Columbia disaster image in ROTS

It didn't look anything like Columbia at all. Columbia didn't have some ship trailing after it spraying water on it.

 

I did note the similarity with bits of flaming debris falling away from the Invisible Hand.

I didn't think this was cheap, or demeaning to the tragedy of the Columbia's disintegration. I thought rather that it showed good sense in basing the visual effects of a hot re-entry of a burning spaceship on the actual appearance of an actual spaceship burning up on re-entry.

 

When a spaceship burns up in the atmosphere, I think it supposes to look like that, may be they used Columbia for reference. Do you think having pigs fly out of the spaceship is better? I just want to give you guys an example of a disturbing star wars and WTC image.

[image=http://cheesepie.net/images/deathstar_wtc.jpg]

What happened in the movie was NOT!

 

Slightly off topic, but this thread reminded me of a certain petition that popped up online sometime before the release of LOTR: The Two Towers.
The guy asked of Peter Jackson to change the title, since it was "clearly meant to allude to the WTC incident".
That was one of the dumbest things I have ever read.
The guy actually got helluva lot signatures... too bad all of them contained very imaginative descriptions of his origins and such.

 

Again, I don't think that this was intentional, and it only distracts one for a second. Darth Scoobydoo... please take that down. Thanks.

 

Do you people have anything better to do than sit around and think up this stuff?

Lucas was not commenting on Bush & Iraq, 9/11 and the Colombia. He was making a fantasy film. Jeesh.

 

but did anyone else find that the Invisible Hand entering the atmosphere and breaking up reminded them of the Space Shuttle Columbia breaking up during re-entry a few years back? The guy sitting next to me today actually muttered "Columbia" under his breath when the scene played out.

Good. I wasn't the only one who picked up on that.

 

nothing to do with wtc or columbia.

 

This thread has changed my perspective on Star Wars. Thank you, guy.

 

Whether intended, or coincidental, yes, the Space Shuttle Columbia was the first thing that came to mind when the Invisible Hand broke up on re-entry (then I also thought why didn't the protruding cockpit section get burned off).

As for the Jedi temple and WTC, I thought that when I first sae the trailer. Not the whole situation, just the image of a tall building being on fire. Yes the Jedi temple never collapsed, but honestly, when the WTC towers were on fire, did anyone think they'd collapse like that?
We were just fixated on the billowing smoke still trying to figure out what was going on. And if they did collapse, everyone thought they'd keel over onto the lower east side or onto the Hudson.

I also saw a similarity of Anakin killing Padme = Scott Peterson and Laci Peterson. Both women were pregnant. And both men's images changed afterward (Scott dyed his hair blonde as he tried to flee to Mexico).
Sure Padme had twins and was able to deliver them before dying, but then again this happened in the Modesto, CA area and Lucas is a Modesto native, so...

 

During the shot of the troopes firing down on the driod vehicles as they crosses the water my mate and I both said to each other "D-day"
Whe are both fans of Saving Private Ryand and picked that up instantly.
I'm not saying it was GL's inentions, but it looked the same.

 

...but continuing my last post, My point is that today's society is apt to compare media-televised images like 9/11 or the Columbia disaster with movie scenes because they were a visual experience. I mean, people in the past could not do the same with Pearl Harbor or Lincoln's assassination or the French Revolution, because those events did not play themselves out to the public like event happen today. People either heard about them on the radio, read a newspaper article or heard their town crier talk about the reported accounts. But today's society is more visual, so we take visual iconic accounts of real-life events and make it easy to compare with fictional events seen in motion pictures.

 

Ahahahah that picture of the Death Star blowing of the WTC is halarious!

*puts it on as wallpaper*

 

why do you want to see real life in sciencefi movie
i mean this is just entertainement and nothing else
I think Lucas is a filmmaker and he knows that he 'd rather not use reality in his movie because people are always searching an hiding meaning for things that don't havehiding meaning
so just take it for what it is:
movie and nothing else!
edit:spelling

 

hmm but what I don't get is why that ship Anakin, Obiwan and Palps were in burned up upon re-entry, but we dont see that happening in so many of the other ships entering planets. Is it because some planets have no atmosphere???

 

I guess the ships have a device that counter acts with the burning up. Maybe, considering the damage the ship sustained, that failsafe was disabled.

 

"hmm but what I don't get is why that ship Anakin, Obiwan and Palps were in burned up upon re-entry, but we dont see that happening in so many of the other ships entering planets. Is it because some planets have no atmosphere??? "

No, because everyone can breathe on them.

I thought about this too...It's either:

1) Under normal circumstances, spaceships re-enter the atmosphere of planets under a controlled, slower velocity, slow enough as to not cause friction and re-rentry burn. The Invisible Hand was falling into Coruscant from gravity, not because it was being propelled.

2) Shields!

 

Video of the reentry of the Mir space station looks almost identical to the Columbia breakup. Both spacecraft were similarly massive. Any large spacecraft burn-up is going to look the same. ILM probably used both events for reference because both were well-documented.

Mir:
[image=http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/7025/300pxmirreentryphoto2il.jpg]
[image=http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/1763/mirreentry4fh.jpg]
[image=http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/1841/mirfragmentsmedcrop0wd.jpg]

Columbia:
[image=http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/2149/columbiadisastersmaller0rk.jpg]
[image=http://img286.imageshack.us/img286/379/000f69fb3dt.jpg]
[image=http://img76.imageshack.us/img76/8799/shuttledebris300x1859dp.jpg]

Invisible Hand (ROTS):
[image=http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/4551/invisiblehand15yp.jpg]
[image=http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/3342/invisiblehand21xk.jpg]

Before being delayed for safety reasons, first space shuttle flight since the Columbia crash was originally scheduled for May 15, 2005, very close to ROTS' May 19th date. In fact, the shuttle would have been in orbit when the movie came out, and everyone would have been hoping for a safe landing. Imagine how controversial/tasteless/irresponsible the Invisible Hand breakup shot might have seemed to some people in those circumstances! If regular people think of Columbia when they see that image, I'd assume the astronauts' families would certainly be reminded of it.

But it's OK because all big spaceships would look like that if they were burning up. Right? It'd be like saying you can't have a car crash in a movie because a lot of people know someone who died in a car crash.

 

Any visual similarities are just that: visual similarities. Any other meaning is simply the associations the individual viewer ascribes to a visual image.

Seperate to this is whether GL uses visual imagery to reference other historical events - images that could be considered to be visually iconic and instantly recognisable to a broad viewership.

I personally did not see any overt connections in either the Invisible Hand imagery or the Jedi Temple imagery.

The one image throughout the entire PT that I thought was an overt iconographic connection was that of the TF droids marching through the streets of Naboo, under an arch. This image looks very much like the image of Axis soldiers marching through France and passing under the Arch of Triumph (Arc de Triumph) - this was a famous piece of black and white film imagery showing axis troops passing under this famous landmark - a symbol of invasion during world war 2. (see image below to give some idea)

[image=http://www.delange.org/Paris1/Arch_Of_Triumph.jpg]

image of the arch de triumph (Not the specific invasion footage of paris that I was looking for, rather a contemporary shot of the arch, to give an idea of the landmark).

[image=http://www.theforce.net/swtc/Pix/dvd/tpm/e_palace02.jpg]

image of naboo with TF forces in the plaza (note arch)

There is a shot from the palace, with Amidala looking out at the TF droids passing under this background arch. This shot looks very similar to this black n' white world war 2 footage that shows Axis troops passing under the arc of triumph.

I believe GL was, in this instance, making a visual connection in these shots - the context of the TPM scene is one of invasion, and the world war 2 historical footage is iconographic as invasion imagery - the connection is specific and overt, and I believe, intended on the part of GL.

 

[image=http://www.keypix.de/data/20_jh/bilder/01000972.jpg]
another image (not a great one) showing troops with arch in background.

[image=http://www.europa1939.com/ww2/1940/fra6.JPG]
and another...

 

Watched it the other day for the final time and this scene did remind me of the Columbia Shuttle I have to say. But I doubt ILM studied the footage of the disaster as a reference, its just theres only so many ways you can show a shuttle disintegerating and so its only natural that when they (ILM) make something believable its gonna resemble somethign in the 'real world'

 

when i first saw it i thought columbia disaster, the jedi temple burning up also sort of resembled WTC, the fact if they where done intentionally i don't know. But then again Lucas is a living, breathing, free thinking human that does watch the news( i assume), knows about the current affairs, so don't think that Lucas is so pure he did all these images and refrences to "democracy" all in his mind without outside influences, he wanted to provoke emotion for this movie and he did what he could to do it.

 

I don't know if it was intentional but there's a huge resemblance. Unfortunately what can be done? A burning space ship can only be done so many ways - and that also goes for the burning Temple.

 

I agree with the above poster!

No columbia reference whatsoever. Move along...

 

Most people on here dont seem to think the temple burning and the trade centre are at all related. I cant see how youd think that. The fact that lucas put the darkest day in the jedi history set against beautiful blue skys with plooms of smoke crossing the horizon made me think of that right away. I'm sure it was just a nod to people to not forget that similar tradgidys happen in real life too and not to forget the the brightest day can always be clouded by evil intentions.