Han Solo dialogue changed when rescuing Lando in ROTJ. Why?

Maybe this has been discussed before, but not recently, so I'm bringing it up because I was just thinking about it. In the Special Edition of ROTJ, in the beginning on Tatooine during the Jabba's sail barge fight, as Lando is sliding down the sand into the Sarlacc's mouth and being pulled by the tentacle, Han and Chewie are trying to rescue him. Han gets his blaster and aims....remember, Han has not been seeing crap (besides dark and light blurs) since coming out of carbonite. While aiming he says 'Don't move Lando', to which Lando replies 'No way, I thought you were blind?', Han says 'It's alright, I see much better now'.

Anyone old enough to have seen the ORIGINAL film and VHS of ROTJ and watched it as many times as I have, may remember that this dialogue was all the same up until Han's last line. In the ORIGINAL version, he says 'It's alright, trust me'.

What do we think was the point of changing this line? It's so insignificant in the overall scheme of things. Lucas being as perfectionist as he can be about some things, did he think this line implied that Han maybe had force abilities, so he felt the need to change it in the Special Edition?

Personally, I think the line added to Han's character, kinda like taking out Greedo in the original, and the 'I know' line on Bespin in ESB.

What do you all think?

 

Yeah i'm still bemused as to why it was changed

 

I saw it when it came out and I remember it being the I can see better line. Odd. It's definitely funnier in context though.

 

Perhaps it was changed becuase a different take was used for the SE, in the same way we lost the "It's too bad you don't taste very good" line.

 

Can't say. I have the original tapes in the living room but for some reason, I can never seem to remember Han saying anything else besides "I can see much better now." But I guess that just shows how long its been since I last saw them.

I'm thinking that they may have wanted to have a more humorous line in place. Maybe they thought that since Han and Lando were good friends, he should say something funny towards Lando. If it had been say, Leia in his place, "It's aright, trust me" may have fit better because of their relationship.

 

I don't think this line is any funnier than the original.....and I think that although they were friends, that Han and Lando had a testy relationship. They never trust each other completely, always wary of what one might do if given an opportunity to one up the other, even though they care for and save each others lives. Maybe thats what comes from beginning a friendship at the gambling table....

 

Well, I believe the reason the "You don't taste very good" line was changed was because over time, the original deteriorated to the point where it needed to be replaced with an alternate take - "You're lucky to get out of there." Correct me if I'm wrong...

Perhaps the same exact thing happened with this scene as well. Although, I have to admit I enjoy the 'new' line a lot better than the original.

I have these old audio cassettes that were made for kids and have original dialogue and sound effects from all the movies, accompanied by narration.
On the ANH tape, it was narrated by Roscoe Lee Browne, and had Threepio's line that tells where the tractor beam power terminals are located on the Death Star. The line wasn't in the original movie, but was later inserted in the special edition.
The TESB tape has Luke's "You were lucky to get out of there" and an alternate take of Leia on Bespin saying Threepio's been gone too long to have gotten lost. It sounds to me like "You were lucky to get out of there" was filmed in the first take, and it was redubbed with "You're lucky you don't taste very good" later on.
The ROTJ tape has Han saying "It's alright I can see a lot better" This line also sounds like it was done in the first take, and later redubbed with "Trust me."
I guess when they did the special editions of the films, they didn't bother to use the redubbed takes for certain scenes. My preferences? The special editions lines.

 

Both lines are original.

One appeared in the original 70mm print, the other in the original 35mm print.

Threepio's line that tells where the tractor beam power terminals are located on the Death Star. The line wasn't in the original movie, but was later inserted in the special edition.

This line was in the original. It disappeared in the video release, and was re-inserted in the SE. The same thing happened with "close the blast doors"

 

What about Bring my shuttle changed to Alert my star destroyer to prepare for my arrival

 

Because Lucas's original vision was for Han to say "It's alright I can see alot better", but unfortunately he was unable to get Harrison to say that line. 1997 rolls around and using the latest in audio technology Lucas was able to put that line in and restore his original vision.

 

NorCalBirdz, if you had actually read the thread, you would have learned that "I can see a lot better" is an original line, that could be heard in the theaters in 1983.

This goes for most of the alternative SE dialogue. In fact, the soundtrack of ANH-SE is more true to the original than the video version, which many mistakingly consider "original".

 

I no longer know which line is the original any more, all I can add to this topic is that in my copy of ROTJ, although Han says "I can see a lot better now" to Lando, the spanish captions still say "Confía en mi" (Trust me).

 

"The first transport is away!" uses different voice


Really? I never noticed that.
Wasn't the original line done by Mark Hamill?

 

Bingo. That's exactly why these lines were change, or at least, that's what I've heard.

 

Well said.

 

His "original vision" was both.
The novel has the line "It's alright, I can see a lot better now. Trust me!"

So the change still makes no sense.

 

Just popped in my old ROTJ tape....Han definitely says "It's all right, trust me." They did change it.

 

Well that's odd, because the IMDB triva page for ESB states:

It doesn't state which version, though.

 

In any case, the lines weren't available so they had to go with alternates.

 

It just doesn't make sense why they dropped perfectly good dialogue that pretty much summed up how Han Solo is. I mean, the original demonstrated perfectly that he's not exactly the type to consider the consequences of his actions.