Saga Obi-Wan Kenobi: Ewan McGregor vs Alec Guinness

That hairstyle was kept for padawans, albeit toned down to a ponytail and braid, but it was still there. That didn't bother me as much as the mullet and Grizly Adams beard from AotC because he was still a padawan in TPM.

As for the crazy V inspired jumpsuits, that's a whole 'nother thing.

Getting back to Ewan, I did like his permormance and slight mimicry of Alec in some spots. He did the best job in the PT IMHO, but Alec is Kenobi.

And that old illustration from the Topps card is how the character and Jedi should've looked in the PT.....once again IMO

 

What I want to know is, why do all the Jedi dress like moisture farmers on Tattooione? Maybe they should have changed their look a little. That never made sense to me.

 

I don't think they do. Here's Owen and Luke:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Owen_Lars?file=Owen_Luke.jpg

Here are Jedi:

http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/22518/how-much-training-did-the-force-ghosts-give-luke

and Luke as a Jedi:

http://www.alexandgregory.com/images/luke skywalker.jpg

The moisture farmers do not have the stole or sash and their tunic is a lot shorter. The PT Jedi also have tabbards.

 

Here, why would a guy not from Tattooine be dressed anything like this?

 

They're not. Jinn has tabbards and a sash and his tunic is longer.

Earth tones are basic to most cultures

 

Sounds like minor distinctions to me, I stand by my opinion of it

 

Who was the best Kenobi? Neither. Both were damn good. By the way, this poll should have a third selection for both actors.

 

To each his own, but that's like asking why all characters in armor dress like stormtroopers.

 

Funny you should say that, because the PT actually shows the orgin of that armor. They take Jango as a template, make a bunch of clones in similar armor, and then eventually that force evolves into the Stortroopers.

Why a Jedi dresses in the same fashion as a guy in the desert farming for water, nobody knows.

 

Why do random smugglers and pirates in cantinas and clubs wear armor when they are neither Jango, a clone, or a stormtrooper?

Why do soldiers and pilots on Naboo wear uniforms when they are not Rebels or Imperial Officers?

Once again, Jedi clothes are different from farmers as described.

Off topic anyway, so how about Alec and Ewan?

 

We will just have to agree to disagree

 

Jedi mullet.

 

(Quotes taken from wikipedia)

From the sound of it, not only did he hate the fans, but also the films. In fact, pretty much the only positive things he said about it were in respect to the money it paid him. (he gets 2% of the royalties)

 

Well, there are a few problems with this (a hint when using Wikipedia. Always, always, check the citing). "fairy tale rubbish" isn't sourced at all, and the next quote cites a web page that no longer exists, so that the ultimate source of that quote is questionable (and is made all the more questionable by the fact that he did two further films in the series).

 

Guinness. To me his character and performance is the archetype of the "wise mentor."

 

I couldn't vote for Gunniess after reading that he threw anyway any fan mail from SW fans without even reading it, the films gave him the biggest pay out of all the movies he did and he owed a lot to the SW fans he ignored! Not cool Alec, not cool!!!

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unless you were there personally seeing this (I guess you didn't ) don't believe everything you hear/read

 

What I was thinking. And, when you think about that claim for a second or two it makes little sense. How would you know whether a letter was from a Star Wars fan unless you had read it? Unless they were addressed to Obi-Wan/Ben Kenobi.

 

Oddly, even though I'm a diehard, obsessive OT fan and have been since I saw its first run starting in '77, Alec Guiness's disparagement of being too obsessive, if at all true, just feels like a validation of the wisdom he radiated through the character of Kenobi. His "warnings", if true, are pretty healthy IMO, and definitely help bring my fandom into perspective. Not saying Ewan couldn't come up with similar remarks, but the fact that in the midst of all that hype Guiness was able to stay true to himself and his values and not just walk the walk? I respect that and would actually say "Very cool, Alec, very very cool".

 

he part about Jedi dressing like Tatooine farmers: That is because Jedi wear robes aka simple garb, and tatooine farmers wear robes also. jedi robes are just of higher quality (save Ben's in the OT, but that's cuz he probably bought those in tatooine.)

It was Lukes look in ROTJ that was 'wrong' because only Sith dress in black as a uniform. However that look was there to make the audience wonder whether Luke was going to go full dark or not.

The uniform templates/concepts above do not fit a Jedi at all, but they do fit a Darth.

I do wish though that Jedi dressed in pure white, rather than in brown.

 

Is this necessarily a fault of the Prequels, though? Guinness's performance is so iconic, so transcendent of the source material, that comparative disappointment was almost inevitable.

Point of comparison: As accomplished as DeNiro is in The Godfather: Part II, there isn't a flashback sequence as haunting as Michael's Godfather: Part I wedding account, wherein Vito and Luca pay a visit to Johnny's bandleader. "He made him an offer he couldn't refuse." Brando casts such an enormous pall.

 

Ewan McGregor, but they were both brilliant.

 

No, not an actual 'fault' - you basically summed up my exact point with your next sentence.

Interesting comparison - I can imagine if they'd attempted to actually include that scene as part of the flashbacks in GFII, it would have fallen a bit flat. No way could it have lived up to the chilling image the audience painted in their own minds as Michael described it, and certainly not with different actors.
There's the reason for so much PT disappointment right there, and all of us OT-era fans had sixteen years to brew our own personal visions of the PT in our minds.

(Before anyone jumps - I do love the PT, and Ewan McGregor was one of the highlights, but it would have had to have been on the level of the first two Godfather films to live up to my own unrealistic expectations)

 

McGregor. By far. I think Guiness is sort of put on a pedestal because he was the first to portray the character and he's mired in nostalgia and featured prominently in the very highly thought of OT. But all he actually does in the OT is offer some advice and engage in a particularly boring duel with Vader that results in his death. Hell, Guiness doesn't even portray Obi-wan in the flesh for a full movie. McGregor does an excellent job of portraying Obi-wan, his relationship with Anakin, and his many different emotions. He engages in exciting battles and plays the role of the mentor at the same time. McGregor plays Obi-wan in the flesh from padawan to master, and it's not hard to imagine his character aging into the one we all know in the OT.

Guiness is awesome. No doubt about that. But I don't feel he truly brought as much to the character as Ewan did. That's not necessarily his fault. Obi-wan's part in the OT is somewhat minor compared to it in the PT, and it's not Alec's fault that his light saber duel was boring. The character himself has a more exciting role in the PT so Ewan had more to work with--you know, rather than "Looooke! Goo to the Dagooobaaah System to finish your training!". It's sort of unfair to compare the two really.

 

I'll pay that.

I don't completely agree with it, as I think the strength of Guinness' Obi-Wan (largely in SW/ANH) derives from his performance conveying something we don't see & mightn't have ever seen, and there's something brilliant about that - but in today's context, with the PT actually having been made, the character does take on a new dimension.
How will Mark Hamill's performance in the new ST compare to what he burned into pop culture for eternity with the OT? Or what if something happens at the last minute & we suddenly end up with the unthinkable - another actor playing Luke Skywalker? Could the new actor ever be judged objectively?

 

Oh, and before anyone jumps on me, I'm not suggesting that the entirety of Prequel criticism is rooted in inflated, 16-year long germinating expectations. There are flaws to the films; but in the case of Alec Guinness's ANH performance, I can't comprehend of anything matching his standard. Guinness was one of the finest actors of his time, only he could have pulled of the miraculous--forging a fully-realized human being in a movie chock full of standard-written archetypes.

(Let me add that Neeson and McGregor acquitted themselves quite nicely, serving as the desperately-needed emotional anchors of TPM and ROTS, respectively.)