CT The Return of the Jedi 40th Anniversary! “I am a Jedi like my father before me.”

"Look, it's only one more half-decade..."

 

I love how Luke tells Jabba, “you can profit from this or be destroyed.”
I had Decipher card that had those lines, it was a unusual double sided card:

 

I managed to see it twice. Once at Shankweiler's (as part of a double-feature with "Black Panther") and once at the AMC at Menlo Park (where I was the only attendee, and had to fill out a form before going inside).

 

Did the form ask,

“How many Bothans died to bring us this information?”

 

No, more like "Which theater are you going to?", "What are you seeing?", and "Have you been sick recently?"
They did not ask if I had a landing permit, nor did tell me they'd be honored if I would join them.

 

I would have written in sick:

Plagueis.

 

So, now we're finding out that Raiders of the Lost Ark will be coming to theaters!

You can bet your a$$ets I will NOT be missing THAT go around! I've never seen Raiders in the theater!

 

Timothy Lee Edwards’ art is breathtaking! I love his blend of Impressionism and realism:

 

Yeah, it's an upcoming Fathom Events presentation.
I saw it at a drive-in this past January as part of a double-feature with "Top Gun: Maverick". There are few movies I'd go to see at a drive-in with temps in the low 30s; "Raiders" is definitely one of them.

 

My first lightsabers:



I got Luke’s first, and it was like having the holy grail! Swinging it beneath the night sky and a big oak, at last a Jedi!

I got Vader’s later when my parents were sure I would not emulate Lord Vader in real life.

 

You seem to enjoy those double-features!!

I used to do that. But I just don't have the time anymore these days...

 

Drive-ins routinely do double-features. And, since it's two movies for the price of one, it works out great. The only problem for me is the long drive into PA to get there.

 

I eventually got a Vader 'saber, but back in the day, this is what we had to settle for until Kenner got up to speed:

 

Do you remember this Halloween generic saber?



It was a white blade and handle looked like a flashlight, but it was prophetic, because white sabers are major thanks to Ahsoka.

 

No, that's a new one on me.

 

That looks intriguingly like the early lightsaber prop designs, whose handles really were made out of flashlights. And when they tried to do the lightsabers with in-camera effects on the first film, they had to use a filter to try enhancing the glow, but this required all the blades to be the same color so Lucas opted for all-white sabers (until the effect turned out poorly and they switched to rotoscoping, which allowed for multiple colors).

 

Interesting! That probably is what it is! It was heavy at the hilt cuz you had to use two Double D Batteries.

 

I understand they initially used a Scotchlite material on the blades to reflect the light, then added animation to build up the glow further.

 

The animation was not intended at first - they had a filter in front of the camera that was supposed to enhance the glow, but it didn't really work. You can see the effect in the original trailer: the lightsabers just look like white sticks. So they had to go with rotoscoping in animated blades, which allowed for the possibility of different colors like in Ralph McQuarrie's paintings. (Originally Vader's blade was going to be blue and Luke and Obi-Wan's would be red, but this was switched at the suggestion of editor Paul Hirsch.)

The switch to rotoscoping also meant they didn't have to worry about the lightsaber props being (IIRC) delicate spinning glowing sticks with hidden electric cords on future films. Instead they could just use wooden sticks with elaborate handles and add the glow in post-production. This led to a massive improvement in the fight choreography in ESB and ROTJ.

 

I got in a 40th anniversary showing of ROTJ, hadn't seen it in theatres since 1997. Missed the opening crawl though I don't know what happened!

I really just loved watching the detail on the big screen. One bit that doesn't translate to a TV screen is when that frog thing eats the little critter is that the critter actually tries to run away! Also holy heck, Jabba is way more goo and slime in a theatre, yikes!

 

I never understood the hatred of the Ewoks. I still find them a nice balance to the dark aspects of the Throne Room scenes:

 

Jabba's awesome on the big screen. His nostril flare when he gets irate is a sight to behold.

 

I think they need to release the OT movies again in the theaters before any other anniversary dates. Return of the Jedi for a 1983 movie did pretty well with a limited one week release. Looking forward to Raiders of the Lost Ark. I will say this, GL's movies were made to be seen in the theaters. It was also great to see the box office cume (domestic) for Return of the Jedi move up especially past Attack of the Clones.