Sure, it wouldn't have looked quite like it did in the prequels, but with selective shots they could have definitely portrayed it. I'll give examples of several films released around ROTJ (Including ROTJ itself) showcasing the technology: Blade Runner - They portray a futuristic megalopolis complete with flying cars, virtual hologram ads etc. very convincingly. It's shocking how good the special effects are for a film that came out in what, 1980? Star Trek 3 - The Spacedock/Enterprise escape scenes Empire Strikes Back - Bespin scenes Return of the Jedi - All of the space scenes, particularly close ups of ship/death star super structure like when Vader/Emperor are arriving at the death star, or scenes such as those tie fighters chasing the ywing around a star destroyer right before taking it out the when the rebels engage the imperial fleet at point blank range, the shots of the rebel fighters both skimming the surface of the death star before going in and the shots of them flying through the superstructure itself. I think when you look at the totally of what they did in these films a very believable version of Coruscant could have been shown.
For whatever reason, they felt that they they couldn't portray it. It is what it is... Sent from my SM-A716V using Tapatalk
Blade Runner so successfully stealing the thunder of the dystopian-megalopolis idea in 1981 was one reason Lucas backed away from it, I think. But a second complication was one of narrative. Logically, the plot would demand that the Rebels should take over Coruscant - or Had Abbadon, as it was then called - in some fashion by the end of the movie (or else destroy it with the Death Star, an option Lucas firmly rejected). Taking control of the planet would presumably require some sort of ground-level battle or else a covert infiltration, adding a third element to the climax along with the space dogfighting and the confrontation between Luke, Vader, and the Emperor. But Lucas had already determined that he had to have a subplot on Endor, first conceived as a forested moon of Had Abbadon, with the Ewoks taking on the Empire and winning with the aid of the Rebels. As he put it during the ROTJ story conferences with Larry Kasdan, Richard Marquand, and producer Howard Kazanjian, "I have pondered everything and thrown everything out and cleansed my mind even to the point of throwing the Emperor out. I went through the whole thing and I wasn’t very successful in coming up with another idea of how to finish it off and still keep my Ewoks going. I kept falling back into the same rut. After stripping everything away, these are some of the thoughts that I had—and I go back to getting rid of Had Abbadon. Forget it." Precisely why Lucas was so determined to shoehorn the Ewoks into the film is an interesting question. I wonder if it was a combination of his original radical political ideas and more mercenary desires. He could finally incorporate his theme from the 1974 rough draft of so-called "primitives" taking on a massively more well-armed technological force and winning, like the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War. But instead of the fearsome seven-foot-tall Wookees from the rough draft, the Ewoks were short and cuddly enough to be marketable to children as teddy bears - a factor that might have assumed particular importance given Lucas' knowledge of his impending divorce and the consequent strain on his cash flow that would result. In a very real sense, Coruscant was sacrificed so we could have the Ewoks. I think nobody besides Lucas was really happy with the trade.
We didn't need Coruscant in the OT. I'm just hoping nobody decides to shoehorn it in for no reason in the next Extra Special Edition.
I think it only really makes sense once the prequels were a thing. From 1997...most casual fans were left scratching their head at this never before seen location. Showing the city in 1983 is one thing....featuring a battle there....something else. I still hope some future SW film with have a Battle of Coruscant as an actual ground type battle. It could be amazing.
Well, a lot of people complain that Han and Leia have nothing to do for the second half of Jedi. I think if they were leading an uprising on Coruscant it would have made Jedi that much more epic.
Of course they had the technology: just use matte paintings or miniatures. Primitive CGI could have been used for certain elements too. I suggest you watch Forbidden Planet, released in 1956. There’s a big, futuristic underground city in it, and I assume it’s accomplished by compositing the actors onto paintings. The only real difference is that the city is abandoned due to the natives going extinct, so a densely populated city like Coruscant would take a lot more compositing.
