CT Why does Uncle Owen dress like a Jedi?

Personally, I'd think Ben Kenobi would be the kind of guy who'd live in a cave in the middle of the desert. Only once you enter the cave, you find it's got three different floors and is full of plush furniture.

 

I'm sorry?

 

I liked the way his place was described in the novel, furnished with comforts for the mind, not the body.

 

This comparison rather proves the truth of the sentiment that "there is no inherent logic or vision to any of the SE changes or saga ret-cons, other than the fact that man making the changes considered them on an ad-hoc basis."

After all, if Ben Kenobi's house is essentially the same in both versions of the film, why bother changing the shot at all?

But I'm digressing.

 

The size of Ben Kenobi's house is the same. Other things, as I've said before, are different, and are much improved from the original version. The SE version provides a much better sense of location--Ben's hut is located at a high vantage point in the Jundland Wastes, elevated safe away from roving Sand People and with a clear line of sight extending for miles. We can see he is on the outskirts of the Wastes fairly near to the open desert. We even see that he is self-sufficient: he has his own moisture vaporator, explaining how he survives on his own on a planet where there is little to no water to be found. We get all this information from one very brief establishing shot. It really is quite an improvement.

 

Much better than the old one, where his house could be literally anywhere on Tatooine.

 

Indeed. The whole point of an establishing shot is to, well, establish. The first one establishes that Ben lives in a hut somewhere on Tatooine. The second one establishes exactly where Ben lives in a hut on Tatooine, why he lives in that exact spot, and how his choice of dwelling reflects his unique character and situation. It certainly isn't any worse looking--the original is quite bland, even ugly. The SE version is an improvement by every basic metric of visual storytelling you could possibly think of.

 

It's supposed to look bland and inconspicuous. That's the point of being in hiding, to not draw attention to yourself. Also, the original shot matches with the rest of the cinematography of a film made in the 1970s. The new shot looks like it was created for a computer game and spliced into a 1970s film. The picture aesthetics do not match.

 

He's not drawing attention to himself in any of the versions. But the SE shot gives an establishing shot of his location to the audience.

Yes, they do match. And the new shot doesn't look like anything for a computer game. It wasn't even generated on a computer to begin with. It's a simple combination of miniatures and a matte painting.

But hey, nothing like making ignorant claims...

 

And the original version isn't an establishing shot because...? It's a simple hut on a desert planet, like it's supposed to be.

You should put the new shot up next to the old one, and other shots from the original film, and then come back and see if they match aesthetically. They do not.

It doesn't matter how the shot was created. What matters is what it looks like. The quality is poor, and it looks like a computer game cut scene.

If you can't post without making things personal, you should probably take a timeout.

 

Who said it wasn't? It's an establishing shot of a hut. The SE shows an establishing shot of the hut's location, and as such provides more information and context to the audience.

They do, but it's not by repeating the same thing that they cease to.

Yes it does, specially to disprove a ridiculous claim of it looking like it's taken from a computer game.

Or you should provide more credible arguments in order to have anything close to a meaningful discussion. But the joke's on me. The username should have been enough evidence of what to expect...

 

Think about it, what's the symbolism behind farmers?

Prosperity,
Hardwork,
Diligence,
Humility,

Don't these all sound like things the Jedi would want to be associated with themselves?

 

Why do you think individualistic traits can be applied to an entire group of people? Don't you think you are stereotyping now? I suggest you do more research into farmers before you made generalized statements.

For sure, there are humble farmers out there in their overalls milking cows and plowing fields. Some of them get by. Others go broke. But then there are also very wealthy farmers, some of them unscrupulous. They hire low wage migrant workers to carry out all of the manual labor on their farms, often at near slave wages. They house their workers like animals, and sometimes even have their own police forces which may have carte blanche to beat or kill workers on the spot. Some of these farmers have even been known to fly airplanes over their fields, spraying pesticides on the fields below, with workers in them, killing or seriously poisoning the workers.

Now, what were you saying about farmers again?

 

I was saying that I am one.

 

Then you should know that there are good farmers, and bad farmers. Poor farmers, and rich farmers.

Which profession one works has no bearing on whether that person is prosperous, hardworking, diligent, or humble.

 

I'm just saying that likely most of what the Jedi would know of farmers is the stereotypes.

 

Don't get too hung up on "farmers" specifically. The idea is that blue-collar workers, not just Tatooine, but all across the galaxy, tend to dress in similar, utilitarian, brown and grey outfits that are not too fancy - and that the Jedi dress specifically to evoke the same imagery.

 

He's living in a little hut high up in the rocky hills. That's the definition of inconspicuous. Everyone already knows him as a crazy old hermit, it's not like it's a secret that he lives there.

It looks exactly like a shot from 1977. What about it makes it looks like a computer game? Tell me how. Make an argument. Don't just make unsupported statements.

 

If there was one new shot in the SE that I specifically thought was a nice improvement, it was this one of Obi-Wan's hut. And they are hut's in both shots, the SE one is not a "mansion" in any sense. I always thought it established that Kenobi lived in isolation in a much better way, and gave you the sense that he is keeping watch over Luke from above and afar, a true guardian/protector in a mythlogical sense. The original shot could have been right in the suburbs of Anchorhead, for all we know. Also adding the vaporator was a nice touch to show he was self-sufficient.

But this is starting to devolve into a original cut vs SE cut argument which is getting away from the topic subject. Many, many movies have different versions that are released either in theatre or subsequently on DVD, with differences great and small. Hell, even the original 1977 release of A New Hope had (I believe) 3 different English audio versions, each with differences in dialogue, sound effects and vocal dubs. I understand they are "sacred' movies and people have their preferences, but this tendency to single Lucas out for making changes to his movies is pretty ridiculous as there are X amount of directors/studios who have done the exact same thing for a long time, and with much less flak given.

 

It's from the same old misconception, that everything Star Wars related post 1996 is 100% CGI with no practical effects/miniatures, no location shots, no sets and all actors in front of blue screen. The new scene of Kenobi's hut is a miniature set with a digital matte painting. Maybe it is just plain refusing to acknowledge that a lot of the new Special Edition shots and the Prequels were shot on location (eg: Caserta castle, extended Sandtroopers in dune sea) and used miniatures/practical effects (eg; q-tips for pod race crowds, miniature set for Mustafar lava river)

 

Give me a physical location (original hut) over an effect (new hut) any day.

 

Maybe Uncle Ben was secretly a Jedi Master?

 

A group of us were having this exact discussion while waiting in line for TFA panel at SWC. Looking strictly at how A New Hope was initially conceived, we had a rather lengthy discussion about whether Luke and Obi-Wan are wearing the traditional garb of what was intended to be the look of the Jedi throughout the series, or, if they are simply wearing what everybody else wears on Tattooine, and after the movie took off, Lucas and company decided to just roll with it since that imagery became so strongly associated with the Jedi.

 

The early drafts of SW 1977 make it pretty certain the Jedi were always supposed to wear samurai-style robes from day one. However, the robes' exact color is open to debate, though of course Sith Lords wore black. To be honest, I suspect that the idea of Jedi wearing a more militaristic uniform, like the all-black outfits seen in the TPM concept art, may not have come about at least until after production wrapped on the first SW film.

It's also noteworthy in this respect that costume designer John Mollo actually designed two different outfits for Ben Kenobi in SW 1977--one of white Jedi robes with a brown hooded cloak (used in the film), and another which was essentially like Luke's own farmer outfit, but with an added utility vest.

 

I like the idea of Obi-Wan making his own Jedi robes on Tattooine. I'm not sure if the Jedi make their own robes before Order 66, but I always assumed they did. I imagine some Sith apprentices make their robes, but I doubt any Sith masters would.