"Laugh it up, Fuzzball."
Posted on 04/20/2025 4:08:02 AM PDT by grundle
I saw the original Star Wars film in 1977 with my wife. I was 27 at the time. Watched the next sequel, the one with the teddy bear creatures in it, didn’t care for it, and haven’t seen a Stars Wars film since.
How Star Wars was saved in the edit (youtube)
The intro:
In February of 1977, George Lucas invited some of his closest friends to watch a rough cut of his new film: Star Wars.
In attendance among a handful of people were Steven Spielberg and Brian De Palma. The response was- not good. According to Spielberg, this is how De Palma reacted: "Well, Brian went off the deep end. WHAT???!!! MAKES NO SENSE! NONSENSE!' "
The film was in trouble. Sure, you can point at the superficial problems with the rough cut. Such as, placeholder VFX, stock footage, unfinished sound, and temp music.
But, we're not gonna focus on those.
No, the real issues were fundamental: the story, the scenes, the characters, the pacing But the film was not beyond saving, because they say a film is written three times: first, in the screenplay, next, in production and finally, in the edit.
The success of Star Wars was not inevitable. In fact, the way things were going, it was almost guaranteed to fail. It was only due to their laborious editorial process that Star Wars snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
So Lucas turned to his ingenious editing team: Richard Chew, Paul Hirsch, arguably one of George's greatest collaborators: his wife at the time, Marcia Lucas. Their job was to rebuild a bloated first act, cut tons of unnecessary material, create clarity, tension, and drama in places that had none, and restructure scenes and entire sequences to propel the story forward.
Basically, they just had to start from scratch.
I saw the opening somewhere on the east side of manhattan in 1977.
The audience rolled back and forth like tall grass roiled by shifting winds.
Saw it opening day in Chicago. That and James Bonds films were the reason to stand in line and create memories for a lifetime.
No matter how many times I watched, I could never keep the plot, after the first 3, straight in my head. That is, until I made this music video of Weird Al’s and everything suddenly made sense.
Star Wars - The Saga Begins - “Weird Al” Yankovic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v30lask4Ihw
George Lucas is a man who cannot control his own appetites. I am amazed he hasn’t been outed in a stock, monetary or sex scandal, no gender choice intended. He just ate himself into a blob, people like that are addicts. I don’t trust addicts.
"Laugh it up, Fuzzball."
Rememember how they started to roast Han Solo over an open fire, and Luke Skywalker saved him?
And remember all those empty stormtrooper helmets they were using as drums at the end of the movie?
Can you guess what kind of meat they were serving at the banquet?
When I saw the title, I first thought of the Holiday Special.
Exactly! Ewoks are basically midget orcs.
I don't normally side on the side of empires, but in this case, Ayn Rand's dictum has merit: "On the one side are the forces of mysticism, medieval tribalism, dictatorship — and terror; on the other side are the forces of reason, individualism, capitalism — and civilization."
Ewoks are commie savages.
I was stationed at Myrtle Beach AFB - the home we were heading to after the movie was a friend’s trailer off base.
The best time I had on the stuff - only used it 4 times - was playing pool in a bar that had a baseball game on the TV. Still remember how cool “Black Water” by the Doobies sounded on the jukebox, how when I hit a ball, the cue ball seemed to jump inch-by-inch until it hit the target ball, which flowed like a stream into the pocket - and how the “click” of the balls hitting didn’t register until a second or 2 after the ball was pocketed.
And watching the baseball game, with men throwing, swinging, and running like little puppets was so funny we cried real tears from laughing so hard - got a lot of looks from the local rednecks...
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