Acting in Star Wars

Pretty much all of us here are SW fans, why the hell would we post here if we weren't. However, being a star wars fanatic "plays" on different levels. One aspect I'm sure we are all interested in is how SW qualifies as genunine art, and good acting is critical to a good film. This thread is for analyizing the acting. For the most part, I think its really good. Mark Hamill doesn't get nearly as much credit as he deserves. He brought alot of subtly that Hayden Christensen never could. You can tell that he is good at heart, but is prone to imkpatience and recklessness. I think he conveys this very well. When he finds out Vader is his dad, he actually did make me believe like it was the absolute worst news he ever could of heard, and its tragic in that sense. He loves adventure, but doesn't care about the ramifications, as you can see in ANH. Not forr one second did he think "maybe there was a few innocent people aboard the death star". His thinking is somewhere between just an kid who just wants adventure and a terrorist

 

I thik Mark's great in the OT and that the best examples of this are the scenes where he's talking to Yoda. If Mark had been unable to sell that the Muppet he's talking to and getting no responses from(he couldn't hear Frank Oz under the set) was a wise Jedi Master Empire would have been a disaster.

 

I think luke's acting was the best given what the above poster wrote.

 

The acting is horrible in all of the films, all of them. But there are moments when individual stars shine through: Ford when he's about to be frozen in Carbonite, Hamill, talking to the muppet without getting responses from Oz, Fisher kissing her brother..both times. Prowse when he cuts off Luke's hand..Ian's great through out, but that's just Ian for ya.

 

I like the expression on Alec Guiness' face when Luke says that Artoo was looking for him. James Earl Jones executed the voice of Vader flawlessly.

 

I agree with Drachonus, somewhat: the acting from most of the main characters in all of the films is horrible. Exceptions to this, in my opinion, would be Neeson, McGregor, Guiness, Ford and Diarmid. I'm not counting JEJ, since you couldn't see him.

Obviously you've never seen Hayden Christensen's eyes.

Personally, I've always found that scream to be incredibly corny.

 

i think the acting is hit and miss in anh and rotj, but it's pretty much excellent throughout esb. i can't think of a single cringeworthy scene in that film. "no! that's impossible..." gets made fun of a lot, but the emotional intensity of that scene is actually handled really well.

 

Mark's acting was awesome in all three trilogy movies!

 

+1. The script had a lot of gravity and it's pretty clear that the actors sunk their teeth into it moreso than in the other films.

 

Yep.

 

I'd say that it is the way the heroes interact and complement eachother that makes an impact, more than any individual performance.

 

I actually thought Ian ruined the Emperor in RotS...hammy as hell, and without the sweet Scottish accent the had in Jedi. And don't get me started on the ESB DVD's monotone-cue-card Emperor.

 

The chemistry among the three leads in 'ANH' is invigorating, at times hilariously funny, and is part of what made the film so successful, a cultural touchstone. Their obvious affection for one another shines in their eyes -- even (especially!) when they're bickering -- and invites the audience to share in the fun.

In ESB the material demands more from the performers, who prove themselves up to the task of deepening the story, and changing the mood and tone from the frothy fun of 'ANH' to something more emotional, something at once darker and more romantic. It also showcases the individual acting chops of each of the three leads, especially Hamill, who delivers the performance of his career in what is arguably the defining role of the Saga.

ROTJ gives us an awkward blend of the previous two styles: fun and deep. The performers seem to be straining to walk the line between two diametrically opposed tones, never dipping too deeply into the darker waters plumbed in ESB, and never quite reaching the giddy heights of frivolity and zest achieved in 'ANH'. Ford's performance is hammy and unconvincing -- the worst of his long career -- while Hamill is oddly effeminate, if more textured and subtle than the other actors, and Fisher seems hoarse and ragged at the edges.

 

Thats pretty much what I wanted to say but couldn't. TESB really makes the series, it makes ANH a better movie. I think its funny how on IMDB, Empire is ahead LOTR:ROTK. While I love the LOTR novels, the films were only ok to me. I just think its really cool how after only 4 years ROTK is being forgotten, while Empire has stayed pretty consistently in the top 10 for years. Episodes 4 and 5(and the novelization of ROTS) are definatly the defining mythology of this generation

 

I always thought that the acting, or all of the subtleties that go into acting, declined as the number of special effects increased. Fortunately, Lucas basically discovered Harrison Ford. Had he gone with an average actor in that role it would have been very apparent. As in most science fiction films, the acting typically gets panned. But I think the acting really helped star wars and not just the skills of the three stars but also those who did not get the benefit of talking to build character (Ken Baker in R2 for example)

 

What exactly do you define as good acting though? Like, do you want the actors to fulfill what you think is the ideal way the character should behave?

 

Alec Guinness, Harrison Ford, and McDiarmid were all awesome pretty much the whole time.

Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher were for the most part able to get the job done at all times. There may be times when the acting was a little off, but sometimes that dialogue is hard to make convincing. Sometimes they aren't given enough credit given the kind of situations they were supposed to be acting out. Like someone else said, if Hammil wasn't able to act the way he did around the muppet Empire wouldn't have been able to work nearly as well.

 

I think mark hamill is great as Luke Skywalker.

 

McDiarmid is my favorite actor of the entire saga. He has been superb in every film.

 

The acting is fine for the most part. The real problem is the director. It's no coincidence that ESB is the best movie of the six, it had the best director. Lucas made a mistake in deciding to direct the entire PT. I still love them but I can't shake the belief that they could have been so much better.

 

I agree. The oft-quoted directive 'faster, more intense', so prevalent in the shooting of the first film, by TPM seems to have shifted from the actors' style of performance to the director's cursive method of capturing a take. As Ford contends in the EoD doc, Lucas was impatient and largely unwilling to let an actor find the emotional reality of a scene. This curtailing of the actor's craft seems to have worsened during the filming of the PT.

That said, I think there are some fine actorly moments in the PT. But that's a discussion for another forum....

 

Ian McDiarmid was just awesome in every scene he was in, and Frank Oz's and James Earl Jones's voice overs were always perfect. Everyone else was mostly good but had moments where they werent so great, even Guinness.

 

I agree... for, again, in ROTJ, Guiness seems to be phoning in his performance.

McDiarmid, Jones, and Hamill are terrific in ROTJ -- at the top of their respective games -- but Ford, Fisher and, yes, even the immortal Guiness all suffer from either under- or over-acting.

 

Hamill was great in EPIV & V. In EPVI, we're introduced to the humorless Jedi 'snore-through-lines' which the prequels totrured us with.

 

Considering the mouthful of complex and often garbled BS jargon that GL wrote, I think the actors did an excellent job. They made the films come alive as much as the SFX, sets, and costumes...

Can't really say the same thing for the PT (the movies that took great actors and turned them into wood).

D_M_S_L