Richard Marquand's influence on 'Return of the Jedi'

Hello. I would like to know of director Richard Marquand's influence on the 1983 film: 'Return of the Jedi.' His input, his ideas, his insights and what in the film was of his making; Be it sound, music placement, an actor's performace, certain shots or camera placements or a certain line. I know director Irvin Kershner had a huge influence on the masterpiece 1980 film: 'The Empire Strikes Back.' I would now like to know Richard's hand in ROTJ. Also, his thoughts on the film and if he enjoyed directing it and how he took the heavy criticism of ROTJ being the least favorate of the OT among many fans, etc and if it was his doing.


So can anyone help me?

 

Well he was the director so he was responsible for most of what you see.

 

Yes but we all know there was alot of problems on set with him and it is rumored Lucas had to do most of the job himself.

 

Is that how it was?

Or was it more of a case of Lucas wanting to have tighter control over ROTJ than he had on ESB?

 

I don't know.

 

Many of the cast and crew have stated that Richard Marquand had a hard time working with the special effects so Lucas had to come in and direct a lot of the film himself.

 

From what I can recall Marquand viewed himself as very much like the conductor while GL was the composer. George did come to 'visit' the set of ROTJ but then he called the wife and told him to send some clothes over as they stay would prove to be a long one.

One thing Marquand did contribute in was the scene of Yoda's death, which is often considered one of the saddest scenes in all of SW. Gl had scripted Luke mentioning Yoda's death but Marquand insisted on including the scene.

Surprisingly, the things we like about SW like Han's 'I know' and Obi-Wan's death were not done by Lucas but were from somewhere else. The 'I know' of course is Harrison ad-libbing (he does that a bit in ANH and ESB and when he does do it he's good) and Obi-Wan's death was Marcia Lucas's idea as George originally had Obi-Wan wounded by Vader and he was a bit of baggage for the rest of the film.

 

Sure, Marquand had some influence in ROTJ. But according to Gary Kurtz, GL went with Marquand because he was a director than GL could "control" unlike Kersh who pretty much did his own thing most of the time on ESB. Of course one should likely take what Kurtz says regarding GL with a grain of salt.

Too bad the Director's Guild wouldn't let Speilberg helm ROTJ--but that's the subject of another thread.

 

I think he came up with the idea of Ewoks didn't he? I thought I had read that somewhere. Something about how George wanted to go with Wookies, but Marquand talked him out of it, by telling him it would be awesome if there was a planet of teddy bears that beat the Empire. I think that's what I read.

 

Gary Kurtz is wrong. He wasn't there, and if Lucas had just wanted a director he could contol, he never would have pursued David Lynch and Spielberg. The fact is Jedi was a much grander story than Empire and if Marquand took the same time and care that Kershner did, the movie would have gone way over budget, as many movies did in those days. So Lucas and the second unit director shot a lot of stuff, which sadly led to Jedi having a sloppy, rushed quality, and the ewok battle having that generic second-unit A-Team episode feel. In the making of Jedi book, it is mentioned that Marquand and his cinematographer intended to light and shoot the ewok village much more carefully and dramatically, and to make the lightsaber duel "bigger" than the one in Empire, and both ideas were shot down by Lucas.

 

I'm glad Lucas didn't shoot down the idea of the Ewoks...they're hilarious!!

 

^^
the hell you say!

this is also what i heard. was it in empire of dreams?

 

It was mentioned in Empire of Dreams. I don't know if it was said elsewhere, too.

 

Ewoks are AWESOME!!! But Gungans are pretty cool too.

 

No, No, the Gungans are awesome, but the Ewoks are pretty cool, too.


(however, let's not drag the thread down with this )

 

It's a well known fact that Lucas wanted tighter control on ROTJ than he had on ESB. He was in many ways not happy with Kershner's job (several SFX heavy scenes had to be reshot by Lucas afterwards). That's excactly the main reason why Lynch and Cronenberg passed on it - because they could not accept to be just directing the actors with almost no influence visually.
The movie is basically directed by Marquand and Lucas, and several scenes are directed (and in at least one case shot) by Lucas alone. But Lucas tends to be to modest to take credit for a lot of things (unlike a lot of filmmakers that take credit for too much).

 

I don't know of Lucas really stepping in and directing any of ROTJ. He did come on the set, which i don't think he did in ESB. The main thing he did was after the fact he wasn't happy with early cuts, and re-edited it himself. In fact i think i read that insiders called in "black monday".

 

ESB:
Lucas was visiting the set of ESB several times. He also had to reshoot several effects shot after principal photography because they did not work out.
Kershner directed ESB based on Lucas' storyboards and directing style because his job was to fullfill Lucas' vision, not his own.

ROTJ:
Lucas directed several scenes himself. C-3PO and R2 on their way to Jabba's palace and Luke's final talk with Vader (which he also photographed himself) are two of them.
IMO it's right to say that ROTJ was directed by both Marquand and Lucas.

 

Well from Kirshner's own words he seems to be more independant than that. He storyboarded the movie, he also told Lucas by phone when he was skipping parts he didn't feel he needed.

 

ESB was all Kershner. He was not fullfilling Lucas' vision, he was adapting it into his own, and it shows. Kershners stamp is all over the film.

ROTJ was directed from afar by Lucas, so to speak. He was onset almost every day and chose a director that he knew would not oppose his ideas, and whose ideas were more in line with his own. Obviously Marquand had an influence on the film, but Lucas' is extremely heavy, and in fact i would say that Lucas could be considered an all-out co-director of the film.

 

Are you sure about that? I've read several times that the original storyboards for ESB were drawn by Lucas, then improved by a storyboard artist (as is the procedure on the majority of movies).
The directing style used in ESB is also very typical Lucas.

 

Kirshner gave an interview in 2000 to SW insider and he talked about drawing the storyboards,and he spent almost a year doing them, and had two copies made, one he left with one Lucas so he could call him from England and he would be able to look at the boards he had filmed that day. That's what he said, so that's what i'm going by.

 

I just looked it up. He was asked how often GL visited the set. He said "not often. Twice. Once when we started with the Yoda puppet."

 

Okay, I must have been misinformed then. While I do not know much about Kershner's directing style (only other Kershner movie I've ever seen is ROBOCOP 2) ESB does have Lucas' style all over it, so it could still be a possiblity that Kershner was trying to make ESB as close to what Lucas would have done as possible. Don't you think?

 

I heavily disagree. I mean, yeah, ESB has some Lucas influence on it--he created the characters and wrote the script for gosh sakes--but in terms of style, it is totally opposite. ANH and ROTJ share a very similar style--the two films look like they were made by the same person. But ESB totally sticks out--it doesnt even seems like it is from the same series of films. The directing, tone, use of camera and light, the acting and pace--everything is much different.

The thing that seperates ESB is that it wasnt intended to be a Lucas film--Lucas wanted to experiment by having a new director play with his story and make the film to his own style, and in that Kershner succeeded. Every few years there would be a new SW film and new director doing his/her own take on the series. But after ESB's difficulties Lucas abandoned this plan and essentially controlled everything himself, leading to ROTJ where he essentially was a co-director and shaped everything to the way he wanted. ESB is Kershners film all the way.