Very Short Star Wars question

from Elemental Forums

This may seem strange, but yesterday was the first time I had re-seen Star Wars (the original, I mean, with Mark Hamill, SIR Alec Guiness, etc.) in about 20 years. I had purchased a 3-DVD set on amazon (this one: http://www.amazon.de/Star-Wars-Trilogie-Episode-IV-VI/dp/B00E9NC0HA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1391287014&sr=8-3&keywords=star+wars  ) because I felt my 8-year old son was old enough to watch it, and that it was time. Well, you can imagine my excitement when his little friend Marc came over for a sleepover, I made popcorn, and we fired up Star Wars, something I had been telling my boy about for a month or so. 

I thought I was hallucinating, and I am no longer sure if my memory serves me, but I could swear that this DVD has been corrupted, and an additional scene has been added, one I cannot remember ever having seen before. Namely this one: immediately before boarding the Millenium Falcon at Mos Eisley Spaceport, and directly after having killed Greedo, Han Solo has a brief encounter with Jabba the Hutt, in which they chat -- the scene can't be longer than 2 minutes. I cannot remember having seen this at all. The scene also seems entirely incongruous, including a goofy Solo speaking to an entirely animated Jabba. 

My main question is thus this: am I hallucinating? Has this scene always been in the movie and I just don't remember it? 

A secondary question would be: If not, why and how was it added? I mean, the DVD makes no reference to a horrible new edition with extra bogus scenes. Shouldn't it? Is there any way of getting rid of it? Is this an old issue, and I somehow missed it? 

Thanks

76,167 views 15 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Has this scene always been in the movie and I just don't remember it?

No, it was added with the 20th anniversary re-release back in 97 (which is the the only version you will find for sale now, unless you can find an older used copy). That particular one was a cut scene that they redid with CG, as Jabba was originally a Scotsman prior to ROTJ.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

1. Its been added.

2. Any and all DVDs of Star Wars will have the new scenes.

HAN SHOT FIRST!

Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Ah ok thanks. How sad, as it feels entirely wrong. 

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

The scene was intended to be in Episode IV, it was shot at the time and everything, but was cut from the final release, not least because they didn't really decide what they wanted Jabba to look like. With the special edition they wanted to make Episode IV fit together better with V and VI, so readding this scene with Boba Fett and Jabba the Hutt seemed a good way to do this. 1997 CGI Jabba was admittingly pretty ugly but the DVD version should be a bit better.

Personally I do not mind this scene but I was not old enough to have watch "The Original" Star Wars in theaters. I guess messing with people's nostalgia is always a dangerous thing to do though.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top


 *snip

Wow. You are in for such a surprise.

They've made several considerable changes to the trilogy over the years....very few of them good changes.

 

 

Han shot FIRST!

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Pity they didn't cut more of it out....most of what wasn't was way less than average....;p

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

As others have alluded to, this is one of the changes made for the Special Edition from 1997 and subsequent editions that have been released since then.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting GoaFan77, reply 4

I guess messing with people's nostalgia is always a dangerous thing to do though.

That's quite an astute observation. I was 8 or so myself when I first saw the film in theatres. I have very vivid emotional memories of it, and part of the excitement of rewatching it again with my son 35 years later is reliving the excitement in his face and being able to slip back into being a boy myself. I wish they had simply warned me on the cover "Danger: New Enhanced Edition" or something. 

While I realize my judgement of the new scenes or rather the new version of the film is impossibly subjective, that scene I refer to in the OP does seem more incongruous than almost every other part of the film. It contains the only character with a speaking role who is entirely computer generated, while all other rememberable figures -- even the ones without speaking roles (just think of the customers of the bar in Mos Eisley, the jawas, sandpeople, Banthas) -- have the charm of being costumed physical entities. What's more, it isn't nearly as neat, as Harrison Ford obviously has no experience acting in conjunction with an absent counterpart -- unlike modern exemplifications of superfluous CG characters, which, despite their being superfluous, are at least proficiently integrated together with other CG or real human actors. Harrison Ford seems to wave his finger directly in the nostril of Jabba, it just feels goofy. And we didn't need it. It adds nothing. Sometimes the thing not said, or at least not shown explicitly, is much stronger than the direct representation (think of the witch in Blair Witch Project, or the kiss that Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis do not share while dancing in the hay around his recently rewired car in The Witness). Jabba as an invisibile, or not yet manifest power, who knows where he may lurk, is a much stronger threat than the CG image we get in the new scene. (And in terms of narrative cohesion, it makes much more sense for Greedo to have been sent to get Han without having his boss wait directly outside the pub -- why should Jabba come personally? Why was Greedo sent at all then?)

/rant

Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top

It is just a movie... why are you so upset about it ???

 

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Star Wars "died" with the three "new" films. Worst disappointment in movie history (to me). On par with Master of Orion III 

Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

It's owned by Disney now, so it's a safe bet that the disappointments will just keep coming for you.

But instead, maybe you could try to see them as the enjoyable movies they are, instead of what they could've been...

 

Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting GeomanNL, reply 11
But instead, maybe you could try to see them as the enjoyable movies they are, instead of what they could've been...

What!? But I enjoy all the bashing of the Star Wars new stuff. Its hilarious.

The only issue I had was the whole Han/Greedo scene. Everything else, when seen in the right light, is fun and enjoyable.

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

I shudder to think what the new ones will be like.  Ewoks and Chewbaca's living together.

Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Rhadagast, reply 13

I shudder to think what the new ones will be like.  Ewoks and Chewbaca's living together.

Always with you what cannot be done.

Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Maybe Chewbaca is just a grown-up Ewok.....

 

Maybe I don't really care....;)