Horizon

Geroge Lucas is the Antichrist. The only remotely interesting thing I've ever heard Lucas suggest--not that he did it, mind--was in Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls where Lucas wanted to do Apocalypse Now (it was his project orginally) in 1968 IN Vietnam and shoot action sequences in the bloody war zones!! Clearly he gave up marijuana... Ok there's American Graffiti which I sort of like, though the best bit in it is when Harrison Ford's car comes up to the sound of Green Onions and that is cut criminally short. After that he settles down perfects this brew: one cup of 'The Searchers'; a generous handful of 'Lawrence of Arabia'; A dash of 'Flash Gordon'; two cups of 2001; some minutely chopped Buck Rogers and then fold in a couple of pounds of Kurosawa. I prefer the ingredients to the dish.
Notonly that, he's seems to be one of the major movers in infantilizing grown people.

Nick

Greedo apparently shoots first-- by about five frames. People apparently count these things.

Why it's so important--to both fans, and perhaps to Lucas-- is an interesting issue. I'm going to do the boorish thing and quote from my column because, frankly, I can't be arsed to do the decent thing and summarize it...

"In the original Star Wars, Han Solo is arguing with Greedo over making a necessary payment. Just as the argument gets to a pitch and it sounds like Greedo’s going to get nasty, Han plugs him dead. And so he should. In the original film, Han was an amoral mercenary who only at the end of the film gives in to his better instincts. For George Lucas, this hasn’t sat well in retrospect. Han is a hero to kids, and he’s much more the hero in the sequels. So, in the retitled special edition of Episode IV: A New Hope, they CGI—badly, I might add—Greedo shooting at Han first, so Han shoots in self defence."

It may well be ripped off from Westerns, but I think for fans of the film who have very strong opinions it's something of a flashpoint. It's a moment that defines who he is.

Plus, it just looks plain AWFUL, even restored. If you really want Greedo to shoot first, then shoot an actor in the rubber suit again pushing pulling the gun out in some normal manner against a green screen and CGI him in. They just add a gun and laser fire to the existing footage and it looks not only cheesy, but quite possibly physically impossible from the angle Greedo is supposed to be shooting at.

And, for me, it was done back in the day when Harrison Ford was a character actor happy to be doing a rogueish secondary part rather than being a star (and brilliant at it-- the 'we've had a technical fault' scene is one of the funniest scenes in the film), and I'm personally very protective of the Han Solo in the original film (none of this 'new hope' nonsense) for that reason.

Graeme, are you going to buy the new DVD set yourself?

"Secondary part"?

You are obviously not female.

Perhaps a representative of the swooning-'n'-sighing brigade would concur with me that one of the problems with the three prequel movies is that there's no-one occupying the Han Solo niche?

One of the problems? Yeah, I suppose, right after bad special effects, some of the worst dialogue ever written (and that includes b-movies), Jar Jar Binks, bad acting, boring "plots". Look, when I was six I loved the first Star Wars, and I still think it's fun. But I can't imagine liking these new ones even if I were six years old again.

Graeme, are you going to buy the new DVD set yourself?

I've seen some of it--basically Mos Eisley, just to see if they've improved the CGI work or not-- already. But on the subject owning it, I vacillate wildly. Maybe, if I can get them cheap somewhere. I might just stick with my VHS copies from the early 90s though. That said, the documentary in the box set might tip it in favour of buying it, if just to see the scenes where they show the unlooped sequences where you can see Chewbacca talking with a Leeds accent.

Perhaps a representative of the swooning-'n'-sighing brigade would concur with me that one of the problems with the three prequel movies is that there's no-one occupying the Han Solo niche?

It's been argued that the problem thus far is no one is really fulfiling a protagonist's role, never mind Han Solo.

Personally, I think most of the post Star Wars sequels and prequels have suffered a loss of the Grand Moff Tarkin niche--Peter Cushing was the best thing about the first film.

Perhaps they were all out of Grand Moffs (surely a Grand Poohbah would have sufficed?)

Call me a know-nothing if you want, but I'm mildly proud of never having seen the prequel movies at all.