Rogue One [Official Info] Forest Whitaker (Saw Gerrera) in Rogue One

I wish we had had more of Saw in the film. I loved Whitaker's lines. "No lie...is safe!"

 

I adore that scene. The Colonel Kurtz moment in Star Wars.

 

That's a really good way of putting it, Gigoran Monk.

 

100%! Taking this even further... In Apocolypse Now (a brilliant film!) you see amongst the crowd various other men that have joined Kurtz (from both sides) and in RO you see a Rebel Fleet Trooper and a Imperial Biker Scout (both looking very dishevelled and clearly removed from the restraints of the neat and tidy military expectation) amongst his men That's also assuming that the IBS with the black helmet wasn't just a rebel who killed and stole a IBS's helmet haha

 

Yup. It also feeds into what I think was the film reflecting the progression from the murkiness and cynicism of earlier 70s cinema (Apocalypse Now, etc) to the hope of late 70s cinema ushered in by Star Wars ( A New Hope, 1977). Rogue One, in an interestingly meta way, actually shows us that transition. The first two acts are full of inner conflict, greyness and fog (including the Saw material, and its Apocalypse Now echoes), Act 3 then gives us a bit of OT brightness in terms of color, and then we have a literal transition from Rogue One's world of complex warfare and human beings, to the mythical world of the OT with angels of despair (Vader) and angels of hope (Leia) lighting up the screen. It's almost a film/ political history lesson!

 

Certainly, GM. 1970s cinema is filled with good ideas. That's why I appreciated R1 for feeling so much like a '70s film and a 2016 film simultaneously.

 

I was just told by someone to enjoy my “shiny bang bang” movie (Rogue One). If Rogue One is shiny bang bang, we need more shiny bang bang in the world.

 

Heh. Well, they don't understand the good, ol' values of filmmaking. It's not about the light and flash. It's about the character and moral ambiguity, as you well know. Tell 'em that.

I personally count RO one as among the best SW films in general. We waited a long time for it. Of course, some people have biases for secular things, and RO fills that bill all the way.

 

Goodbye. Or, for the self-referentially inclined...

 

The new Star Wars comics issue (#38), out this week, takes the action to Jedah, and presumably will show us what happened to Gerrera's group. I'm not a fan of Gillen's writing, and I'm not sure there's much of a story here, but I look forward to learning more about the place, the people who once populated it, and other mysteries.

Here's a sampler:

https://www.cbr.com/star-wars-38/

 

Cool! I've got to start collecting the comics of the new canon.

 

The comics of the new canon are pretty good as far as Vader is concerned. He very much resembles his old EU self. However, he has a larger kill count, I believe. Plus, he appears to be more powerful, since they negated the midi-chlorian argument to an extent (at least the authors don't seem to like it). They want to continue from where the prequels ended, but do their own thing. I like how Vader was weakened in the original EU. It makes him more relatable, despite how powerful he remained. Vader was not the most powerful Sith of all time, but he was very crafty, lethal, and adept. He killed Jedi who survived Order 66, after all. No easy task. And he may not have been capable of besting Sidious and living, but he did defeat him through both physical and Force-assisted means (in my headcanon).


Anyhow, I like the character of Saw. I like him in TCW and Rogue One. I haven't really seen him much in between, since I do not watch much Rebels (except for when Ahsoka or Maul show up). Saw as the anti-Vader, or walking emergency room, as Ben Burtt might say, is interesting. Tragic pathos. But he's also an extremist to the nth degree sometimes.



I do think it's a bit odd that his most valiant act is to allow Jyn to escape. His best scene is with her. He's the father-figure from her past, and he's honoring her decision to find her dad and destroy the Death Star somehow...someway. I think the writing behind how his scenes were revised is the only flaw I can glean in the movie. But I still like the character. (Reshoots.)



No lie...is safe!

 

Watched R1 yesterday and I actually kinda noticed that Saw's first line in the movie is "Hello" when Galen dials him up. Struck me as odd if only does Saw seem like a guy who would say "Hello?" Wouldn't it be more like "Yes?" or "What do you want?" Maybe him getting wrecked years later (something I'm sure we'll see in the remaining Rebels episodes) or his turn towards extremism made him less polite.

Other favourite random Saw line "Local boy, huh?" Oddly conversational and friendly considering he a hair away from possibly killing the cargo pilot.

 

I've been curious as to just how many SW fans; even the hardcore ones, knew who Saw Gerrera was before watching R1.

I think it's kind of ironic. I liked R1 enough to currently rank it #4 among my favorite SW movies to date, the Onderon arc from TCW was among my favorites, and I thoroughly respect Forest Whitaker as an actor throughout his film career; and yet his character in R1 just seemed too out of place for me. Of course it would've been better if he was given a little background. For all intents and purposes, they could've used any unimportant/expendable character to fill that role in R1. But then the argument would be essentially, "who's not expendable by the end except the Empire's fleet and the remaining crew who escaped with the DS plans to give them to Leia?"

 

Saw was easily the biggest missed opportunity of this movie for me. After spending the first act of the movie looking for him he just decides his time is over? For some reason that didn't make sense with how they portrayed him.

 

Being worn down and out he obviously was tired of the fight.

 

I liked Saw a lot. I never seen him in the EU and he was a new character for me.

I wanted to see more of him, though. I really liked how he was portrayed in Rebel Rising.

 

For me, Saw Gerrerra was the only weak spot of Rogue One. I’m not a big fan of Whittaker as an actor, and I didn’t really like his characterisation of Saw Gerrera. It was the voice and the strange intonation and mannerisms.

 

He wasn't part of the EU at all. His background was introduced in TCW (yet for some reason was left out of R1).

 

I was mad he didn't even mention his sister once (the comics did though, so there's that at least).

 

At least they fixed it in Rebels, where they acknowledged his sister's existence.

 

Is that book any good?? I love RO and want more of that world...

 

That little look Forest gives when when he is about to be blown away is priceless.
Kind of an FU, bring it on I ain’t scared of you look.

 

You know for a guy like Saw Gerrea who first appeared in clone wars arc and later a big budget movie, he sure has become the most connected character trough the whole rebellion era from episode 3 to episode 4. He's probaly the most important rebel character we see. He like Bail and Mothma is a father of the rebellion.