WMartin%Office-3@sri-unix.UUCP (06/20/83)
From: WMartin at Office-3 (Will Martin)
Did anyone else notice (or could it have been due to the
particular print/projector) very jerky movement of the figures
walking about on the deck of Jabba's sand cruiser in the first
scene of the craft skimming over the surface of Tatooine? There
was a bipedal figure walking on the deck, and the movement was
really obviously jerky.
I could swear I saw a misspelling in one of the subtitles in
Jabba's chamber. Did anyone else notice "wookee" spelled
"wookeie"? [OK, I just realized I really don't know if it is
"wookee" or "wookie"; however, the subtitle was neither of these
-- there was an extra letter in there somewhere.]
Why did C3PO not speak to Jabba in "Jabbaese"? There was too
much English and not enough foreign tongues with subtitle; also
the foreign tongue sounded an awful lot like a "pig-Latin"-type
version of English, especially that spoken by the
right-pseudopod-being (I can't call him a "right-hand-man, can
I?) while Luke was mind-controlling him. (C3PO should have been
more effective and sure of himself when translating and speaking
the various alien tongues; after all, that is his primary purpose
and he should be confident and professional about it.)
Re the Death Star: if this thing was under construction, why
didn't we see any sign of that, aside from the
partially-completed appearance? I expected the sort of
surrounding craft that were seen in the construction/overhaul
hanger scene in Star Trek - TWOK. At least, there should have
been a hazy cloud of specks around it in some of the scenes at
the beginning, representing construction craft. You see lots of
fighters during hanger-approach shots, but I didn't notice
anything that could be engineering machinery. Somehow, I can't
see this thing all being built from the inside out...
How did Lando get to be a trusted henchman of the evil Jabba? As
far as I could see, he just appeared there, already installed. A
line or two of explication wouldn't have been all that difficult,
and would have helped. After all, he could have unfrozen Han
himself earlier and avoided all that fuss.
Jabba is in this for the money; he would have sold Han if the
price was right. Afer all, that's why he wanted him in the first
place. Sure, torture, rape(?), and pillage are fun, but money is
what counts....
Speaking of torture, how do red-hot irons on a droid's feet do
anything but damage expensive hardware? If you want to torture a
droid, merely sending the right electrical impulses into its
brain by connecting a few wires can do it a lot more effectively
and efficiently than any mechanical devices or working on
external sensor circuits. Nonetheless, that brief scene in
Jabba's equipment room was one of the best shots in the movie.
Strategy and tactics: (Good grief!) Oh, well, maybe just a few
points...
Why steal the Imperial shuttle, get the password to approach the
Death Star, and then just use it to land somewhere out in the
woods on Endor? They could have sneaked in on any rebel ship, if
they weren't going to go into the Death Star or onto the base
landing pad. Why go through the security screen in the first
place?
What is the purpose of big ships? Since any little X-wing can go
into hyperspace, and the big ships don't seem to be able to
defend themselves with anything but fighters, and they don't seem
to DO anything, why have them? (Either Imperial or rebel;
neither side's big ships did anything but stand around, except
the one that skrunched into the Death Star.) Anything larger
than the Falcon seems to be mainly for the purpose of "gliding
majestically", rather than any effective activity.
Lastly: What kind of name is "Anakin", anyway? "Luke" is pretty
obvious ("Lucas" > "Luke"), and I recall lots of speculation
years ago on "Obi-Wan" in SFL, but "Anakin"? "Yoda" is pretty
obviously derived from the Eastern psychic master business of
"yoga" or a "yogi", but what are the Jedi/psychic connotations of
"Anakin"?
Will Martinperelgut@utcsrgv.UUCP (Stephen Perelgut) (06/22/83)
Controversy time: The question is, why name a character something dumb like
Anakin? (well, I'm paraphrasing) We all know about
Luke === Lucas
Obiwan === OB-1
Wellllllllll, how about:
Anakin === Ana-Kin === "No kin"
(Get it? He was a clone just like OB-1 and the emperor. Obviously the Jedi
got in above their heads and tried cloning to breed a better knight. What
they got were the Skywalker clan and a super-powerful Jedi who fell to the
dark side and became the Emperor.)
--
--- Stephen Perelgut ---
{decvax,linus}!utzoo!utcsrgv!perelgut
{cornell,watmath,hcr,floyd,allegra,uw-beaver,ubc-vision,ihnp4}!utcsrgv!perelgutdje@5941ux.UUCP (06/22/83)
What kind of name is "Anakin" Skywalker? The prefix "ana-" means backwards or reversed, as in the word "anachronism." Anakin means a close relative (kin) turned to the Dark Side, i.e. the reverse of his true nature.
laura@utcsstat.UUCP (06/23/83)
I thought Anakin -- manakin -- mankind. I thought that it was a crock, but then i am one of those who was thoroughly disappointed with RotJ. Laura Creighton utzoo!utcsstat!laura
mason@utcsrgv.UUCP (Dave Mason) (06/23/83)
Yes there was a ~15 second sequence where the special effects were REALLY wobbly. (Jabba's sand yacht heading to the pit). You can see break-up of the scenery around the edges of the yacht. Speaking of special effects, when I went the reserved tickets bought by a friend were front row centre (I think he may be a bit myopic) and I spent most of the emporer's chamber scene marvelling at the amount of stuff that was digitized (thas right *T*V*) You can see the dots on ALL the scenery/set ...a lot of work went into that film!... by looking at the dots in the credits and making some VERY rough estimates, I figure the screen is about 3000-4000 dots wide...any comments or corroboration (sp?) (note no dots on the people, which presumably means a combination of digital and analog techniques) ../Dave (..!linus!utzoo!utcsrgv!mason)
presley@mhuxj.UUCP (06/23/83)
One day they were sitting in a restaurant trying to come up with the name for Luke's father. Someone said "Please pass me a napkin." "A Napkin? Anapkin ... Anakin!!". -- Joe Presley (...!mhuxj!presley, harpo!presley)
mphw@mhuxv.UUCP (06/24/83)
Construction: I noticed in the scene where DV's shuttle first sets down on the Death Star that there were some workers outside running some kind of welding torch. Not much of a work crew, but then DV was going there to speed them up. Pat Wood mhuxv!mphw