CT Is it known exactly how big of a hand Richard Marquand had in ROTJ?

I've heard varying statements here. Some have said he had a fair amount of control over it while I've heard others say that he only really directed half of it and for the rest, he was George's "puppet director" so to speak

Is there any source/interview detailing how much influence Marquand had on the final product? Kershner's touch on TESB is very obvious compared to George's PT and ANH, but not so sure about Marquand with ROTJ

 

"The Making Of Return Of The Jedi" would probably help you out.

 

Mod edit: Enough with dragging your personal obsession with 'bashers' and 'haters' into just about every thread, unless you'd like another vacation

 

Actually, just watched the saga, and I notice a trademark of ROTJ that isn't in any of the others is the actors' tendencies to move quickly from sentence to sentence as if there's no punctuation in between. Hard to think of any specific lines right now, but it's definitely something noticeable

 

In ESB, they talk as if sentences are just one word.

"ButHanandLeiawilldieifIdon't!"

 

And maybe ANH now and then

"Wehadeverythingundercontroluntilyouledusdownhere!"

 

The Making of RoTJ goes into great detail about who was responsible for what in the final cut of the film.

 

There are some definite stylistic touches that are unique to ROTJ.

There's a lot of shaky-cam for start, which is not something favoured by Lucas (frankly any camera action other than utter stillness isn't favoured by Lucas). It's particularly noticeable during Luke and Vader's final showdown. Also, Marquand likes to switch shots pretty frequently and not repeat set-ups, whereas Lucas likes to use a few angles and flip between them throughout a scene. Look at the Falcon scene approaching Endor for that - practically everyone has a close-up and hardly any angles are repeated. The fast dialogue has already been mentioned and that could be a Marquand touch but Lucas is, after all, famed for "faster and more intense".

I actually really like the style of ROTJ and you can tell it wasn't directed by Lucas - at least not entirely. It's definitely more Marquand than Lucas but to what extent, I'm not sure. I'm about to start reading The Making of ROTJ by J.W. Rinzler though so hopefully it will shed some light on this old chestnut.

 

Really? I'd say there are only a handful of shaky-cam shots. I wouldn't consider that a distinctive "style" of the movie.


As others have said, the Making of ROTJ is the best source to learn about Marquand's role. That being said, it is hard to say what "stylistic choices" come from Lucas, Marquand or the imagination of fans (there are unique stylistic choices in every SW films, regardless of the director, and at the same time, there's a coherent style through all of them).

What is certain is that Marquand was the director throughout the whole movie: he directed all the scenes, and was even brought back to shoot most (or all) the pick-up shots, even though he had already "left" by the time. He edited the first cut (that Lucas didn't like) and after that he "left", during the summer of 1982, leaving Lucas as the man in charge (although he was back to shoot the pick-ups, as I said before).

Lucas oversaw the whole shooting process, and he certainly had an influence, but let Marquand direct the movie (and he was often busy directing the second unit: for example, Marquand shot the "Yoda's death" scene in one day and all the wide shots are his, but Lucas later shot a lot of the Yoda close-ups with the second unit himself).