ST The nuances / ingredients that make a Star Wars film

Have to agree with Weird Green man, the wipes were the 'thing of the time' but to be a modern day film-maker means you use modern day techniques. By all means be as true to the original source as possible (i.e story-telling) but let modern film making prevail. Just as GL meant when he 're-did' his Star Wars stories 20 years later (1997) because he didn't have the technology back then. Go with the times I say!

 

I don't really see an issue with blond girls in Star Wars. Simply because they haven't existed before, doesn't mean they won't be in the films. Remember that Duchess Satine was blonde, and that she came from a concept design of Episode I. Let's not make such a big deal out of things like that.

 

This. All of this. And tons of no. 14, please.

 

Another thing is COMEDY. At least the use of "subtle comedy". Throughout all six films there is some comedy even in some of the most "serious" of scenes. A lot of people I talk to want a "super serious, emotional" Star Wars. To me Star Wars was NEVER a drama. It is a sci-fi, swashbuckling adventure.

Physical comedy is good: 3PO hitting R2. Jar-Jar. Hydrospanner falling on Han's head. Yoda throwing around Luke's stuff. Even though I'm a fan of physical comedy, I like a lot of the "witty banter". Especially with 3PO and Han. Subtle things like facial expressions, hand gestures. The list goes on and on.

 

I agree. Before even thinking about writing Empire, Laurence Kasdan was impressed with how funny A New Hope was, and he was right. It was all in the acting. Han trying to pass as a stormtrooper "Everything's under control, situation normal!" and his facil expressions as he knows he's sucking at it, that's funny. 3PO had great moments too, "Listen to them! They are dying!", funny as hell. There's no need for CGI camels farting. CGI physical humor is never funny in live action films. Pixar has great comedy and everything's CGI but that's a way different platform and context, and in the end most of the humor in those movies rely on good dialogue and great actors and animators.

What's funny about a clumsy 90s cgi alien playing with a cgi pit droid? Absolutely nothing, even if it is aimed at little kids, they are not that basic.

Please give us intelligent humor, portrayed through good acting.

 

My thoughts on the wipes: When they get too fancy, they're distracting. I'm caught up in the story, edge of my seat, wondering what comes next, then this overly complex wipe changes the scene, and it's such an overblown transition that it reminds me I'm watching a movie on a screen, knocking me out of the moment. I'd like to see the wipes quicker and simpler than the previous movies.

 

I just don't understand the attachment people have to this. It's not a part of the film and it is widely used in many other movies besides Star Wars. It isn't even a situation like you see in some other movies where the soundtrack starts playing while the studio logos are being shown. There is absolutely nothing Star Wars specific or unique about it.

Star Wars movies start with "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." Anything before that point is irrelevant. Being attached to the 20th Century Fox logo is like being attached to the trailers that came before the logo.

 

It's true. But I also find it inevitable. Of course it doesn't make sense but it does generate feelings. Every time I see a 20th Century Fox movie, when that fanfare starts I think "STAR WARS" and I even kind of hope in the most visceral way possible that it would be ****ing awesome if Lucasfilm and "A long time ago . . " appeared on screen and I was watching Empire.

I know it doesn't matter but I also know it's going to feel a little weird having the Disney logo and music instead of the classic fanfare every fan is used to. We've all probably seen that intro at least 50 times.

Edit: Gotta star out the whole word.

 

I'll never ever understand this bizarre revulsion people have to the transition wipes used in the Star Wars movies. I have no words for you people. How can you waste words commenting on them? They're transitions in editing.

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Still, it's a little detail that stands out. I even remember the Super Nintendo Star Wars games had these type of transitions worked into the game.

 

The best comedy moments of the Star Wars movies comes from the way characters we know and love behave and how they relate to each other, not lame slapstick "physical" comedy. That's why scenes like Chewie's reaction when Luke tries to put the binders on him or Han, Luke and Leia in the Hoth medical center and far more entertaining than the pathetic scenes where JarJar steps in pudu, or when the eopie farts in his face.

 

To me, they are transitions that call attention to themselves rather than just subtly moving me from one scene to the next. I don't like that. No big deal.

 

I have no interest whatsoever in keeping up with the times. SCREW the times. You can't be "as true to the original source material as possible" and NOT have the wipes; it's a convention of the sub-genre that this saga has become - and by the way, when Lucas "re-did" the OT, he never considered removing the wipes out of any concern that they weren't with the times. He altered effects that he felt didn't work back when he first shot them in the 1970s, but he never altered the wipes because they worked perfectly fine the first time. Your argument fails on that basis alone.

NOTHING about Star Wars is with the times, and THAT'S the appeal of it: it was a throwback to old film serials that were quite far from "with the times" when Lucas chose to make that first film. And yet people never complained that the film was unprofessional and corny for that reason; they considered it one of the film's many strengths, NOT one of it's weaknesses. What was good enough for the serials generation proved to also be good enough for mine, and as far as I'm concerned, what was good enough for my generation is good enough for yours.

All of this points to a larger issue: I absolutely lose patience with those who insist that we need to change things, big and small, about what Star Wars is to suit THEM. If they're suggesting we have to do so in order to make them happy, then I'm perfectly fine with their not seeing the film at all. This saga isn't just for them, and they have no right to insist on imposing change on it just for the sake of their conception of what "being current" means. This saga is for EVERYONE, and it only works as such if the formula is correctly balanced, and that includes HAVING THE WIPES. There's no argument for "modernization" that anyone can make that can alter this single, unchanging reality: You can't make Star Wars better by making it NOT Star Wars.

 

^ I would still call it Star Wars if it didn't have fancy wipes, and I'd like it better that way. Just my preference.

 

Mouse droids. Lots of them.

 

The specificity is that George Lucas purposely re-introduced the complete CinemaScope version of Alfred Newman's, 20th Century Fox Fanfare, in 1977. This version had not been used since the late 50's. During the 60's and 70's FOX truncated the version for television, that last 10 seconds at the end was removed. Williams scored the Star Wars main theme in the same key (Bb major) in order to accommodate its use, at Lucas's request. ANH has the old Fanfare and Williams re-recorded it for TESB (That's the one in current usage). If you listen, you'll hear the difference. Anytime I heard the truncated 20th Century Fox Fanfare in the theater or on television I knew it wasn't Star Wars. The full Fanfare guaranteed the real deal. It is now sacrosanct in my mind.

 

Well, anytime I hear the full fanfare, all I know is that it could be any one of about 75 different movies in my collection.

 

Today, but not then. It was, quite simply, part of the experience. And now you know why you hear the Fanfare and who performed the Fanfare in the beginning of the myriad of films you now own. At no charge!

I'm only trying to explain why it is nostalgically important to some, that's all. Peace, Brother.

 

its funny the little things i worry about - I really really hope there is no credits at the beginning of the film, thats probably one of the biggest things for me, along with the music and crawl. The Fox Fanfare is hard enough to let go of but for me the films have got to look the same, as well having their own look, which they will having been made over five different decades

 

So to the people that think the wipes are "cheesy or dated", I have to ask you how do you feel about the 3 paragraph crawl at the beginning?! When Lucas used the crawl for the first time in ANH it was already dated!! Not to mention cheesy. The crawl was used in old sci-fi and Flash Gordon type films back in the day. And be honest with yourself, if you saw ANY modern movie today using a 3 paragraph crawl, you would say it was ridiculous and that it was a straight rip off of Star Wars. My point is Star Wars gets a pass when it comes to cheesy and dated filming techniques. Whether it be a wipe or a crawl. What's good for the goose is good for the gander..



Then back to the soul of this thread: all these "nuances" are opinion based if you want them or not. However the point that they exist already is a "fact" not an opinion. These techniques have already happened in these last 6 films. The question is should they be in the future films?

So I pose this question: instead of saying "what makes a Star Wars film", maybe we should ask the question "how much can you REMOVE from a Star Wars Film for it still be considered a Star Wars film"? Again, this is all OPINION.

Some people think as long as it has the Star Wars name on it and takes place in space, it's a "Star Wars" movie. Others think if there is no Fox Fanfare, then it's not a Star Wars movie at all. I think most people are in the middle. For me I'm closer to the "make it just like the other 6". My "perfect" EP7 would have ALL these nuances.

 

I'm curious as to what everyone's opinion on this matter is.

 

Are you talking OT or PT? They are definitely different.

 

Excessive amounts of nudity.

 

Cameras and lights and stuff...