CT What's your favorite little moment or detail in CT?

@ Lt. Hija My understanding was that ALL Ackbar's lines and shots in the script for scenes set on the battle bridge were put in the can with Madine in Ackbar's place. Including reaction shots to things like commencing the attack on the main reactor and Executor and the Death Star meeting their demise.

 

Martoto77

I see your point. So that particular image might have been Madine's reaction to the "sinking" of the Super Star Destroyer before that scene with Ackbar (acting rather differently) was chosen instead.

I think you're right.

 

I haven't read the whole thread, as i don't come into the OT forum too often, but my favorite little detail is...

I'm a child of the 80s and grew ups with Star Wars and Indiana Jones and Back to the Future as absolute staples of my life, but i must've been in my mid-teenage years when i first laughed at the throw away line uttered by Princess Lea "you came in that thing? You're braver than I thought".

I had always loved the story of good vs evil, the triumph of primitive ewoks, discounted by the powerful Empire, the mythology of The Force, and the heroic nature of many of the characters throughout the Original Trilogy, but that line cemented my liking of the original Star Wars film as my favorite in the saga.

 

"The first transport is away. The first transport is away" <cheer>

I still get goosebumps...

 

When Anakin throws the Emperor down the shaft.

 

Expressions give so much away over the course of the trilogy - these details are great fun.

Palpatine's utter contempt at Luke's rejection of the Dark Side - and the irony of his words which he practically has so spit out.



Tarkin's pondering of the Battle of Yavin - as if he is almost restless, whether doubt has finally broken through his arrogance after all.





Also the classic moment from ANH - the sudden change from boldness to complete shock/realization.

 

That line is one my favorites from the Emperor. One of the first times things didn't go as he foreseen and his contempt of that fact is clear.

 

It's hard for me to pick just one, but I'd have to say whenever there's a closeup of Salacious Crumb laughing.

 

I love when Luke pushes a snake off a table in Yoda's house in ESB.

 

Darth Weavile

Indeed, and I don't believe the coice of a snake was accidental: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakes_in_mythology

 

Maybe a little off-topic, but I don't know where else it fits. Does anyone remember these?


I must have gotten one sometime in late 1978. It had some short clips from ANH, in total maybe about 20 or 30 seconds long. You could stop turning the handle and look at still pictures. Long before the internet, that was a nice way to analyze a special effect, frame by frame. You could also reverse the film or play it at any speed you chose. In the early VHS days there was no way to pause the tape and get a clear still picture. The movie wasn't even available on home video then, so super 8 was the only way to "watch" SW, outside a movie theater.

 

Sith Lord 2015

I had one of these with the scene when Luke, Han and Chewie blasted the detention block AA-23 guards. Considering that the Super 8 rolls with the (shortened) film in 4:3 Pan & Scan were rather expensive, this was the only access to Star Wars film scenes outside of a theater.

Still don't know whether different cartridges contained different scenes from the film.

 

Love this scene, but I've always wondered why Vader stopped Fett from shooting Chewie? He still had Leia and killing one of his friends could drive him closer to the Darkside.

 

I think I had the same cartridge. I wasn't aware that there were different ones. I just had that one. But then at that time I lived in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, so not much of a selection in stores, not to mention not a single movie theater in the whole city. As far as I remember, it contained: a few scenes of the opening battle, Owen negotiating with 3PO, the Falcon taking off in Mos Eisley, cell block gunfight, light saber duel, tiny parts of the TIE attack and battle of Yavin, of course never the whole sequences but just a few seconds of each. Later I got the super 8 reels with sound, to be played with a real projector. Lt. Hija, you probably remember those from Germany, VERY expensive for that time. Part 1 was about 20 minutes long, part 2, which had no footage of the battle of Yavin whatsoever but concluded with Han destroying the last TIE fighter and 3PO "melting". So what I did was intercut those reels with the one included in the plastic viewer, and ended up with a slightly more complete "version" of Star Wars, which at about 30 minutes was really not much more than a long trailer. Talk about SW nostalgia....

 

One of my favorite scenes from the saga:

 

Smoking embers in bodies/walls from blaster fire.

 

I always enjoyed that, and all the smoke blasters made.

 

One of my favorites is when in ROTJ the Emperor moves his hand to reveal Luke's lightsaber resting on the arm of his chair.

 

My favourite bit from that, my favourite scene of all the movies, is at 2:12, that first glimpse of Han's profile as he is lifted from the freezing chamber. That whole scene still scares me, I think it is perfection. The lighting, the production design, the tension...everything.

 

Intro of Yoda was one of my favourite moments. So funny and then the big reveal.

 

One thing I always loved about the OT was how even though he was masked, I could always get a sense of what Darth Vader was thinking and feeling.

I don't know if that is great direction or David Prowse's great performance inside the suit, but there are scenes where I look at Vader and I just know what's going through his mind.

Look at the scene where the Emperor is torturing Luke and Vader looks down on him. You feel his inner conflict and can almost read it in his face...which you can't see.

 

"Your eyes can deceive you, don't trust them!"

After the prequels we can realize that Obi Wan is talking from experience here. The Jedi trusted their eyes when it came to Palpatine and were tricked.

Another detail I love is how Artoo is able to trick Luke into removing his restraining bolt because Luke figures he's too small to escape. Luke's fixation with size determining power is something Yoda will correct in ESB and then it pays off in ROTJ when Luke sees the potential in the little Ewoks. Also if Artoo hadn't tricked Luke and had he not escaped Luke would still be on the farm when the stormtroopers came and would have been killed too so Luke's folly plays into destiny's hands just as Jar Jar's clumsy antics unwittingly end up effecting great change in the galaxy.

 

The score rising when the defenders call the retreat on Hoth. Then all the troops desperately trying to scramble out of their trenches.

There's just something so tragic about it and the music is great. The Empire is never any more scary than at that moment for me.

 

^ I wholeheartedly agree, and the scene culminates with this meancing close-up shot of three snow walker heads turning towards at the audience...

https://starwarsscreencaps.com/star-wars-episode-v-the-empire-strikes-back-1980/21/ (Frames 40 thru 46)

(sorry, couldn't locate the screencap and my image provider has currently uploading problems)

 

We do see one getting blown up by an asteroid in Empire.

Actually, that will be my contribution:

When the asteroid crashes into the Star Destroyer in Empire and the little hologram of the captain winks out in the next scene.

Always missed that before the special editions due to pan and scan on VHS.