Interesting takeaways from the audio commentary for Return of the Jedi
George Lucas helped with the audio commentary on the DVD set for the Star Wars Special Edition.
It has always been my contention that he really didn't have much of a plan for scripts outside of one story. And I really believe now that he only had one really long story, a la Lord of the Rings, that he couldn't really have put into one movie back in the 70s.
First of all, he admits that he brought the Death Star into A New Hope simply to have a climax. It wasn't supposed to be there. That's why he basically just rehashes the Death Star battle in Return of the Jedi. That was where it was supposed to go in the first place. This tells me that he was just stretching out his one story.
"There were a lot of things that were added in to this one because of the fact that I got down this far from the original script, the story had become pretty thin..."
"...Luke managing to redeem his father." Notice how he does NOT say Anakin redeeming himself.
Lucas talked about how Boba Fett's death was a "mis-step." Had he known how popular Boba Fett would become, he would have focused on it more. Now with Fett's history told in the new trilogy, he would have done more on it. Lucas said something to the effect that Boba Fett was just a flunky, a lackey of Jabba the Hutt.
That's my point. Lucas didn't know. He went back in this new trilogy and said, "Hey! Boba Fett was popular so let's do more with Boba Fett. You know, show how he grows up or something. He had the same type of helmet as a Stormtrooper. I said something about clones once. Let's make his father the first clone Stormtrooper!" I believe that it was that simple of a brainstorming session.
"I'm [I'd be] very curious to see all six of these in order to see how this very end works with killing the Emperor and the redemption of Darth Vader because that becomes more of the issue because of the first three films than it does in just seeing these films by themselves. In the beginning with these three films, it appeared this story was about Luke, but if you see all six films, then you realize that the story was really about Darth Vader."
He sounds confused out of his own mouth.
However, that is why we always thought there were going to be nine films. We heard that somewhere and I wish that I knew where. We knew, of course, that A New Hope was later numbered as Episode IV. There was always supposed to be a sequel trilogy to Return of the Jedi. We figured that the plot now does move on to center around Luke. Darth Vader went to the Dark Side in order to be more powerful but couldn't come out. Luke, or a descendant, must incorporate the Dark Side in order to defeat a greater evil in the universe (and we thought it was going to be the Emperor reincarnated as a clone which we thought was the reason for the Clone Wars in the first place). Luke or the descendant must overcome the Dark Side in order to win, thereby conquering all evil. That's the allegory.
It has always been my contention that he really didn't have much of a plan for scripts outside of one story. And I really believe now that he only had one really long story, a la Lord of the Rings, that he couldn't really have put into one movie back in the 70s.
First of all, he admits that he brought the Death Star into A New Hope simply to have a climax. It wasn't supposed to be there. That's why he basically just rehashes the Death Star battle in Return of the Jedi. That was where it was supposed to go in the first place. This tells me that he was just stretching out his one story.
"There were a lot of things that were added in to this one because of the fact that I got down this far from the original script, the story had become pretty thin..."
"...Luke managing to redeem his father." Notice how he does NOT say Anakin redeeming himself.
Lucas talked about how Boba Fett's death was a "mis-step." Had he known how popular Boba Fett would become, he would have focused on it more. Now with Fett's history told in the new trilogy, he would have done more on it. Lucas said something to the effect that Boba Fett was just a flunky, a lackey of Jabba the Hutt.
That's my point. Lucas didn't know. He went back in this new trilogy and said, "Hey! Boba Fett was popular so let's do more with Boba Fett. You know, show how he grows up or something. He had the same type of helmet as a Stormtrooper. I said something about clones once. Let's make his father the first clone Stormtrooper!" I believe that it was that simple of a brainstorming session.
"I'm [I'd be] very curious to see all six of these in order to see how this very end works with killing the Emperor and the redemption of Darth Vader because that becomes more of the issue because of the first three films than it does in just seeing these films by themselves. In the beginning with these three films, it appeared this story was about Luke, but if you see all six films, then you realize that the story was really about Darth Vader."
He sounds confused out of his own mouth.
However, that is why we always thought there were going to be nine films. We heard that somewhere and I wish that I knew where. We knew, of course, that A New Hope was later numbered as Episode IV. There was always supposed to be a sequel trilogy to Return of the Jedi. We figured that the plot now does move on to center around Luke. Darth Vader went to the Dark Side in order to be more powerful but couldn't come out. Luke, or a descendant, must incorporate the Dark Side in order to defeat a greater evil in the universe (and we thought it was going to be the Emperor reincarnated as a clone which we thought was the reason for the Clone Wars in the first place). Luke or the descendant must overcome the Dark Side in order to win, thereby conquering all evil. That's the allegory.
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