Latest / All The Right Movies / Return Of The Jedi (1983) | Ep. 20 - Part 1

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Return Of The Jedi (1983) | Ep. 20 - Part 1 · All The Right Movies

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All their movies. It began with the story of a
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boy, a girl, and a universe. It became an epic battle between
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the forces of good and evil. Now return to a Galaxy far
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counter of waves. The saga lives on Return of the
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Jedi. Return of the Jedi was released
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in 1983 as the highest grossing film of the year.
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The final part of the original Star Wars trilogy, and the story
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of Luke Skywalker's journey to Jedi Knight, the film has gone
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down as a blockbuster classic. My name is John and with me ATR,
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Ms. very own Emperor and Darth Vader.
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It's Matt, you rebel scum and Westie.
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So what I told you was true from a certain point of view.
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All the right movies are in the Galaxy far, far away to conclude
1:02
the trilogy. If you will not into the dark
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side then perhaps we will. Hello and welcome to All the
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Right Movies, Slimy Pieces of Worm ridden Filth and the
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podcast on classic and hit films.
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Yep, that's everything. Yep, that's us.
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This time round, we're back with Georgie.
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Boy, we've. Got to finish it off, We've got
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to finish it off. There's bound to be some big
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laughs and huge opinions as we tell the story behind the
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conclusion of the original Star Wars trilogy in Return of the
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Jedi. Yep, for this one.
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Yeah, yeah. Well, before we head to the
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Forest moon of Endor, it's Patreon time of.
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Course it is. If you like what we do on this,
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you as a Star Wars films and many many more classics on
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there. Yeah, I think you need to do it
2:27
to complete the trilogy. If we're doing this, then you
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know, it's the least you can do. Absolutely.
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Work. Backwards.
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Yeah, work backwards. Yeah, from a certain point of
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view. Bastard.
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Best way out of anything that isn't.
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It any plot holes solved by that phrase.
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So to find out more and sign off, please visit
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patreon.com/all the Right Movies.
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Please do. For now, though, it is the
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forest moon of Endor, Return of the Jedi.
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So why did you put this one up, Wesley?
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Because we needed to finish off the original trilogy.
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I think we've done Star Wars, we've done Empire.
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Well, I love doing them, especially with you guys,
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because we've all got a kind of similar outlook to it.
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And I think Return of the Jedi, for me is like the most fun of
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the original trilogy. It was my favorite when I was a
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kid. That's got great characters in
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it. You know, Jabba, the hook was
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introduced when I was a kid. What?
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What is this? The rancor, you know, Salah, you
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see the emperor. And then it was for me, it was
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like, it's a green lightsaber. It's great.
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Wow. You know, and it was a real big
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punch for me and this is a favorite of mine.
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Growing up as a kid, I kind of it, it shadowed A New Hope
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because it was just so much fun and it was just so much to it
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and it was just like eating loads and loads of sugar when I
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was like 6-7 year old. So I'm doing it.
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I'm doing it for that kid. I'm doing it for Minnie Westie.
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This is for him. Yeah, Well, that's fair.
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I mean, we've done Star Wars, we've done Empire.
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It was obviously a matter of time before we got to Jedi.
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Yeah, and like those first here, it's been around as long as I
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can remember, and when I was a kid it was my favorite Star Wars
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film as well. Actually, one of my very
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earliest memories in life is of watching Returning the Jedi.
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Yeah, I remember sitting cross legged in front of the telly
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watching it. It finished and I immediately
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pressed rewind on the VCR to watch it again from the start.
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One of the earliest memories. Amazing.
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I mean, that actually was a long time ago now.
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So I'll be talking about how I feel about Returning the Jedi
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today, and watching it in advance of this episode, I was
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struck by how absolutely batshit bonkers it is at times.
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But it's Star Wars, so therefore among the biggest films made,
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and it's always a barrel of laughs whenever we're talking
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about Star Wars. Absolutely.
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I'll be looking forward to this. Great stuff.
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And Matt returning the Jedi for you.
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Yeah, very similar. I mean, pretty simple.
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We've done the other two. Makes sense to finish the
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trilogy. We couldn't leave it, like,
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hanging around like an unwanted stepchild, not getting the
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attention, anything like that. Yeah.
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It's a film. I've always enjoyed it.
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But where I differ from you 2. It's never been my favorite of
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the trilogy. It was always the other two.
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Yeah. Yeah, it really was, even as a
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kid. So it's going to be a case for
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me. I feel like your enthusiasm
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forward will rub off on me, or I'll figure out the reasons why.
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It's never quite clicked for me in the way that the other two
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days, but. I think it's.
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Going to make a really interesting episode for that
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reason. You've always been a square
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humor. Yeah, that's it.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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Just wanting to be different. Right then, it's a Galaxy far,
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far away. First stop Tatooine as we talk
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the beginning of Return of the Jedi.
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Let's. Do it.
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Return of the Jedi picks up one year after the events of The
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Empire Strikes Back. The opening act takes place
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entirely at Jabba the Hutt Palace, and we're talking 2
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pretty outrageous sequences. The Pit of Cocoon segment is on
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our radars, but we're going to start before that, aren't we?
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So after a classic opening crawl, we find ourselves back on
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Tatooine. Han Solo, frozen in carbonite,
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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.
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Yeah, or anywhere for that matter.
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Sorry, I said it like that. I was like, yeah, shit.
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What a Freudian slip. Matt, if I told you half the
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things I've heard about Jabba the Hutt, you'd probably short
6:24
circuit. I'm sure I would.
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How good is it as an opener? It's a confusing opener because
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I've seen this film loads of times and I still cannot figure
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out what the hell the plan is here.
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Lando's somehow already there, done what he's doing.
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Then the droids turned up to be handed over by Luke's.
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They're imprisoned. Then Leah turns up in disguise,
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tried to rescue San, gets rumbled so she's captured.
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Chewie's captured. Then Luke turns up and he's
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captured. It's all on purpose, isn't it?
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It's all on purpose. Well, I mean, it's all just to
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me like, well, with a better look, fingers crossed one of us
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will think of something and get the other ones out of there.
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It just seems so unnecessarily convoluted.
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Like, what is Lando doing there? Like just hanging around?
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How long has he been there for? Yeah, he's been there for a
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year. Yeah, yeah, that's ridiculous.
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Not the best disguise, he's not. The best disguise.
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He's pretty famous. Like.
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Luke sends the droids to bargain.
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What if Jabber did bargain? Is Luke just given the droids
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away if and often? What's his backup plan then?
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And, and Chewy's another person. They've got to get out of there.
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So there's about four plans all going at once, all getting in
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each other's way. I mean, it's hardly Ocean's 11,
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you know, get Don Shielden there, a bit of Barney Rubble.
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And what's Jabber thinking? Jabber must be sick of this day
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of just person after person turning up like Jesus Christ.
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Who is it? Now leave me, I used to work
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with real Jedi again. But it must be likely.
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I want to watch this really weird housebound player.
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So an unbelievably convoluted plan.
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But what I do like though, it's the first reveal of Jabba.
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Because it's a reveal that's been worth the build up.
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Like only mentioned in the 1st 2.
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You know, as a character, theater has a grudge and respect
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for him. So you think, well my God, who
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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.
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He's like Corleone, isn't. He's just like the Godfather.
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He just kind of sits there. He does nothing, Yeah.
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Worth it for Jabba? Jabba is outrageous giant
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talking slug here with frogs and is a fat bastard and a massive
8:33
sex pivot. Yeah.
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It's really sleazy. I mean, I think it's like
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classic Star Wars always did they give us something, in this
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case Jabba, that should be laugh out loud garbage and somehow
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they make it work because I like Jabba.
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I love his laugh or. Awful.
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And then absolutely. I know that laugh.
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Of course you do. It's the only word.
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If I had a tongue like that, I'd be a sex pervert as well.
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I'd be honest with you. I mean, the whole thing is a
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sequence. I do like it.
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I think the costume design, the production design is
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particularly excellent. Yeah, let's costume as Bush the
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Bounty. Honda is top notch.
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Boba Fett's in there, which is always welcome.
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But I do have problems with it as well.
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I think the quality of the direction has already dropped
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from the first two films. I'll talk about that more when
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we get to Richard Marquand, but it's a pretty instant drop for
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me. And the writing of it, you
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touched on it much, but it's mental.
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I mean, what's going on with this plan?
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3PO and R2 turn up and get captured.
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Leon, should we turn up and get captured?
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And why is Chewy not with Lando? Where has he been?
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Doesn't make sense. Then Luke turns up and gets
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captured. It's like you go in, then you'll
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go in, then you'll go in and I'll go in and none of it works.
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Everybody feels. Chewy's been getting his hair
9:45
blow dry for the last year if you're looking.
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I mean he was worth it. He looks great.
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Font as fuck, it looks amazing. I mean, it should have started
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with Leanne. She'll be going in for me
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because that bit is quite good when she's got the thermal
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detonator. I like that.
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And then someone who loves you. It's a bit cheesy, but it works.
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I'll talk more in the writing section about what I think they
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could have done because obviously rewritten the whole
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film. As usual.
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But Jabba's great, the costume design is great, the writing is
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ludicrous, but it is good to see all the characters again.
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And Rusty, you fancy going to Jabba's palace for a few drinks?
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You laughs. Absolutely brilliant.
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Yeah, I thought the troubles are over, dude, it'll be amazing.
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Yeah, I mean, I'm, I'm exactly the same with you guys.
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But I watched this again. I thought, wow, this is just
10:29
nonsensical garbage. But in the same time, it's so
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much fun. And the bit for me, it's like,
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you know, Master, you're standing on it.
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He doesn't know and he doesn't know.
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There's a rancor down there which to be honest, is being
10:40
very, very well behaved throughout the whole rescue.
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That massive thing just underneath the floor.
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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
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just remember it being so massive and so big.
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And all he does is stick a massive bone in his jaws, which
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he bites down on and then doesn't use the force at all.
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It just throws a rock at the door, which comes down
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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.
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For Jabador, he was a huge animatronic and it took six
12:32
people to operate him. So he had two men inside
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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.
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Yeah, it looks. Really great.
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Yeah, the animatronic itself took three months to build and
13:03
we had one ton and cost half, $1,000,000.
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And it was built by Stuart Freeborn.
13:08
Remember him? Oh, Freeborn.
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Yeah. Yeah, guy who looks like Yoda.
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Yeah, yeah. He designed Yoda based him on
13:14
his own face, and with Jabba he based him on one of his friends.
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I don't ever. Want to meet?
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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?
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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?
54:33
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That's betterhelp.com/ATRM. Thanks again to Better Help for
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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
2:13:12
us and what we do. Please visit patreon.com/all the
2:13:16
Right Movies. You can subscribe, rate and
2:13:19
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2:13:21
Socially, you can keep up with All the Right Movies on Twitter
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2:13:30
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2:13:33
You can join our Facebook group to get in there with all the
2:13:35
movie fun and our website is All the Right movies.com all
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.