Star Wars Rewatch, Ernst Rister Edition: Part 1

[glitter_n_gore]

Episode IV: From Farm Boy to Rebel Fighter (A New Hope)

Hey guys! As I mentioned before, I'm doing the Ernist Rister order for this rewatch. Since it's numbered weird, I'll list "Part X" in the title to indicate where I am in the rewatch, list the "episode" number in a sub-heading, and do a wrap-up summary of "The Story So Far" each time to keep from getting lost. There will be Unmarked Spoilers all over the place, so tread carefully if you're one of the few people who hasn't seen these movies.

I'm also rereading the novelizations of all six movies, in the same order, at the same time. I've read them before except for The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars, so what I'm hoping is I'll be able to share more background stuff that wasn't in the movies, comment on how things change when they're added back in with the re-edits of the original trilogy, and how it affects the characters' journeys. For this entry, I'm gonna focus on our establishing character moments by looking specifically at two of them: Luke Skywalker and Han Solo.

Yes, I'm watching the re-edits this time, because I have Points to make regarding story structure, pacing, and character development. Also, I cheated and watched the theatrical version of A New Hope beforehand. Oops. But what's interesting about that is, since it's been almost twenty years since I watched the director's cuts of any of these movies, I'm looking at it sort of fresh. There was a lot that I'd forgotten about the re-edits and exactly how things changed, and while it's extremely disorienting the first time you see it--rather like someone has invaded all your childhood memories and rearranged the furniture when you weren't looking--it's actually not that bad. Well, not this one anyway.

Let's do this!


(Image taken from Giphy.)

The Story So Far:
Young Luke Skywalker, after stumbling across a mysterious plea for help from the beautiful Princess Leia, gets tangled up in the Rebellion against the Empire. In the process, he loses his only family--his aunt and uncle, who raised him--but befriends Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, space pirate Han Solo and his co-pilot Chewbacca, and the captured Leia . . . only to discover Leia can pretty much rescue herself. Because she's awesome. He witnesses Kenobi's murder by Darth Vader, the Sith Lord who also killed his father (or so he's been told), and joins the Rebellion. Finally, after the rest of his strike team is killed or incapacitated, he (with Han's help) destroys the Death Star battle station and is welcomed back as a hero. Vader, however, survives.


First, let me clarify what I mean by "establishing character moments." This is often the scene where we meet a character, but not always. Some characters take a little longer to really introduce themselves. This is all just my opinion of course, but the following are the moments where I felt I had really learned something about the big players in this story. To start, let's go through them all so you know where I'm coming from, because the establishing character moments in this movie are pretty awesome across the board:

Kenobi--> "These aren't the droids you're looking for." Obi-Wan Kenobi. Perfect Jedi. I will come back to this and prove it as this rewatch continues. At this point, however, we get to see Kenobi use his powers for the first time. And it's subtle. He's so calm, yet so self-assured, that while you're on his side and trust him, you start to realize, "Wow, okay, this guy really knows what he's doing. Let's stay on his good side." This, even more than the moment he cuts down one of the thugs in the cantina, even more than when he faces Darth Vader, tells you Kenobi is exactly what he says he is: a Jedi knight with incredible power who can shut down Imperial Storm Troopers like it's nothing. They run straight into the enemy they've been most hoping to avoid at this point, and he just shrugs them off. Watch Mark Hamill's face in this scene, because that was my face--and probably yours too--when we realized who and what Obi-Wan Kenobi really was: The Perfect Jedi.

Vader--> "I find your lack of faith disturbing." So, I'm getting a different vibe from Darth Vader on this rewatch/reread than I had before, and this is a big part of it. The scene in the war room is . . . interesting, and the first hint we get that Vader is a more unique villain than we might've suspected. We establish early on that he's feared and respected across the galaxy, thinks more highly of himself than pretty much anyone else (although not without reason), and will not hesitate to kill anyone who bothers him. That's all standard for a Big Bad. But he's also a believer. He recognizes that while the Death Star is a powerful and technologically advanced weapon, it's still a mechanical creation built and designed by humans, who are by definition fallible. More importantly, he believes that there's a "Force" in this universe greater than any human or machine, including himself, and he respects it. This was the moment when Vader upgraded from "villain" to "character" for me. Keep this in mind when we get to the prequels.



Leia--> "Darth Vader. Only you could be so bold." Sass the Dark Lord, will you? Dayum, sister, you are AWESOME. This happens after we've seen Vader choke someone to death for not giving him the answer he wanted. She also takes the first shot at the Storm Troopers when we first see her, before any lines of dialogue happen. AND she outsmarts her captors to keep the Rebel Base hidden. Twice! This tells us Leia has a strong sense of duty, and while her family is important to her--the only time she shows signs of cracking is when Alderaan is threatened--the Rebellion is more important. Standing up to Darth Vader after the audience has seen how ruthless he is makes her fearless and determined. We still don't know how exactly she got a hold of those blueprints for the Death Star, but it's beside the point. Leia will get the job done no matter what. She also doesn't grow or change that much in this movie, but she's got work to do--we never see her let her guard down. That happens . . . next time.

Luke--> "Biggs is right--I'm NEVER gonna get out of here!" Luke is established as restless and slightly immature in several of his early scenes, wanting to "waste time with [his] friends" rather than help out his uncle on the farm. And yet, he initially turns down Kenobi's offer to train him as a Jedi. Yes, he wants off Tattooine. Yes, he idolizes his father (rather, the image he has of his father). Yes, he craves adventure. But he also has a strong sense of duty and loyalty to his family that keeps him tied down, and he resents it. However, Luke also has a best friend called Biggs Darklighter, who joins the Rebellion off-screen, and that's another layer of his motivation. A pretty significant one, actually, that you might not notice if you don't read the book. It's still there in the theatrical cut if you know where to look, but it's important to me that the Hero have a best friend who inspires him and gives him life advice. Someone who reminds him of home, as opposed to someone he meets after the adventure starts. That's Biggs, and I'm gonna expand on that a lot in a minute.

Han--> "You mean you've never heard of the Millenium Falcon?" Let me explain something: a "parsec" is a measure of distance. Not time. Han claiming that his ship "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs" is as farcical as me bragging that my car is so fast it can drive from my house to the grocery store in only ten "miles." It makes no sense. There have been numerous theories trying to explain what's going on with the word choice here, but I like this one: Han has no idea what he's talking about, and is banking on his new cohorts not knowing enough to call him out on it. He's arrogant, smooth, and capable of handling just about any situation, but he's also likely to dive into things without really knowing what he's doing. And get out okay despite that. He thinks on his feet, and puts himself (and his copilot) before everyone else in the room. He's the kind of guy who shoots first, is what I'm getting at here, and I'll expand on that first.



What's weird about Han's case is that the director's cut both invents and undermines the idea of Greedo shooting first within just a few minutes. First, we have the edited scene with Greedo, which I've always felt goes by too fast to see what's happening anyway. I probably mentioned this in my last retrospective, but even looking at the new edit, I keep thinking Han just shoots twice really fast. Or they both shoot at the same time and Han hits his mark. But then we get to the scene with Jabba. I was not a fan of this scene when I first watched it, but that's mostly because of the awful, awful CGI. Mos Eisley is lousy with unnecessary, over-crowded abuse of CGI, and it's distracting as FUCK. This isn't just a "They Changed It, Now It Sucks" thing--it's a sloppy use of poor quality FX thing. Not only does it get in the way of Obi-Wan's "These aren't the droids you're looking for," moment--which, as I mentioned, is kind of important; it draws attention to the fact that things were added in and moved around after the fact, since this kind of technology didn't exist in 1977.

But once you get past all that, and accept the idea that in this particular scene, Jabba is a CGI creature rather than a puppet, it's very enlightening. Why does Jabba the Hutt, the Mafia boss of Tattooine, feared and hated by all, more wealthy and powerful than anyone else on the entire planet, find it necessary to first send a disposable lackey after Han Solo, and only later approach Han himself backed up with lots and lots of firepower? And why, when he finally confronts him, does he sweet-talk him and give him one more chance to make good on his payment instead of beating the hell out of him, like you'd expect from a Mafia boss? This is another thing you only get from the novelization, but Jabba is scared. He can't tell in this scene where Han is keeping his weapon, and that makes him nervous. Why? Because Han is clever, unpredictable, and prone to "blasting everything in sight," as we'll see later on when we get to the Death Star. So, nice try, George, but if you wanted to set up Han as less violent and triggy-happy, you sunk that idea in a whole one scene. Han has room to grow as a character--he doesn't need be a morally clean non-violent guy yet. And he was responding to a direct threat with Greedo, so there you go.

Now, I first read the novelizations of the original trilogy when I was ten or eleven, shortly after discovering the movies, and A New Hope is the only one actually written by George Lucas. It's almost exactly like the movie, but it's also a little sophomoric. Lucas is a movie guy, not a book guy, and the book reads like a Hollywood screenplay: very short, very quick, lots of action, and a scattered narrative focus told in a distant third-person point of view. There's not much additional information, and precious little internal dialogue from the characters. As a result, all the extra scenes are things you can find either in the extended director's cut, or in the deleted scenes on the BluRay.

Aside from the part with Jabba, most of those extra scenes? Are about Biggs Darklighter.



He's a little older than Luke, and a little more popular, and he's the one person on Tattooine that Luke can really confide in. When Luke spots an interstellar battle visible from Tattooine's atmosphere, the other people in their friend group at Anchorhead (Luke has a friend group at Anchorhead, by the way--well, it's Biggs' group, really, Luke is like the younger brother everyone else puts up with) accuse him seeing things or making it all up for attention. But Biggs believes him. And when Biggs reveals that he's abandoned the Academy to join the Rebel Alliance, he pulls Luke aside and tells him alone--he's the only one he trusts with that information. Biggs encourages Luke to do something more with his life than hang around on the farm. And when Luke reaches the outpost on Yavin at the end of the movie, and finds Biggs there after everything he's been through--losing his aunt and uncle, rescuing Leia, losing Obi-Wan, fighting off TIE fighters from the Millenium Falcon--it's like he's found a piece of home again. Biggs showing up in the third act clarifies that line about, "Beggar's Canyon back home"--that's an in-joke between the two of them, not Luke just rattling off random things no one else would understand. He also vouches for Luke when their squadron leader expresses doubt that he'll be able to keep up, calling him, "The best bush pilot in the outer rim territories."

And then Darth Vader kills him.

Think about that, within the context of Biggs being Luke's best friend from his childhood, a source of hope that maybe someone like him can make a difference to the Rebellion after all. Watch Hamill's face at that moment: it's not just the realization that the rest of his team is gone and he has to take down the Death Star by himself. It's the final loss of everything familiar and safe in his world. Losing Biggs means he can never go home again. But if you don't see the deleted scenes, if you don't read the book (or listen to the radio drama where most of this stuff, and more, was put back in), you never get that context. The movie still works without it--worked fine for me before I knew any of this--but I squealed when I saw that scene with Biggs in the hangar. It adds a layer of complexity and poignancy to Luke's characterization when you realize just what he's leaving behind in joining the Alliance.

Of all the things the director's cut changed, this is the one I like the most. Of course the picture's sharper and the colors are more vibrant, it's clean and good-looking--that's a given. And I can pretend Han's just a better shot than Greedo if I want to, given everything else about his character points to, "Would totally shoot first, why is this a question?" And Mos Eisley has too much CGI crap in it. But otherwise? I might actually like this version better.

(Cross-posted to rhoda_rants.)