CT Han walking on Jabba's tail...

I don't care AT ALL.

 

Jabba wasn't a huge slug-like creature in 1976 and Han could walk around him. Obviously by 1983 that all had changed, thus Han stepping on his tail was a "necessary evil" in keeping that scene. I don't really have any problem with it. It's in keeping with Han's cocky nature--particularly in that first film.

 

This would have been perfect.

 

How would this even be possible? CGI Jabba has to be pasted in over Declan Mulholland. Holograms are semi-transparent. See the problem?

 

If they can paint over him, they can remove him.

 

Do you how hard it is do something like that, especially when there are other actors walking around behind him into and out of view? Putting a physical Jabba in there was already an insanely complicated job as it is, and you want to give them an even harder job just so Han can talk to a lame hologram instead of the actual thing? Easier said than done.

 

Yeah, now that you say it, I agree that it was a waste of effort and it should have stayed on the cutting room floor.

 

Nice little scene.

 

That's not what I said. I said it would be a whole lot of extra effort for an inferior result. I didn't think you realized how much more difficult that would be (the answer, again, is tremendously), so I pointed it out, but it's really ancillary to the main point. A holographic Jabba is lame. It isn't worth doing when you can just put the real Jabba in there instead. The fact that it would be indescribably more difficult to do just adds insult to injury.

Again, there's nothing wrong with Han stepping on Jabba's tail. Han knows he's still worth more to Jabba alive than dead, and that Jabba is going to give him at least one more chance to pay him back. Han's in a position of strength over Jabba at the moment, and he's flaunting it. That was the whole point of the scene, even in its original form. It's why Marcia Lucas was so keen to include it in the original cut: it showed Han wasn't afraid of Jabba.

If you don't like the new scene, it's because you fundamentally misunderstand what Han and Jabba's relationship is supposed to be at this point in time.

 

Really? I had no idea in the original deleted scene that Harrison Ford stepped on Declan Mulholland when he circled him. I'll look closer next time.

 

1. I dunno, but Lucas had a lot of bad SW ideas with the SE stuff and the PT. I honestly believe that the OT films are better because of the limited technology of the time.

2. No.

 

That's not at all what I said and you definitely know it. So let's just leave it at that.

 

This debate is everything that's great about star wars fandom

 

Jabba just isn't someone to mess with, and as was said earlier, Han wasn't take him as seriously as he should. Jabba is a vile, nasty, prideful gangster. He clearly hates it when someone doesn't pay him back or doesn't do his bidding. Later on, he says to Han, "And now you're banther fodder! Ho ho ho ho! Ah ha ha ha!" He's like the dark Santa Claus when he laughs like that. When Han got out of the carbonite, he must have been be like, "Am I gonna get some presents? Oh, I'm delirious!"

 

I think it was a silly little "Hey look what we can do with computers " moment that amused the ILM guys, and solved the issue of what to do with that moment with a little laugh.

I think folks take it too seriously.

 

They could've just cut to an insert of Han's boots (played by an ILM techy) stepping carefully around Jabba's CGI tail and then continued on with the scene from there.




Yes, I'm being sarcastic.

 

Should have added a shot of Jabba nursing his tail as he slivers away at the end of the scene instead of leaving the shot on Boba

 

More along the lines of Han doesn't back down from Jabba, regardless of the situation. He brazenly walks in with Chewie and doesn't go for his blaster, but instead talks to him and even talks back to him, even with half a dozen men with trained blasters on him, Han is one smug sumbitch in this scene. That's why Marica felt that the scene should have been included, regardless of Jabba being human and not an alien. It continued the badassery of the cantina scene.

Face it, Jabba in ANH was not Robert DeNiro as Al Capone with a ballbat, like he is in ROTJ. It's only reversed in ROTJ because Han is at a disadvantage and he knows it. Han doesn't act tough until they're at the Sarlacc Pit, while Luke is the one who is cool as a cucumber.

 

This screencap just about sums it up:



Lucas didn't CGI in Harrison Ford's facial expressions in this scene. He clearly isn't taking Jabba very seriously. He's Jabba's best smuggler, he's a cash cow. Jabba isn't going to do anything to him yet.

And in the 2004 version, Jabba does get visibly peeved at Han for stepping on his tail, but he calms down when Han offers to pay him back extra:



It works surprisingly well, because now it looks like a calculated show of dominance on Han's part. He steps on Jabba's tail to rile him up, then immediately reminds Jabba how much he's actually worth to him, making it impossible for Jabba to retaliate. It's really no wonder Jabba comes down so hard on him in ESB after Han fails to come up with the money. Han's been intentionally antagonizing him and making him look like an impotent fool.

 

He is worried when he tells Chewie that the fare can pay off his debt, but otherwise, he almost never shows it.

 

Well, he's worried that he's not going to be able to come up with the money eventually. If he never pays Jabba, Jabba is obviously going to retaliate at some point. But he knows Jabba isn't going to make a move yet as long as he can keep sweet-talking him, and he has an easy charter now worth a lot of money, and things seem to be looking up--so he's pretty confident when he confronts Jabba in the docking bay. Otherwise he wouldn't walk right up to him and his armed cronies with his blaster still in its holster.

And it makes Han's decision to come back to help Luke and the Rebels all that more heroic, because now we know he would have been totally square with Jabba if only he'd paid him on time. Jabba wasn't going to double-cross him and kill him anyway, because we can see Han is actually worth something to Jabba as long as he's still making money for him. Han could have been 100% free and clear with Jabba, but instead he decided to come back and help his friends and join the Rebellion, and so now he has a death mark.