# Return Of The Jedi (1983) | Ep. 20 - Part 1

An episode of [All The Right Movies](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1471502633), 16 Jun 2023, 1 h 13 min.

Audio: https://traffic.megaphone.fm/APO3021867735.mp3

How do you end the most beloved trilogy in cinema? John, Westy, and Matt begin the story of the film that had to stick the landing for a generation. In Part 1 we cover the film's opening, director Richard Marquand, the cast, and the second act — including the rescue at Jabba's palace, the redemption arc taking shape, and George Lucas's heavy hand behind the scenes. The final confrontation with the Emperor is still to come. Part 2 faces it: crew, finale, reception, legacy. Out now. Connect with ATRM: To support what we do, access our archive and listen to exclusive episodes, become an ATRM patron: Listen on Patreon Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Twitter: @ATRightMovies YouTube: Subscribe to our channel Instagram: @allthe_rightmovies Facebook: Join our movie group Bluesky: @alltherightmovies.com TikTok: @alltherightmovies Website: alltherightmovies.com

## Transcript

[0:04] All their movies. It began with the story of a
[0:08] boy, a girl, and a universe. It became an epic battle between
[0:14] the forces of good and evil. Now return to a Galaxy far
[0:20] counter of waves. The saga lives on Return of the
[0:31] Jedi. Return of the Jedi was released
[0:34] in 1983 as the highest grossing film of the year.
[0:38] The final part of the original Star Wars trilogy, and the story
[0:41] of Luke Skywalker's journey to Jedi Knight, the film has gone
[0:43] down as a blockbuster classic. My name is John and with me ATR,
[0:48] Ms. very own Emperor and Darth Vader.
[0:50] It's Matt, you rebel scum and Westie.
[0:55] So what I told you was true from a certain point of view.
[0:59] All the right movies are in the Galaxy far, far away to conclude
[1:02] the trilogy. If you will not into the dark
[1:04] side then perhaps we will. Hello and welcome to All the
[1:30] Right Movies, Slimy Pieces of Worm ridden Filth and the
[1:35] podcast on classic and hit films.
[1:36] Yep, that's everything. Yep, that's us.
[1:40] This time round, we're back with Georgie.
[1:42] Boy, we've. Got to finish it off, We've got
[1:45] to finish it off. There's bound to be some big
[1:48] laughs and huge opinions as we tell the story behind the
[1:51] conclusion of the original Star Wars trilogy in Return of the
[1:54] Jedi. Yep, for this one.
[1:57] Yeah, yeah. Well, before we head to the
[2:00] Forest moon of Endor, it's Patreon time of.
[2:02] Course it is. If you like what we do on this,
[2:05] our classic podcast, and we'd like us to keep on keeping on
[2:07] with this, you can help support us do that by becoming in all
[2:10] the right movies. Patron Patrons gain access to
[2:13] bonus podcast episodes and our full Archive of Classic Episodes
[2:16] podcast just like this one. The archive is huge now and
[2:20] there are hundreds of hours worth of podcasts in there for
[2:22] you as a Star Wars films and many many more classics on
[2:26] there. Yeah, I think you need to do it
[2:27] to complete the trilogy. If we're doing this, then you
[2:29] know, it's the least you can do. Absolutely.
[2:32] Work. Backwards.
[2:33] Yeah, work backwards. Yeah, from a certain point of
[2:35] view. Bastard.
[2:38] Best way out of anything that isn't.
[2:41] It any plot holes solved by that phrase.
[2:45] So to find out more and sign off, please visit
[2:47] patreon.com/all the Right Movies.
[2:50] Please do. For now, though, it is the
[2:53] forest moon of Endor, Return of the Jedi.
[2:56] So why did you put this one up, Wesley?
[2:58] Because we needed to finish off the original trilogy.
[3:01] I think we've done Star Wars, we've done Empire.
[3:04] Well, I love doing them, especially with you guys,
[3:06] because we've all got a kind of similar outlook to it.
[3:08] And I think Return of the Jedi, for me is like the most fun of
[3:10] the original trilogy. It was my favorite when I was a
[3:13] kid. That's got great characters in
[3:15] it. You know, Jabba, the hook was
[3:16] introduced when I was a kid. What?
[3:18] What is this? The rancor, you know, Salah, you
[3:21] see the emperor. And then it was for me, it was
[3:23] like, it's a green lightsaber. It's great.
[3:26] Wow. You know, and it was a real big
[3:28] punch for me and this is a favorite of mine.
[3:30] Growing up as a kid, I kind of it, it shadowed A New Hope
[3:35] because it was just so much fun and it was just so much to it
[3:37] and it was just like eating loads and loads of sugar when I
[3:40] was like 6-7 year old. So I'm doing it.
[3:42] I'm doing it for that kid. I'm doing it for Minnie Westie.
[3:45] This is for him. Yeah, Well, that's fair.
[3:49] I mean, we've done Star Wars, we've done Empire.
[3:50] It was obviously a matter of time before we got to Jedi.
[3:53] Yeah, and like those first here, it's been around as long as I
[3:56] can remember, and when I was a kid it was my favorite Star Wars
[3:59] film as well. Actually, one of my very
[4:01] earliest memories in life is of watching Returning the Jedi.
[4:04] Yeah, I remember sitting cross legged in front of the telly
[4:07] watching it. It finished and I immediately
[4:08] pressed rewind on the VCR to watch it again from the start.
[4:11] One of the earliest memories. Amazing.
[4:14] I mean, that actually was a long time ago now.
[4:16] So I'll be talking about how I feel about Returning the Jedi
[4:18] today, and watching it in advance of this episode, I was
[4:21] struck by how absolutely batshit bonkers it is at times.
[4:28] But it's Star Wars, so therefore among the biggest films made,
[4:32] and it's always a barrel of laughs whenever we're talking
[4:34] about Star Wars. Absolutely.
[4:35] I'll be looking forward to this. Great stuff.
[4:38] And Matt returning the Jedi for you.
[4:40] Yeah, very similar. I mean, pretty simple.
[4:42] We've done the other two. Makes sense to finish the
[4:44] trilogy. We couldn't leave it, like,
[4:46] hanging around like an unwanted stepchild, not getting the
[4:48] attention, anything like that. Yeah.
[4:50] It's a film. I've always enjoyed it.
[4:52] But where I differ from you 2. It's never been my favorite of
[4:55] the trilogy. It was always the other two.
[4:56] Yeah. Yeah, it really was, even as a
[4:58] kid. So it's going to be a case for
[4:59] me. I feel like your enthusiasm
[5:01] forward will rub off on me, or I'll figure out the reasons why.
[5:04] It's never quite clicked for me in the way that the other two
[5:07] days, but. I think it's.
[5:08] Going to make a really interesting episode for that
[5:10] reason. You've always been a square
[5:12] humor. Yeah, that's it.
[5:14] Yeah. Yeah.
[5:15] Just wanting to be different. Right then, it's a Galaxy far,
[5:20] far away. First stop Tatooine as we talk
[5:22] the beginning of Return of the Jedi.
[5:24] Let's. Do it.
[5:35] Return of the Jedi picks up one year after the events of The
[5:38] Empire Strikes Back. The opening act takes place
[5:40] entirely at Jabba the Hutt Palace, and we're talking 2
[5:43] pretty outrageous sequences. The Pit of Cocoon segment is on
[5:48] our radars, but we're going to start before that, aren't we?
[5:53] So after a classic opening crawl, we find ourselves back on
[5:56] Tatooine. Han Solo, frozen in carbonite,
[5:59] is the prisoner of Jabba the Hutt and a few familiar faces
[6:02] are on a rescue mission. The opening to the film brings
[6:04] us Jabba Luke Skywalker as Jedi Knight and the most famous space
[6:09] bikini in movies. Yeah.
[6:11] Yeah, or anywhere for that matter.
[6:13] Sorry, I said it like that. I was like, yeah, shit.
[6:17] What a Freudian slip. Matt, if I told you half the
[6:22] things I've heard about Jabba the Hutt, you'd probably short
[6:24] circuit. I'm sure I would.
[6:26] How good is it as an opener? It's a confusing opener because
[6:29] I've seen this film loads of times and I still cannot figure
[6:32] out what the hell the plan is here.
[6:35] Lando's somehow already there, done what he's doing.
[6:38] Then the droids turned up to be handed over by Luke's.
[6:41] They're imprisoned. Then Leah turns up in disguise,
[6:44] tried to rescue San, gets rumbled so she's captured.
[6:47] Chewie's captured. Then Luke turns up and he's
[6:49] captured. It's all on purpose, isn't it?
[6:51] It's all on purpose. Well, I mean, it's all just to
[6:55] me like, well, with a better look, fingers crossed one of us
[6:58] will think of something and get the other ones out of there.
[7:00] It just seems so unnecessarily convoluted.
[7:03] Like, what is Lando doing there? Like just hanging around?
[7:06] How long has he been there for? Yeah, he's been there for a
[7:09] year. Yeah, yeah, that's ridiculous.
[7:12] Not the best disguise, he's not. The best disguise.
[7:14] He's pretty famous. Like.
[7:17] Luke sends the droids to bargain.
[7:18] What if Jabber did bargain? Is Luke just given the droids
[7:21] away if and often? What's his backup plan then?
[7:23] And, and Chewy's another person. They've got to get out of there.
[7:25] So there's about four plans all going at once, all getting in
[7:29] each other's way. I mean, it's hardly Ocean's 11,
[7:31] you know, get Don Shielden there, a bit of Barney Rubble.
[7:34] And what's Jabber thinking? Jabber must be sick of this day
[7:38] of just person after person turning up like Jesus Christ.
[7:42] Who is it? Now leave me, I used to work
[7:44] with real Jedi again. But it must be likely.
[7:50] I want to watch this really weird housebound player.
[7:52] So an unbelievably convoluted plan.
[7:55] But what I do like though, it's the first reveal of Jabba.
[7:58] Because it's a reveal that's been worth the build up.
[8:00] Like only mentioned in the 1st 2.
[8:03] You know, as a character, theater has a grudge and respect
[8:05] for him. So you think, well my God, who
[8:07] the hell is Jabba going to be? And it turns out he's a massive
[8:10] sand coloured slug. And that's a great idea for a
[8:12] bad guy. Like, I don't know how something
[8:14] sort of mobile could command so much like fear in his own
[8:17] private army, but the design of him completely.
[8:20] Sells. Yeah.
[8:20] He's like Corleone, isn't. He's just like the Godfather.
[8:22] He just kind of sits there. He does nothing, Yeah.
[8:25] Worth it for Jabba? Jabba is outrageous giant
[8:28] talking slug here with frogs and is a fat bastard and a massive
[8:33] sex pivot. Yeah.
[8:35] It's really sleazy. I mean, I think it's like
[8:38] classic Star Wars always did they give us something, in this
[8:41] case Jabba, that should be laugh out loud garbage and somehow
[8:45] they make it work because I like Jabba.
[8:46] I love his laugh or. Awful.
[8:50] And then absolutely. I know that laugh.
[8:52] Of course you do. It's the only word.
[8:54] If I had a tongue like that, I'd be a sex pervert as well.
[8:56] I'd be honest with you. I mean, the whole thing is a
[9:00] sequence. I do like it.
[9:02] I think the costume design, the production design is
[9:04] particularly excellent. Yeah, let's costume as Bush the
[9:07] Bounty. Honda is top notch.
[9:08] Boba Fett's in there, which is always welcome.
[9:11] But I do have problems with it as well.
[9:13] I think the quality of the direction has already dropped
[9:15] from the first two films. I'll talk about that more when
[9:18] we get to Richard Marquand, but it's a pretty instant drop for
[9:20] me. And the writing of it, you
[9:22] touched on it much, but it's mental.
[9:24] I mean, what's going on with this plan?
[9:27] 3PO and R2 turn up and get captured.
[9:29] Leon, should we turn up and get captured?
[9:31] And why is Chewy not with Lando? Where has he been?
[9:34] Doesn't make sense. Then Luke turns up and gets
[9:36] captured. It's like you go in, then you'll
[9:38] go in, then you'll go in and I'll go in and none of it works.
[9:41] Everybody feels. Chewy's been getting his hair
[9:45] blow dry for the last year if you're looking.
[9:47] I mean he was worth it. He looks great.
[9:48] Font as fuck, it looks amazing. I mean, it should have started
[9:53] with Leanne. She'll be going in for me
[9:54] because that bit is quite good when she's got the thermal
[9:56] detonator. I like that.
[9:58] And then someone who loves you. It's a bit cheesy, but it works.
[10:01] I'll talk more in the writing section about what I think they
[10:03] could have done because obviously rewritten the whole
[10:05] film. As usual.
[10:09] But Jabba's great, the costume design is great, the writing is
[10:12] ludicrous, but it is good to see all the characters again.
[10:16] And Rusty, you fancy going to Jabba's palace for a few drinks?
[10:19] You laughs. Absolutely brilliant.
[10:21] Yeah, I thought the troubles are over, dude, it'll be amazing.
[10:25] Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm exactly the same with you guys.
[10:27] But I watched this again. I thought, wow, this is just
[10:29] nonsensical garbage. But in the same time, it's so
[10:32] much fun. And the bit for me, it's like,
[10:34] you know, Master, you're standing on it.
[10:36] He doesn't know and he doesn't know.
[10:38] There's a rancor down there which to be honest, is being
[10:40] very, very well behaved throughout the whole rescue.
[10:43] That massive thing just underneath the floor.
[10:46] Like Luke's coming in. Shut up, shut up.
[10:49] You know that big, fat, shirtless Donald Pleasants just
[10:52] like, But it's just the thing for me, this whole sequence, I
[10:55] just remember it being so massive and so big.
[10:57] And all he does is stick a massive bone in his jaws, which
[11:00] he bites down on and then doesn't use the force at all.
[11:04] It just throws a rock at the door, which comes down
[11:06] incredibly quickly compared to how well it slow it went up and
[11:10] kills it. How did no one else think of
[11:12] that? And you just got to go into this
[11:14] going, oh, OK, Jesus Christ. But I mean, the whole
[11:18] introduction to it, I used to absolutely love it because
[11:21] that's what I wanted to happen. Yeah.
[11:23] But as a six year old, it's not what I want to happen as a 42
[11:26] year old. No, I mean I like the rancor.
[11:28] He looks great. The Rancor.
[11:29] It does look great. There's some terrible kind of
[11:32] like motion where he's coming up to the mouth and you can tell
[11:35] it's just a big screen and it's just yes.
[11:37] And then it's dispatched immediately.
[11:39] But I would love it to be dispatched with more of the
[11:41] force. Well, yeah, he could have easily
[11:43] used the force to move the rocket.
[11:44] Why didn't? They do that, you know, like
[11:46] Darth Maul does. But it takes like Phantom Menace
[11:48] to move suddenly, go open a door, like just have a think
[11:51] about it. Well, apparently Lucas
[11:54] originally wanted the Rancour to be played by a guy in a suit and
[11:57] they did try it, but it looked rubbish.
[11:59] I'm not surprised. As usual, ILM came to the rescue
[12:03] and they shot it with a high speed puppet.
[12:05] I think it does look really good still and still stands up it.
[12:07] Does. What is nice touch, I think, is
[12:09] after the Rancor was killed, we'll see the Rancor caretaker
[12:12] or whatever he's called crying his eyes out.
[12:14] Yeah, yeah. Always feel sorry from I do,
[12:16] yeah. Little pleasance for me.
[12:18] Yeah, he does look like that. Yeah, it's the rancor's noise
[12:20] when he's like, finally gives up.
[12:22] Yeah, a Wimber. That little whimper, yeah, it's
[12:26] like, didn't want to be there. So he's a prisoner and himself,
[12:28] really. Maybe, Yeah.
[12:29] For Jabador, he was a huge animatronic and it took six
[12:32] people to operate him. So he had two men inside
[12:35] operating the arms, head and tongue, another guy inside
[12:38] moving the tail. And then there's a guy below the
[12:40] actual puppet operating the mouth and then two radio
[12:42] operators for for the eyes. But onset Carrie Fisher caused
[12:45] an issue because during production, at one point she had
[12:48] to climb over Jabba's tail, but she put a foot straight through
[12:50] the puppet and hit one guy in the head with a heel.
[12:52] Start a pad that heavy open, just get on with it.
[12:55] Wow, you kind of tell. Like I don't think it looks
[12:57] like, just it. Looks good.
[12:58] Yeah, it looks. Really great.
[13:00] Yeah, the animatronic itself took three months to build and
[13:03] we had one ton and cost half, $1,000,000.
[13:06] And it was built by Stuart Freeborn.
[13:08] Remember him? Oh, Freeborn.
[13:10] Yeah. Yeah, guy who looks like Yoda.
[13:11] Yeah, yeah. He designed Yoda based him on
[13:14] his own face, and with Jabba he based him on one of his friends.
[13:18] I don't ever. Want to meet?
[13:19] No he didn't. Most insulting thing ever.
[13:29] Based on his ex. When Leah Ferns turns up, she's
[13:35] dressed as Bounty Halter called Bush Bouche, speaks an alien
[13:38] language and has a distorted voice.
[13:40] And I've always loved this voice and I've never quite realized
[13:43] where it's from. I saw the voice of ours was
[13:45] called Pat Walsh and she did one of the film and she did the
[13:50] voice of AT and once you know that it's so obvious.
[13:53] I love that I kind of distorted effect.
[13:55] It's great. Yeah, it's a great voice.
[13:57] Apparently Pat Walsh smoked 2 packets of Camel cigarettes a
[13:59] day. Hence the voice.
[14:01] Just for that voice, can I do that straight back on the jabs?
[14:06] Also, I think you might know this, but there is a link
[14:08] between Jabba's Palace and An American Werewolf in London if
[14:12] you remember. Do you remember Matt?
[14:15] No. Jabba's Palace.
[14:17] American Wolf. Is it because it's too heavy?
[14:19] It was still too ever. So big fortuner that Jabba's
[14:25] kind of left 10 and he was always springing his Yeah.
[14:27] Oh. Yeah.
[14:27] And Lucas, like it's got a snake around its neck.
[14:29] And I was like, it's not a snake that yeah, yeah, yeah.
[14:32] He's played by an actor called Michael Carter, and Michael
[14:34] Carter was also in American Werewolf as the guy who comes a
[14:37] crop eye against the wolf in Tottenham Court Road tube
[14:39] station, right? Yes, OK.
[14:41] Yeah. He's great in this, yeah.
[14:42] He's good. Does he call Jabba a wanker at
[14:44] the start? Jabba Wanker.
[14:46] Yeah, Jabba wanker. Do you know his character's name
[14:50] in American Werewolf? No, no, it was Gerald Bringsley,
[14:56] right? OK.
[14:56] I'd rather be called Big Fortuner than Gerald Bringsley.
[14:59] Gerald brings the. Name that isn't it it?
[15:02] Really is. Imagine being called Gerald
[15:05] Bringsley in Bolden comp 25 years ago, wasn't it?
[15:08] I'd be dead now. You wouldn't have the chance.
[15:09] I'd be. Dead or the famous thing.
[15:12] Leo's outfit got to talk about that.
[15:13] Extremely famous when she's dressed up in the slave bikini.
[15:16] That was a sign by a woman called Aggie.
[15:18] Gerard watches and her inspiration was a fantasy artist
[15:21] called Frank Frazetta. But originally, Lucas was going
[15:24] to dress Leah in a more like formal military clothing, and it
[15:27] was actually Carrie Fisher who requested the more skimpy outfit
[15:30] of. Course it was.
[15:32] You've got it floated. Yeah, of course.
[15:35] Also this bikini. Does this mean that Leah was
[15:37] like Jabba's sex slave? Because that's disgusting.
[15:41] I think it's more of like a look what I've got.
[15:43] A prize. Prize.
[15:44] Yeah, I don't think anything physical happened because what
[15:47] could? I don't, I don't know.
[15:49] God knows, I don't even want to think about it, but I would like
[15:53] to think she was just there's like it's like a trophy.
[15:55] Yeah, yeah, yeah. So as blockbuster openers go,
[15:59] this is one of the most bonkers I think, isn't it?
[16:01] Absolutely insane. Yeah, insane.
[16:06] After the excitement of the rancor, there's another big
[16:08] action set piece. Jabba sends his prisoners to be
[16:11] sacrificed to the salak of the Pit of Cocoon.
[16:14] And here we see the end of Jabba, the end of Boba Fett and
[16:17] looks new lightsaber. It's green, Rusty.
[16:21] It's green. This is an action sequence.
[16:23] It's, I mean, it's, it's ludicrous, but it's great.
[16:28] It's not the way it's speeding through the desert and the hair
[16:31] barely moves. It's just this like little wisp.
[16:34] And then you get the, you know, free us or die.
[16:37] And you just see like R2 with this little thing who says that
[16:39] it's not a lightsaber. Does he even use the Force?
[16:41] He's just lucky where he lands. He just puts.
[16:44] His hand up and it happens to land.
[16:45] It's R2R2 is a great shot. Of course R2 is a Jedi.
[16:50] The thing with the sequence is just Han and Chewy and Lando as
[16:54] well. They like the three fucking
[16:55] stooges. Yeah, comedy.
[16:57] It is really comedy bumbling. Around.
[16:59] Jimmy gets shot holding his name and Han cannot say anything.
[17:04] Lando straight over the side. He spent his year preparing for
[17:07] this and just. Falls.
[17:11] Fucking. Rubbish And you know that saw
[17:13] like so terrifying you're going to be digested over 1000 years
[17:17] and he's like Boba Fett, Boba Fett where it turns around,
[17:19] everything's just an accident. How is this planned?
[17:22] How is it planned? All look do is throughout this
[17:25] whole film is just jumps on other stuff.
[17:27] That's all he does is a Jedi. He just jumps on things or
[17:30] there's something over there. I'll jump on it and he's just
[17:32] whipping this light Saber around and there should be limbs left,
[17:36] right and centre. If only.
[17:38] Yeah, I just, I did love this sequence when I was a kid.
[17:40] I'd love that idea of it. I love that whole sail barge
[17:43] before this kicks off and you've got that big party.
[17:46] Reminds me of like 1 of Dicaprio's yachts I would
[17:48] imagine right now. Just got on there with them.
[17:52] That's what it's like. Jabba sail Bud.
[17:54] I remember reading the story years ago that Freddie Mercury
[17:56] and his parties would have like dwarf walking around with trays
[17:59] on the head with lines of cocaine on it and art too when
[18:02] this always reminds me of that because he's got 3 on his head
[18:04] and he's about 3 foot tall. Imagine coconut lightsaber and
[18:08] I'm wondering if this was. That would explain a lot it.
[18:11] Would if that just happened, we would have been like, well, this
[18:13] makes perfect sense. It's the best film I've ever
[18:15] seen. There's a moment on the barge
[18:19] with Jabba's little pet, Salacious Crumb, who reminds me
[18:21] of my cat. She's a little bastard and he's
[18:24] a little bastard laughing all the way through and he's chewing
[18:26] on C3 POS eyes and the kind of hanging out the sockets.
[18:29] And when the film this Anthony Daniels was in the C3PO suit and
[18:32] he had a panic attack. So obviously it would have just
[18:34] been really hot and everything was going on.
[18:36] He kept shouting get me up, get me up and the dubbed over his
[18:38] lines. But that was the take in the
[18:40] film and things actually got that final line of like, get me
[18:42] up and you can see him sit up by himself.
[18:45] She's really panicking. But that salacious Crumb is just
[18:48] his little shithead. Although him poking three
[18:53] people's eyes out, that's great highlight the film for me.
[18:56] He's not a fan of that. Yeah, exactly.
[18:58] It's a it's a tough one to draw. Well, I think it's similar to
[19:02] the last sequence. I like the design work.
[19:04] Jabba ships like pirate ships with a plank.
[19:06] That's quite cool, I think. Yeah.
[19:08] The design of the Sarlacc is good.
[19:09] Clearly influenced by the sand worms from June, I think, with
[19:12] all the teeth. Yeah, but while the sand worms
[19:14] in June move under the sand, what is the Sarlacc?
[19:17] Just a big mouth sitting there. Yeah, just is there.
[19:20] Waiting for people to fall in, I bet.
[19:21] I can't believe it's luck. Yeah.
[19:23] Loads of people must be starving like a fucking Buffy.
[19:27] I do like quite a bit about the Jabba's Palace stuff, but I
[19:30] mean, I think it's far too long as well.
[19:32] If it was like 15 minutes in total, an opening sequence,
[19:34] great, but it's about 40 minutes.
[19:37] Yeah, it's really off the film. Yeah.
[19:39] Well, before they get there, there's that bit of writing that
[19:41] strikes me as really sloppy when Luke says to Han, I used to live
[19:44] here, you know? Like surely Han knows that,
[19:46] doesn't he? He knows where he is, his nose
[19:49] on Tatooine. He's not forgotten where the
[19:51] first met. You know, I'm really surprised
[19:54] that line slipped through to really poor line.
[19:56] But then you get the sawlack. And I think it's one of those
[19:58] concepts that saw was as really well.
[20:00] It's a terrifying idea. And that's the thing for me,
[20:02] it's terrifying as a concept, like this creature just buried
[20:05] in the desert, but it will take forever to digest.
[20:07] Yet like as a kid, that's such a horrible concept to be like it
[20:11] is alive for years on end. And it's such an easy, cheap
[20:14] design. Huge mouth, the teeth and
[20:16] tentacles. But I do think it looks.
[20:18] And in general, the what resonates with me, and it's to
[20:20] do with Jabba's pulse before this as well, It's how tactile
[20:24] all these creatures are. Because to me, that's a huge
[20:26] appeal of the original trilogy. Like the Sarlacc, the gods with
[20:30] the tusks, salacious Chrome, Big Fortuner.
[20:33] You want to reach out, You want to like touch them, You want to
[20:35] prod them. You know what does Big
[20:37] Fortuner's head feel like? That big snake thing?
[20:40] It's like slimy. It's a dry I.
[20:42] Really don't want to do that. I do, I just want to like give
[20:46] it a prod like it's a spongy. What about the dancer Fermi?
[20:50] Is she called? I think at the start I'll.
[20:51] Definitely give her a prod. The whole sequence with Saw like
[20:57] was filming Yuma AZ. At the time it was hotspot for
[21:00] boogie enthusiasts and there'll be thousands of people visiting
[21:03] there every week. So Lucas and the producer Howard
[21:05] Kansanjian said they will be making a horror movie called
[21:09] Blue Harvest. They even had T-shirts and caps
[21:11] made for the crew and came up with the tagline for the movie
[21:14] Horror Beyond Imagination. Well, not a bad tagline to be.
[21:18] Fair. It's not.
[21:19] It's probably best thing Lucas has ever written.
[21:23] Could have said horror more powerful than you can possibly
[21:25] imagine giving the game away. From a certain point of view.
[21:31] But Blue Harvest? That title came from somewhere.
[21:33] Do you know where? Blue Harvest.
[21:36] Blue Harvest. You do amazingly well to get it.
[21:39] All right, no idea. There was a novel called Red
[21:41] Harvest by Dashiell Hammett published in 1929, and that
[21:45] novel was an inspiration for Yohimbo by Akira Kurasai.
[21:48] So Lucas went for Blue Harvest as a tribute.
[21:51] And if you go to blueharvest.com, it's still
[21:53] redirected to the Star Wars website all.
[21:55] Right. Oh wow.
[21:56] Really cool. Which is quite nice.
[21:57] Yeah, I was going to be like really uneducated to be like, is
[22:00] it from the blue milk? That's where blue came from.
[22:02] I think so. A lot of the blue like their
[22:04] lightsabers and a lot of it blue kind of feel to it, yeah.
[22:08] So one benefit of many of being in all the right movies, Patron
[22:11] is that we answer your questions on the show.
[22:13] We have our first Patron question now.
[22:15] It's on the Pit of Cocoon sequence and it comes from Daryl
[22:18] keeping. Hello, Daryl.
[22:20] Hello Daryl, So Das has asked us.
[22:23] He didn't actually die, sure, but do you guys think the death
[22:26] of Boba Fett is the lamest demise of a badass character in
[22:29] film history? Or is there another top set?
[22:33] What do you think about? Yeah, I think it probably is
[22:36] because it is kind of hilarious that this character who's got
[22:38] like, so much like aura in the Star Wars universe, so much
[22:42] mystique and coolness and threat with very little screen time,
[22:45] very little dialogue, gets taken out like an absolute chump.
[22:49] He. Looks cool as fuck.
[22:50] He's coolest fucking Empire. He looks cool.
[22:52] He does. He's the coolest.
[22:53] Probably the. Coolest character in the Star
[22:55] Wars universe He. Does, but it's like you said,
[22:57] Wesley just taken out by accident and isn't even trying
[23:00] to kill him. Barges in sense of flying,
[23:04] really funny. But yeah, for for Dall's
[23:06] question, it probably is. I mean, I had a thing, the only
[23:08] two I can think of the kind of come close.
[23:10] Maybe a bit of a stretch, but I thought Vincent in Pulp Fiction
[23:14] getting blown away. Just have to take the shit in
[23:16] the toilet. Not very dignified.
[23:18] And I've always been disappointed with how being gets
[23:21] killed in Dark Knight Rises. Yeah, that's just.
[23:23] Yeah, it's a bit. Oh, was that it?
[23:25] Shot by a Catwoman. Yeah, that's a good one.
[23:27] Yeah, no big showdown. Yeah.
[23:28] So those two, the only two I think that could come close.
[23:32] Yeah, I think Boba Fett, he shouldn't have died this early
[23:34] in the film for me. They could have had him in the
[23:36] speed. I'll buy a chase later or
[23:37] something with jetpack. That would have been awesome.
[23:39] That would have been awesome. I do agree with that to an
[23:41] extent. I think it's probably the second
[23:43] lamest death of a good character for me.
[23:46] What I would mention first is Jaws the Revenge, where at the
[23:49] end the shark jumps out of the water, are roaring like a lion,
[23:51] and Ellen Brody harpoons it with the boat.
[23:53] That's utterly ludicrous. But the lamest movie death for
[23:57] me has to go to Alien 3, where after the roll I caught the ride
[24:01] of aliens. Hicks and Newt are both killed
[24:03] off screen before the film even starts.
[24:05] I'm still furious. Yeah, about that.
[24:07] Yeah, I definitely had Hicks, and Newt is like #1 but I've got
[24:11] 2 here, one that bugs me even more than Alien.
[24:14] Three, OK, and one that you should have got, John, I think.
[24:17] I don't know. I can't believe you didn't get
[24:19] it. I'm going to go for Henry Jones
[24:21] Senior. When you've got it's that it,
[24:24] you know, country's still around.
[24:26] Like, Jesus Christ, is that it? Marcus Brody as well.
[24:29] That's annoying. But Captain Cook?
[24:32] Star Trek Generation. Oh, it's awful.
[24:34] You're right. And why did you not get that in?
[24:37] There, that is the worst. You're right, that is #1.
[24:39] There you are. Full of a bridge.
[24:41] Yeah, shit. Just lie there, believe me.
[24:45] But also, I mean, if this wasn't a question on Boba Fett, Boba
[24:47] Fett would probably be #1 if I'm totally honest, yeah.
[24:49] Yeah, so that is Return of the Jedi Act One.
[24:53] Lots of spectacle, Hand is saved and it's all pretty mental so
[24:57] far, I think. Yeah.
[24:58] Yeah, just doesn't get wet. And worse than this, or better.
[25:05] The director. The director of Return of the
[25:10] Jedi wasn't George Lucas. Was it not?
[25:18] It wasn't even Irvin Kirchner, it was Richard Mark Wand.
[25:23] Who I hear you ask? Well a veteran of TV mostly.
[25:27] He had directed 3 features at this point which were The
[25:29] Legacy, Birth of The Beatles and Eye of the Needle and then
[25:33] straight in there with the biggest film in the world which
[25:36] is madness. How did he do with Director
[25:39] Matt? I think the direction is very
[25:43] safe. I think it's very controlled
[25:45] from above and I do struggle to see any real individuality or
[25:49] vision on this film. I think a lot of that has to do
[25:52] with Empire, because it's worth remembering there was a push
[25:55] back, quite a lot of push back to how dark that was.
[25:57] And I think Mark Juan's direction is like a direct
[26:00] retort to that. It's like a it's not as intense.
[26:03] All the edges have been smoothed off.
[26:05] And I don't want to pile in on the guy because a lot of people
[26:07] might not know this, but he was only 49 when he died, which was
[26:10] only two or three years after this, which is really sad.
[26:13] So it's not like he has a huge filmography to base an opinion
[26:16] on him. And he did contribute stuff.
[26:19] But I think ultimately Lucas wanted a yes man here.
[26:22] I think he'd given Kirschner far more control than he wanted to
[26:26] on Empire. And I think with Mark Wand, he
[26:28] wanted someone who he could say, do can you do what I ask you to
[26:31] do without any questions? And that's what he got.
[26:34] I think he wanted someone amenable who he wouldn't get in
[26:36] a conflict with. And it is a fact.
[26:38] It's an absolute fact. George Luke, we spend an awful
[26:40] lot of time on the shoots looking over Mark One's
[26:43] shoulder. And in one way I want to give
[26:45] him credit for Mark One because he took his ego out of the
[26:48] equation and he realized where he stood in the hierarchy, which
[26:50] is way below Lucas. But it does mean the film for
[26:53] me, it just doesn't have that kind of stamp on it that I want.
[26:56] So the person's a bit slack at times.
[26:59] Everything feels very soft. And don't got me wrong, I'm not
[27:02] saying it's badly directed. It's just I can't get past the
[27:05] feeling that Mark One's job was there to pick up Lucas's
[27:08] storyboards and noughts every morning and go, yeah, OK, I'll
[27:11] do that. And you know, Mark One himself
[27:13] said something about this because he knew he was so an XP
[27:16] even shooting this. And he said because Lucas was
[27:18] permanently on set, it was like trying to direct King Leah with
[27:21] Shakespeare in the next room, which is a big case for Lucas
[27:24] like. The first, last and only time
[27:29] anyone's compared Lucas to Bill Shakespeare.
[27:35] But yeah, you're right Matt. I mean, he doesn't have an easy
[27:37] task by any means. Richard Mark Wand, he's coming
[27:39] in directing the final part of a trilogy when he's had absolutely
[27:42] nothing to do with the first two parts.
[27:44] He's got the creator and George Lucas breathing down his neck
[27:46] and watching every movie makes. And the 1st 2 films are two of
[27:49] the biggest and most popular films ever made.
[27:51] So big shoes to fill coming in at this stage.
[27:54] I think it's a thankless task, but at the same time an
[27:57] opportunity you just can't turn down.
[28:00] And to be fair, he does bring the trilogy home successfully
[28:03] and it's generally a popular film.
[28:04] Returning the Jedi. However, I would hardly call it
[28:07] an inspired piece of directing. I mean there are some
[28:10] extraordinary visuals in Returning the Jedi, but that's
[28:13] mostly down to the concept artists, design departments, and
[28:15] ILM more than Richard Marquand. I think the tone he handles
[28:19] nowhere near as well as even Curt.
[28:21] I didn't empire too much silly humor in there for my liking.
[28:24] Many examples. But the bit on end door where
[28:26] chewies things on a vine and does that toss and yell Jesus
[28:30] Christ that's bad. That's the first time in Star
[28:33] Wars where I ever think that's awful that.
[28:36] Yeah, yeah, the first, but definitely not the last time.
[28:39] But it takes you out of the place where they are.
[28:41] Of course it doesn't make no sense and the camera is too
[28:44] static, I think, for my legging. I mean, I'm not expecting
[28:46] Marquand to be Spielberg, but just a little bit of Spielberg
[28:49] here and there might be nice. Just a little push around.
[28:52] Yeah. On a dialogue sequence.
[28:54] Just move it slightly, kind of. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[28:57] Yeah, and like I say, you didn't have an easy task as direct
[28:59] temperature marquand. And it is a drop from the first
[29:01] two films, like I said. But still, at a time where we
[29:04] now have had more bad Star Wars films than good ones, this is
[29:07] still one of the good ones for me.
[29:09] Yeah. I think, you know, it's really
[29:12] difficult to to kind of comment on what he's actually added to
[29:18] this without Lucas breathing down his neck.
[29:20] It just feels to me like, you know, that bit in an Empire
[29:23] where Luke's training and Yoda's on his back he's doing, trying
[29:26] to do. Front flips.
[29:28] Lucas is constantly just. Like.
[29:30] I'm going Nah, that's wrong dude like this.
[29:33] You want the impossible. Exactly.
[29:36] And I feel like Richard Mark 1 was an unsung hero because he
[29:41] took away the backlash for Lucas.
[29:45] But I think he does do a really good job with some of the, you
[29:49] know, some of the action sequences, some of the pace and
[29:52] some of the the comedy that's in there.
[29:54] There's maybe at some point he's went like this Jabba the hood
[29:57] sequence doesn't work and saw Alex is absolutely ludicrous.
[30:00] And I don't care about anything to do with facts.
[30:01] I'm just going to make this look good.
[30:03] I'll make it feel good. I've got I've got John Williams
[30:06] on me back. I've got George Lucas.
[30:07] I've got all of this stuff and my name still goes on it.
[30:10] So I'm going to get some wedge for it.
[30:11] So I might as well do something. It it it it has got a scale and
[30:15] it has got an energy to it that the others don't have.
[30:17] I mean, Empire doesn't have this energy.
[30:19] It doesn't have this pace. And maybe he did turn around to
[30:22] George Lucas and say, calm the fuck down.
[30:25] I'm not doing that because Return of the Jedi could have
[30:27] been absolutely outrageous. Return of the Jedi could have
[30:31] been the Phantom Menace. But I think Richard Mark one
[30:34] went, no, do you know when we did that episode?
[30:36] And I was like, who's turning around George Lucas and saying
[30:39] that's fucking stupid. Don't do that.
[30:41] That was Richard Mark One. It's like Lucas put loads of
[30:45] Mentos and Pepsi and he's putting the top back on and
[30:47] going. Fucking I'm going to hold this
[30:48] I'm. Going to hold it and then
[30:50] explodes off camera, whereas explodes on camera in 5 minutes.
[30:54] For him to do that in his lifetime, I think that's a
[30:57] massive achievement to stand up with Joe Lucas and say let's
[31:00] keep this grounded, let's try and keep this a trilogy and
[31:03] let's make it make sense, which I think he does.
[31:07] I think he does. I think you're right.
[31:08] This could have easily went in the prequels tariff.
[31:09] We couldn't. Yeah, it doesn't.
[31:11] And I think from what he actually does against George
[31:14] Lucas in 1983 is worth a fucking round of applause, to be fairly
[31:17] honest. Well, maybe unsurprisingly,
[31:20] Richard Marquand wasn't the first name Lucas thought of the
[31:22] direct Jedi, and he did approach some of that very well known
[31:25] film makers. Do you know any names?
[31:28] Coppola, Spielberg. David Lynch was in there, wasn't
[31:31] he? Lynch.
[31:32] Well, the first person Lucas wondered was his pal Steven
[31:35] Spielberg. Every time.
[31:37] Every. Every time.
[31:38] Stephen constantly turned him down.
[31:39] Now I'm not doing. He knows better.
[31:40] He knows. Better.
[31:42] No better. Well, Spielberg couldn't do it
[31:44] because he's a member of the DGA, the director of Guild of
[31:47] America. Lucas had fallen out with the
[31:49] DGA when Empire came out. We talked about that on our
[31:51] Empire podcast. So Lucas then asked David Lynch
[31:55] to direct. Him great.
[31:57] Hey, imagine the Ewoks with a quick.
[32:04] Well, Lynch said no in favour of making June.
[32:06] Yeah, yeah. So Lucas then asked David
[32:08] Cronenberg and he said no to make Videodrome.
[32:11] Right Cronenberg, Right. Imagine Cronenberg's version of
[32:13] Jabba. He's.
[32:16] Just pulling Solo out of his belly.
[32:20] So then Lucas turned to Welshman Rich and Mark Wand.
[32:24] So Lucas had seen Mark Wand's Second World War thriller Eye of
[32:27] the Needle, and he was impressed by that.
[32:29] Both of The Beatles? Not so much.
[32:30] Not too much, no, it's not a. Lucasfilm, unless he's falling
[32:33] out or having problems with someone, which obviously
[32:36] happened here. So first of all, Gary Kurtz,
[32:39] you'll probably remember him because he produced the 1st 2:00
[32:41] but because Empire went we over budget, Lucas wanted to avoid
[32:45] that happening. So he took on the exec producer
[32:47] role and promoted Howard Kazanjian to the production
[32:50] team. Lucas just doing everything,
[32:53] just doing. Everyone's job for them.
[32:55] And yeah, with their name in. Front of his though, Yeah,
[32:58] tight. Behind everyone, he's.
[33:00] Yeah. But also while from.
[33:02] Macquarie, he was huge in Star Wars because he was the concept
[33:04] artist for the first year. I think Star Wars or so much to
[33:08] him. Well, he left because he was
[33:10] asked to design the Ewoks, but he hated the idea.
[33:12] So he put together some initial designs.
[33:15] But then obviously Lucas sought to make them all look like teddy
[33:18] bears and but Macquarie used to sight and that I'm not having
[33:20] that and just what, I don't blame him.
[33:23] I don't blame him either. Yeah, I mean key star.
[33:26] Wars. People like Macquarie and
[33:27] Curious are a definite miss, I think in terms of the
[33:29] creativity, definitely, yeah. Howard.
[33:32] Cassandjian did say. Though that on the day
[33:33] production started he received a telex saying good luck from Gary
[33:36] Kurtz, which is nice, and one from Spielberg which said it's
[33:40] about time somebody made Blue Harvest.
[33:44] I think the good luck he got was.
[33:45] Kind of like that guy from Taken, which is like, good luck.
[33:49] You're going to fucking suffer for this, Yeah?
[33:53] You're going to eat it. Yeah.
[33:55] And Mark 1 was. Apparently a bit of a taskmaster
[33:57] on set, which I kind of stands with my view of He tried to do
[34:02] what he he's putting people in place.
[34:04] But the one person that he fell out with with carrot was Carrie
[34:06] Fisher, which I find quite hard to to fathom.
[34:09] I thought they would have got on really well because, I mean, she
[34:11] really knew the character. But you said I hated him.
[34:14] He fell all over Harrison, which you would at that time, 83, I
[34:17] mean, but you would well, I. Would I would now.
[34:23] He'd yell at me constantly. One time he made me cry and
[34:26] shouted at me because I was fucking up a shot.
[34:28] And I'm thinking about Carrie Fisher in 1983.
[34:31] You point the camera at her. She can't fuck up a shot.
[34:35] I'm sorry, but you can't. Every shot of her in this.
[34:38] Film is absolute gold and she's amazing.
[34:41] So I don't know. I don't know where he's coming
[34:42] from. Yeah, I mean, Carrie Fisher cry.
[34:44] I'm not having that. After.
[34:48] Returning the Jedi Witcher Marquan was only involved in
[34:51] four more feature films he directed until September Jagged
[34:54] Edge in Hearts of Fire in 8485 and 87 yeah and then in 1993 he
[34:59] Co wrote Nowhere to Run starring JCVD yeah yeah yeah yeah he did
[35:04] his. Posthumous money.
[35:04] And he did something with Dylan, but it was a hearts on fire.
[35:06] That was that was Dylan, wasn't it?
[35:08] Dylan. Yeah, Yeah.
[35:08] And he then Luke loves Jagged Edge.
[35:10] He'll be straight on If this was Jagged Edge, he's got to talk.
[35:12] That's just all right. Yeah.
[35:13] He loves Jagged, it's great fun. Yeah, which are Marquan then?
[35:16] Great. And he?
[35:22] The cast Not exactly a big name. Director on Returning the Jedi,
[35:28] but that isn't true of the cast. That's because they were all
[35:31] mostly returning from the first two films.
[35:34] It's a pretty huge cast by this point, but we're going to talk
[35:36] about our three main leaves. That's Carrie Fisher as Leah
[35:40] Harrison Ford is Han Solo, and we're starting with the main
[35:43] character, the Jedi from the title.
[35:47] So Mark Hamill plays. Luke Skywalker, the protagonist
[35:49] from the first film, and we follow him here.
[35:51] From rescuing Han, through Yoda's final hours to his final
[35:54] confrontation with Veda and the Emperor.
[35:58] Delusions of grandeur for Luke. Yeah, to say the least.
[36:01] How? Is he here, Wesley?
[36:02] I think. He's great hammer on this.
[36:04] I think he learns who exactly the character needs to be, and
[36:09] it's really theatrical. He's got these these line
[36:13] deliveries really serious that he's really taken this
[36:16] seriously, as if to say this is the last Star Wars film I'm
[36:19] going to do. So I'm going to need a career
[36:21] after this and I need to prove that I can act to the certainty
[36:25] he kind. Of brings it to it.
[36:26] Even this, in this ridiculous film, he's got this weight to
[36:30] the character that he brings to it, and it really works.
[36:33] And it's when he's trying to convince Vader when he first
[36:35] goes back and he said, well, I'm just going to give myself up,
[36:38] you know? And then that bit when he walks
[36:40] to the walks forward and he's like, and that's why you're not
[36:42] going to take me to your emperor now.
[36:47] And then Veda like sparks. The lightsaber up behind him and
[36:50] that reaction from him, he's like, oh for fuck's sake, I
[36:52] shouldn't have tried that. I'm not ready for that yet.
[36:55] I think he does that really well, as if he's not ready for a
[36:57] massive career outside of Star Wars.
[37:00] And I think he kind of brings that to the character, which is
[37:02] really good and much better than I think he was in Empire.
[37:06] I think he was great in Empire, but he had that one main scene
[37:10] where he just went, yeah, that can dove into it.
[37:13] Whereas this one, he says he's just, he knows the character.
[37:16] He sets a level for it. And I think he nails it all the
[37:18] way through. He makes Jabba's palace kind of
[37:21] believable almost, and acceptable.
[37:23] You know, I think he holds the character really well.
[37:26] There's a few bits of it that I just go, oh, when Leo goes up
[37:29] and what's the man has asked me again sometime, you know, he
[37:32] just, he turns up out of nowhere as this hero, like when they go
[37:36] to the shuttle and he's like, count me in and he walks down.
[37:38] Oh, there he is. Mark Hamill.
[37:40] It's Luke. All right.
[37:41] If you want to speak to Mark Hamill, which I never have and I
[37:44] probably never will, but I would imagine if you speak to him,
[37:46] he'll probably say he enjoyed playing this role the most in
[37:49] Jedi because you can tell. Yeah, I get it.
[37:51] OK, I'll buy that. It's great.
[37:54] Yeah, I think Luke's one. Of the best things about the
[37:56] film, probably not because of how he is here because I think
[37:58] he's a better character and empire, but what stands out here
[38:01] is how striking Luke's arc is yeah, he's a better character
[38:04] and. Empire, but it's this is a
[38:05] better performance I mean from here from.
[38:07] The very first time we've seen him, when he walks in the
[38:09] Jabbas, he's Jedi Knight, not just in status and how he
[38:12] behaves when you compare look in Star Wars like whiny and
[38:15] annoying. Like I want to go Hitachi
[38:17] Station and all that stuff. Pick up some character
[38:19] converters. Yeah, yeah, we're here.
[38:21] He's really. Composed.
[38:22] Confident, pretentious, a bit of a smug twat.
[38:25] He's cheering so much across the three films, but I buy it.
[38:29] I think it's one of the great three film character arcs for
[38:31] me, like the definitive classic one and George Lucas, Laurence
[38:34] Kazdan and obviously Mark Hamill, I think all deserve a
[38:36] lot of credit for that. I think he's a great
[38:38] protagonist. I love it.
[38:40] I like you touching it with the colour scheme changes.
[38:42] He dresses in white in Star Wars, then grey in Empire and
[38:46] then black hair. Classic stuff, but it works
[38:48] really well. Yeah.
[38:49] I mean, he's always watched. What?
[38:50] I always like him, but it is funny that beginning because
[38:53] that attitude when he turns up and he's so cocky, that's the
[38:56] last mistake you'll ever make. That's what you want when you're
[38:59] 6. Years old, you want a Jedi to
[39:00] turn up and be like, this is a Jedi and you kind of overweighs
[39:04] Alec Guinness's performance. He's even more confident and
[39:07] you're just like, wow, this is a Jedi then.
[39:08] Yeah, that's right here because. You know, but like watching it,
[39:10] I'm like, why? He's so cocky, Like you didn't
[39:13] spend that long with you automate.
[39:15] Like you didn't learn that much. You know, last last time I saw
[39:17] you, you got your ass kicked all over on Cloud City.
[39:21] And now he's turning up doing backflips dressed in black, like
[39:23] Johnny Cash is really cocky. Like, who do you think you're
[39:26] all? But he's right.
[39:28] It does work somehow. And I think that that's Creditor
[39:30] Hamill. You know, he sort of takes his
[39:32] couch, which is kind of all over the place at the beginning and
[39:34] he just like, gives it a ground in a really like emotional
[39:37] center. So I think he's much better in
[39:39] the later scenes when he's facing off a theatre in the
[39:41] Emperor and it's the character just is on the level and it
[39:45] makes much more sense. So yeah, he's watching will be
[39:47] at the beginning. I just have to laugh at him
[39:48] because I don't know what's going on there.
[39:50] It's kind of like. You know, like if Russell Brand
[39:52] what we yoga retreat for two weeks.
[39:58] He came back just full of himself.
[39:59] With the symbols on his fingers and shit we've mentioned.
[40:02] Already. But Luke does have a new light
[40:04] say by this time around as well, a green little number.
[40:08] It was actually going to be blue originally, like the one that
[40:10] you lost in Empire. And it is blue if you see the
[40:12] original trailers. But Luke has changed it to green
[40:15] because you thought the blue one was too difficult to see on the
[40:17] screen. Also I think it serves as a
[40:19] narrative purpose as well. Different car lightsaber by the
[40:21] signified looks changed since Empire.
[40:23] Yeah, surely, Luke was about to say.
[40:25] You order. On Dagobah and he's there with
[40:26] when Yoda dies and you would have.
[40:28] Wasn't in the script originally at all, but Lucas thought it was
[40:31] best to remove any doubt that it was Luke's dad.
[40:34] And it is very, very heavy haunted.
[40:36] Yeah, that's the. Only.
[40:38] Reason he's there, Yeah, look. At Yoda evade his dad and Yoda
[40:43] just turns away. Refused to answer you're.
[40:47] Not going to get away with that. But yeah, I think we do need to
[40:49] see Yoda again. Surely you had to be in there.
[40:52] And in the radio version of Returning the Jedi, Yoda wasn't
[40:55] voiced by Frank Oz. He was voiced, a bit bizarrely,
[40:58] by John Lithgow. Right?
[40:59] Yeah. Did you?
[41:00] Know that. Yeah, because you.
[41:02] Send with the link to listen. Well, anyone that.
[41:06] Didn't here is John Lithgow is Yoda.
[41:08] It's amazing. That face you make Luke
[41:14] Skywalker. Look, I so.
[41:18] Old to your young eyes? No Master Yoda, of course.
[41:22] Not I do. When 900 years old, you reach
[41:29] look as good, you will not just. Sounds like John Lithgow to.
[41:34] Me. It sounds like the body.
[41:36] That he plays in cliffhanger. It's exactly the same search for
[41:42] a suitcase with a lightsaber in it.
[41:44] They've been thrown on the Cliff.
[41:46] Not on the Gray. It does much better than.
[41:48] Return of the Jetta. So as much as Star Wars gave
[41:53] Mark Hamill a career in Hollywood, it also kind of ended
[41:55] it after Jedi. Hamill wasn't in that film for
[41:58] six years and that was slipstream sci-fi film Co
[42:01] starring Paxton and F Murray Abraham together at last.
[42:05] He also returned as Luke in The Last Jedi.
[42:07] We might have a little bit on that later on.
[42:09] Not much a. Little bit a little bit.
[42:14] The original trilogy though, very good across that, I think.
[42:17] Isn't he Mark Hamill? Brilliant, yeah.
[42:22] Our second cast member. Is Carrie Fisher who plays Leah
[42:25] Organa. We see her go from Jabba's sex
[42:28] toy to befriending Wicked the Ewok, to gaining a brother and
[42:31] Luke and ending up in a relationship with Han.
[42:33] Sex toy. There's some merchandise, Lucas.
[42:40] Missed out on? So how was she this time?
[42:44] Rob, Matt. I think she's the.
[42:46] Best out of all the three returning leads.
[42:48] To be honest, I think she's written the best.
[42:50] I think the performance and character hasn't dipped one bit
[42:53] since Empire, which I don't think you can quite say about
[42:56] the other two. And what I really like about a
[42:57] character, though, is how pivotal she is to everything.
[42:59] Again, like when we did Empire, John, you made that really good
[43:02] point that Leah takes a back seat to the action pretty much
[43:05] throughout that film, which was a shame.
[43:07] That is really course corrected to you.
[43:09] You know, she was undercover to rescue Han.
[43:12] Despite the mentalness of the plan, she's the one who kills
[43:14] Jabba once, the one end all again.
[43:17] She's all over it. She's on the speeder bike, she's
[43:19] in the thick of the action. She's leading the battle,
[43:20] leading the break in to the shield generator.
[43:23] It's she gets the Ewoks on board.
[43:25] Gets the Ewoks on board like. She does so much in this film
[43:27] and I think she stands head and shoulders above everyone else.
[43:30] And she's the one element in this film that I think actually
[43:33] improves on what we've seen before in the other two.
[43:36] And is, is one that, you know, the few things that really
[43:38] elevates this film at times. But what I would say is the
[43:41] writing does let it down at times.
[43:44] And I think the point for me that I really let it down is
[43:46] it's already been established in the previous 2 forms how much he
[43:49] hates Veda, the man responsible for the death of a planet.
[43:52] So that revelation when she finds out he's her father, that
[43:56] should be devastating. It deserves a much bigger
[43:59] reaction than the script gives it to do.
[44:01] It's very much. And that.
[44:03] That's a bit shit, but OK, I'll get on with it.
[44:05] Yeah. That should be massive.
[44:07] And it's not Fish's fault. It it.
[44:08] That's in the right, Mitch. I'll get on when we talk about
[44:11] that. Same with the revelation that
[44:12] she's Luke's sister. These should be really massive
[44:14] moments, and the script doesn't live up to it, but she does.
[44:18] So yeah, I think she's really, really good in this.
[44:20] Probably the best performance from the three films, I think.
[44:24] Yeah. Well, following on from Luke,
[44:26] where I said that characters arcs played out really well
[44:28] across the three parts, I don't think that's true for you.
[44:31] That characters who in terms of writing and development have
[44:34] pretty much nothing left to do in Returning the Jedi.
[44:36] I do like Leah has a little friendship with Wicket, the
[44:39] scene where they meet and he's really unsure about that become
[44:41] as a truster. I like that.
[44:43] But why doesn't Leah lead the rebels on Endor to give that job
[44:46] to Han, the douchebag in charge rather than the competent
[44:49] leader? Ridiculous.
[44:51] That's really 1980. Three though, isn't it?
[44:53] Yeah, Well, exactly. That's exactly.
[44:54] Why it is, but I mean, she just got plenty to do earlier.
[44:57] Like you said, Matt, she's involved in load for the action.
[44:59] We'll talk about the speed of bikes in the Battle of End or
[45:01] later. But Carrie Fisher, I mean,
[45:03] always love her, obviously, and always a treat to see her on the
[45:06] screen. And that's no different here
[45:07] generally. Yeah.
[45:08] Yeah. For me, it's that reveal.
[45:09] When you know that, you know just that Bounty hunter at the
[45:12] start and you're like, oh, there's Leah.
[45:15] It's just, it's such a relief to see her.
[45:17] She brings this real familiarity to it.
[45:20] She brings the love to the film. There's no love in the film
[45:23] apart from when you see Princess Leia and she brings everybody
[45:26] together. And I think Carrie Fisher does
[45:28] it so well. And she is really, really good.
[45:31] She knows the character so well. She knows where she can go with
[45:33] it. She knows where she can't go
[45:34] with it. And I think she unfortunately
[45:37] does have to push a lot for the spotlight in this, which should
[45:39] not have been the case that you said there, John.
[45:41] It should just be, yeah, she's leading the rebels on Endo.
[45:44] OK. And then hand her something
[45:46] else. He goes with Lando.
[45:47] He goes in the Millennial Falcon like he always has.
[45:49] And yeah, it's just great. I just love watching her in this
[45:52] film over any of the others because she's not somebody who
[45:56] needs to be rescued. She's someone who can do the
[45:57] rescue. And if she's in the right
[45:59] situation and in the right place, she could save anybody.
[46:02] I think she could even save Luke from the Emperor at some point,
[46:05] give her the ship, you know, give her a crew and go in there
[46:08] and tear it up. And it would have been
[46:10] incredible. But yeah, she's got to be the
[46:11] mother figure. She's got to be the love.
[46:13] She's got to have a feminine kind of softness, which I don't.
[46:16] I think she delivers really, really well.
[46:18] But as at the same time, she could fucking solve problems.
[46:21] And that was really rare in this era of cinema.
[46:24] And I think that's why she's so regarded and so renowned now as
[46:27] Princess Leia being that real, you know, fuck you, I can do
[46:30] what I want. Well, obviously.
[46:32] We're all fans of Carrie Fisher and it seems that most people,
[46:35] not Richard Mark one, but most people were fans of her on the
[46:38] set as well. Yeah.
[46:39] Leah is the first person who comes across the Ewoks in the
[46:42] form of Wicket, who pokes out with his stick.
[46:44] And Wicket was played by Barack Davis in his first feature role
[46:47] and said that Carrie Fisher was really nice to him.
[46:50] She was worried about me spending all this time in the
[46:51] Ewok costumes, would bring him lots of milk and cookies on the
[46:54] set. And he said she was everything
[46:56] an 11 year old Ewok could wish for. 11 year old Ewok.
[47:05] Just a six year old human. But I hope to see.
[47:09] Lovely and obviously huge part of this.
[47:11] Luke and Leah revealed as twins, but that wasn't the original
[47:14] plan. The original plan was a sequel
[47:16] trilogy where Luke's long lost sister would be a major
[47:18] character introducing that. But by this point, pretend that
[47:22] Jedi Lucas was just too exhausted to even consider
[47:24] another Star Wars film, so he tied everything up instead.
[47:27] Yeah, this exhausted repeating. His own ideas, all from
[47:29] everybody. Yeah, exactly.
[47:31] Death Star. Again, is it?
[47:32] Do you want? To blow it up.
[47:33] Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was no grand plan,
[47:35] clearly. I mean, it does work.
[47:37] It would have been nice, like you said, Matt, if it was about
[47:40] Leah being Verde's daughter as well.
[47:41] Yeah. Or it's about with her being
[47:43] Luke's sister. That's all that gets mentioned
[47:45] yeah and it would have been nice if looking Leah hadn't kissed an
[47:47] empire but yeah I've gone with him about that following Return
[47:52] of the Jedi Carrie Fisher. I did have a successful career
[47:55] appear which is another big movies like Hannah and her
[47:57] sisters, the burbs and when Harry met Sally and also became
[48:00] a best selling author. Sadly passed away in 2016.
[48:03] But she'll always be Leah surely.
[48:06] Always amazing. The 3rd and final.
[48:11] Cast member we're going to talk about is the biggest movie star
[48:14] in the film that's Harrison Ford as all scoundrel Han Solo at the
[48:19] start of the film he's frozen in carbonite and then he's
[48:22] definitely there for the rest of the film he leaves the rebel
[48:25] troops on endor and ends up bugging your Princess so how is
[48:28] hand in this film Westie and Harrison Ford playing him he's
[48:31] just taking a. Backseat isn't he?
[48:33] He's just having a good time. He's got no responsibility
[48:36] whatsoever. It's like baby sitting with
[48:39] somebody else and they're responsible for the kids and
[48:42] you're like, I'll just eat all the crisps and I'll just get
[48:45] I'll get the pizza in now that I'm fine.
[48:48] As long as you're satisfied with it.
[48:49] He's having a great time. He's having a great time with
[48:51] the action sequences. You know, he's Indiana Jones by
[48:54] this point. He's just done readers in 1981.
[48:56] It does seem bored in some of the scenes, like when they're
[48:59] doing the end or briefing of like what we're going to do to
[49:01] get an end or he's sitting there going off for fuck sake.
[49:03] I know I look great. But I could be doing something
[49:06] better than. This right now, you know, he's
[49:08] outfits a class, but there's a fine line between like having a
[49:11] great time and and being bored. You know, that's just when they
[49:15] go to the to the this satellite and endo and he just does that
[49:18] whole like shrugs the shoulders and looks around.
[49:21] Basically, this film is him choosing to fly the shuttle
[49:23] instead of the Millennium Falcon.
[49:25] That's what he wants to do. But he is great and he's really.
[49:29] Charismatic as usual, he's just really magnetic to watch.
[49:33] He could just, like I say, he could look bored on screen and
[49:36] still be entertaining, so I think it really works for him at
[49:38] this point. Hey, it's me.
[49:41] That's it. That's all he needs to say.
[49:44] It's me. I'm here.
[49:45] I'm Harrison Ford. I'm fucking massive.
[49:47] And the story, yeah, I mean. The same with Leah, if not more
[49:50] so. Han story is well and truly done
[49:53] by this point. Massively.
[49:54] Expect him to be dead. Yeah, exactly.
[49:56] He's there. To be rescued at the start then
[49:58] leave the rebels on end door and be involved in a few action
[50:00] scenes and crack a few jokes. He cracks a lot of jokes in
[50:03] Empire as well. The problem is that here most of
[50:06] them aren't funny. It's not Harrison Ford's fault,
[50:08] they're just poorly judged. He doesn't care either though.
[50:11] No, I don't think he does. But I mean, like on our Empire
[50:13] podcast, I talked about how the human never undermines the
[50:16] narrative. That isn't the case here, I
[50:18] don't think. Like in the meeting scene where
[50:20] Mon Mothma's breathing, the rebels, many Bothans died to
[50:22] bring us this information. That bit after she's finished,
[50:25] Han in front of everyone sears to land or good luck.
[50:28] You're going to need it. They might all die on.
[50:32] That's not appropriate, it's not funny.
[50:35] And I mean, it's well documented how Harrison Ford was done with
[50:38] Star Wars by this point. And based on what he does in the
[50:40] film, I might as well left him frozen in carbonite.
[50:43] Hardly. And Chewy.
[50:43] Drag him around like Weekend of Bernie's or something.
[50:45] That would be great. Yeah, but like you say,
[50:48] obviously it is still Harrison Ford.
[50:50] It's still Han Solo, He still wears some great threads, and
[50:53] he's still cool. But to run things off, I think
[50:56] it's enough in this film. Yeah, it is.
[50:58] I mean, it's pretty well. Known that Ford was sick to the
[51:00] back teeth of Star Wars and one of the kill Han Solo off.
[51:02] But Loris can't then agree with him and said like we're going to
[51:06] kill him off. We're going to kill him off at
[51:07] Jabba's palace So the audience know like we'll be sure.
[51:10] I wouldn't be sure actually who was going to die or who was
[51:12] going to live or we'll make it that kind of trajection and he's
[51:15] just like well, OK, we'll see. But it never worked out that
[51:18] way. But if Harrison Ford had died at
[51:20] Jabba's Palace, I don't know if this would have been as good at
[51:23] all. It didn't wouldn't have worked.
[51:24] Not in the film they've made. The film they've made, it
[51:26] wouldn't have worked, not at all.
[51:27] But yeah. On that, Lucas.
[51:28] Overruled both cast and and Harrison Ford and said that Han
[51:31] had to live and Ford later said that George didn't see a future
[51:34] in dead Han Solo toys. Of course he didn't.
[51:37] You need the. Endo outfit You need the fucking
[51:39] the frozen and carbonite thing. Yeah.
[51:45] Did anybody else when they were a kid, always used to put Han
[51:47] Solo in the freezer in a glass of water so it was like he was
[51:49] frozen in carbonized. No, but I wish I.
[51:51] Hadn't that would have been fucking great.
[51:53] I didn't think of that. But I also thought that when I
[51:56] first saw it, it was like Jabba's fridge because, you
[51:59] know, you can get it as a fridge now, like a fridge stick.
[52:02] Oh. Yeah, I want one I.
[52:03] Really want one? But I was like, I thought that
[52:05] was his fridge. Yeah, much more like I was.
[52:09] On board for me, I'm afraid like.
[52:13] I didn't not think of that. So glad neither of you.
[52:15] Used to, got in there first without nothing.
[52:17] I was worth the wait that. Was brilliant.
[52:19] Well done. There.
[52:19] Oh, thank you. I.
[52:20] Mean look thing. Is he's never been the best
[52:23] throughout his career. He'd hide in his displeasure and
[52:25] the scripts not up to stuff. Or he's not having a great time
[52:27] like he did on Bedrunner. And you can tell he's not really
[52:30] engaged in this nonsense anymore.
[52:32] And I think the script lets him down a bit.
[52:34] Like for me, Hahn is at his best when he's the reluctant hero.
[52:38] You know, when he doesn't want to stick around in Star Wars but
[52:40] still comes back. Spending Moore's vampire on the
[52:43] run, showing how much of his personality is bravado and
[52:46] getting away with things by the skin of his teeth until he just
[52:48] runs out of look. I think making him a general,
[52:51] he's just not as interesting anymore.
[52:53] He's not as interesting when he volunteers to save the day.
[52:56] He's not as interesting when he's all lovesick around Leah
[52:59] instead of bickering with it because that's really funny and
[53:01] feisty. And this is just a bit.
[53:03] And it's like what you said, John, just all these like lame 1
[53:07] liners and snarky behaviour. It's just a bit like it is.
[53:12] It's always great a scene, of course it is.
[53:13] But just for me, for somebody who's such a highlight in the
[53:16] 1st 2, it's just a real disappointment of what he's
[53:19] like, what he used to do in here, unfortunately, yeah, I
[53:22] mean the bit when he wakes up from.
[53:23] Cold night. I think I could do that.
[53:27] I can't see. You'll have hibernation signal
[53:33] another bit when Temple of Doom when he gets poisoned.
[53:35] It's exactly the same. It is, yeah.
[53:38] I mean, I mean, what was Forge? Action when he read the bit
[53:40] where right this way. Do you got to run behind the
[53:42] stormtrooper, tap on the shoulder and hide around the
[53:44] corner, and that's how you get him?
[53:46] Yeah, that's terrible. I think they just did that like.
[53:50] As a as a test. And they were like, Malcolm was
[53:52] like, right, Lucas is coming down in 20 minutes.
[53:54] They're just fucking cut and print that.
[53:56] And let's not because. What would happen is.
[53:58] You'd slide underneath his legs. Your back flip flicks over in.
[54:02] CGI. Well, there is a wider.
[54:04] Cast in the film David Prowse and James Earl Jones Vader Alec
[54:07] in this is Obi Wan, Billy Dee Williams as landor Kenny bake as
[54:10] R2, Anthony Daniels AS3PO and Peter May.
[54:13] He was chewy all return and we'll talk a bit more about Ian
[54:16] McDermott as the emperor later. But in our main 3 going through
[54:20] the motions a bit maybe, but their work was already done by
[54:23] this point. I think they've got like.
[54:24] Credit in the bank, haven't they?
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[55:43] sponsoring this episode. The middle we're into the second
[55:54] act of the. Film now, and we're swapping
[55:55] Tatooine for Endor. We've seen the passing of Yoda
[55:59] and we're shortly going to be talking about the natives of
[56:01] Endor, the legendary Ewoks First door.
[56:04] It's another set piece. Of course it is.
[56:06] So having arrived. On Endor to take down the Empire
[56:08] shield generator protecting the Death Star, the guy and come up
[56:11] against some scout troopers. One of them takes off, pursued
[56:14] by Leah, and we get a high velocity speed up by chairs
[56:17] through the woods. Yeah.
[56:19] How is this one going? For your mate, it's the.
[56:22] Absolute highlight of the film for me, by far and away my
[56:25] favorite. Nice and the best toy.
[56:27] Ever the best. Unbelievable.
[56:30] Well, I've seen this. This is.
[56:31] What why we're actually, I mean, this is a total compliment.
[56:34] It's how much of a video game this sequence feels like.
[56:37] You just want first thing you do when you've seen this film, you
[56:40] want to go out and you want to play that video game at this
[56:43] level because you think, oh God, if they could do a virtual
[56:46] reality version of this, that would just be incredible.
[56:48] I would never be offered because I'd have a panic attack.
[56:51] So fast. Trees at left, right.
[56:55] And center, yeah. I.
[56:58] Mean ignore the back. Projection, you know, no point
[57:00] being critical of like a slightly dodgy effect from 40
[57:03] years ago. You know, what would you do?
[57:05] What it does so well is it captures the essence of speed,
[57:08] which the whole trilogy does well.
[57:09] I think I mentioned when we did Star Wars before that film,
[57:12] space travel was always things being really slow because they
[57:15] didn't know how to do speed. Star Wars like broke new ground
[57:18] there. And that's what they give with
[57:20] these speeders in the in the forest in this sequence, you
[57:23] know, duck it around trees, going over trees, going under
[57:26] fell trees. That's amazing.
[57:27] Have an offend of Stormtroopers at the same time, like say it's
[57:31] just tailor made the aesthetic for the video game experience.
[57:34] Like my son, he's got the the Skywalker Saga Lego game on
[57:38] Switch. Oh yeah, yeah, I've played that.
[57:39] Yeah, well, my son's played that.
[57:41] I haven't played it well, I mean after like 2.
[57:43] Hours, right? Give it to me.
[57:44] I want to play the speed of sequence and then you can have I
[57:47] wanted. Like yank it out of his hands.
[57:48] But the one bit that gets me every time is like when they saw
[57:51] bashing into each other to try and knock each other off the
[57:53] bikes. Because again, total video game
[57:56] experience. Like I remember when I was a kid
[57:58] I had Rd. rash from the mega drive which is nice for those
[58:00] who don't. Remember, it was a bike.
[58:02] Racing game and one of the best things about it was he could
[58:05] pull up alongside the other riders and barge them off.
[58:07] That's what this is like this. It's a perfect action sequence.
[58:12] Just brilliant. Yeah.
[58:13] Speaking of video. Games.
[58:14] I'm going to show my age because I had the game of Return of the
[58:17] Jedi on my Commodore 64 Wow when I was a kid and it was awesome.
[58:21] Do you remember Paper Boy? Yeah, yes, yes.
[58:24] Yeah, yeah, it was a bit like that, but on a.
[58:25] Speeder bike, right? Yeah, absolutely.
[58:27] Awesome, but. These speeder bikes, the ones in
[58:29] the film, they are excellent. I like how it's Leah who jumps
[58:32] on the bike and goes after them. Yeah, the bit where Luke takes
[58:34] on the last one, that lightsaber, that's pretty cool.
[58:36] Yeah, but I think the design work is just fantastic.
[58:40] Firstly, the scout troopers who ride the speeder bikes, how
[58:42] great do they look? They look cool as fuck like.
[58:45] Can Stormtroopers look any better?
[58:47] Totally paint. They look unbelievable.
[58:51] The speeder bikes themselves or a brilliant piece of design.
[58:54] They were done by Ralph Macquarie of course, and also
[58:56] have to mention one of the unsung heroes, a bit of Star
[58:59] Wars here and the sound design legend Ben Burt, because the
[59:01] sound of the speed up bikes as they fly by the cameras, it's
[59:04] just so great. I know that he's placed to get
[59:06] that sound of Thunder and P38 aeroplanes to create the sound
[59:09] of the speed up bike engine and it sounds excellent.
[59:11] I want the speed up bike always have and always will.
[59:15] Imagine turning up a work on one of those one thing.
[59:18] You're an absolute wanker, fine. I'll be fine with it.
[59:23] Yeah. So, yeah, it is a great action
[59:26] sequence. Like you said, Matt, it's put
[59:28] together really well, to be fair.
[59:29] The design work across the board, just exceptional.
[59:32] Yeah, I mean the way it was put. Together as well, like, and it
[59:34] was shot in redwoods forest in California.
[59:37] And the ILM was trying to figure out how we're going to put all
[59:40] this together and how it was going to work and the work
[59:43] together with like the, the, the physical crew and like helping
[59:46] would do this. And they ended up getting a
[59:48] steady Cam, which is obviously seen on the Shining about 2-2
[59:51] years before this. And it's like, well, we're just
[59:54] going to walk through the forest of Redwood in the shot of the
[59:56] one frame a second, which in the industry is called under
[59:59] cranking, under crank the camera.
[1:00:02] And you're basically shooting 1 frame as you go.
[1:00:03] And you've got to keep it as still as possible, which then
[1:00:06] turns into like it's like 5 miles an hour.
[1:00:10] That turns into 100 miles an hour at 24 frames a second,
[1:00:13] right? That's.
[1:00:14] How fast the speed up because they're going basically they're
[1:00:16] going like 100. Miles an hour, right, right.
[1:00:18] That's how fast you say in it. So it's absolutely ridiculous
[1:00:22] and even like little bit when looks like you stay on that one.
[1:00:25] I'll take these two and hits the brakes and goes behind them like
[1:00:28] Top Gun that is, I'll hit the brakes, he'll fly right by and
[1:00:32] he's just, and the way he disappears from the frame and
[1:00:35] flies back, it's completely believable.
[1:00:38] But to have that in your in your Canon where you're like, I'm
[1:00:40] just going to walk 5 miles and you hope for a fact because
[1:00:43] you're shooting film at this point, you're not shooting
[1:00:45] digital. You kind of look back and go,
[1:00:47] oh, this is going to work. And it looks incredible.
[1:00:49] I think if you watch the back projection of that, like it's
[1:00:52] just the way that moves. But then again, it's like, what
[1:00:55] does Luke do? Just jumps under, the other one
[1:00:58] jumps. That's all.
[1:00:59] Jedi's could do is jump. Have you ever?
[1:01:03] Been with anything? That's traveled 100 miles an
[1:01:05] hour. I don't know if I have maybe a
[1:01:06] roller coaster at some point, but I'm like, I don't want to
[1:01:08] jump off it at that point. And it's just, it's great.
[1:01:12] But again, it's just it's the sequence you remember.
[1:01:15] And as I've said, it's the best toy when you press that bit at
[1:01:18] the back and it all explodes. Oh, brilliant.
[1:01:20] Forget. About it, it was.
[1:01:21] A brilliant toy get. About it.
[1:01:23] I think it's one of the. Few moments in the film where
[1:01:25] Returning the Jedi probably hits the levels of the 1st 2 films.
[1:01:28] Yeah, that's Mark one. Sake stamp on this and ILM's
[1:01:32] real stamp on this is that they take everything and they just
[1:01:34] like push it to 11 does the plot make sense No do you care no is
[1:01:39] there any story No is it exciting yes that's all you want
[1:01:42] so another. Big action sequence on the
[1:01:45] speeder bikes. Someone needs to meet them for
[1:01:47] real. Surely not for me I mean.
[1:01:49] I'd like to have one and look at it, but I would never ride it,
[1:01:53] not in a million years. Following on from the speeder.
[1:01:59] Bike Jays, The crew become separated, and after Chewie
[1:02:02] proved it, always thinking with his stomach, they're captured by
[1:02:05] some very little creatures. The Ewoks, Yeah.
[1:02:09] In these scenes we meet. Wicket visit the Ewok village
[1:02:12] and say Luke flexing his Jedi muscles again show off.
[1:02:18] Yeah. So how is this for you, Westie?
[1:02:19] A lot of controversy with. Ewoks.
[1:02:22] Yeah. I don't understand why, really.
[1:02:24] I think they're pretty cool. The Empire again is entered this
[1:02:28] planet and is trying to take the piss and these little very bare
[1:02:33] creatures are giving them 6 now. And I love it.
[1:02:36] But I just love the fact that they've just what they're
[1:02:39] influenced by. They're just like Lucas was.
[1:02:42] It has been called to say that influenced by the Viet Cong from
[1:02:45] Vietnam, which I mean is is kind of cool, but like a bit
[1:02:53] ludicrous at the same time. Like you could have a bit
[1:02:56] offensive, a bit offensive. But when this when they start
[1:03:01] kicking? Ass you're kind of like, yeah,
[1:03:03] well, I'd see that it's using the terrain and they've got
[1:03:06] inferior weapons against this stronger and more equipped army
[1:03:09] that are coming in and but this isn't the place to make that
[1:03:12] kind of statement. This isn't this isn't the film
[1:03:15] to make this kind of, you know, revelation.
[1:03:19] This is what it was like in Vietnam.
[1:03:21] I don't really think it was. Maybe one of them dies and he
[1:03:24] goes rolls over and that's about it.
[1:03:28] And they also put people over fires and I think they're going
[1:03:30] to eat people. So that might terrify.
[1:03:33] And, you know, I think a golden droids like some kind of God.
[1:03:38] So it Hawks back to all this kind of indigenous in the
[1:03:41] spiritual kind of vibes that they've got.
[1:03:44] And they're playing drums at the end.
[1:03:45] And this is like strange, really strange collection of things.
[1:03:49] But I do like the Ewoks. I do think they are good.
[1:03:52] And I do like it when they start kicking some ass because they
[1:03:54] are badass. Yeah, at the end.
[1:03:56] When they're playing the drums, they're playing drums on like
[1:03:57] stormtroopers, helmets and. Absolute savages, you've
[1:04:03] definitely eaten those. Stormtroopers, they've eaten.
[1:04:06] Clones they eat. People that just kind of go Oh,
[1:04:09] well, fuck it that yeah, it's just yeah, it's it's again, it
[1:04:13] really fits the tone. Yeah.
[1:04:16] Oh, you're right, I mean. The Ewoks have came in for a lot
[1:04:18] of stick over the years. Ruined this film for some
[1:04:20] people. Second only the Jar Jar Binks in
[1:04:23] the worst Star Wars characters list.
[1:04:24] For some, yeah, I would rather Ewoks and.
[1:04:26] Gungans, if I'm completely Oh I definitely would.
[1:04:28] Yeah, I like so much better of them, the Ewoks and not others.
[1:04:31] I think First off, the Ewoks Village up in the trees is
[1:04:33] really good, good production design.
[1:04:35] Yeah, the Ewoks themselves look good, really good costume
[1:04:37] design. I think they sound good when
[1:04:39] they talk. And whether the language was
[1:04:40] inspired by like a Russian Buddhist language called Kamlik.
[1:04:44] You knew that though, obviously. Obviously.
[1:04:45] I mean, I speak fluent. The problem for me isn't the
[1:04:50] Ewoks is 90 hour creation. It's how they're used and why
[1:04:54] they're in the film. I'll talk about how they were
[1:04:56] used a bit later. But now why they're in there.
[1:04:59] It's been said by people like Gary Kurtz, the producer from
[1:05:01] the first two films, the Lucas got them in there because he saw
[1:05:04] them as a good toy opportunity. I mean, they even look like
[1:05:06] teddy bears obviously. And letting what toys will sell
[1:05:09] dictate creative decisions is obviously a major problem from a
[1:05:13] storytelling point of view. I'll talk a bit more about that
[1:05:16] later on. Like I say, I do like the Ewoks.
[1:05:17] The funny like when three people say it's the Han, I'm rather
[1:05:20] embarrassed her. It appears you ought to be the
[1:05:22] main course in the banquet in my honour.
[1:05:24] That's funny. Terrifying.
[1:05:26] Yeah, exactly. What it is?
[1:05:27] Yeah, but with. Merchandising potential seemed
[1:05:30] to influence the creativity. They do also indicate the wheels
[1:05:33] starting to fall off the Star Wars.
[1:05:34] But I think unfortunately, I mean, not that I can talk.
[1:05:37] I had about four. He walks his action fingers.
[1:05:39] When I was good, I was. Part of the problem.
[1:05:41] Yeah, how much caravan? Encourage No.
[1:05:43] Problem. And Matt?
[1:05:48] Yep. You.
[1:05:53] Have a fucking goal. You know that episode of The
[1:05:56] Simpsons? Where Ralph is in love with
[1:05:58] Lisa, but Lisa yells at him and Bart says if you look closely
[1:06:01] you can actually pinpoint the exact moment his heart breaks
[1:06:04] into I Choo Choo choose you. That whole moment, yeah.
[1:06:08] Well, that scene where 3. Core is reenacting the previous
[1:06:11] two films for the Evox. I think if you look closely you
[1:06:13] can actually pinpoint the exact moment Harrison Ford's life
[1:06:17] flashes before his eyes. Anything How?
[1:06:21] Have I ended? Up here.
[1:06:23] Like in general, everything with the ox to.
[1:06:25] Find this middle section a bit of a slog to get to, and it
[1:06:28] really drags here because it does.
[1:06:30] Yeah, wasting. Time on.
[1:06:31] A recap to the previous two films.
[1:06:34] Ford palpably dying inside, sitting there thinking I had so
[1:06:40] many great lines in Empire, I've got to do so much great stuff in
[1:06:43] Star Wars and he has to react to a teddy bear coming up against
[1:06:48] his leg. Like the expression on Ford's
[1:06:50] face is a picture. Just absolute disgust.
[1:06:54] What he has to do seem like Ford looking.
[1:06:56] Off camera and Lucas just hold up a sign that just says you are
[1:06:59] Indiana Jones. Deal with it.
[1:07:03] Yeah, I give you Indiana Jones. I've got to do this.
[1:07:07] Yeah. So so far I think.
[1:07:08] He speaks a lot for me during the scene.
[1:07:11] And three, pure actual. Recordings of all the.
[1:07:14] Sound effects ready to go, which is impressive, but also why?
[1:07:17] Why does he have a recording of Vaders breathing?
[1:07:19] Well, he should interpret everything.
[1:07:21] And all but still. And the sound of.
[1:07:23] Tie fighters, where the folks you get that from?
[1:07:25] He's floating around in atmospheres, just recording
[1:07:27] them. Yeah.
[1:07:29] I mean it's. Such a.
[1:07:30] Bizarre scene. And you know, the Ewoks
[1:07:31] themselves, Yeah, they enjoying themselves.
[1:07:33] That's great. But yeah, just a very, very poor
[1:07:36] Star Wars scene for me to sit through this one.
[1:07:38] Yeah, it does. Drag you right, but the Ewoks,
[1:07:41] they were based on, or rather inspired by real life.
[1:07:45] You know anything about that? But I did mention the.
[1:07:48] Vehicle and I were going into that, no.
[1:07:51] Fuck me, where's this going? So the name Ewok came from a
[1:07:56] Native American tribe called the My Walk, Right, Right.
[1:07:59] It's. Not nanogram.
[1:08:00] Of Wookie, like some people think that it is.
[1:08:02] The My Walk were indigenous to Northern California, which is
[1:08:05] where the Endor scenes were filmed and Endor was in the
[1:08:07] Bible. The Witch of Endor was used by
[1:08:09] King Thor to channel the dead prophet and defeat the
[1:08:12] Philistines. Wow, you knew that.
[1:08:14] Though obviously the wrong to. Put this in.
[1:08:17] I know. Yeah, so the place in
[1:08:21] California? Where it was filmed was Crescent
[1:08:23] City, and the actors hated it because obviously they were in
[1:08:26] these hot heavy suits. California is really hot anyway
[1:08:28] and there was a production assistant called Ian Bryce and
[1:08:31] he turned up one day and he'd been left a note the note said
[1:08:34] he walks the far enough all the actors are quit and they're
[1:08:37] going to the airport obviously like get home so he raced over
[1:08:40] couldn't see any of them is really panicking was about to
[1:08:42] leave to try and explain it so mad Lucas and it was turned up
[1:08:45] with all the E walk actors on just like pointing laughing at
[1:08:47] him is all just a big wind up that's awful that's.
[1:08:51] Leaving the set and the panic. And I can't see.
[1:08:54] Anyone just look down, yeah. Yeah, when the God of the bus,
[1:08:59] apparently they were all wearing T-shirts that said Revenge of
[1:09:01] the Ewoks. That sounds like a horror film.
[1:09:06] The Ewoks horror beyond imagination.
[1:09:08] Yeah, I would love that. And I think everyone knows
[1:09:11] Warrick. Davis was most famous for
[1:09:13] playing wicket, and he auditioned for the film after
[1:09:15] his grandmother heard a cast and call advert on the radio.
[1:09:18] Kenny Baker, who plays R2D Doo, was supposed to play a wicket,
[1:09:22] but on the day that were due to film the scenes, Baker had food
[1:09:26] poisoning, which seems like a common theme.
[1:09:28] And like Lucas and Spielberg's, you know, back catalogue.
[1:09:31] Fuck the no, they're just spaghetti hoops.
[1:09:35] So they've got Warren Davis to play Wicked and Kenny Baker's is
[1:09:38] actually, in Return of the Jedi, plays Poplu, who's the Ewok who
[1:09:43] pinches the speeder bike. And for me that's one of the
[1:09:45] best performances. When he's just taking the piss,
[1:09:48] he's just. And then when it speeds off, his
[1:09:51] legs are hanging off. I think that's a great
[1:09:54] performance. So yeah, I'm so pleased that
[1:09:56] Davis is in there and that, yeah, I'm so pleased.
[1:09:59] You've got to play Papalou, which is great.
[1:10:02] Anthony Daniels. The prime suspect for that
[1:10:03] poisoning, surely. Of course he is.
[1:10:06] It's yeah, it's everyone. He does.
[1:10:10] And I mean, Warwick Davis went on to build a great career on
[1:10:12] the back of Jedi, didn't he? He did.
[1:10:14] He was in the Harry Potter films, Narnia films, Hitching
[1:10:16] Guys, going to the Galaxy, Willow obviously, and Horse a
[1:10:20] tenable. Leprechaun.
[1:10:22] Yeah, Leprechaun 2. Leprechaun.
[1:10:23] Three and Leprechaun 4IN space classics.
[1:10:26] Wow, I've never seen. Leprechaun 4IN space and I'm
[1:10:30] pretending. If.
[1:10:30] I've even seen any Leprechaun films.
[1:10:34] Let's. Be Luke House.
[1:10:34] That's a face. He has.
[1:10:35] Oh yeah, he loves him. And Warwick Davis did.
[1:10:38] Reprise the role of Wicked a couple of times.
[1:10:40] You know where, Caravan of Courage?
[1:10:43] He was in caravan. Of courage.
[1:10:44] And he walks the battle firing door.
[1:10:46] Oh yeah, Also classics. OK, no, life's too short.
[1:10:50] Yeah. No.
[1:10:52] The original idea though for. End all was it was going to be
[1:10:55] the planet of the Wookies wasn't going to be the Ewoks planet and
[1:10:58] it was going to be the Wookies who were joined up with the
[1:11:00] rebels to defeat the empire. But Lucas obviously to some more
[1:11:04] profitability in Ewok merchandise.
[1:11:06] You know, that was more important than a better story,
[1:11:09] obviously. Well, the bookies would.
[1:11:11] Have made the Empire look a bit less shit, I think anyway.
[1:11:14] But on the back of that, we have another question from Patreon,
[1:11:18] OK? So biggie.
[1:11:20] No relation to Biggie Smalls as far as I know.
[1:11:22] Of course not. But.
[1:11:23] I can't say that for certain. To be honest, so biggie.
[1:11:27] 'S asked us. If.
[1:11:29] You could change the Ewoks. Which creatures from the series
[1:11:32] would you replace them with, Wesley.
[1:11:37] You see, I've thought. Long and hot, this has been the
[1:11:39] hardest part of me week. For me, Jawas.
[1:11:44] I think it would have been great.
[1:11:45] The jaws in there just come from nowhere but wearing camouflage
[1:11:48] instead of the brown. I thought it would have been
[1:11:51] fucking like. Badass, just like shooting down
[1:11:53] the the RSTS and just big disabling them because they know
[1:11:57] like the the ways around them or maybe maybe 4 or 5 hidden Jedi
[1:12:03] that you don't know about and they've come out of hiding.
[1:12:06] But at the same time, in answer to the question, I don't think I
[1:12:09] would replace them with anything.
[1:12:11] Yeah. If you.
[1:12:12] Could replace them, would you? No, I wouldn't.
[1:12:14] But if I could, it would be like it would be Jawas, it'd be
[1:12:16] something similar. It'd be small and you know, like
[1:12:19] they have to prove themselves. Well, the only star.
[1:12:22] Wars film that I like much outside of the original trilogy.
[1:12:24] Apart from Caravan of Courage obviously.
[1:12:26] Obviously Rogue One. Yeah, and I like what they deal
[1:12:30] with the rebels there. They bring in Saul Guerrera and
[1:12:32] is sort of rebel extremist faction who are kind of at odd
[1:12:35] with the Rebel Alliance in terms of methods and values.
[1:12:37] That's a great bit of world building and that would have
[1:12:39] worked great. Yeah.
[1:12:40] We're like Leah has to maybe negotiate with the extremists to
[1:12:43] get them all working together to defeat the Empire.
[1:12:45] They are different creatures though, so if that's what we're
[1:12:47] talking the Gungans maybe you off man Yum Jar jar in there
[1:12:52] lugging about you're junggins. The younglings.
[1:12:57] Younglings, yeah. The ones that were killed by
[1:13:00] Veda has come back as force ghosts.
[1:13:03] Like Return of the King. Of the ship.
[1:13:07] Just little kids. Fucking furious, Yeah.
[1:13:09] I mean, that would have been. Mental, which would have been
[1:13:11] amazing. But the fact that they can't
[1:13:13] even use the force in this film and he has to throw a rock, I
[1:13:16] think that's miles beyond what they were thinking at this
[1:13:18] point. But first thought.
[1:13:20] Is. I don't understand why it's not
[1:13:21] the Bothans who already get mentioned is Lords them haven't
[1:13:25] died to get the information so shouldn't they have been the
[1:13:28] ones neither thing that got the information about?
[1:13:30] That would be more sense to me. But honestly I think Lucas had a
[1:13:33] right first time. It should have been the Wookies,
[1:13:35] because that would have given Chewy much more to do then he
[1:13:39] had to convince. Them to join in, yeah, it would
[1:13:41] have been fucking great. Weird.
[1:13:43] That's better, yeah. Yeah, well, we're going to talk.
[1:13:45] About this later, but there could have been this great
[1:13:47] awkward hand is killed two years bereft and doesn't know what to
[1:13:51] do anymore until he finds his people have been enslaved and he
[1:13:53] leads them to freedom against the empire and becomes their new
[1:13:56] leader. Boom, that would have been
[1:13:59] great. And also we could have had
[1:14:00] scenes where it's two rookies torn.
[1:14:01] Witcher. There were subtitles.
[1:14:02] That would have been awesome return.
[1:14:09] Of the Wookies. I'll be there for that.
[1:14:15] Fucking brilliant. So the middle.
[1:14:17] Of Jedi provides the images that are possibly more synonymous
[1:14:20] with the film. The greenery of Endor and in the
[1:14:23] speed of bikes in the Ewoks. 2 unforgettable sequences.
[1:14:26] Oh, absolutely brilliant. Different reasons maybe?
[1:14:29] Well, yeah, the. Crew, we turn it.
[1:14:37] The Jedi was a huge. Production to close the trilogy.
[1:14:40] So the crew was a big one, and we're going to talk about them a
[1:14:42] bit more now. John Williams as the composer,
[1:14:45] Alan Hume is the DP, and ILM is the effects.
[1:14:48] That was the role coming. But finally, we've got some
[1:14:51] George Lucas on the menu. Here we go.
[1:14:55] So Returning the Jedi was written by George Lucas and
[1:14:57] Lawrence Kasdan, the same team that collaborated on Empire with
[1:15:00] superb results. How'd it go?
[1:15:02] Yeah, Matt. Not quite as well.
[1:15:07] Very diplomatic though. I'm a diplomatic Droid.
[1:15:13] I feel very much the same. About the writing, as I do the
[1:15:16] directing, which is it's all very safe, it's all a reaction
[1:15:19] and a push back to Empire. So this one is not going to
[1:15:21] scare anyone. There'll be no cliffhanger.
[1:15:23] Evidence is going to get wrapped up with the bone top very
[1:15:25] neatly. On the one hand, that's great.
[1:15:27] You obviously don't want things unresolved, but it's all
[1:15:30] smoothed down like this film doesn't have the peril of Star
[1:15:33] Wars, it doesn't have the darkness of vampire.
[1:15:36] And it's all a bit too late and a lot of retroactive explaining
[1:15:40] going on. You know, we've kind of joked
[1:15:42] about it already, but all we want turn it up and saying that
[1:15:44] when he told Luke Darth Vader killed his father, what he said
[1:15:47] was Sue from a certain point of view.
[1:15:49] Absolute bullshit that mate that.
[1:15:52] Doesn't make a bit of sense, no? Leah turning out to be Luke's
[1:15:56] twin. Sister, no planet at all that
[1:15:59] that was going to be a big revelation in this one.
[1:16:01] So that doesn't fit. And I mean, and that sequence in
[1:16:04] particular, that conversation, the force, really pure dialogue.
[1:16:07] That's Luke is all over that scene, really crunchy and the
[1:16:11] right it's it's it's about making people feel comfortable
[1:16:14] with this one. So everybody loved the death
[1:16:17] sauce. We'll bring the Death Star back.
[1:16:19] Everybody thought the lightsaber deal between Luke and theatre
[1:16:21] was great and the last one. So we'll have them do that
[1:16:23] again. And it's tying everything up
[1:16:25] really quickly, really neatly, hoping you don't pay too much
[1:16:28] attention to it. But once you do, I think a lot
[1:16:31] of it doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
[1:16:32] And because everything feels so torn down from Empire, for me,
[1:16:37] it's the real lack of true peril in this film.
[1:16:39] Everything feels accomplished a little bit too easily for the
[1:16:42] rebels, and that's what drags the film down for me.
[1:16:44] I think we're going to talk about them all, but this is the
[1:16:47] point where I say someone, maybe not hand, but someone should
[1:16:49] have been killed off at some point to really amput the peril.
[1:16:53] Because I think that's what's missing from the writing. 3PO.
[1:16:56] Surely. 3PO. I think the narrative writing is
[1:17:01] done to a level beyond probably the majority of blockbusters,
[1:17:03] but the problem is this is following Star Wars, an empire
[1:17:06] where the storytelling is superb, inspired even.
[1:17:09] An Empire and Jedi is basic in comparison.
[1:17:13] I think there's three things Lucas and Kazdar knew they had
[1:17:15] to do with Empire ending on a cliffhanger.
[1:17:17] They had to resolve that plot thread with Han.
[1:17:20] They need to have the Rebel Alliance defeat the Empire once
[1:17:22] and for all, and they need to complete the journey of Luke
[1:17:24] Skywalker. And they do all those things.
[1:17:27] Everything is all tied up really nicely, but maybe aside from the
[1:17:30] climax, which we'll talk about, I don't think any of the writing
[1:17:33] yet. It's particularly excellent.
[1:17:34] Firstly, the space battle, we'll talk about it's great point
[1:17:37] shortly, but from a writing point of view, they've got
[1:17:39] another Death Star. It's much bigger than the first
[1:17:41] and we're going to blow it up again.
[1:17:43] I mean, Lucas creative well is definitely starting to dry up by
[1:17:46] this point. I think what I'd like to have
[1:17:48] seen was we start at Jabba's palace, the gun going to rescue
[1:17:52] Han. Veda wants Luke, we know that,
[1:17:54] so he's got men planted in Jabba's too.
[1:17:56] I mean he doesn't make sense that he doesn't have that in the
[1:17:57] film because he knows where Boba Fetz taken Han.
[1:18:00] Well Luke turns up then the Empire who know he's there turn
[1:18:03] up. Then there's a massive 3 way
[1:18:04] fight between Jabba's guys, the empire and the rebels.
[1:18:07] Luke gives himself up to save the rebels and then Hanan layer
[1:18:10] escape and Luke goes off with Veda.
[1:18:12] And then the other plot is the rebels go off to the main Empire
[1:18:14] HQ which will go on to do for one huge final battle.
[1:18:17] So no death Star. You could set it on the main
[1:18:19] Empire planet, and meanwhile Veda and the Empire and Luke,
[1:18:23] you have that whole sequence, but I would have it where they
[1:18:25] turn look to the dark side and he's a total Barrass.
[1:18:28] And then we find out Leah's the final Skywalker that tried to
[1:18:31] turn her too, But you've mentioned this before, Westie.
[1:18:33] Instead she seals the D and turns Luke and Veda back to the
[1:18:37] good side. And then you have the ending
[1:18:38] where Veda sacrifices himself to kill the Emperor and save his
[1:18:41] two children. I think that's much more
[1:18:43] powerful. That was brilliant.
[1:18:50] Jesus. Christ, you've rewritten.
[1:18:52] Return of the Jedi. I told you I rewritten the
[1:18:54] script. Nailed it.
[1:18:56] But. Instead.
[1:18:56] We do get something, which it does work, but it definitely has
[1:18:59] a feeling that Lucas Castan all doing is tying stuff up and the
[1:19:02] narrative works, and I like it. But they're setting themselves
[1:19:05] at a very high bar from the previous film, and this is a
[1:19:07] missed opportunity as well. I think on the whole, yeah, I
[1:19:10] think if you. Look at this from a writing
[1:19:11] point of view. You've got to look at George
[1:19:13] Lucas and you've got to look at Karstan.
[1:19:15] And Karstan, I think wanted to take it different places.
[1:19:18] You wanted to take it to a darker place.
[1:19:20] But at this point, with the success that this is and the
[1:19:23] money that this is making and how much of A risk that would be
[1:19:27] for this to be a failure, it's not even worth contemplating.
[1:19:31] So Lucas has to go. Let's keep it safe.
[1:19:34] Everyone loved the Death Star. Everyone loved these characters.
[1:19:36] Everyone loved this kind of set piece.
[1:19:38] Let's keep this in there. Let's keep it.
[1:19:40] Let's keep it fresh. Let's keep it, you know, fun.
[1:19:42] And that's what he had to do. And we slugged Lucas off left,
[1:19:46] right and center. But, well, one of us does.
[1:19:50] This is my redemption, all right.
[1:19:52] Like Veda. Yeah, I'll keep.
[1:19:54] My mask off and I'll die at the end of it.
[1:19:57] But he's, he has to do it, doesn't he?
[1:19:59] He has to, he has to play it. If it's 1983, it's the end of
[1:20:03] the Star Wars saga. He doesn't want to really want
[1:20:05] to do anything else with it. So he wants to end it as safe as
[1:20:07] he started it. So I think that's what they had
[1:20:09] to do. And I think Kasdan did have some
[1:20:12] ideas. Where he was like, you know, we
[1:20:15] need to get a bit of a punch in this and we need we need to hit
[1:20:17] it hard and we need to do it. And Lucas was like, no, we need
[1:20:20] this to make money. We need this to entertain
[1:20:23] people. And we need this to make a
[1:20:24] family film where we're not going to address these things.
[1:20:28] And I think there was a lot of restrictions put on because of
[1:20:30] how successful the franchise was.
[1:20:32] Let's not forget this was billions into billions of
[1:20:35] dollars, but you kind of just be like, oh, well, I'm just going
[1:20:38] to kill Han Solo. You just couldn't do it at this
[1:20:40] point, not in an E3. You don't get that flexibility.
[1:20:44] I think the film they've made the.
[1:20:45] Tone of this film Han Solo dangerous wouldn't work in this
[1:20:48] film No, I think the tone that they.
[1:20:50] Made was perfect for what they needed for three, because you've
[1:20:54] got what you need, an empire. You do get that pay off.
[1:20:56] You do get that sad kind of. Or what if Star Wars was dark
[1:21:00] and Kirchner brought that? Yeah.
[1:21:02] So they couldn't do that again. It needed to come back up and
[1:21:06] we're like, it was one of me favorite films as a six year
[1:21:08] old. That was his plan and that's
[1:21:10] what he did and it worked. Yeah, I do.
[1:21:12] Agree with. You.
[1:21:13] I mean, they pulled off a minor Hollywood miracle with both the
[1:21:15] first two films, I think. Yeah.
[1:21:17] And this point, they're just bringing it home.
[1:21:19] Exactly. Especially.
[1:21:20] If you're making a franchise, it's worth billions of dollars,
[1:21:22] you're not going to go. I'll tell you what I'm going to
[1:21:24] do. I'm going to kill Han Solo while
[1:21:25] he's like looking at Leah and she gets her head blown off.
[1:21:28] And he got that. Because that's what I would love
[1:21:29] to do from a narrative point of view.
[1:21:32] Like what? He's looking at her and she's
[1:21:33] like, I love you. And he's like, I look bang and
[1:21:35] he gets his head blown off by some Scout trooper on Endor.
[1:21:38] That would be incredible. All right, Cronenberg.
[1:21:41] Yeah, exactly. But that's not going to happen,
[1:21:43] is it? You need to just, you need to
[1:21:44] bring it home. And they brought it home.
[1:21:46] Yeah, they did, yeah. And I don't think this is news.
[1:21:48] To anyone, we all know this surely, but it was originally
[1:21:51] called Revenge of the Jedi and you can't see original forces
[1:21:54] with that title. But Lucas changed it because he
[1:21:56] thought gaining revenge wasn't a trait the Jedi would have.
[1:21:59] That was something Karstan disagreed with, thought it was a
[1:22:02] weak title, but obviously he lost that argument.
[1:22:05] Well, you can see he's not even. Prepared to say it's a negative
[1:22:08] title. Revenge is not that negative,
[1:22:11] but he's not even prepared to go down that road at all.
[1:22:14] Yeah, that. Also had I'm not going to affect
[1:22:16] elsewhere because the second Star Trek film was also in
[1:22:18] production at the time year ago it was going to be called Star
[1:22:21] Trek 2 The Revenge of Khan, but when they heard about Revenge of
[1:22:24] the Jedi it was changed to Star Trek 2 The Wrath of Khan.
[1:22:26] OK, but I think Returning the Jedi and The Wrath of Khan are
[1:22:29] both better than you using revenge.
[1:22:31] Yeah, I think so. Wrath.
[1:22:32] Of Khan's definitely a better title.
[1:22:34] Yeah, definitely. Lucas was really.
[1:22:36] Concerned. About leaks as well from the
[1:22:38] scripts, especially what happened with Empire.
[1:22:40] So he made some fake scripts for the cast members they didn't
[1:22:43] trust as much. I would love to know who they
[1:22:45] were probably. Everyone.
[1:22:48] Some of the fake scripts did end up leaking to the press.
[1:22:50] There was one where the last hope Yoda talks about an empire
[1:22:54] turned out to be not Lear but Lando like that would have been.
[1:23:00] Well look at Landor twins. Be like someones not thought
[1:23:06] this frolicking in the sea. Also, that plot leak.
[1:23:13] Definitely David Prowse, because it was.
[1:23:15] He's an absolute liability. Liability.
[1:23:18] But wouldn't you be if you'd made a film that yet?
[1:23:21] I was in that Well, Yeah. Which one were you?
[1:23:23] The guy behind the mask. Well, you fuck, man.
[1:23:24] Shut up, man. No, I would.
[1:23:26] That definitely was. Can't see me.
[1:23:27] Can't hear me? But it's definitely me, yeah.
[1:23:31] Everything the points would be a new is full.
[1:23:35] The script did. Go through some.
[1:23:36] Changes too. I mentioned earlier that the
[1:23:38] first idea was for the final battle to take place on the
[1:23:40] Imperial home world that would have been called had Abaddon and
[1:23:44] Ralf Mcquarrie even did some design concepts, but it was
[1:23:46] scrapped for a bigger Death Star I'd imagine to save on costs.
[1:23:49] Also originally the plan was that Obi Wan would return from
[1:23:52] being a false ghost and come back to life.
[1:23:55] That would have been a rubbish, especially if it was Guinness
[1:23:59] he. Couldn't be asked for the first
[1:24:00] one. Well, exactly.
[1:24:02] Yeah, yeah. They'll probably scrap the idea.
[1:24:04] Well, again this thought. I'll just be on set for more
[1:24:06] than one hour. I'll.
[1:24:08] Earn more money than anyone. Else bad enough.
[1:24:11] So the writing. On Jedi then a definite drop off
[1:24:14] in quality from the first two films, but it was a very high
[1:24:16] bar. Pandering to the toy market too
[1:24:18] much? Maybe, but there are some good
[1:24:20] moments as well, not some nice moments in.
[1:24:22] There, Yeah, yeah. I don't think it was pandering.
[1:24:24] To the toy market, I think it was just pandering to the market
[1:24:26] in 1983. Moving on to the music now.
[1:24:31] And the score here was composed, of course, by John Williams,
[1:24:35] returning from the first two films.
[1:24:36] This included rearranging his own compositions as well as
[1:24:39] contributing a new piece or two. How?
[1:24:42] Good at this time around. The Music and Return of the
[1:24:44] Jedi, Matt. Well, you can never go wrong
[1:24:46] with John. Williams mean anything he works
[1:24:48] on, he'll bring something to in, in Star Wars or otherwise.
[1:24:51] But his sound is so pivotal to what Star Wars should feel like.
[1:24:55] But I think by the time you get Return of the Jedi, The thing
[1:24:57] is, he's already done the work. Like everything you need the
[1:25:01] opening fanfare, the Force theme, the folk music from Star
[1:25:04] Wars that Empire will add in the Imperial March, the love theme
[1:25:07] for Han and Leah. It's it's all their forms
[1:25:09] really. And obviously you just do some
[1:25:11] new stuff for this, but it doesn't stand out.
[1:25:14] But just because the back catalogue is so ridiculously
[1:25:16] good that he can rely on. So, you know, all things being
[1:25:20] relative, this is one of his weaker efforts simply because
[1:25:23] there's not that much from to do that's new.
[1:25:25] Like I would genuinely say this music he does in the prequels
[1:25:28] and the sequels that I find more memorable than what he brings to
[1:25:31] Return the Jedi. So it's not that it's not great,
[1:25:34] of course it's great. It's just not new.
[1:25:37] Yeah. I agree.
[1:25:38] I mean, the stuff that he's bringing back is superb.
[1:25:41] Obviously there is some new stuff in there.
[1:25:43] The Ewok music's OK, but I mean, it's hardly the Imperial March
[1:25:46] there's an addition to. But there are two new additions
[1:25:49] to score that I want to mention, one which is brilliant and one
[1:25:52] which is awful. So the Emperor's theme, that
[1:25:55] kind of law, pulsating male choir that we hear in the Empire
[1:25:58] throne room. That is awesome.
[1:26:15] From Williams really sets a great tone for the finale.
[1:26:18] I'll tell you what isn't awesome though, and that's Jedi Rocks by
[1:26:22] size. Noodles and the Max Rebo Band
[1:26:24] did a special edition in 1997. That has got.
[1:26:40] Prequels written all over it. It's awful.
[1:26:43] Plastic is full. It's disgusting, The big.
[1:26:46] Close up of the tongue sticking out of the mouth.
[1:26:54] You know that musician? Rod calls in the Star Wars
[1:26:56] universe. Shit, it's.
[1:26:58] Called Jizz Jizz. Music.
[1:27:04] God. Perfectly named.
[1:27:05] Can't argue with that. Yeah, that'll do it.
[1:27:08] Yeah, jazz music. Fair enough.
[1:27:10] Yeah, I. Mean I feel.
[1:27:11] The same it's like you ever going to turn on John Williams
[1:27:14] music on on Return of the Jedi. I mean, even like you said, John
[1:27:18] there, I mean Empire has got the Imperial March which separated
[1:27:21] the the original have just got the main theme band.
[1:27:24] There you go. But he must have turned up to
[1:27:26] this thing and fucking yes, man, I want exactly the same money.
[1:27:32] I want exactly the same kind of recognition.
[1:27:34] I want my name on the titles. But I'm giving you 20% of what I
[1:27:38] can do. And I'll even like you think of
[1:27:41] like the main fight sequences, all about, say, fight sequences.
[1:27:43] But the main action sequences, like the speeder sequence
[1:27:46] doesn't have anything. So I like, doesn't have
[1:27:48] anything. Maybe Williams came to this
[1:27:51] wanting to do more. But when you watch the film,
[1:27:53] what more can he do? What bits?
[1:27:55] Where's the punches? Where's, where are the big
[1:27:57] spikes, you know, and in New Hope, but he looks out at the
[1:28:00] two moons and he's like on top of the weed and you're like,
[1:28:03] right. I need a theme for this.
[1:28:05] Yeah. There's nothing in Return to the
[1:28:07] Jedi where you're like, no, I need a theme for this to elevate
[1:28:10] the sequence. Like when he looks down at Sol I
[1:28:13] could it's like. Not going to happen, is it?
[1:28:17] Doesn't. Doesn't need it.
[1:28:18] So I think he's watched the film and just went George, I can't
[1:28:21] really do anything else and maybe a little diddly do when a
[1:28:24] fiddly day over there for like a minute.
[1:28:26] Are they technical terms? I don't.
[1:28:29] Know I'm not the Irish fiddle scene.
[1:28:34] And that's great. And that's fine.
[1:28:36] And it works because Williams paid his debts for Star Wars
[1:28:39] with just the opening theme. Yeah, so.
[1:28:42] John Williams did write the score for a turn in The Jedi,
[1:28:44] obviously, but this was the first time he had a collaborator
[1:28:47] on a Star Wars film. Do you know who that was?
[1:28:50] Bono. Really random with that should
[1:28:55] have been. Well, it was his.
[1:28:57] Son Joseph Williams, right? So Joseph wrote the lyrics to
[1:29:00] the Ewok song We're Here at the end of the film, the one that
[1:29:03] people call Yub Nub. Would it be better if it was
[1:29:15] Bono? Well.
[1:29:16] Definitely would have been. And Joseph Williams had a music
[1:29:20] career of his own. I think you know what I'm
[1:29:22] talking about, Westie. I'll certainly do.
[1:29:24] He was the lead singer for Total.
[1:29:26] I do believe he was indeed. Wow he didn't sing Africa
[1:29:30] unfortunately, but still crazy that God bless the rains.
[1:29:34] Down in endo. For his work on Returning the
[1:29:39] Jedi, John William was nominated for an Oscar.
[1:29:42] Obviously. Do you know what won that year?
[1:29:44] You do well to get it. How come on Matt, this is your.
[1:29:46] From Cutler Fish I know, but like.
[1:29:48] The music nominations from 84 Bloody come on.
[1:29:53] Matt. Come on, for fuck's sake.
[1:29:56] The music from Dune. Good guess, but it was Bill
[1:30:00] Conte for the right stuff. Oh, right.
[1:30:02] OK. Fair enough.
[1:30:03] Yeah. Love the right stuff.
[1:30:04] Yeah, yeah, it's. Grateful.
[1:30:06] A bit like the cast I think. Williams work was done by this
[1:30:09] point most he was fucking sick as a fuck.
[1:30:11] He. Was like, yeah, he's got my son
[1:30:12] there the right some Ewok shit. Into the visuals on the film.
[1:30:21] And it's a new member of the Star Wars family to talk about.
[1:30:24] The director of photography was Alan Hume.
[1:30:26] In a career going back to the 1940s, Hume had worked on some
[1:30:29] big titles before Jedi, Great Expectations, The Land That Time
[1:30:32] Forgot and For Your Eyes Only Are Three.
[1:30:35] But Hume was most well known as ADP on an iconic British comedy
[1:30:38] franchise. You know what it was?
[1:30:41] Foley Towers. Well, Alan?
[1:30:43] Hume was. DP on no less than 15 Carry On
[1:30:46] films. Yeah.
[1:30:47] Carry on. Yeah, you didn't.
[1:30:49] Do carry on screaming, which is my personal favorite.
[1:30:51] Yeah, it's my favorite as well. Yeah, well, he did.
[1:30:53] Carry on, Cleo, carry on. Don't lose your head.
[1:30:55] Carry on, doctor, and carry on Emmanuelle, among others.
[1:30:58] I love the way we said. Fucking faulty towers.
[1:31:02] You don't even need ADP for that.
[1:31:07] So Mark Wand had worked with Alan Hume on both of The
[1:31:10] Beatles, so asked him to come on board for the biggest movie in
[1:31:12] the world. Yeah.
[1:31:13] How do you do with DP Westy? I think he did.
[1:31:15] Really. Really.
[1:31:16] Well, because we've got Tatooine again and we've got Endor and
[1:31:20] we've got space battles and he's got to kind of bounce it all
[1:31:24] out. He bounces the darkness and the
[1:31:25] light very well. And now watch the theatrical
[1:31:28] course again this week on VHS and it looks like brilliant.
[1:31:32] It looks like really good. It has to look like Star Wars
[1:31:36] and it does look like Star Wars, and I think it absolutely
[1:31:38] delivers it. And again, with all of the
[1:31:41] effects work that he's got to deal with, he wasn't used to
[1:31:45] that. And he's kind of the unsung hero
[1:31:47] of Megan, Return of the Jedi. Really watchable because it
[1:31:50] could have been really cartoonish.
[1:31:52] It could have been overlit. But I think he's really done his
[1:31:54] homework and really nails what he needed, the nail.
[1:31:59] But again, I think his hands were tied exactly the same as
[1:32:02] Mark One's were. He can't move the camera, He
[1:32:04] can't choose the lens. You can't really say that I
[1:32:07] think Endor should look like this because George would say it
[1:32:10] looks like this. He said, OK, well, I'll just
[1:32:11] make it look like that then. You're talking about a billion
[1:32:14] dollar franchise. How much can you really push and
[1:32:16] go? Come on, man, I've done
[1:32:17] Octopussy. I want it to look like.
[1:32:21] Loads of girls in spandex. Yeah, but I.
[1:32:23] Mean he tried, he got, he got hardware there.
[1:32:27] But yeah, I think he's done a really, really good job in
[1:32:28] making this look very, very consistent throughout.
[1:32:32] You know, Jabba's Palace works and Tatooine works again, Endor
[1:32:36] works and the space battles work and Death Star works again and
[1:32:40] he's done a really, really good job.
[1:32:41] I mean. Exactly the same, really.
[1:32:43] I think there's some really nice shots in there.
[1:32:45] I do love the the shot that reveals Luke at the end of like
[1:32:48] the the tunnel in the Jabba's Yeah when it just lifts.
[1:32:51] Up and there's that light pause in.
[1:32:52] Yeah, that's really like 7. Samurai type like Yeah.
[1:32:56] Like who? Saw it's a really.
[1:32:57] Great shot. And I love the shot we get at
[1:32:59] the end of the two lightsabers across the Emperor's face.
[1:33:02] You know, that's, that's great. But I think it's, it's what
[1:33:04] Wesley says very much like Mark Wand.
[1:33:06] He's probably, he's working under very strict orders here.
[1:33:09] I can't imagine there was much personal judgement or
[1:33:12] intervention from him on this work, but what he's told to do,
[1:33:16] he does well. Then he gives the the the film
[1:33:18] the look that Luke has obviously wanted, and it's all very nice
[1:33:20] and clean and smoothly done. That shot you mentioned there?
[1:33:23] Matt, when that door comes up, yeah.
[1:33:24] And it's a wide shot. You don't see Luke at all.
[1:33:27] I would love a lot more than that.
[1:33:29] I'd love it 5 or 6 where he's just going.
[1:33:32] This is what it should look like.
[1:33:33] But yeah, that that shots fucking great.
[1:33:34] It's great, Yeah. Well, there was a bit.
[1:33:37] Of friction with Alan humor. Apparently Hume was annoyed at
[1:33:40] what he saw as mistreatment of Richard Marquand by George Lucas
[1:33:43] There it is. What he specifically didn't like
[1:33:44] isn't known but Alan Hume left the production one month before
[1:33:48] it erupt and the camera operator I called Alec Mills took over
[1:33:51] right. Mr. Carry on films, maybe Carry
[1:33:54] on Rancor that. Would have been amazing.
[1:33:59] So after Jedi Alan Hume went strained Octopussy, Supergirl
[1:34:03] then viewed to a kill. Bang, bang, bang.
[1:34:05] Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did.
[1:34:06] Supergirl. As well, Didn't he?
[1:34:07] Yeah, so a successful career. If not the most inspiring
[1:34:10] visuals I've seen in the Star Wars film, I don't think he was
[1:34:12] allowed to. I think he could have.
[1:34:14] Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our final segment under the.
[1:34:19] Crew when? It's back to a name synonymous
[1:34:21] with Star Wars, that's industrial light and magic.
[1:34:24] So ILM was set up by Lucas to provide the ground breaking and
[1:34:27] visual effects on Star Wars. They returned the Empire and
[1:34:30] then again for returning the Jedi.
[1:34:33] How? Is their work this time, Matt?
[1:34:35] Well, it's always great. And it's certainly no let down
[1:34:37] or any different. My favorite edition of the Atsts
[1:34:41] on end off. They just look at magazine.
[1:34:43] Always one of those when I was a kid.
[1:34:45] Absolutely incredible in the spaceship in general.
[1:34:48] They're just fantastically well done.
[1:34:50] I think it's the best that the Rebel fleet has ever looked.
[1:34:52] All of everything we see there, they've really nailed how to
[1:34:55] overlay those ships now so they can be in the same scene
[1:34:58] attacking each other like it's chalk and cheese.
[1:35:00] When you look at how they had to do it in Star Wars and it's kind
[1:35:03] of different shots and it's shots reacting to each other.
[1:35:06] Now they can overlay it and they can duck in between each other.
[1:35:09] So even though it's a repeat of what we saw in Star Wars, that
[1:35:12] attack on the the Death Star, it looks even better because flying
[1:35:16] to the middle of it looks incredible.
[1:35:18] You're actually there in this. One, that's it.
[1:35:21] You're actually there. You.
[1:35:22] Know, like I say, they can go around corners, they can go up,
[1:35:24] they can go down, they can look like they're going to overtake
[1:35:26] each other. I mean, it's pretty flawless, I
[1:35:28] would say really, isn't it? I think so.
[1:35:31] I mean, by this point ILM already probably the greatest
[1:35:34] effect studio in history. You haven't even got to
[1:35:36] terminate it in Jurassic Park yet.
[1:35:38] But we thought about the speed of bikes, innovative, inspired
[1:35:41] work to put in on the screen. Classic ILM.
[1:35:44] Lucas didn't exactly help him out here.
[1:35:45] Oh, there was one day during production, which has since been
[1:35:48] till Black Friday, where Lucas came into the ILM studio, took
[1:35:52] 100,000 feet of visual effects footage shot by ILM and then
[1:35:55] dumped it in the bin because he didn't like it.
[1:35:57] Wow. And they had to start again from
[1:35:59] scratch. And the heads of effects ILM
[1:36:01] then were Dennis Muir and Ken Ralston and Richard Edlund.
[1:36:04] They said after Lucas did that they went there a 2 day Bender
[1:36:07] before starting over again. That's a lot to.
[1:36:10] Dislike how? Do you dislike that much that
[1:36:12] Quick knows what he wants? He knows the money he wants.
[1:36:17] This all makes sense. Get.
[1:36:18] Rid of it. Yeah, I mean the really.
[1:36:21] Really pull out all the stops here and some of it.
[1:36:24] I find it quite hard to believe it was 1983, to be honest.
[1:36:27] It was. It's really the it's the speed
[1:36:30] of it. It's the pace of it.
[1:36:32] They keep the feel of the originals, but when the X wings
[1:36:36] took down into the Prof of the Death Star on on a New Hope,
[1:36:39] you're with it and you true, you trudge down this one.
[1:36:43] There's too many of them and you just blast through them and
[1:36:46] there's just a tie fighters left, right and centre.
[1:36:49] And you just think, how the fuck did they do that in 1983?
[1:36:52] And like Matt said, like the RSTS, when they're on end all
[1:36:54] and they're getting smashed in with the you know, the logs from
[1:36:57] the Ewoks are coming in and they're doing stuff.
[1:37:00] And this is probably one of them first films that used ILM.
[1:37:03] I use CGI, I use that kind of that creation where the actress
[1:37:07] could rest a little bit and go, it's not on my shoulders, it's a
[1:37:10] space battle at the end. So it's up to them that really
[1:37:13] did understand the assignment and they absolutely nailed it, I
[1:37:17] think. I think it's fantastic to watch
[1:37:20] we've. Talked quite a bit about the
[1:37:21] effects work. We haven't talked that much
[1:37:22] about the quite extensive use of math paintings in Returning the
[1:37:26] Jedi scenes. Like the first time we see Veda
[1:37:28] in the film when he gets off his shuttle on the Star Destroyer,
[1:37:31] the hangar bear, and there's hundreds of Stormtroopers and
[1:37:33] Imperial officers around. That's all a math painting.
[1:37:36] The background, the hangar, Veda shuttle and most of the
[1:37:38] stormtroopers. It was done by an artist called
[1:37:40] Christopher Evans. It looks brilliant now.
[1:37:42] Wasn't that similar in Empire? Though the original as well,
[1:37:45] they've always. Used my paintings a lot.
[1:37:46] Yeah. And that's what we have on the
[1:37:48] crew, a big, big crew on Returning the Jedi.
[1:37:51] And in people like Lawrence Kasdan, John Williams and ILM,
[1:37:54] some Star Wars legends working on the film absolutely made it.
[1:37:58] Exactly. What it is without these guys,
[1:38:00] it would be nothing. The end.
[1:38:08] The third active return of the. Jedi is all about conflict and
[1:38:11] resolution. The climactic showdown between
[1:38:14] Luke, Vida and the Emperor's coming up.
[1:38:16] But first we're talking the final battles between the Rebel
[1:38:18] Alliance and the Galactic Empire.
[1:38:21] That sounds great. Sounds intense.
[1:38:24] So the. Empire have constructed a new
[1:38:26] death store, bigger and badder than the first, and the rebel
[1:38:29] fleet led by Admiral Akbar and Lando Calrissian head off to
[1:38:32] destroy it. Before they can attack the war,
[1:38:34] they need the rebels on Endor, led by Han and Leah to take down
[1:38:37] the shield generator, kicking off left and right.
[1:38:40] It is. That was the final.
[1:38:42] Battle Matt. I think it's great.
[1:38:45] I think it's. Really sharply doing all the
[1:38:46] intercutting between the different bits.
[1:38:49] What's going on on Endo, what's going on in the skies above
[1:38:52] Endo. Really well done.
[1:38:53] And I do get a lot out of the Endoor battle.
[1:38:55] I think for assault, actually killing one of the Ewoks is the
[1:38:58] single ballsiest thing the film does.
[1:39:00] Like, if you're a little kid, that's devastating.
[1:39:03] Should have killed more of them, quite honestly.
[1:39:06] Wow. Genocide.
[1:39:08] You want genocide? Genocide in Ewos or should?
[1:39:11] Have been involved. We've mentioned Chewy.
[1:39:15] Doing the tours on call, That's dreadful.
[1:39:17] That should not be in there. But everything else is just so
[1:39:20] good it's well pierced. Mention how good the effects are
[1:39:23] here. I love the POV shot you get from
[1:39:25] inside the ATSTS as it's bearing down on everyone.
[1:39:29] And I do like, and it kind of goes back.
[1:39:31] What was he was saying? Like they walks get a lot of
[1:39:34] shit. But I do like once they get
[1:39:35] involved, there's like proper tactical thinking going on.
[1:39:38] You know, they've got traps prepared.
[1:39:40] They're actually quite smart. And you know, that kind of
[1:39:43] hinge, double hammer kind of thing that comes in and smashes
[1:39:46] the ADST. That's fantastic.
[1:39:49] And yeah, you read a lot of criticism or it's a big crap
[1:39:53] that it's the walks around the Empire arson.
[1:39:56] I get that, you know, the empire seems so unbeatable in the 1st 2
[1:39:59] that it does feel a bit of a let down.
[1:40:01] But you know, we've already mentioned it.
[1:40:03] You know, these creatures are on home turf in history shows that
[1:40:06] invasions frequently fail against less advanced opponents
[1:40:09] because with advancement comes arrogance and home turf is such
[1:40:13] an advantage. So, you know, you watch this and
[1:40:15] you you sit and you think, yeah, you know what?
[1:40:17] We're turning the channel. It probably is a big allegory of
[1:40:19] Vietnam. Yeah, it is whether.
[1:40:24] It should be. Is a different question, but it
[1:40:26] is so yeah, I really like the sequence.
[1:40:29] Yeah, well, the. Battle Endor is the part of the
[1:40:30] film that I think gets criticized above all else, not
[1:40:33] because of execution, but yeah, that idea and everything we've
[1:40:36] seen across the three films, the evil Galactic Empire and the end
[1:40:39] abroad, are their knees by a primitive race of teddy bears
[1:40:42] pelting them with sticks and stones.
[1:40:44] It is ridiculous and it's a good job it's the final film because
[1:40:46] it totally kills the Empire as any sort of powerful force to be
[1:40:49] feared. Like a couple of bits I remember
[1:40:52] as a kid, I loved the bit where Wicket hits himself in the face
[1:40:55] with the catapult. Remember that bit?
[1:40:58] And the scout walkers are really good.
[1:41:00] You mentioned there might where the two logs smash into the side
[1:41:02] of the scout Walker, like the bit with the rolling logs as
[1:41:04] well where the scout walkers like whoa when they can't see on
[1:41:07] his feet. Like Edward and I fall down.
[1:41:09] The stairs and rub it is. Massive influence, but.
[1:41:14] Generally I think. Creatively, it's over by.
[1:41:16] This point. Yeah.
[1:41:20] Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
[1:41:26] What else am I supposed to say? It gets to that point where you
[1:41:29] just say, right, I want to see Star Wars again, and it gets
[1:41:32] that space battle, and then it fucking kicks off and it's big,
[1:41:37] fast and it's exciting, but I wish it was Han Solo and Chewy
[1:41:41] doing it as con really grasp the fact that it's land or begin
[1:41:46] this good with a Millennium Falcon.
[1:41:48] And before that this happens, Han Solo turns him and say take,
[1:41:52] honestly, no, please. What else is he going to do?
[1:41:55] What else is he going to take? Yeah.
[1:41:57] Has he got another? Ship.
[1:41:58] Lined up with the. The guy next to him who?
[1:42:02] Talks like that, blah blah. What were you fucking on about?
[1:42:08] We're going down here, we're flying round and there's TIE
[1:42:12] fighters bouncing off the walls of the Death Star, and we're
[1:42:14] going inside the Death Star, which is fucking great.
[1:42:18] But imagine if it was like, right.
[1:42:19] Hansel has got to get inside the Death Star, but he sacrifices
[1:42:22] himself at the end. And like, they all go to.
[1:42:24] And like, Leah takes over Endor and then Luke's got the Veda
[1:42:27] bottle. Well, yeah, because you would
[1:42:28] have looked. Doing his thing, Leah doing her
[1:42:30] thing in hand, doing his brilliant and I think.
[1:42:33] That would have been really, really good.
[1:42:34] And you've got, I don't know, you know, this is just like the
[1:42:37] genocide of the Ewoks. What's it?
[1:42:39] Schindler's Ewoks, you know. It's just so.
[1:42:45] Unbalanced. I just think there's so many
[1:42:47] ideas being thrown into the pot here without anyone going
[1:42:49] actually. What is the consistent theme?
[1:42:52] What are we actually trying to say?
[1:42:54] What's the way forward here? Like literally, we've got to go
[1:42:57] here, here, here. But it does work.
[1:42:59] And I think the space battle is probably one of the best of the
[1:43:02] trilogy, the original trilogy, definitely, because it is.
[1:43:06] You've got the Meet Your battle in Empire where it's kind of
[1:43:08] there. You've got the one in in New
[1:43:11] Hall where they're trying it out for the first time and it just
[1:43:13] happens to work. This one, they know exactly what
[1:43:16] they're doing. And it goes hell for leather.
[1:43:19] And it really, really works for me.
[1:43:21] The space battle could have been absolutely epic if it had been
[1:43:24] Han and Chewie in that Millennium file and finally
[1:43:27] doing what they needed to do and finishing it off.
[1:43:30] And that's a trilogy, Yeah. Definitely.
[1:43:33] I mean, this is the opposite of the battle on end on some ways.
[1:43:36] In the space battle, the ideas uninspired, a bigger Death Star,
[1:43:39] but the execution I think is excellent.
[1:43:41] Yeah, it's one of the great space battles ever for me.
[1:43:44] The original Star Wars obviously is up there, and I think Rogue
[1:43:46] One has a really good space battle as well.
[1:43:48] Yeah. Yeah, Rogue One's.
[1:43:49] Really, really good. And I'd like the fact that
[1:43:50] they've actually thought about it and made the Death Stars
[1:43:53] weakness somewhere that they don't think anyone can get to.
[1:43:56] Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
[1:43:56] Yeah. Han Solo to find that.
[1:43:58] You don't need Lando to find it. His wise Lando on fucking Cloud
[1:44:01] City giving it 6 now, drinking champagne and all of a.
[1:44:05] Sudden he's the best. Pilot in the Galaxy So
[1:44:07] ridiculous, I mean. Lando's in there, Akbar's in
[1:44:10] there, Neon nums in there. copilot and the Falcon.
[1:44:13] Yeah, just laughing at everything.
[1:44:17] Not bothered. The flying round corners.
[1:44:19] Shit's exploding. And he's like, who was this guy?
[1:44:22] Yeah, awful. Off his lips.
[1:44:28] It's like Mick Jagger just on. Coke.
[1:44:30] It's like Mick Jagger and Chuck Berry trying to blow up the
[1:44:32] Death Star. On heroin.
[1:44:41] You just made love it again. Yeah, there you go.
[1:44:45] But the action is great. The climax from the Falcons
[1:44:47] flying to the Death Star being chased by TIE fighters.
[1:44:49] That looks brilliant today. Yeah, easily.
[1:44:51] Fantastic work from my LM. Again, I think this film is
[1:44:54] usually its best when it's being carried by ILM.
[1:44:56] Yeah. And obviously one of the most.
[1:44:59] Famous, probably even. The most famous line in the film
[1:45:01] comes from Admiral Ackbar here. When the rebels find out they've
[1:45:04] been ambushed. It's a trap.
[1:45:06] It was originally. It's a trick like that.
[1:45:09] I've never heard that before. Look, I could have done it.
[1:45:14] It was originally. It's a.
[1:45:18] Trick in the script but then it got changed in post.
[1:45:22] Yeah, it's a Trek is rubbish, like he's Paul Daniels or
[1:45:26] something but that. Does as much more we had
[1:45:29] looking. Than Akbar.
[1:45:30] But when they were deciding what Akbar should look like, Lucas
[1:45:33] actually let mark one choose. So we picked a design by a
[1:45:36] concept artist called Nylo. Rd. is a Chimero which is the
[1:45:39] one that was safe. And do you know what species
[1:45:42] Akbar is? You know.
[1:45:44] I did about. 20 years ago. He's a Mon.
[1:45:49] Calamari. Mon Calamari, Yeah.
[1:45:51] Calamari. That's subtle.
[1:45:52] Isn't it? Yeah, really.
[1:45:53] So what? They call him Captain Fish.
[1:45:57] Captain Haddock. Big.
[1:45:59] Fried squid this. Haddock would have been
[1:46:01] brilliant. Fish fingers.
[1:46:04] It's a grill. I mean, the briefing to the
[1:46:08] death * attack is delivered by Mon Mothma.
[1:46:11] She's in Rogue One, right? Yeah.
[1:46:13] Yes, yeah. It's.
[1:46:15] Replicated again, and there are a few women rebel pilots that
[1:46:18] you can see in there as well. We don't see much of them in the
[1:46:20] film, but scenes were shot with them.
[1:46:22] There's a French actress called Vivian Chandler who had over a
[1:46:26] page of dialogue in the script. I mean, if Lucas had written
[1:46:31] that, I want to fucking see it. It was.
[1:46:35] Filmed, but she was cut. Out completely.
[1:46:37] I don't know if it was Kasdan, I don't know if it was Lucas, but
[1:46:39] if Lucas had written a French female pilot for a page end of
[1:46:46] Return of the Jedi. I want to see that before I exit
[1:46:50] this fucking planet. Please, George, if you're
[1:46:53] listening, just e-mail it over. I'm not going to share it.
[1:46:55] I want to know what the fuck you said.
[1:46:57] That's going to be incredible. Well, you can see the.
[1:46:59] Footage of the filmed online. Oh, really?
[1:47:02] Yeah, you can say. Oh fuck.
[1:47:03] Well, it doesn't matter. And die tomorrow.
[1:47:08] So he's a shame. It was cut out.
[1:47:09] There was speculation Lewis cut it out in case audiences weren't
[1:47:12] comfortable about women being killed in battle or
[1:47:15] uncomfortable with his. Dialogue.
[1:47:16] Well, yeah, So pilots. No chance.
[1:47:18] Sex slaves though, yeah, not a problem.
[1:47:20] Not. An issue wow as we approach the.
[1:47:23] End of the film on the trilogy. A big part of our story is
[1:47:26] wrapped up with a destruction in the Death Star.
[1:47:28] Only one plot thread left. The story of the Skywalkers.
[1:47:35] While Hanley, Orlando. And the rest are off saving the
[1:47:37] Galaxy. Luke Skywalker is having a
[1:47:39] family emergency, giving himself 4P, defeats Veda, turns him back
[1:47:43] to the light side, and Veda then kills the Emperor.
[1:47:47] The trilogy comes down to one final lightsaber jewel.
[1:47:50] How would it go, Matt? I think that goes really pretty
[1:47:53] well. And I think what really helps me
[1:47:55] is Mcdermott's performance because he's just great as the
[1:47:59] Emperor. Like you can tell this is his
[1:48:01] first Star Wars film because he's got a level of enthusiasm
[1:48:04] that no one else really has. Everyone else is like Bainer,
[1:48:07] you've done this third time around.
[1:48:09] He's having an absolute ball. It's all nude room.
[1:48:12] He can chew the scenery as much as he wants and he can get away
[1:48:15] with the best performance in the film alongside Fisher.
[1:48:17] And I think you need that because one thing about Return
[1:48:20] is Vader is quite muted as the villain.
[1:48:24] And like, on one hand, that's fine because we saw at the end
[1:48:26] of Empire that he didn't want to destroy Luke.
[1:48:28] He didn't want to turn him and he wanted to build that bond.
[1:48:31] And that's a good character off that this film follows through
[1:48:33] one, but it does mean Vader doesn't have anywhere near the
[1:48:36] level of threat that he did in the 1st 2 see and need something
[1:48:39] to replace that. And you get that with McDermott.
[1:48:41] You've got a villain. He's a great tactical thinker.
[1:48:44] So he's he's laid out the strap for the Rebels that they've gone
[1:48:46] straight and do. And even though he's a wizened
[1:48:49] old man, he can still carry a physical threat with the powers
[1:48:51] that he has. And I think he's had his
[1:48:53] absolute best when he's playing Luke off against Veda, playing
[1:48:55] the mind games with the two of them, trying to tempt Luke and
[1:48:58] picking up the lightsaber very creepily played really grateful
[1:49:01] and behaviour thought. And yeah, it's really what the
[1:49:04] film needs because of how Veda is in this film by necessity.
[1:49:07] To be fair, I don't really buy in the idea if I should feel
[1:49:11] that's hard for Veda considering what he's done.
[1:49:13] But the Emperor more than makes up for anything that's lacking
[1:49:16] because of that. Yeah, of every part of returning
[1:49:19] the Jedi, and there is plenty that I like.
[1:49:22] This in the Emperor throne room is the best bit for me.
[1:49:25] Right? It's because all the work has
[1:49:26] already been done. It's wrapping up looks journey
[1:49:28] from the previous two films, and they do it well.
[1:49:30] The narrative is really good. Look at first refuses to fight
[1:49:33] Veda and the thing that makes him fight is when Veena
[1:49:35] mentioned Leah and Luke goes absolutely mental the massive up
[1:49:39] it and then Luke almost turns the dark side but stops himself
[1:49:42] and that's it. His arc is complete and Ian
[1:49:45] McDermott is the emperor. He is excellent.
[1:49:47] Although when Luke says I'm a Jedi you field your Highness and
[1:49:50] the embryo goes so be it Jedi that's brilliant and Vegas
[1:49:55] redemptions in there. It's not easy to pull off a
[1:49:57] total 180 character arc, but I buy it 100% when he's looking
[1:50:01] between Luke and the embryo and the inner conflict there, it's
[1:50:04] that's fantastic that yeah, Lucas, it is best to mess it up
[1:50:07] with the special edition by having Veda go no makes it much
[1:50:11] worse. He does every specialist for.
[1:50:14] These when he's like when when hands looking at Lando and it's
[1:50:16] solid and say I can see much better now yeah why he says.
[1:50:21] Trust me in. The original just leave it that
[1:50:23] the only nitpick. Here for me when Veda dies his
[1:50:26] final words or tell your sister you were right.
[1:50:29] I think it would have been better if he'd asked what's my
[1:50:31] daughters name? Luke says Leah and then Vedas
[1:50:33] last words or tell Leah you were right.
[1:50:35] That wasn't better, I think. Yeah, but the character work
[1:50:37] here looks full transition at Jedi Knight and videos
[1:50:40] redemption at the same time. I mean, if blockbusters go,
[1:50:42] that's about as good as it gets from character point of view.
[1:50:45] Yeah, I do. I do.
[1:50:45] Really. Like the end of the film, it
[1:50:47] saves it doesn't it saves the. Film.
[1:50:49] Yeah, it does. Because.
[1:50:49] It starts ridiculous. If it ended ridiculous.
[1:50:53] You know, if it ended, it's all like, you'd be like, what the
[1:50:55] fuck? But it does.
[1:50:58] Find its ground and even like a green and red lightsaber going
[1:51:02] at it the same as it was an empire.
[1:51:04] I think it's see it's it's totally different.
[1:51:05] Looks a lot more confident in his his ability.
[1:51:09] But it's this father son relationship that I think it
[1:51:12] addresses really well. And I think Hamill does that
[1:51:15] really, really well. It's his performance, I think,
[1:51:18] where that convinces us as an audience as well as it convinces
[1:51:21] Veda as a character to be like. Did I follow up a bit here?
[1:51:25] The thing that OK just dragging Darth Vader through the Death
[1:51:28] Star? Nobody does anything,
[1:51:30] Stormtroopers do anything, No one gives a fuck you say?
[1:51:33] Really dragging into examples. Weird son as well.
[1:51:36] He's like, take me. Mask off, he said.
[1:51:37] But you'll die and takes it off. And he looks like Billy Joel
[1:51:40] playing a harmonica. She'll play little June.
[1:51:45] Yeah, imagine. That Uptown girl and to give
[1:51:48] Mark 1 some. Credit.
[1:51:49] I mean the cross cutting between the three plot threads.
[1:51:53] It works, yeah. And it.
[1:51:54] Does that in front of Minnesota. He tries to do it again.
[1:51:57] Yeah, he tries to go from 1:00 to the next to the gun, guns and
[1:52:00] the this and the that and this one.
[1:52:01] He keeps everything at the channel, like I've said before,
[1:52:03] and it really, really works. Yeah, I'm not sure the name
[1:52:05] from. Christopher Nolan, loads of his
[1:52:07] films and with three plot threads cutting between them at
[1:52:09] the same time. Yeah, that's a massive
[1:52:11] statement. John, you're talking shit then.
[1:52:19] Kingsley, David. Touchet and Lindsay Anderson
[1:52:22] were all considered by Lucas to play the embryo, and Alan Webb
[1:52:26] was the first person cast we had to pull out due to ill health.
[1:52:30] Ian McDermott was then cast to just be physical performance of
[1:52:34] the Emperor, much like Prowse and the idea being he'd be
[1:52:37] dubbed over. Apparently, though, Spielberg
[1:52:39] heard Mcdermott's voice. They asked the M and he's like,
[1:52:42] you've got to go with him. He's absolutely perfect and his
[1:52:44] voice is brilliant. His performance, to be fair, is
[1:52:48] absolutely brilliant. Yeah.
[1:52:50] Oh, he is excellent. But always getting out of a from
[1:52:52] bad directors. Lucas, isn't he?
[1:52:53] Of course he is. Surprised to Power and Coble?
[1:52:57] I weren't in there somewhere. Yeah, Apparently McDermott used
[1:53:00] no Japanese acting technique used to give your voice a good
[1:53:03] rule sound and that's where the embrace voice came from.
[1:53:05] And you does sound great. Yeah.
[1:53:07] And although that when? David Prowls read the script he
[1:53:11] was really excited because he thought finally going to get me
[1:53:13] fierce on screen when Luke takes hit his helmet off.
[1:53:17] But Lucas I think pretty quickly cut that down said now 1 and
[1:53:20] older actor and said so originally thought he was going
[1:53:23] to get like a really established name for you know a bit of Oh my
[1:53:25] gosh, that person like like long to Olivier or John Giel good
[1:53:29] they were who he was thinking of.
[1:53:30] But eventually he went for Sebastian Shaw who was he's more
[1:53:33] famous for being a veteran of the RSA instead.
[1:53:36] Yeah, you know it should. Have been Oliver Reed that.
[1:53:40] Would have been amazing, really bombastic.
[1:53:45] Fucking great. I'd love that.
[1:53:48] But always the bride to be, never the bride for prows bless
[1:53:51] him. It's going to be my voice, no?
[1:53:53] It's not. It's going to be my face.
[1:53:54] No, it's not. And Ian McDermott.
[1:53:58] Sebastian Shawn, you which is there before Star Wars.
[1:54:00] So when Shore turned up on the set, McDonald asked him what he
[1:54:03] was doing there, and Shaw said, I don't know, dear boy.
[1:54:06] I think it's something to do with science fiction.
[1:54:09] You're the new voice. We'll get a happy ending, but it
[1:54:12] was going to be very, very different.
[1:54:14] And Lawrence Karzdan said he pitched Lucas an idea where Luke
[1:54:17] takes Vera's mask off and Vera dies.
[1:54:21] Luke puts the mask on right. And in Vera's voice says Now I
[1:54:26] am Veda. That's.
[1:54:28] Awful. That's a God awful and.
[1:54:31] According to Gary Kurtz, the original treatment ended with
[1:54:33] Luke going off alone and wandering into the seclusion of
[1:54:36] the Tatooine desert that just mumbled into himself.
[1:54:39] I am just with a mask on walking into the desert.
[1:54:42] I am Veda, alone in the desert. Did you write that ending Westy?
[1:54:46] No, not like that. I would have had him.
[1:54:49] With a black cloak on wherever and white, but with a black
[1:54:52] cloak just looking at the two Suns.
[1:54:53] And then it fades from there. Nice.
[1:54:55] And he's got the two lightsabers, He's got his dad's,
[1:54:57] and he's got his. And he drops them in the sand
[1:54:59] and he looks at the two sons. And then it just fades from
[1:55:01] there. Beautiful.
[1:55:03] Well, the ending we do get. We see Anakin, Yoda and Obi Wan
[1:55:06] together at last. Awful.
[1:55:08] The old fellas play When the Stone Roses got back again,
[1:55:14] other Rolling Stones now Yoda with the Telecaster.
[1:55:22] Amazing did the high 8. String off.
[1:55:24] He'd be fine in the two. 1004 special edition though Lucas
[1:55:28] composted Hayden Christensen in there instead of Sebastian Shaw
[1:55:31] and tell you what, Obi Wan has been screwed right over there.
[1:55:34] I'd be like, hang on, how come he gets to be young and I'm
[1:55:36] still ancient? Yeah, yeah.
[1:55:39] But think about although. Hayden Christian said he didn't
[1:55:41] know what Lucas was up to. So like when he asked him to do
[1:55:45] these reshoots and said if he had known, he would have played
[1:55:47] it totally differently, which I don't care how how?
[1:55:50] Different you've got no. Dialogue Look for your left and
[1:55:54] then look forward and smile. That's pretty much all he does,
[1:55:57] and we're at the end of. Returning to the Jedi, the
[1:55:59] Empire's defeated, the Emperor's gone, Veda's redeemed, and the
[1:56:02] gang are all alive and happy, including three PO,
[1:56:06] unfortunately. But apart from that, a
[1:56:08] satisfying resolution. Yeah, it is what?
[1:56:11] It needed to be. Reception and awards,
[1:56:19] unsurprisingly returning the. Jedi was a smash hit.
[1:56:22] On a budget of $32 million, it grossed $418 million, the
[1:56:26] biggest film of the year. It was the first film ever to
[1:56:29] gross more than $20 million in its opening weekend.
[1:56:33] And from critics, there were a range of responses.
[1:56:36] Big Rog. What do they give it, do you
[1:56:38] think? Roger Ebert, 3/2.
[1:56:40] And a half. You gave it the full whack.
[1:56:42] Four stars out of four. Wow, he said.
[1:56:45] Complete entertainment, a feast for the eyes and a delight for
[1:56:48] the fancy. Inconsistent.
[1:56:51] He but. He's.
[1:56:52] Inconsistent. It's a little amazing how.
[1:56:54] Lucas needs associates keep topping themselves.
[1:56:58] Yeah, and then Disney came along and made me want to top myself.
[1:57:03] I was going to say something along.
[1:57:04] Those lines and I thought maybe John's got a better thing.
[1:57:06] Yeah, you definitely did, Big Rogers Powell.
[1:57:10] Gene Siskel also gave the film four stars over the four, and he
[1:57:13] said, well, turning the Jedi is a childlike delight.
[1:57:17] It's the best video game around your words, Matt.
[1:57:19] And for the professional movie goers, it's particularly
[1:57:22] enjoyable to watch every facet of filmmaking at its best.
[1:57:25] Did he say professional? Movie goers?
[1:57:27] What's that? Critics, I suppose.
[1:57:29] If any of you ever. Call this a professional movie
[1:57:32] goers. I'll punch you in the fucking
[1:57:34] face. That's outrageous.
[1:57:36] So it was a. Huge living until all Pauline
[1:57:38] got involved, obviously. And Pauline, Kael said some of
[1:57:42] the trick effects might seem miraculous if the imagery had
[1:57:45] any luster, but Returning the Jedi is an impersonal and rather
[1:57:48] junky piece of movie making. I can see that.
[1:57:51] I mean I. Can see from both points of
[1:57:52] view, but you know a certain point of view a.
[1:57:54] Certain point of view of. Course get away with anything
[1:57:57] with that city and. Rotten Tomorrow, Returning the
[1:57:59] Jedi has 83% from critics and a huge 94% from audiences and an
[1:58:05] IMDBA whopper of an 8.3 out of 10.
[1:58:08] The original Star Wars trilogy is one of only two trilogies
[1:58:11] where all three films feature in the IMDb Top 100 films ever,
[1:58:15] right? Do you know what the other one
[1:58:16] is? Godfather I'll.
[1:58:17] Give you a clue. It's not one.
[1:58:18] Of the other Star Wars trilogies or leprechaun about the future.
[1:58:22] No. If we're talking original
[1:58:25] trilogies, the Toy Story Trilogy, Nope it.
[1:58:28] Is Lord of the Rings. Of course it is man for.
[1:58:33] Yeah. Of the Oscars, Returning the
[1:58:35] Jedi was nominated for best art direction, Best original Score,
[1:58:38] best sound effects, Editing, best sound and ILM won a special
[1:58:41] achievement award. Can't argue with much of that, I
[1:58:43] don't think. I don't know what was the
[1:58:45] special achievement. Create the film.
[1:58:49] Making it. Watchable.
[1:58:50] So not the acclaim or? Reputation.
[1:58:52] If it's two predecessors for returning the Jedi, maybe.
[1:58:54] But as an enormous hit, pushing some effects boundaries and
[1:58:58] rounding off probably the most significant trilogy ever made
[1:59:00] successfully, I think it's legacy sealed, yeah.
[1:59:04] I agree. I agree, sequels and influence.
[1:59:12] Since Return of the Jedi, they have been many of the Star Wars
[1:59:15] films we haven't got all day, though.
[1:59:17] We're going to keep it to the direct sequels.
[1:59:19] The Return of the Jedi. Technically you could see that's
[1:59:21] Caravan of Courage, but we're talking about The Force Awakens
[1:59:25] where we see the return of Leon Han and the Last Jedi.
[1:59:29] The return of Luke Skywalker. Yeah.
[1:59:31] So how was The Force Awakens? Firstly, as a follow up to Jedi
[1:59:34] I Really. Really, really enjoyed it when I
[1:59:37] went to see it at the cinema because it was like one of them
[1:59:40] things where you just kind of like see an old friend again.
[1:59:43] And then I watched it again after returning to the Jedi and
[1:59:46] realized that it's quite an inferior film to Return of the
[1:59:49] Jedi. For me, it felt like Indiana
[1:59:52] Jones, you know, for whatever that is.
[1:59:55] Can you give me the crystal? Skull.
[1:59:57] It's really empty and it. Was really hollow, and I think
[2:00:00] everything that's come since has been really hollow and has been
[2:00:04] really empty. And I've loved Star Wars my
[2:00:06] whole life. Force Awakens for me is an
[2:00:09] incredible disappointment. For all criticized George Lucas,
[2:00:12] I think he's done the right thing by letting it go.
[2:00:16] And we all should, because Star Wars needs to be something else,
[2:00:20] and it needs a younger, vibrant audience to come in and making
[2:00:23] something completely different. And everything that's come after
[2:00:26] Return of the Jedi, for me has been a massive disappointment.
[2:00:30] Yeah. I said one.
[2:00:31] Of the issues of the writing and returning the Jedi, it's not as
[2:00:33] inspired as the previous two films, but it's like bloody
[2:00:36] Chaucer compared to the Force Awakens.
[2:00:38] Just resets everything back to how it was.
[2:00:41] New rebel alliance, new empire, new Jedi Hope on a desert
[2:00:44] planet. Han and Chewie are pirates
[2:00:45] again, new droids, new bad guy in a black suit.
[2:00:48] Not only is that objectively terrible writing, but after
[2:00:52] following them through three films we find out our heroes
[2:00:55] lives have been like shit for the last 30 years.
[2:00:58] Jedi Academy. The disaster had only split up
[2:01:00] when there somebody becomes an evil dictator.
[2:01:02] It just kind of ruins the end of Return of the Jedi.
[2:01:05] So what was the point? I don't think it honors us as
[2:01:07] an. Audience of the original trilogy
[2:01:09] and how excited that made us as kids of like there's nothing
[2:01:12] like this. Well, I'm going to.
[2:01:14] Make some people's heads explode and angry.
[2:01:16] But I really enjoy The Last Jedi.
[2:01:19] Wow what was that? Genuinely I was, I was very
[2:01:22] confused on 1st watch, but repeat views, it's really grown
[2:01:25] on me. It's not perfect I think you
[2:01:27] know the stuff I don't like. There's too many jokes that
[2:01:29] didn't land and the candle bite sequence felt like something I
[2:01:32] fell out of the prequels. But other than that I really
[2:01:34] enjoyed it. What I liked about it was it
[2:01:37] threw like a lot of curve balls in terms of the narrative.
[2:01:39] Saw Luke's returning that squid, he's going to kick ass and lead
[2:01:43] everyone to victory, but no, he's riddled with doubt and self
[2:01:45] loathing. I think that was an interesting
[2:01:47] way to sort off his character. Snork was built up as the new
[2:01:50] big bat, but he gets taken out halfway through.
[2:01:52] That's really unexpected. I like that.
[2:01:55] And best of all, despite Abrams well and truly mucking it up in
[2:01:58] the next one, Reyes parentage, Retrofield, she comes from
[2:02:01] nowhere. She's not important.
[2:02:03] I thought that was a really interesting way to take her
[2:02:05] character. And for me, the best line in the
[2:02:07] film came from the order way he says we are what we grow beyond
[2:02:11] because that was the theme, You know, don't mythologize anyone
[2:02:13] because it can only lead to disappointment.
[2:02:16] And that theme drives so many character motivations in that
[2:02:18] film. You know, Luke struggles to live
[2:02:20] with the ideal of who he thinks he should be.
[2:02:23] Rear struggles that Kylo Ren struggles with who he thinks his
[2:02:26] father is and who he thinks his grandfather should be.
[2:02:29] And so they have that theme intertwined with the, you know,
[2:02:32] with how it affects the different characters who then
[2:02:35] influence each other. I thought that was really
[2:02:36] fascinating stuff and even if you don't like you know where it
[2:02:39] goes with the characters, even if you don't like the story,
[2:02:41] it's a totally get even from just a filmmaking craft point of
[2:02:45] view of also really well made blockbuster.
[2:02:46] Like we've talked about the end of cutting in in this one, but
[2:02:49] at the end when it's cutting between the 1st Order gun and
[2:02:52] all the fleet down with Finn and Rose being captured, facing
[2:02:55] execution in the fight in the Thorn room with Ray and Kylo, I
[2:02:59] thought that was really incredibly well done.
[2:03:00] So yeah, if I was easily the best of the new ones, the film I
[2:03:03] really enjoyed but suffice. I am never ever going to read
[2:03:07] the comments for this episode because I know how people react
[2:03:10] to it. Life's too short.
[2:03:12] Yeah, all the awesome. Good things about Last Jedi, I
[2:03:14] think. I think it genuinely explores
[2:03:16] themes, their own capitalism, failure, history, mythology.
[2:03:19] You mentioned there Matt, The relationship between Ray and
[2:03:21] Kylo Ren I think is really well written.
[2:03:23] The best was writing since Empire.
[2:03:26] The main problem with it is the tone, mainly the diabolical use
[2:03:30] of comedy. Not only is there far too much
[2:03:32] of it, it's like Airplane, it's a joke every minute.
[2:03:35] But unlike Airplane, none of it is funny.
[2:03:38] Absolutely none of it. Poor Dameron cracking a your mum
[2:03:41] joke. The hoax at the start that is
[2:03:43] embarrassing and Luke returns and he's rubbish.
[2:03:46] The main problem was that give him an arc.
[2:03:48] Luke Skywalker doesn't need a character arc.
[2:03:50] He's already had one, a really good and famous one that we've
[2:03:52] just been talking about for two hours.
[2:03:54] He should have just been there as this great Jedi master.
[2:03:56] For me, I know some people like The Last Jedi, like you, Matt.
[2:03:59] I definitely do not. That's fair.
[2:04:01] I mean, it is. It's.
[2:04:02] Divisive to say the least, isn't it?
[2:04:04] It's divisive. That's fine, but back to
[2:04:07] returning the Jedi. Then how long where do we see it
[2:04:09] influence? Since 1983, it does have its
[2:04:12] place. And it it has influence stuff
[2:04:14] that I do enjoy from the Star Wars universe.
[2:04:16] And I'm not going to completely sack off Star Wars completely,
[2:04:19] but I kind of, I just kind of buy into it as much as I used
[2:04:22] to. I think The Mandalorian was
[2:04:23] incredible. And I think it really influenced
[2:04:26] that. I think the style and the look
[2:04:28] of it, I think it brought it back down and give it real
[2:04:31] gravitas. But I think the likes of the
[2:04:33] bigger blockbusters that we saw like the late 90s in the early
[2:04:37] 2000, I mean, like Independence Day, when you see that space
[2:04:40] battle in Independence Day. Oh yeah, it's Star Wars.
[2:04:42] Yeah. But you you could say.
[2:04:43] Star Wars, then you could watch and you hope.
[2:04:46] And it's not that it's not Empire, it is Return of the
[2:04:48] Jedi. It is.
[2:04:49] Yeah. They've even got a line in
[2:04:50] there. Where they say there's too many
[2:04:51] of them. Yeah, exactly.
[2:04:52] But it does. Have a very light tone and you
[2:04:54] lower that tone slightly and you, you know, you do get the
[2:04:57] likes of Independence Day. You do get the likes of any
[2:05:00] Roland Emerick films since then. And it's great.
[2:05:02] It's obviously a massive influence on Platoon.
[2:05:07] Full Metal Jacket and any. Vietnam film that came out since
[2:05:12] 83, I think. Influence.
[2:05:15] It's probably from the practical point of view.
[2:05:17] I think the special effects is how that would drive every
[2:05:20] science fiction blockbuster onwards.
[2:05:22] In terms of narrative. I don't think it's had much
[2:05:25] influence outside of Star Wars, to be honest.
[2:05:27] I think you can see plenty of directors today making some kind
[2:05:30] of blockbuster. We'll say, oh, I was really
[2:05:32] influenced by Star Wars. This is going to be my version
[2:05:35] of Star Wars, the source for new Generation.
[2:05:37] If you go to the sequel or say, oh, this one is going to be much
[2:05:40] more like Empire Strikes Back, that's the tone we're going for.
[2:05:44] I don't think I've ever seen a director say this one's going to
[2:05:46] be like Return of the Jedi. I just don't think like any
[2:05:50] director's mind goes there. So Star Wars in general, the
[2:05:54] influence, incredible. This one, not in terms of the
[2:05:56] narrative of the story, just the effects.
[2:05:58] I think so. To close this section, we have
[2:06:01] our 3rd and final Patreon question.
[2:06:04] It's from Ronan Colopy. Hi, Ronan.
[2:06:07] Hello, man. Hello, Ronan.
[2:06:09] So Ronan is. Asked if we can forget if only
[2:06:12] the Star Wars movies made after Returning the Jedi, Was that
[2:06:15] initial Ronan the greatest movie trilogy ever made?
[2:06:18] If not, what tops it? Actually, the future wouldn't
[2:06:21] look close for me, but don't think Star Wars can be topped.
[2:06:24] What do you think about I can't? Put Star Wars up there because
[2:06:29] this one isn't near enough. The standards of the 1st 2.
[2:06:32] I think trilogy's as originally conceived.
[2:06:35] Indie trilogy beats us all day long.
[2:06:38] But also throwing the dollars Trilogy.
[2:06:41] Probably the first toy. Sorry trilogy.
[2:06:43] Yeah, but my pick for absolute best would be would have to be
[2:06:46] The Mighty Ducks. You just cannot beat that one.
[2:06:50] It's just. Unreal.
[2:06:51] Level of quality maintained, no Favorite trilogy?
[2:06:54] Best one for me. Lord of the Rings.
[2:06:56] I think just because Jackson made them all at the same time,
[2:06:58] so there's no dip in the quality across them, Yeah.
[2:07:02] Yeah. For me, I mean there's a 12
[2:07:04] combo Star Wars and Empire. I mean bloody hell.
[2:07:07] Very possibly the most influential blockbuster made in
[2:07:09] Star Wars and then probably the most influential sequel in
[2:07:12] Empire. Return the Jedi is a clear drop
[2:07:15] off, but looking at other great trilogies I'd still put it above
[2:07:18] the future 3. I put it above The Godfather
[2:07:20] part three. I prefer The Dark Knight Rises
[2:07:23] and I prefer to Return to the King as well.
[2:07:25] Or Alien 3 obviously. Yeah not as good as the Last
[2:07:28] Crusade, but I'd say Empire as a class above Temple of Doom.
[2:07:32] Actually the only trilogy where I'd say every film I think is
[2:07:34] brilliant. It's probably Toy Story because
[2:07:36] every other trilogy has one weekend.
[2:07:38] The Star Wars trilogy is without doubt the most influential
[2:07:40] trilogy ever made. I think that's beyond question.
[2:07:43] And yeah, definitely not perfect as a trilogy, but I wouldn't
[2:07:46] disagree with Rome necessarily. That's the best trilogy ever.
[2:07:49] Because there's no perfect trilogy for me, you see, if
[2:07:52] there wasn't a John. Wick 4, I'd be like John Wick
[2:07:57] 1-2 and three of progressively incredible as films.
[2:08:00] They just get better as they go. Lord of the Rings, obviously,
[2:08:02] Toy Story, obviously I love New Orleans Batman trilogy over
[2:08:06] this, to be fair, and Evil Dead as well.
[2:08:09] I really love that as a trilogy. But yeah, for me, I really hold
[2:08:12] this up and say it's it's it's got to be up there because I've
[2:08:15] got them here and I don't have any of the trilogy on VHS.
[2:08:19] As I'm going to say, the first style was trilogy is my favorite
[2:08:21] trilogy. Lovely.
[2:08:24] Well. Whether you think Returning the
[2:08:25] Jedi is a good conclusion to the original trilogy or not, it's
[2:08:28] legacy and influence is there in the Hollywood history books.
[2:08:31] I think absolutely, yeah. All the right movies ranking so
[2:08:40] we're at the end I'm. Returning the Jedi Tatooine to
[2:08:43] Endor and back again. All that's left now was to
[2:08:46] decide where the film will sit in the You're the Right Movies
[2:08:48] leaderboard. OK, so.
[2:08:50] Westie your. Choice.
[2:08:51] So how about you start us off? OK.
[2:08:53] Score for returning the Jedi place.
[2:08:55] Yeah, I mean, I thought it was. Going to be a tough one, but
[2:08:57] haven't watched it again and haven't talked about talked
[2:09:00] about with you guys. I really have like more of a
[2:09:03] fondness for it now and I'll give it, I'll give it the
[2:09:05] breaks. Let's be honest.
[2:09:07] It's people trying to make the third film in a billion dollar
[2:09:10] franchise and try and do the best that they can with it.
[2:09:13] And I don't really think the fuck it up.
[2:09:15] It is still a really entertaining, great sci-fi film
[2:09:18] and I love some shit, as you know.
[2:09:22] And. I'll sit and happily watch this
[2:09:25] again and I'll watch it through and I've thoroughly enjoyed it
[2:09:28] and I think that's all a film can be.
[2:09:30] And it's a film that I'll always give an arm around and I'll give
[2:09:34] a cuddle to. And for six year old me, I've
[2:09:37] made a visit back to that little kid and go, you know what
[2:09:39] sunshine? I'm going to give it some, give
[2:09:41] it a score just for you. It's an 8 out of 10.
[2:09:44] Lovely. So yeah, big film, obviously.
[2:09:48] Been watching it most of my life, got a lot of nostalgic
[2:09:50] love for it and there are some great things about it.
[2:09:53] Jabba's great. The big old sex pervert, the
[2:09:56] speeder bikes and the scout troopers are some of the coolest
[2:09:59] things in Star Wars. Which is seeing something.
[2:10:01] The completion of the arcs of the good guy and the bad guy is
[2:10:04] as good as it gets, and as the concluding part of the Star Wars
[2:10:06] trilogy can't help but be influential.
[2:10:09] Exactly. The issues I have with it are
[2:10:11] not really things I think are bad.
[2:10:13] I mean, Chewy's Tarzan yell is terrible.
[2:10:15] But apart from that, the issues are that it was following the
[2:10:18] most almighty 1-2 combo you could ever see in Star Wars and
[2:10:21] Empire. Yeah, it's clearly not as good
[2:10:23] as either of those. It still is a good blockbuster
[2:10:25] though, I think, And for me, I'd probably give it a 7 out of 10.
[2:10:29] But within the Stalgia side of it, I'm going to bump it up and
[2:10:31] give it any 8 out of 10. Nice.
[2:10:33] OK. And Matt, your summary and
[2:10:36] score. For returning the Jedi, yeah.
[2:10:38] It's a fun film. It's.
[2:10:39] Nice to see the gang back together, but I think that's the
[2:10:42] keyword for me. Nice.
[2:10:44] There's a bit of a lack of threat or an edge to this one to
[2:10:48] kid friendly at times. Very much put together with the
[2:10:50] thought of how much cash can they make off the back do the
[2:10:54] toys and it really needs a shot in the arm of real invention
[2:10:58] from someone. You don't really get that with
[2:11:00] Marquan because of the tight leash Lucas had him on the
[2:11:04] writings very thin, quite sloppy at times in the performances,
[2:11:07] struggle to breakthrough that. I think having said that, effect
[2:11:11] in music, top notch set pieces are really good.
[2:11:15] It's kind of just middling of how I rank Star Wars films and
[2:11:19] for me it's a good film. It's not a great film though, so
[2:11:22] I'm giving it A7 we also. I start with a follow up to
[2:11:25] written review, Returning the Jedi and some comments from
[2:11:28] them. The revisionist Almanac at Rev
[2:11:31] Almanac. Not great.
[2:11:32] Sports Almanac. That's a different thing.
[2:11:36] They said. Eight seems objectively right.
[2:11:38] I land on giving it a nine for nostalgia and, at the time,
[2:11:41] wrapping up one of the best trilogies in cinema history.
[2:11:43] Pretty darn well, yeah. Hazel Motes at Hazel.
[2:11:48] Motes 28 said original version is 9 out of 10.
[2:11:52] Everything about Jabba is spectacular.
[2:11:54] The segu to dig a bar is thought provoking.
[2:11:56] Every scene involving the Emperor's tense and captivating.
[2:11:59] Greatest choreographed space fighting film history -1 point
[2:12:03] for the Ewoks. Oh wow, really?
[2:12:07] And Stephen Dunning, who was also one of our patrons, said
[2:12:09] The Empire Strikes Back as the barometer by which I judge all
[2:12:12] of the Star Wars movies. I love Returning the Jedi, but
[2:12:15] it falls just short of a 10 for me.
[2:12:18] OK. 9 I assume then for. Stephen, 95. 9.8 Don't leave a
[2:12:23] sign that Stephen. And all together our.
[2:12:26] Twitter followers rank the film as What do you think out of
[2:12:29] them? I'm going to say an 8. 8.5.
[2:12:33] It was 8. Out of 10.
[2:12:36] So like if returning. The Jedi, 31 out of 40 in total.
[2:12:40] You can check our website for the full ranking table.
[2:12:43] And that's everything we have on Returning the Jedi.
[2:12:46] Hopefully you've enjoyed it and don't feel like you've been
[2:12:48] slowly digested over 1000 years. I do.
[2:12:55] And next time. We've said this before, but next
[2:12:57] time, Luke, Wesley and Matt are definitely talking about all the
[2:13:00] President's men. Yes.
[2:13:02] Yeah. We had to do a recount because
[2:13:03] nobody could believe it actually won the vote.
[2:13:06] Turns out that it did to find. Out more about becoming a.
[2:13:09] Patreon accessing our archive born this episode and supporting
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[2:13:40] correct. Yeah.
[2:13:41] We're all off now to. Re watch a New Hope and see how
[2:13:44] much of what will be once said was bullshit.
[2:13:48] Please come back next time. For all the president's men,
[2:13:51] please do guys, I. Guess please do.
[2:13:53] Bye, you guys.

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