return and of course the cameo with Alec

Guinness what does everybody think of Lando and

Billy Dee Williams I'm a big fan of Billy Dee,

but apparently he had some problems as far as

remembering his lines for this movie. I've heard

it from a couple different people. Carrie Fisher

and I can't remember who the other person was

that would say that there was all kinds of times

where he would have to call for his line because

he didn't have a clue what he was supposed to

say next. Wow. I have a question about this because

I don't remember it ever really being said in

the original trilogy. Well, I know that Yoda

and Obi -Wan mentioned the dark side. Did anyone

ever mention the Sith Lords in the original trilogy?

I don't think so. No. Okay, because in the little

credit here for Prowse, it says Darth Vader,

a Sith Lord, and I don't ever remember the Sith.

I just remember the dark side. Not until they

edit it in. Right, right. Later on sometime.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, as far as that goes. We do

have a couple other new characters too in this

one, which is the Emperor as far as... And this

is another one that's had a couple different

versions. Yeah. It wasn't even the same actor.

No, at first it was Clive Revel, who's done a

whole lot of shit in his career. But that, have

you guys seen that version? The Clive Revel version?

Yeah. The original one? Yep, way back when. Yeah,

compared to McDermid. Those are so different.

It's crazy. Yeah Actually, obviously is another

new character. So Frank yeah, yeah Yoda actually

it's very funny now that I look at this and I

never knew that it was Clive revel before that

did the voice of Emperor Palpatine in the in

the original stuff, but Clive revel was also

the voice of Alfred Pennyworth and Batman the

animated series for about nine episodes until

Ephraim ziblis jr. Replaced him interesting yep

and now you know coming spring 2011 legends of

the dark knight shameless plug nice it is what

I mean I kind of mentioned it before already

but uh you know Yoda was not supposed to be in

this movie Yoda was not a character that George

Lucas originally envisioned this is all of Yoda

scenes were supposed to be Obi -Wan Kenobi Um,

but since Obi -Wan was killed off in the last

one he had to basically come up with a new character

and that's where Yoda came in. Ah, and I find

this very interesting. At the bottom of the cast

listing here it says, Well, Clive Revel played

the voice of the Emperor. Elaine Baker, wife

of Rick Baker, appeared as Palpatine's physical

form in the original theatrical cut. And the

1977 special edition of the film with superimposed...

That's what I'm talking about. The chimpanzee

eyes are crazy. God! Well... I never knew this

before that it - because I always thought the

physical form of the Emperor - I thought it was

a guy and it's like, wow, the Emperor's having

sexual issues here. He doesn't know whether he's

a guy or a girl. Yeah, it's not the voice that

I find weird when you see the Clive Revel version.

It's the chimpanzee eyes. Man, it's been so long

since I've seen the original version, man. You

can go onto YouTube. I don't know what it's called,

but you can see just that clip and just like

It's a pretty good shot of the chimpanzee eyes

and Clive revel doing it and it's weird Because

it's been so long since I've seen that since

all the subsequent versions I've had you know

McDermid Put in there yeah And well McDermid

was also was the original like physical form

of the Emperor in Jedi wasn't he? Only in the

Yeah, yeah the original version of yeah, yeah,

he was that that way and that's what surprised

me because and I know we'll get to this once

we get to the Prequel trilogy, but when I saw

the prequel trilogy, I'm like, oh senator Palpatine

Oh, okay, and it didn't really dawn on me until

the scene where He's gonna fry mace window or

after Mace is kind of, you know, obviously knocked

him down and he does the whole unlimited power

thing. It didn't occur to me until the special

effects for his deformation of his face had happened.

And I was like, yeah, it never occurred to me

that they were the actual same actor that portrayed

both roles. It never occurred to me before. And

of course, people are going to love this. Cliff

Claven, from Cheers, this is the voices of many

characters from Pixar's animated films, was deck

officer major Bren Durlan. I completely forgot

about that. I actually gave that as a gift to

my father -in -law when they had the Star Wars

Legends figures. I think that was called, yeah.

Legends or Legacy, whatever. Either way, what

was that in 2005? When they had Brenda Lynn,

I remember giving that to my father -in -law,

David, saying, here you go, Cliff Clavin with

a gun. Do we have anything any other stuff? Do

we want to talk about like favorite casts or

not favorite cat but favorite characters in this

one? Mike? Motherfucking Boba Fett! No, um...

Vader, without a doubt. Just Vader in this movie

again. What an awesome presence. Mm -hmm. And

come on, he was legitimately fucking scary in

this movie. Yes, he was. So yeah, Vader all the

way. What about you, Kevin? Thank you Actually,

man, I love Hans dialogue in this one But I don't

think he was my favorite character like he was

in the in the first one. I think it has to be

I'm gonna go with Yoda. I like the Yoda and Steve

I would have to say For the evil character, I

would have to say Darth Vader but for the hero

to have to say Even though he didn't do very

much. I'd have say Yoda Yeah, I'm actually gonna

break the mold here I actually really liked Lando

because I liked the little shut up. I liked the

way that the The characterization between Han

and Lando. I really like that. I like it because

it gave Han, you know, basically Lando is Han

at an earlier age or before he met Luke and Leia.

So I mean, that is exactly what Han would have

been like. So it's kind of neat seeing Han play

off of basically what he used to be in that kind

of interaction. So I can see that I like Lando.

The other reason why I like Lando is because

when he obviously does the double cross, I love

the way Chewie treats him. Yeah, I just laughed

at that so hard Yeah, Chewie had some funny moments

in this one. Yeah, Chewie. Oh Chewie was great

After after 3PO was kind of put back together,

but but not really. Oh, yeah, just Duck you wooly

Yeah, there's just some classic moments a couple

other moments that I forgot to mention when we

were talking about my favorite scene or whatever

but uh, there's just like little things like

when When Han puts I think it's on yeah puts

his hand over c3po's mouth Yeah, like that's

gonna do anything. He's a robot. He's a droid.

He can still talk but but c3po still shuts up

I always thought that was kind of kind of clever

kind of like Funny because you don't really think

about it because he's just like it putting his

hand over his mouth like he's a human Even though

he's not yeah, and then and then Leia just reaches

behind and flips a switch Yeah, yeah, that was

cool. And there's just so many cool, the whole

scene with Vader getting the helmet put on was

just an epic scene. That was definitely awesome.

Because up to this point, you hadn't, you didn't

really know exactly what Darth Vader was. Yep.

And you also saw just how kind of brutal he was

because when he kills Admiral Ozzel, Mm -hmm.

He's like he's as clumsy as he is stupid then

just chokes the shit out of them You're in charge

now Admiral piet is like oh fuck I know I love

it when when they when he doesn't kill piet though

at that one point and everybody else in the in

the room I forget where they were at exactly

but everybody else is like looking and like waiting

for it, and they're like Huh? He didn't kill

him. As he's in a good mood, just keep going.

He was too so pissed he couldn't kill him. One

of the things that I really liked and I also

really hate at the same time and this will also

be brought up in Jedi is the fact that they treat,

the way that the story is told from Ben's point

of view and Obi -Wan's point of view, he tells

Luke that Anakin and Darth Vader are two separate

people. Yeah, and it's kind of a misdirection

thing for the audience. I think because oh, yeah,

you know You obviously don't realize until this

film that Anakin is Vader and George Lucas was

very careful about keeping that a secret in fact

the Script that all the actors have did not even

have the line Luke. I'm your father in it Wow,

it didn't have that nobody knew except for at

the end he told I think he well he obviously

had to have James Earl Jones, you know, so let's

say the same thing lines but like even some of

the actors during that scene did not know and

on the commentary it talks about a scene when

they went to watch one of the the screenings

of this and Kershner the director is sitting

in the in the in the screening room and David

Prowse who was Darth Vader was sitting either

behind or in front of him or something. And when

that scene happened, and all of a sudden everybody

finds out that he says, you know, Luke, I'm your

father, he actually tapped Kershner on the shoulder

and said, why didn't you tell me that? Like,

I would have acted different if I would have

known that was what my lines were going to be.

So even the actual physical actor in Darth Vader

did not know that that was the line that was

going to be put in there. yeah and the other

thing i want to talk about and kind of getting

into the good the bad and the ugly here about

the changes for this one they added the scene

where uh uh yoda and obi -wan are talking didn't

they you're talking about after luke leaves yeah

i think they added a small part of it i don't

remember that in the original cut though i don't

remember them i do do you really I really do,

yeah, that's always been there. They actually,

this movie they didn't do much with. They picked

up the kind of Hoth battle. Yeah, it was more

of the minor stuff that they did in this one,

except for the whole Emperor thing that we just

talked about, but they didn't do a whole lot

of adding scenes or adding characters or changing

a whole bunch. This one had the least amount

of edits out of the three. i thought the water

looked a lot better this time around new yeah

i would like this fucked up hand puppet you know

that's true they uh... did a little bit of touch

up the cloud city to make it look a little bit

more epic which i was okay with that yeah i was

okay with the touch of the cloud city what i

think the thing is with this one that is that

they did to they did such a good job with them

that it's almost unnoticeable To a casual fan,

you wouldn't know the diff the changes that they

made in this one I don't think compared to some

of the ones in a new hope or in return where

it's very obvious Yeah, the stuff here is a more

smooth changes Yeah, very much so Kevin you got

any trivia for Empire? Um, of course I do. Um,

I don't know if you guys noticed this I've never

noticed it but apparently Always thought the

reason Luke looked different at the beginning

of this movie was just because he was a little

bit older But apparently he was in a car accident

right before they started shooting for this one

So maybe that's where the muddy monk has blacked

out. So, I mean, it worked out well that they

had him in a battle with, you know, out in Hoth

at the beginning anyway, so it kind of made it

so it wasn't as noticeable. But apparently, yeah,

he was in a car accident right before this one.

Essentially, we were talking about sound effects

during when we were discussing the Duho. One

of the most interesting sound effects that they

revealed in the commentary for this one is the

tonton. Actually is the sounds they got for the

tonton is from a Asian sea otter. Um, I thought

that was interesting because agency otters are

just these tiny little, you know guys and the

tauntaun was pretty big Hamil was almost killed

in the in the tank the What's the dang name for

the tank? The AT -AT no, no in the the glass

tank with the water after he comes back from

ha the back to tank Yeah, he almost actually

was killed in that he he was in the tank when

they were filming it They pulled him out and

like a minute later the tank like broke and like

these big huge chunks of glasses came like dropping

down and According to the director Kirschner.

He says, you know if Hamill would have still

been in the tank. He's not sure he would have

made it Wow, so that was kind of interesting

like I said before obviously Yoda was not in

the original script Let's see The only other

thing I have is that they were, oh, the torture

scene for Han when they torture Han in order

for Luke to come. Apparently that was cut way

down because they thought it was going to be

too intense for kids. Even the screaming, because

instead of showing it all, they basically go

outside and you just hear them screaming. And

apparently even the scream they cut down a little

bit because it was too intense. Cool. And then

I guess my favorite one is when Lando comes out

of the Millennium Falcon to grab Luke, there

is a tiny shot where they show the Millennium

Falcon from above and Lando pops up. It's actually

a G .I. Joe figure. Or like an action figure.

I don't know if it was technically a G .I. Joe

brand, but it was an action figure of Lando popping

through the model of the Millennium Falcon. Wow.

uh... getting into some box office stuff apparently

Empire premiered at a limited number of theaters

and those all in large metropolitan areas because

it was first released only on 70 millimeter wide

film which only the largest and most prosperous

movie theaters had projectors for at the time.

It was many weeks later when this movie was published

on standard 35 millimeter wide film for thousands

of other movie theaters. So basically if you

lived in like Owen Sound or in the middle of

nowhere Canada you wouldn't see this movie. Yeah,

probably not Critical response Let's see this

is something that's interesting because most

people as far as like the standard Star Wars

right now I know everybody has like their favorite

movie or whatnot but this one this one in return

of the Jedi always seemed to be at the top of

everybody's list as far as like just overall

numbers as far as people like fan -wise if you

were to like pull all the stars fans in the world

uh... i'm thinking that returned to an empire

would be the top of the list this one did not

get a good reception at the time you know didn't

i mean this was this was stupid well i mean and

that's why i think it's it's a little bit yet

to be cautious when you give when people give

up terms in the moment bad reception the prequel

They all got negative reception or at least most

of them got negative reception at the time but

you gotta wait a while and let it set in and

see what happens later on as far as the legacy

of these films because the reason people didn't

like this one at the time was because there was

no closure and they had to wait three years basically

for something and it just at the time didn't

fulfill what they wanted it to fulfill but then

in retrospect you know decades later it's seen

as one of the best ones so Critical response

at the exact moment of a film's release is always

pretty sketchy As far as some legacy, Kevin had

mentioned earlier in A New Hope that we didn't

talk about Vader's ranking. Vader was ranked

as the third greatest film villain of all time

in the AFI Institute's list of 100 Greatest 100

Heroes Villains in 2003, including his role in

this film. And Wizard Magazine selected the ending

of The Empire Strikes Back as the greatest cliffhanger

of all time. That's interesting I do have one

other note with the legacy as far as because

we're you know, we're talking about rankings

and nominations and stuff like that Lucas was

pushing big time for Frank Oz to be nominated

for an Academy Award for Yoda Mm -hmm because

of the acting that took place the puppeteering

and everything like that But the the Screen Actors

Guild Award basically laughed at him and said,

you know a puppeteer is not an actor So I thought

it was very cool that George Lucas was pushing

for that. Yeah. Yeah, very very cool Apparently,

we're all wrong, because the most well -known

line of The Empire Strikes Back, No, I Am Your

Father, is supposedly often misquoted as, Luke,

I Am Your Father. Okay, no response. What did

you mean we were wrong? Apparently, the Luke,

I Am Your Father is the misquoting. Oh, yeah.

The original line was, No, I Am Your Father.

That sounds better Luke. I am your father. Oh,

yeah I think they're full of crap. Well, probably

so they're all communists. Just saying the other

line that was nominated for AFI's list is Yoda's

try not do or do not there's no try Yeah, just

a great line too. There's so many good lines

in Star Wars Oh, yes there are. Mike, do you

want to talk about the soundtrack a little bit?

Once again, soundtrack fantastic also introduced

the Imperial March, which is a little bit of

weirdness from my childhood as they... Every

morning my high school used to play music before

9 o 'clock classes. Whenever they'd play the

Imperial March, it was weird. Everybody would

start walking in step. Like it was like a literal

military procession in my school. It was so fucking

badass. Plus there's just there's a lot more

memorable music I find in Empire as opposed to

A New Hope in some ways because the Battle of

Hoth has a very memorable score. feel has a more

memorable score and just overall I just found

the music for Empire was just so much better

than the first one and kicks the shit out of

Return of the Jedi and I'm just trying to think

what else to tell you once again great sound

design in this movie one of the things I would

like to mention did you know the director for

this movie Ivan Kirschner also did you know what

his last movie was yeah Fucking Robocop. Robocop

2, baby. Well, at least it wasn't Robocop 3.

The only other one I know that he did was the

Bond one, Never Say Never Again. Those are the

only three that I know he did, Robocop, Never

Say Never Again, and Empire. Which surprises

me because he was awesome in Empire. Yeah, and

it's weird just to think Robocop wasn't better

than what it should have been. I mean, come on.

It's the second movie. This is the second Star

Wars movie. Why isn't this better? But one of

the cool things about this is you got to see

a change, once again, in props. Vader's lightsaber

changes from Empire, or sorry, from A New Hope

to The Empire Strikes Back. There's some changes

in the emitter shroud. It's slightly shorter.

There's a different activator switch on it. And

it gets even more rad. when you look at the one

for number three as well. So, or sorry, number

three for Return of the Jedi. Plus this lightsaber

most closely mirrors Anakin's in episode two,

Attack of the Clones. It's more or less just

a silver version of the ESP saber. And yeah,

I mean, also every, like almost every Star Wars

video game has had, you know, a Hoth level. I

remember when Star Wars Shadows of the Empire,

was put out back in the 90s or 96 I think. It

was a big deal because it was considered part

of Star Wars canon which crossed over with the

original trilogy. to fill in gaps between what

happened between Empire and Jedi. They had Dash

Randar. They talked more about how Luke built

his lightsaber on Tatooine. How Leia got the

bounty hunter outfit and stuff like that. So

there was a lot of meta crossover with this particular

movie. I'm trying to think of what else to tell

you. I don't know, Kevin, am I missing anything,

do you think? Well, we'll get into like the little

media, more of the media stuff. as far as novelizations

and stuff like that here in a minute. Are we

missing anything else of the actual film? No,

the Cloud City had some good music, too. And

like he was saying with Imperial Death March,

I heard the, yeah, Imperial March. I love playing

that in band. We had a whole semester where we

played Star Wars music because our band director

was cool. And I remember that whole musical,

or that whole rendition pretty heavily. I mean,

that was awesome. As far as the IGN replacement

crew, one through four, I give it a four. Four.

I'd give it a four as well. I'm gonna give it

a fucking hardcore. The highest four you can

get. There is an alternate version of that Luke

I am your father scene. Right. Because it says

no Luke I am your father and then the other one

says Obi -Wan killed your father. Oh. Hmm interesting

thought I just found it on YouTube It's it's

yeah, and I guess it was a false page in the

original script Wow, yeah Well that might had

to do with the fact that you know Lucas was trying

to keep it secret and trying to make sure that

people didn't know until it actually happened

So ladies and gentlemen Michael Bay learns misdirection

campaigns from George Lucas Getting into like

other media and stuff like this I Never really

get into as Mike said I don't me personally I'm

not in the expanded universe but apparently a

novelization of Empire was done and guess who

was written by Kevin. Donald F glut. You know

Mike mentioned earlier about the comics and also

the video games I remember. the Star Wars NES

games the Star Wars Empire Strikes Back and I

also remember Super Empire Strikes Back and Super

Jedi Mike, why don't you tell us a little bit

about some of the games? Some of the games that

came out for this I remember there were two produced

for the NES the NES one being Well, frankly,

terrible. But it also introduced like force power,

stuff like that. But the one that most people

remember is Super Empire Strikes Back for the

Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Fantastic

game by kind of LucasArts. Had you fighting Vader

for the first time. You also could pilot the

kind of snow speeder. You could pilot the Falcon

during the asteroid chase. And it was a very

hard game. Like the last fight with Vader was

a pain in the ass to say the very least. And

also, like I said, there was the Nintendo 64

game Shadows of the Empire games, like kind of

Rogue Squadron have had the kind of Hoth level

in it. I love that level. Star Wars Battlefront

1 and 2 have had Hoth levels. In fact, the last

level in Star Wars Battlefront 2, if I remember

correctly, is the invasion of Hoth with the 501st.

which was the last clone battalion in the Empire

that was made up of almost all clones. And I

think that was the final level of the game. Trying

to think of what else. Also, Star Wars Trilogy

Arcade produced by Sega had a level dedicated

to Hoth. You're finding the kind of snow speeder.

You're wandering around the corridors of Echo

Base. Try think of other video game things involving

this um so Star Wars Lego Star Wars. Yeah, it's

crack It's the most revisited level in the trilogy's

history as far as I've as far as I know And I

love being the snow speeder and trying to take

down the 80s in the rogue squadron game and just

using blasters Yeah, that whole level is fun

Before we move on to our final thoughts for Empire,

I want to bring up the radio play that was done

for this. Apparently, Hamill, Billy Dee Williams,

and Anthony Daniels carried forward their roles

as the voices of Luke, Lando, and C -3PO respectively.

The actor John Lithgow presented the voice of

Yoda. I'm sorry. No, that should have never fucking

happened. I like John Lithgow and a lot of other

stuff he's done, but... My god, that's like a

friggin blasphemy right there. Yeah. Oh god The

radio play was designed to last for five hours

of radio time usually presented in more than

one part Wow so Kevin final thoughts on Empire

Um, you know, back this last summer I was ambitious

and I made a top 50 list of movies of the 80s

and then I made another one for the 90s and another

one for the 2000s. My 80s list, Empire, is number

one. To me it's the best movie in the entire

decade. That's my final thought on Empire. Best

movie of the 80s. Okay, Steve. Um, although not

as bad as I once thought it was, it is still

a pretty good movie. film and more of a welcome

addition to the saga of Star Wars in comparison

to its prequels. And the guy who hated it originally

as a kid wasn't me, it was Dodd. Where'd Dodd

go? What? What was the question? Sorry horse.

Final thoughts on Empire, Mr. Oh, I hated this

as a kid. See, it's taken a better appreciation

of having better Star Wars fans around me than

the ones I had up in Owen Sound. More specifically,

David Double D Dennis. I find this movie just,

it gets better with age. There isn't a lot wrong

with it. It's just... It's probably one... I

wouldn't say it's the best movie of the 80s,

in my opinion. It depends on what you want it

to represent. But it's the best epic space opera

of the 80s. That's what I would say. Like I've

said before, I like this one, but it's not my

favorite. And I know that these guys are gonna

crucify me when they find out what my favorite

is. But, uh... If it's episode one, I'm never

talking to you again, dude. Anyways, um... Oh

my god, it is! No. Don't you dare say fucking

Jedi. Maybe not. He's speechless. Anyway, Empire,

um... Watching this back with the edits... I'll

even though you know people can crucify Lucas

all they want for the edits and changing the

original vision everything else on a whole I

like this one for the way it ties into the prequels

as far as the continuity with the Emperor and

the way he looks and all that it you know as

Dodd said it is easily the best -paced one out

of all six films uh... it doesn't leave you hang

it kinda leaves you hanging on a cliffhanger

but it really for me it doesn't because i would

always watch jedi immediately after this and

and uh... but you know that with three years

to see what happens next i would never but well

Yeah, so overall Empire is really really well

done. I honestly wish I could live in Cloud City

I love the Cloud City scenes. In my opinion,

it's the best directed Star Wars movie out of

all six of them. It's cause George Lucas wasn't

directing it. Well, it doesn't direct Return

either, but Mark, or not Mark, but Kershner was

a genius in my opinion on this movie. Yeah. Alright,

so you're gonna hear the Return of the Jedi or

Revenge of the Jedi trailer, and we will be back

after that. On March 7th, return to the fight

for freedom. In the name of adventure. I'm Luke

Skywalker. I have a really bad feeling about

this. Return of the Jedi. I will not fight. You

must confront Vader. You are unwise to lower

your defenses. 20th Century Fox and George Lucas

present The time for our attack has come The

last challenge of the Star Wars Trilogy Special

Edition How could they be jamming us when they

don't know it? If we're coming, it's a trap!

Your fleet is lost and your friends will not

survive Don't move! I love you I know There is

no escape Return of the Jedi with newly enhanced

visual effects. THX and digital sound. And a

few new surprises. Live the magic. Experience

the power. And feel the force. Like never before.

I am a Jedi. Like my father before me. So meet...

Jedi. On March 7th, the last chapter of the Star

Wars Trilogy Special Edition. Return of the Jedi.

And closing out the original trilogy is episode

6, Return of the Jedi, which is actually my favorite

one out of the original trilogy. Way to give

your final thoughts first. You're retarded! So

setting the stage here, episode 6, Return of

the Jedi, is the 1983 American space opera film

directed by Richard Markland. And written by

George Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan, it is the third

film released in the Star Wars saga and the sixth

in the final terms of the internal chronology.

It is the first film to use the THX technology,

so that's another reason to like this film. Huh.

Anyways. It's a bunch of muppets. I wonder if

he had Jim Henson on hand. No, but Jim Hansen

had his hands up a lot of the asses. Oh, God.

No, he was working with Jim Hansen a lot in the

last movie on this one. All right, so initial

thoughts on Jedi. Steve, you can go first. Yeah,

way to throw me under the bus, Jackass. What?

I just said you could go first. It's not like

I said anything else. I know. I'm just screwing

with you. No, I like how the entire beginning

of the movie starts out as far as like the Jabba

Palace setup. That I liked really, really well.

It kind of started off slow, which again kind

of with the end of episode five, kind of fit

well. it pretty much jumps right back into it

which I really like and you get to see the finale

of Yoda and then of course the epic return of

the Death Star with the Emperor finally showing

his face after I mean I don't consider Empire

Strikes Back a legitimate Emperor showing so

I more so base this viewing as his first appearance

since episode 3, where he actually mattered.

So overall I like those particular aspects. I

mostly like the beginning and the end, the middle

is kind of like meh, but the Ewoks planet I could

care less, two shits less about, but definitely

the the Death Star, the Outpost, the Jabba's

Palace were nice tie -ups to things that have

been going on since episode one. Right, yeah.

What about you, Kevin? Well, I mean, this one,

Return has the benefit of being the final movie.

So it gets to tie up all the loose ends. It gets

to answer all the questions. It gets to complete

all the different little storylines. So it's

very easy for it to be everybody's favorite in

some ways. As a kid, this was my favorite one.

And the reason it was is because I loved everything

to do with Java. And Boba Fett and all that that

whole scene on the barge and everything about

that was not every single part about that scene

was cool But I love that scene and I loved the

Ewoks when I was a kid. I'm not afraid to admit

it. Damn it I love the battle of Endor. I love

the Scout walkers. I love the Ewoks to me What

George Lucas did and this is kind of getting

a little ahead of things or whatever But as far

as the original trilogy compared to the prequel

trilogy George Lucas was able to make the crazy

Side characters in the original trilogy not annoying

in my opinion Whereas some of them in the prequel

are annoying Jar Jar But anyways, but you know,

I didn't find the Ewoks that annoying I found

them as a you know, yes as I have grown up They're

a little bit too kid -friendly and you know parts

of it, but they have a lot of funny moments and

I don't know I like I like Endor The one thing

that I, as far as annoying character, as you

mentioned, one thing I cannot stand is that little

rat looking thing in Jabba's pout. The one that's

always laughing his ass off. I cannot stand that

little piece of shit. What about you, Mike? What

are your initial thoughts on Jedi? Fuck this

movie. you know what i find this movie does not

age well i mean yeah it wraps up a lot of things

it does have some cool moments in it but i i

did a commentary with this with uh david double

d dennis and Don't know just just a lot of this

movie I like and don't like it's so many mixed

feelings us and yet This is the movie I loved

when I was a kid, but as I got older I find it

just it doesn't hold up as well in certain ways

I mean, um, I like the stuff on Endor for the

most part I like Luke's mini spaz attack on the

Death Star where you know kicks the shit out

of Vader but It just gets goddamn goofy at times.

And for me, like I pointed out earlier, the whole

thing about the original trilogy is the rebellion

has to keep moving. The change from Hoth, which

is from one extreme, to Endor, which Endor really

isn't an extreme, but it's like, it's more of

like an Earth planet than anything else, honestly.

It's the most Earth -like place. Right, exactly.

And I absolutely love that speeder fight. That

was just so awesome. Yeah, and I'm not usually

one that likes like the big high -speed chase

type, uh, big... Everybody's always, you know,

big on the big action scenes like the the Death

Star run or like the the pod racing or like difference

even in other movies like the big chase type

crazy stuff I usually am NOT a big fan of that,

but I loved the speeder race through Endor Fuck

the pod racing. I hate that. I'm just saying

everybody usually likes the big intense Yeah,

and race fast, you know, whatever and I don't

usually like that, but I did in this one So Mike

remind us of the summary of this one Bullshit

happen You asked the wrong person ask Kevin Kevin

Basically where we left off at the last one the

biggest cliffhanger was the fact that Han Solo

was frozen and carbonite So this movie is gonna

pick up basically where Han Solo has been taken

to which is Jabba the Hutt in his palace in on

Tatooine and The whole rescue effort that Leia

or not Leia cuz she well, no, yeah first Yeah,

Leia in disguise and then Lando and eventually

Luke, they all are trying to help out. So the

first person to get caught was Leia as she was

in her disguise and she's unfreezing Han and

then of course Jabba pulls up the curtain so

to speak and captures Leia and she gets to be

put in the bikini. Slave outfit. Best part about

this movie. So then we have a Luke show up, and

he tries to do his little Jedi mind tricks, whatever,

then we have the whole barge scene where Jabba's

on the barge and people are falling into the

snake pit, or the worm, the giant sandworm guy.

Sarlacc. Sarlacc, got it. I'm bad at my beast

names right now. So we have that whole situation

where a lot of people die and the whole barge

gets blown up, etc. And then after that... That

is when Luke returns to Danganbos to finish his

training. We have the entire kind of death scene

with Yoda. And the whole, yes, confirming that

Darth Vader is Luke's father. That's something

that Lucas wanted to make sure because he said,

according to a lot of people, some people didn't

believe Darth Vader when he said that in the

other movie. He thought they were just messing

with... He was just messing with Luke, so Lucas

really wanted to confirm that by using Yoda to

say, yes, he is your father. And we have the

whole scene with the spirit of Obi -Wan revealing

it as well. And then we have the knowledge coming

to the Rebel Alliance that another Death Star

is being, or the Death Star is being constructed

more powerful than the first, et cetera, et cetera.

So it comes to the plan where they have to go

to Endor and they have to blow up the, whatchamacallit,

What do they got a shield generator so that they

can destroy the Death Star? So then we basically

have a three -fold story at the end of this movie.

We have Lando and his crew of Ships that are

gonna try to take out the Death Star we have

Leia and Han on and or trying to get the shield

generator shut down so that Lando can complete

his job and then we have the confrontation with

Luke and the Emperor and Darth Vader on the Yeah,

on the command ship. So that's the three stories

that are going on at the end, and obviously,

um, Darth turns on Emperor, throws him down the

pit, Luke tries to save Darth, Darth dies, um,

and everybody's happy. Darth turns into that

stupid ass dumb fucking freak. We'll get to that

later. Um, I like a lot of this movie. Uh, there's

not really any scenes that I really fast -forwarded

through or anything like that. Uh, it's - it's

- The fact that you fast -forwarded through any

Star Wars scenes, you lose nerd cred. Dude, you

- you guys already agreed with me on the fucking

garbage scene, come on now. I still watch every

second of it. I don't diso - I never agreed with

you, don't let me in with your lursing of nerd

cred. I did not fast -forward a second. Anyways,

um... It's okay guys. He likes cars. It's all

right. Shut up Mater Mater's awesome. Shut up

Steve what do you what are your thoughts on the

plot of this one? Overall I'd have to say it

was pretty solid plot. I mean it It had a lot

of little surprises Throughout the the movie

like especially the Death Star being rebuilt

and the fact that it could function at pretty

much full capacity even though it wasn't complete.

It's a trap! Now hold on, that's what I was going

to mention earlier. I posted on Twitter about

this. Technically, it's not Ackbar's fault for

that line, because Leia says it in Empire twice

to Luke, and she's yelling out. And I just thought

it was funny to reuse it. Everything's funnier

when coming from a giant fish guy. She's pregnant.

See, it's funny. Geico saved me 15 % on Arto

insurance. See, it's funny. Oh my goodness. But

yeah, I would have to say that I definitely like

this particular film the best out of these three.

Not only because it... It resolves a lot of the

things that have gone on for some of them for

three movies, some of them for the entire six,

but just because you finally get to see certain

people get what's coming to them. In other words,

the ever who's been playing this whole deck of

cards since episode one. And he finally got shoved

down by the one that he created. Yep, that was

fitting very Anakin kicked his ass What about

you Mike? Fuck this movie All right, all right

now you said fuck this movie at least four times

in the past 12 minutes now explain to us Why

you don't like it then if you don't like you

know what explain it? You opened up a can of

worms. See, I don't like the pacing in this movie.

Like it starts off all fine and good with like

Jabba's palace and then in the middle it just

hits this big mire of muck. It just it slows

right down and then right at the end it just

seems to wrap it up too quickly plus the fact

I think my big problem with Jedi it's the storyline.

Hey, you know what that Death Star thing? Yeah,

it didn't work. Hey, you know what to be fucking

awesome? Let's do it again except make it bigger.

Um, you know, it just it's although I I'm not

a huge George Lucas fan, but I think what happened

this is what the original plan was the see So

I don't know if having the Death Star be destroyed

in the first one threw everything off because

that wasn't supposed to happen. I mean, the Death

Star was supposed to be this thing that was being

built for the entire three movies, and it was

supposed to climax with it being destroyed in

this third movie. Well, by three, I mean six,

obviously. But in the end of the trilogy, I mean,

we weren't ever supposed to have two different

Death Stars, and that was never supposed to happen.

I mean, it's partly his fault for not coming

up with something better than, but this was the

original plan. So I almost faulted more for having

him destroy it in the first one Just my fucking

I Think the thing that pissed me off about this.

It's not the Ewoks I actually don't mind that

now because you see it's a primitive culture

being oppressed by the Empire and they rock they

they rise up it's just I don't feel I don't feel

the heart in this one. It doesn't have the same

sense of wonder as A new hope had it doesn't

have the same dark foreboding this that that

Empire had It just it lacks it doesn't have I

wonder what it would have been like if you if

you didn't I mean obviously you can't not see

Empire and then see this and nothing would make

sense but as far as like To me the the second

one had so much character development compared

to the compared to a new hope or return that

Return was gonna fail in parts for character

development because the second because Empire

did such a good job with it, right? And when

you have to tie up all these different storylines

You lose I mean, there's no way to do the character

development almost in a sense because you had

to do So you had to get so much done in a certain

amount of time. Yeah That I don't know it seemed

like it was a lose -lose situation coming right

after Empire where you could you had the luxury

of going through all these different character

developments and really exploring the story and

You know, I was watching, because I was originally

prepping for prequel then original, but I was

watching the commentary for episode one, and

George had mentioned that he likes doing a multi

-tiered, multi -layered story. And the whole

time that I'm watching Return, when I watched

it before we recorded this big episode here,

I was waiting for the goddamn 24 o 'clock to

appear. I really was. And then now that I think

about it, Technically, Vader is Skeletor, the

Emperor is Hordak, and obviously Lucas He -Man

and Leia is She -Ra. I know it all came after

Star Wars, but I'm just saying as far as looking

back on it, for me tying it to other things in

pop culture, the first thing I thought of was

the whole He -Man twin thing. But we want to

talk about the differences in this one. Yeah,

let's well Already got something else first.

Oh the cast. I mean was there really any additions

in this one? No, the Emperor just plays a little

bit bigger role and we have the biggest most

important thing is Warwick Davis little midget

wicket Or Willow if you want to call him Willow,

you can call him Willow I think he's the only

new guy. Yeah. And all, of course, every other

character that played the Ewok. Right. The rest

of the midget group. Oh, Kenny Baker was originally

cast as Ewok Wicket, but was replaced by 11 -year

-old Warwick Davis after falling ill with food

poisoning. Oh boy, that's not good. Warwick Davis

did an amazing job for being in a bear costume

as far as displaying some emotions and giving

that character some character. Yeah Now getting

into like the good the bad and the ugly and some

of the changes in this one one of the changes

that I remember before getting the DVDs was Lucas

added in all the city celebrations. I did not

mind that Love that. I love I thought that was

well done That was the best change they made

on all three films the only the one thing and

Kevin disagrees with me on this We've talked

about this off -air because he doesn't really

mind it the one thing that pissed me off Was

that they put that fucking little preppy ass

fucking? Christian Haygens and whatever the fuck

is named as as as Anakin at the end. I hate that

Okay, I get a rebuttal though Because it makes

absolutely no sense to have the picture that

they should the guy that they have originally

never existed Anakin in the costume that they

put at the end of the original when before they

changed it that guy never existed that makes

no sense Anakin was the boy that we know from

the prequel then he was Darth Vader and then

he dies he was never that person so that's why

I have no problem with them changing this and

because this is supposed to represent when these

characters were Jedi and when because it's a

Jedi thing to be able to carry on you know in

and become part of the force so that's why I

have no problem with it that is when Anakin was

a Jedi and The other Anakin that you're talking

about that you would rather see never existed.

He never existed, so why should he be showing

up at the end? Well, I mean, I can kind of see

your point as far as Anakin only being a Jedi

while he was young. My problem is it really is

because Yoda is old, obviously, and they show

the Alec Guinness version of Ben Kenobi. Thank

God. Well, they were still Jedi when they were

old. They were Jedi for their entire life. Right.

If your argument was if your argument was that

you want to see the scarred up ugly looking Anakin

at the end I could go with that but you can't

show this character that never existed It either

has to be young Anakin or it has to be fucked

up Anakin. I'd prefer fucked up Anakin Well,

that's not what they gave us. They gave us an

Anakin that never existed Well, technically,

you could say that he redeemed himself and he

took his helmet off after he killed Palpatine.

I mean, technically, you could say that they

redeemed him that way to make him kind of go

full circle. But I agree, it should have still

been Hayden Christensen. What's your feelings

on the Hayden Christensen's argument we're having

here, Dad? It doesn't make sense, because when

Anakin died as a Jedi, when he takes off his

helmet and says, Luke, you were right, he should

have been at that old age. It doesn't make sense

for him to revert to when he was a young Jedi.

Exactly. It doesn't make any fucking sense. I

mean, I don't mind Hayden Christensen's portrayal

in Sith only, but I don't know, just that scene

really took away from it, I thought. Yeah. Can

see both of your guys's argument if they showed

him but I don't understand them showing him as

this guy this perfectly Formed a guy that never

lived. He was he never once looked like that

in his entire life. That's my problem with it

Okay, and I can see that but you know, it makes

more sense to have the redeemed Anakin after

Lucas saved him as as the older image No, I can

see but the Some of the other changes my The

change that I liked the least in all of this

trilogy the one I hated the most is the redoing

of the singer the the band in Jabba's Palace

That was terrible They take the original singer

out. They put in this digitized piece of fake

Digital shit and they redo the entire song and

I just hated that scene As they changed it. I

love that scene originally. I hated that scene

after they changed it and I didn't mind the new

musical number, but I find it You have to be

in the right mood to watch it. I thought yeah

Well George Lucas his big thing is that he says

he always gets uh He always gets crap for people

saying that some of the digital stuff they inserted

looks fake And he says, how can it look any more

fake than big rubber, you know, muppets and puppets

and, you know, costumes that we're using? And

he said, they're both fake, so people are, you

know, just being stupid when they say the digital

stuff looks more fake. But I disagree with him.

I think sometimes the digital stuff looks more

fake than the big rubber costumed characters

that they had. I don't know. And I mentioned

earlier, kind of getting into some of the behind

-the -scenes stuff, I mentioned earlier about

the infamous teaser poster entitled Revenge of

the Jedi. And I just remember seeing this, I'm

like... And the problem was, I had already knew

Return, because it was like 97 that I had seen

this, and I'm like... Because it says at the

bottom of the poster, coming to theaters May

25th, 1983, and I'm like, what? Because 1983

obviously had already passed and I'm like, what

the hell is this? Why would this be in this movie

theater? And I so wished I could have grabbed

that thing. That would have been so awesome Yeah,

that would have been pretty cool. I Just going

back I got to say it one more time but I think

the celebration was a great way and showing all

the different showing Naboo and showing all the

different places was a great way to tie up the

And if you're watching them now in order, you

know, you're watching all six. That is a perfect

ending. Yes Now, here's my problem with the celebration.

You're telling me the entire galaxy found out

at the exact same time, and let's not forget

this, the Empire controls a good chunk of the

inner systems, the core systems, and even the

outer rim to a limited extent, correct? They

all live happily ever after. Yeah. And with a

destabilized government, a destabilized economy,

a military power that now has nobody to report

to, the rebels have effectively created anarchy.

Just saying, just saying, the rebels may have

caused more harm than good in the short term.

Yeah, no, I, you know, if there was another trilogy

to happen after that, you know, then the ending

would kind of be kind of weird. But if that's

how it all is supposed to end I guess that's

just the way of putting a bow on it and saying

everything's good I'm and I'm sure we're Also,

I'll save that tilt till the end Well, I was

gonna say was I'm sure we'll all talk about The

potential of a seven eight nine at the end of

this episode of MWIRE So I'll save that thought

for the end. Do we have any trivia for this one

Kevin? Originally it was supposed to be a planet

of Wookies, not a planet of Ewoks. But Lucas

decided that Wookies were too technologically

advanced and he wanted to really have a kind

of a paradox or a paradigm of having the technologically

advanced empire against these primitive Ewoks

and having the primitive people take down this

technologically advanced group. So that's why

he switched it from a planet of Wookies to a

planet of Ewoks. The rancor sounds at the beginning

were actually coming from a dachshund. So you

take one of the biggest beasts in the movie,

and you get the little tiny dog to supply the

sounds. Oh, this goes back to one of my other

least favorite moments of the movie, which is

Boba Fett's death. George Lucas has basically

stated that had he known that Boba Fett was going

to have such a fan following, that he would have

definitely made the death more interesting. And

when they redid the 97, and put all that stuff

back in, or changed stuff around, he seriously

almost had Boba Fett crawl out of the pit in

the scene. He wanted to have him crawl out so

that he could still be alive and still have a

future, but he said it just wouldn't have fit

with what they were doing and it would have seemed

like it was kind of out of place. Like I said,

when Yoda dies, that's supposed to be when Obi

-Wan dies. So that's when Obi -Wan, he was supposed

to live this whole time and die at that point.

And oh, Lando's co -pilot, I think Neon Num,

he was actually voiced by a Kenyan to make him

sound like he was speaking some crazy different

language. But luckily they gave him accurate

dialogue because when it aired in Kenya at some

point, they could all of course understand everything

he was saying. So apparently it went right along

with the dialogue, but he is speaking an actual

language Which is different from most of the

other characters which are speaking like Huttese

or you know some made -up language I think that's

all I got I think one of and I kind of meant

to meant to mention this like favorite part type

of things but as far as like the languages and

stuff one of my favorite they one of the lines

that I can actually remember that Java speaks

is The, you know, you weak -minded fool. He's

using an old Jedi mind trick. I love hearing

that in Jabba's dialect for some strange reason.

I don't know why. Which is also Credo's dialect

as well. Is it really? They both speak Hades.

Wow. Though the burn scene when they burned Darth

Vader at the end, that was not in the original

script either. So that came about later on. But

I love the, you're speaking of language. I love

the Ewok language. I love Jabba's language and

I love Ewok's language. I don't know exactly

how they came up with it, but I love them both.

Did they change the burning face? Because I could

have sworn when I was watching the limited edition

one that like when the fire is going over the

helmet, it kind of shows what's his name. Oh,

I don't know. I've never noticed it. That is

my one complaint though. I think when they did

the edits, they should have, when Luke takes

Darth's helmet off, they should have changed

what he looked like, I think. I have no problem

with what he looked like. He always freaked me

out as a kid and I was traumatized somewhat by

it. But I think he should have somewhat more

resembled an older version of Anakin than he

does now, if they were going to change everything

else. Right. Oh, he might have looked like that.

Well, you know what's funny? I just thought of

this. I can't believe I haven't thought of this

before, but the fucked up ant that can at the

end after he takes the helmet off. For some strange

reason, he reminds me of friggin' Egghead from

Batman 66, just the way his head is shaped. He

reminds me of whatchamacallit, Lurch, or not

Lurch, Cousin, the Addams family. Cousin It?

The bald one. The bald one, yeah. I don't know,

I just think - Fester? Yeah, Fester, yeah, you're

right. He did freak me out as a kid I just thought

they could have done a tiny bit of something

to make him a little bit more like the Anakin

in the third movie when he is You know after

he's completely but like an old version of that

character But you know if they were gonna change

out the other stuff, but I have no problem with

him still giving me creeps As far as the box

office stuff reception although critical and

commercial hit grossing more than 475 million

worldwide return of the Jedi has in decades that

followed been considered by many critics and

fans to be a slightly lesser achievement than

its predecessors. I will agree and you know Empire

has the most character development, New Hope

sets it up as far as the original trilogy and

I just I really liked Return for some strange

reason, I don't know why. Well, it does have

a lot of cool moments I mean I was just actually

thinking of a couple things I forgot to say when

we're talking about favorite parts But I can

see why I mean like for example I think the lightning

coming out of the Emperor is very well done and

that was badass I think the way they made Obi

-Wan and Yoda like the spirit part I think they

that was really well done with the glow around

them and everything I like the Ewoks banging

on the Stormtrooper helmets. I mean, there's

a lot of little bits and pieces that are, you

know, that you can kind of latch onto and like

about this. Unless you're Birdman, because he

doesn't like this movie. Fuck this movie. Oh,

and my last bit that I forgot, because I'm forgetting

everything because it's so freaking late or early

right now. You can hear the director speaking.

He's the voice of the interrogator droid at the

beginning. Really? Yeah. Some respect. Yeah,

before they burn the one guy, the one droid's

feet or whatever. Right. Yeah, that's the director

saying that. That's interesting. I guess getting

into the IGN replacement crew, Steve, what do

you give Jedi? Four. Four. And I should probably

tell Mike, I mean, a lot of the MWIRE listeners

know by now since we've adopted this new format,

basically... One is don't watch this even if

it's free. Two is it's worth a watch if it's

free on TV. Three is it's adding to Netflix.

And four is you have to own it on DVD. I'd give

it about a... I guess you know what? It's worth

watching. It's worth having as a part of it.

It's just not the strongest of the OT. It's definitely

the weakest. As far as marketing, there was a

novelization for this one as well, and it was

not... Just give me every damn time. What? Huh?

Oh. I Talked too much. I'm sorry. No, I actually

give it a four and I actually Disagree to a point

with Birdman because I would say that a new hope

is the worst of the original trilogy and I'd

put this one second Are you fucking retarded

a new hope and then return and then Empire? You're

a terrible person. Well, he's going from worst

to best, so New Hope, Return, and Empire is best.

A curse upon your house. Yeah, I agree with you

on the best one. We just don't agree on the worst

one. As far as marketing, it had novelizations,

it had the stupid radio dramas, and of course

the DVD releases as well. And then that's...

Pretty much it. We should also mention, I'll

probably mention at the end of this episode,

a Blu -ray disc version of the Star Wars saga

has been announced for release in 2011 during

Star Wars Celebration V. A deleted scene from

Return of the Jedi was confirmed to be included

for the Blu -ray version in which Darth Vader

communicates with Luke via the Force while he

is assembling his new lightsaber just before

he infiltrates Java's palace. George Lucas can't

you just move on and make something else you

haven't like you haven't you haven't? Re -released

or made edits or changes to fucking American

graffiti, but yet you have to constantly fuck

with Star Wars Well, this is his life now. This

is this has become his life, and he's not ever

gonna do anything That's not Star Wars And I

don't want him to direct anything else in his

entire He may do sequels. Yeah, I mean, he may

do Star Wars stuff, but that'd be about it. Oh,

that's funny. That is so, so funny. So Steve,

final thoughts on Jedi? Definitely my favorite

of the three. What? Shut your face. But I like

it more so because it has the Emperor who is

one of my favorite characters in this film I

just like the weird element of the character

itself. I Don't know. It's just something about

it that struck me early on that I liked it It's

probably because I keep gravitating towards whoever's

the lead villain I Seem to have this knack where

I like the lead villain doesn't matter who the

hell it is. I like Cobra commander I like Megatron

Why not the Emperor? Because they're all badass.

That's nothing wrong with that. No. And so that's

probably why I like this film the most. Also,

you see Luke actually pick up his balls and fight.

Luke in this movie is way better than Luke in

A New Hope. Well, Luke... Okay, that'll give

you... Alright, but Luke in Jedi... Is a badass.

I think, you know, we get all this character

development from Empire, okay? For like... Han

and Leia and their whole romance thing. Well,

then Vader basically broke him. Well, right,

but what I'm saying is like through the three

films, like Luke is this, you know, cocky kid

that wants to just basically goof off and go

up to Canada somewhere, you know, and in Empire,

he kind of gets, you know, kind of like a broken

soul here from Vader. And in this one, He's the

only one that really has the most character development

in this entire film. I mean, yes, you do have

the character development with Vader uh... becoming

good again as far as you know overthrowing the

emperor but i mean honestly luke has the most

character development in this he by far as a

character and by obviously by design he's a by

far the character that changes the most from

the first to the third in this trilogy and i

mean just compare compare him you know complain

about you know uh... whatever our converters

our reverse to him beating darth vader's ass

i mean come on here exactly Yeah, yeah, yeah

taking all that Electrocution the Luke at the

Luke in a new hope would have jumped down that

that chasm by him. Yeah He would have been like

I can't take it I'm going and he just would have

and then Darth would have lived so Mike final

thoughts on Jedi You know what it's just It's

not the way I would have ended the ot. I mean,

there's just something like I said, it lacks

the heart of the other two movies there's just

something lacking in it and I don't know like

I said, it's worth a watch it can be entertaining

at times, but when you compare it against Empire

It's just not as it's just it's not a good sequel

in my mind. Like I said, there are some cool

things that like Endor's neat, the final space

battles neat, the Emperor's fucking awesome,

but ultimately I find this movie just falls flat.

Yes. So final thoughts on the original trilogy,

guys. Where do we want to as far as just really

quick final thoughts on the original films? Mike,

why don't you go first? They're fantastic film

setting landmarks in effects sound design editing

storytelling and Basically bringing the sci -fi

genre into a new era These are important films

you need to see them regardless whether I don't

like science fiction if you're a student of film

or Storytelling you need to see these movies.

Yeah Kevin Ditto Steve Thank you for joining

us here on MWIRE movie weekend review There are

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Prequels. For now, I am TF2 and Mike with Optimus

Solo, Birdman Dot, and Steve Megatron. Until

next time. I said it. Happy?