Saga What if the Prequels were just told as flashbacks?

What if the Prequel Trilogy wasn't ever made but instead were bonus scenes inserted into the Original Trilogy's special edition release in 1997? A friend asked me this question a couple days ago.

Obviously, this would make no sense from a business standpoint. But it got me thinking, could it be done; could it make the OT better? I'm sure there's some fan edits out there that do it.

But anyway, here's some advantages I can see for flashbacks being inserted into the OT.

ADVANTAGES:
-GL said that really the only story he came up with prequel-wise was told in the latter half of Revenge of the Sith. Everything else is filler. As much as I liked the Phantom Menace, I'll admit it was quite unnecessary. Flashbacks would only show neccesary stuff.
-It preserves all the plot twists- luke's father, luke's sister, and even that the crazy green guy is yoda.
-It makes all three richer films.
-this one's small, but the different visual styles for each trilogy that bother some actually help here- you can tell the flashbacks from the rest of the film easier.
-GL loved to make symmetry/reference/rhyming/comparisons/similarities between the PT and the OT (e.g. Anakins hand being cut off in Attack of the Clones, just like lukes' was in Episode V). Having the similarities in flashbacks would make more sense, whereas sometimes in the PT it sort of seemed like GL was just running out of ideas.
-It makes the OT one of those stories that gets more and more in depth, and by the time it ends, and you've learned everything, it all wraps up quite nicely.

DISADVANTAGES:
-All OT films had a run time of 2hrs or longer. And the flashbacks would add at least half an hour to each movie, possibly making them Lord of the Rings style length.
-It could disrupt the flow of the movies.

Your thoughts?

 

Check out this abandoned fan-edit, which envisioned three films as a series of Godfather Pt. II esque non-linear narratives.

http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Star-Wars-REBORN-The-Complete-Saga/topic/6871/

 

Sounds like it could be cool.

 

Too bad they took down the commercial videos off of youtube! I would have liked to see that.

 

I can see the PT as flashback scenes during Obi-Wan's explanation to Luke on Dagobah in ROTJ or after the end of ROTJ during the Force Ghost scene on Endor.

 

I can only imagine select scenes being intercut though. Only like conversational scenes. Not like, Luke's in Cloud City then we wipe to General Grevious Vs. Obi/Anakin.

 

To make the sort of "flashback" narrative you're talking about, it's best, I think, to turn to fan trailers, fan character tribute videos, and to play bits of the movies at one time, or jump over entire installments (episodes) with a single bound. Lucas himself has called Star Wars a sort of quasi-interactive experience.

 

Did he really call it that? When was that?

Anyway, I think there's a youtube video out there that shows flashbacks when ben is talking to luke in Return of the Jedi. Maybe I can post the link.

 

I prefer the PT as is

 

I was paraphrasing. The exact quote:

"If you see them in order, it completely twists things about. A lot of the tricks of IV, V, and VI no longer exist. The real struggle of the twins to save their father becomes apparent, whereas it didn't exist at all the first time [audiences saw Episodes IV, V and VI]. Now Darth Vader is a tragic character who's lost everything. He's basically a bitter old man in a suit. 'I am your father' was a real shock. Now it's a real reward. Finally, the son knows what we already know.

It's a very different suspense structure. Part of the fun for me was completely flipping upside down the dramatic track of the original movies. If you watch them the way it was released, IV, V, VI, I, II, III -- you get one kind of movie. If you watch I through VI, you get a completely different movie. One or two generations have seen it one way, and the next generations will see it in a completely different way.

It's extremely modern, almost interactive moviemaking. You take blocks and move them around, and you come out with different emotional states."

(J.W. Rinzler, "The Making Of Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith", p.84-85)

 

I wouldn't have a problem with the concept of flashbacks being included if that's how they were originally made. However, at this point just leave the OT alone. I want the originals just cleaned up slightly for quality not more changes. The OT is already not what it first was.

 

If you prefer it that way, the PT is like one great big flashback already, just without fadey transitions, soft focus, and puffy cloud borders.

Just watch it in the IV-V-I-II-III-VI order. My personal favorite ordering to show first timers since it preserves all of the spoilers for maximum impact as the story progresses. (Including the reveal of Luke and Leia's siblinghood in III rather than VI)

 

wow! I never realizedGeorge Lucas gave spoiling the "i am your father" plot twist that much thought. I now have heightened respect for Lucas (not like I didn't respect him before).
Though I do wish Lucas would have made it seem Vader wasn't Luke's father in the prequels, or at least made us wonder if he really was.

Read the bottom of this page to see one fan's idea of a way it could be done:

http://jkenny.hubpages.com/hub/Star-Wars-The-Alternate-Prequel-Trilogy-Episode-3

Oh yeah and that "flashback" order is awesome, Darth Eddie.

And I agree with all of you who have stated you wouldn't want flashbacks in some future releases of the movies. But I've always wondered "what if it would have been done?

 

Indeed -- it could be very much viewed that way.

Well -- all of Lucas' art is about the fragmented nature of truth and the (sometimes subtle) presence of conflicting narratives.

Yeah... I just skimmed that, and...

Sorry. I tired of "fan rants / fan rewrites" a long time ago.

This part, for instance, sums up all I find wrong with them:

Speaking of her brother, Obi Wan returns to Tatooine with the intention of watching over and protecting young Luke. However, his requests are refused by Owen, who doesn't wish Luke to follow the same path as his father. He accuses him of filling his head full of idealistic and religious nonsense, and of effectively leading Anakin to his doom. ‘You will not do the same to Luke,’ he states angrily. Obi Wan understands Owen’s bitterness and agrees to keep watch from a distance, but reminds him that there will come a time when the boy must make his own decisions.

Overt, redundant, cloying literalism -- already covered in Episode IV, and given economic treatment (the turned back of Owen says it all) at the end of III.

The rest, from what I can see, is the usual fanboy hooey, which seems to consist of the author considering themselves smarter than Lucas, while offering something of infinitely smaller scope, texture, and beauty.

JMO, mind you.

Fair enough.

For me, Star Wars is a segmented, serialized, sequential narrative.

Each episode is like an operatic passage with its own tone and sensibility. With each subsequently fitting into a grander whole.

The structure -- as is -- is very satisfying and very impressive... IMO.

 

IV-V-I-II-III-VI is my favorite order to watch them in! That's how I introduced my brother and sister to Star Wars, and they both said they were glad they had watched it in that way. I think it does give you the benefits of the prequels being sort of a flashback set within the original trilogy without being jarring or too much switching between themes/scenes.

(I wrote a whole blog post on why I like this order, which you can read if you want more details about why I like it than what I feel like typing here now).

 

Interesting post. Don't agree with all views but a opportunity to learn.

 

I'm currently working my way through watching them IV - II - V - III - VI. I may have mentioned this on another thread. If so, I apologize for repeating myself, but my reasoning for trying it this was was to treat each of the prequels as a flashback to a specific point in "the past". In ANH, Ben describes Anakin as "a good friend", so after the movie, I watch AOTC to see that point. ESB reveals Vader to be Anakin/Luke's father, so ROTS shows the fall and the birth of the twins.

The problem is, I got distracted with other stuff, so I need to get back to watching soon.

 

It might have worked, but we will never know.

 

If new scenes were shot and added to the special editions, I think fans would be very divided over it; even more so than with the Prequels. I would imagine a lot of people would be complaining "If they were going to go to all the trouble to film a bunch a scenes, why not just make full movies?"

Now, the idea of turning the Prequels into "flashbacks" as a sort of fan-edit would be interesting, and I'm sure it has been attempted more than once. The biggest issue with including flashbacks to the OT, is the fact it would be hard to include everything in the time frame without making each film over 3 hours long. I mean, if you take out a few clips from the Phantom Menace, do you really want to leave out the Duel of Fate? If you include it, that's taking a lot of time away from the story elements, but how can you not want to include it, it's a great action scene?

Overall, I think it could be done, and be very entertaining in fact; however, I don't believe a version of the Film like that could ever replace the original in terms of watch-ablity. You would pretty much have to go into knowing the history behind it .

I remember reading about this a while ago, but this topic reminded me of it. Topher Grace apparently edited the Prequels into one 85 minute movie. I think something like that, which could be watched after The Empire Strikes Back, but before Return of the Jedi, would work better than trying to fit in fashbacks in the OT.

More info on that Fan-Edit if anyone is interested:
http://www.slashfilm.com/topher-grace-edited-star-wars-prequels-85minute-movie/

 

This.
Great Post, Gen Rendar!

 

I would have probably disliked it greatly.

I mean: What's the point of flashbacks? To fill in people's lazy imagination? To replace their own thinking?
Part of the fun with movies is, imo, that there's always room left that you can fill in for yourself.
Flashbacks are also mostly used as an instrument to force a certain emotion for the scene or reading of a scene on the viewers, which is something I slightly despise. Viewers, imo, should be allowed to use their own brains and their own experience emotions and - as a consequence - be privileged to experience cinematic moments individually. A "normal" scene should privide a director with enough opportunities for persuation and navigation.

Moreover, the Prequels are simply not just a flashback. The PT extends the story of the OT, it doesn't simply fill the gaps that fans wanted desperately to be filled. If I think for a moment about how many characters, cultures, design work and world building, thematic weight and identity would have been lost with the use of flashbacks instead of the fully fleshed-out films we got, I'm strongly against the idea.

Flashbacks are lazy filmmaking, imo. I don't want Star Wars to be lazy filmmaking.

 

You know, Samnz, when you come in to lay down the law... you really lay down the law!!!

I could scarcely agree more with any of that.

A flashback does, indeed, tend to impose a particular sentiment or ideology on a viewer, I think, and often makes explicit what is better left implicit.

And then, as you say, the PT very much extends -- and I would add: expands -- the scope, meaning, beauty, and the quintessence of the OT, such that the saga takes on a majestic, almost organic, surrealistic tone.

Finally, there is a certain grandeur and wonderment in beholding such a forbidding, thickened tapestry which runs in a deceptively "linear" fashion. Deceptively because, in a way, it is anything but -- yet the genius of it is that it's offered in such an unobtrusive, straight-laced manner; the complexity of everything is hidden within.

And that seems to be something that people are still struggling to comprehend about Star Wars -- critics and fans alike -- to this very day. The layers are there; but the films are not, on the surface, offered as anything more than good, ol' fashioned B-movie romantic adventure. Star Wars impregnates itself with meaning and eccentric brilliance, but also continually abnegates itself for viewer edification.

 

Not necessarily - The Godfather Part II has been cited as an example of how the past can be directly incorporated into a narrative as a means of emphasising what's going on, and in that case, it's effective, as it acts as a counterpoint to how Michael Corleone is "taking care of his family", as opposed to how his father did. It's the entire point of the story.
There's also the only real 'flashback' at the end, where Michael reminisces on a past Christmas, and that's not simply there to fill in any gaps, it's simply a new glimpse of what Michael was before, hammering home what a cold, isolated figure he's become. One could argue that such reinforcement still shouldn't be necessary, but by following a character who was "turning into a zombie" as Coppola himself put it, the film simply wouldn't have been able to connect with the audience without the humanity of the early Vito scenes.

Flashbacks wouldn't work for SW, however - much of what was referred to worked best either in our own imaginations (prior to the PT), or then our memories, once we'd seen Eps I-III. They probably wouldn't have been quite enough, either, given the scope of the backstory.

There's definitely a few examples out there of flashbacks being used as a lazy technique - most of the ones in The Two Towers and Return of the King stood out pretty clearly, although the prologue before Fellowship of the Ring and the Smeagol/Deagol scene in ROTK worked beautifully.
Flashbacks, like the much-maligned use of voiceover, are a technique like any others, they can be used or abused, the results will always speak for themselves.

 

I shared some thoughts about this elsewhere. They were not particularly well received.