CT How Star Wars was saved in the edit

Ok. I'm trying to imagine how utterly unwatchable it must have been to have a ticking clock on the order of an hour or more.

 

Right. And honestly, though I love ANH to death, the big coincidence of the Rebels blowing up the Death Star exactly as it was about to fire, always struck me as a bit too tidy. As did the countdown. So I certainly don’t think that element of the film necessarily saves it. The scene may have worked just fine with another solution.

 

I liked the first version better since Rebellion in the film didn't care about escaping from a planet that is going to blow up by Death Star.(While in Episode 5 they cared about imperial forces and escaped via transports.)

 

I would imagine a criterion for all ages is whether or not the sneaking suspicion erupts during the moment, or during your next trip to the refrigerator. It is a conceit, to be sure. We don't have a good analogue of a close call between opponents in the class of nuclear conflict. There is an interesting example of a close call in the (reported) experience of Carlos Hathcock, sniper, taking out an enemy sniper through that enemy sniper's own scope. I think this was exampled in Enemy At the Gates or Saving Private Ryan.

 

This rebuttal video tears the video apart. Exposes all its absolute falsehoods.

 

The first falsehood of the original "How SW was saved in the edit" video is right at the beginning: the cut that Lucas showed to his friends in February 1977 that was so terrible..... was not the rough cut! All three editors (Marcia, Chew and Hirsch) had been working on the film for months (in fact, Marcia and Chew had already left the film!). A lot of the changes had already been made. Jabba's scene and the Anchorhead scenes weren't in the film. The voices had already been dubbed.

 

Im kinda glad the Anchorhead scenes werent included in the film at in they would slow the film down IMO, but have never really minded the reinstatement of the Jabba scene and second Luke and Biggs scenes for the SE as they dont ruin the pacing too much for me.

 

This guy brought the pain.

 

I saw the Prequels. He didn't screw it up as far as I'm concerned. If it were not for the Prequels, I would have never developed a higher appreciation for the saga like I did.

Yeah, I also find it tiresome. All you Sequel Trilogy fans . . . this is what you have to look forward to in the years to come.

 

Rocket Jump should be renamed, it is not a film school, it is a propaganda school, lol.

P.S. The main impression, which all these videos try to create, is always the same: Lucas cannot write.
And all of it already looks boring.

 

One thing I heard circulated from the 'saved in the edit video' was that supposedly the Death Star wasn't moving to attack Yavin in the pre-edited version. Which...doesn't match with the 1976 script, nor does it make sense with several shots and dialogue (unless they suggested there were reshoots?). I can only assume they got it confused with much earlier drafts where that might've been the case?

 

Nope, that was definitely the case, as reported elsewhere. Which 1976 script do you have? Keep in mind that the "official" screenplay was edited afterwards, it's not the shooting script.
There was no need for reshoots, it was all done with voice-overs - if you look at it carefully, you never see the face of any actor mentioning the Death Star is about to fire. It's all done with very clever editorial tricks.
That change was done after the first cut of the film, in November 1976. So, by the time Spielberg and his friends saw the cut of the movie, the final version of the battle was in place (whereas the video says otherwise).

 

There's a few shots that would've had to be added in (like the flashing map in the Yavin base), and the Death Star approach is not only seemingly in most of the previous script drafts (like the Starkiller iterations) but even the novelizations with its infamous diversions from the final version. I mean it's not beyond the realm of possibility that this was an edit change, but all the evidence I've seen leaves me somewhat skeptical.

 

Was that the first?

There are no many falsehoods in that video it's hard to keep track of!

As pointed out previously and gone into extreme depth in the How "How Star Wars was saved in the edit" was saved in the edit (sort of, but not really) video so many basic research items were gotten wrong that it indicates either their research was really, really terrible or that they simply ignored them because they wanted to craft their own story as opposed to telling the actual story.

The really bizarro story that is being told is that Marcia Lucas was so completely involved with Star Wars all the way with George (where it all supposedly went so terribly wrong) but at the exact same time completely uninvolved until the editing so it could be "saved".

At the same time they are completely unaware that Lucas was actually the prime editor on the movie as many directors are. As many directors oversee everything it's not like they get extra credit for doing so outside of story, script and production.

So all at once she was involved in the movie in a way that had the Biggs Tatooine scenes and the extra trench run from story to script to development to shooting indicating that she was with it all the way but then only at the edit point did she want them cut like she was never a part of it before that point.

I mean never mind that it was Marcia who wanted those extra Tatooine scenes in. Scenes which Lucas himself was never really keen on in the first place but included in the process anyway just in case in the end he decided to go with them.

I don't recall the sequence of events but IIRC the actual primary change there is that the very immediate danger to the Rebels was not part of the original. The Death Star entered the system, the Rebels engaged them and the story sequence was to be that the Death Star would destroy the Rebel base after they got through the Rebel attack not targeting them during the attack.

That was the edit change by reusing footage and adding voices with the "Fire when ready" and whatnot.

That makes the most sense in terms of upping the suspense from implication to an actual countdown. This is something that is going to be far more obvious to do when sequences are put together visually as opposed to in concept.

 

Insert shots of the flashing map were SF shots that were done later, not during principal photography.
I just checked Rinzler's summary of the previous sceenplay versions, and they don't mention the Death Star about to destroy the Rebel base at all, are you sure that is the case?
The novelization is a mix between the shooting script and all the various changes that were added later, but still, it doesn't feature the Death Star about to fire.

Now, just to make sure we're talking about the same thing: the Death Star was always going to be approaching the Rebel base. The thing that wasn't present in the first cut (or in the novel, as far as I recall) was the "Rebel Base in range in 7 minutes..." countdown. That tickling clock is what was added after the first cut was screened.

 

As the rebuttal video mentions, this is not the case. These inserts were shot during principal photography.

Again, it has to emphasized, the Death Star was always approaching the Rebel base with the intention of destroying it. The goal was to destroy the Death Star before it got within range of the Rebel base. The only things that were added were the countdown and the various shots of the Death Star preparing to fire. The time lock already existed. The editorially manufactured countdown only served to enhance it.

 

Acting like Marcia Lucas was the sole reason Star Wars was good as it was always seemed like a stretch..

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Aren't all movies "saved in the edit"?

 

All movies are MADE in the edit.

 

In a way when you consider that any movie can ruined in the edit if handled by incompetents in the first place but that would be pretty extreme.

It's an extreme example but I don't know that any edit could save Highlander 2. It's been tried but the whole thing was so confused from the start the best editors would have a herculean task to just get it to be normal lousy.

The premise was so disconnected from the first movie that it was basically saying "Yeah that movie you liked so much? Well forget just about everything you saw."

 

Pretty much any movie is saved in the edit

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Except for the ones that aren't.

 

True, and few movies turn out as good as A New Hope.

 

Star Wars did have an excellent team that was able to concoct a very good movie..

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I can think of a lot of movies that are just as good as "A New Hope", if not better.