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Star Wars Prequels Media Movies

Star Wars Minutiae 290

Posted by michael from the secondae dept.
Class Act Dynamo writes "CNN does a story on some of the finer points of making the Star Wars flicks. I like the part where Mark Hamill discusses the theoretical logistics of employing janitorial staff for the entire Death Star. Enjoy."
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Star Wars Minutiae

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  • The logistics of building the Death Star (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25, 2004 @07:08AM (#10347712)
    Randal: So they build another Death Star, right?
    Dante: Yeah.
    Randal: Now the first one they built was completed and fully operational before the Rebels destroyed it.
    Dante: Luke blew it up. Give credit where it's due.
    Randal:And the second one was still being built when they blew it up.
    Dante: Compliments of Lando Calrissian.
    Randal: Something just never sat right with me the second time they destroyed it. I could never put my finger on it-something just wasn't right.
    Dante: And you figured it out?
    Randal: Well, the thing is, the first Death Star was manned by the Imperial army-storm troopers, dignitaries- the only people onboard were Imperials.
    Dante: Basically.
    Randal: So when they blew it up, no prob. Evil is punished.
    Dante: And the second time around...?
    Randal: The second time around, it wasn't even finished yet. They were still under construction.
    Dante: So?
    Randal: A construction job of that magnitude would require a helluva lot more manpower than the Imperial army had to offer. I'll bet there were independent contractors working on that thing: plumbers, aluminum siders, roofers.
    Dante: Not just Imperials, is what you're getting at.
    Randal: Exactly. In order to get it built quickly and quietly they'd hire anybody who could do the job. Do you think the average storm trooper knows how to install a toilet main? All they know is killing and white uniforms.
    Dante: All right, so even if independent contractors are working on the Death Star, why are you uneasy with its destruction?
    Randal: All those innocent contractors hired to do a job were killed- casualties of a war they had nothing to do with. (notices Dante's confusion) All right, look-you're a roofer, and some juicy government contract comes your way; you got the wife and kids and the two-story in suburbia-this is a government contract, which means all sorts of benefits. All of a sudden these left-wing militants blast you with lasers and wipe out everyone within a three-mile radius. You didn't ask for that. You have no personal politics. You're just trying to scrape out a living.
    (The Blue-Collar Man (Thomas Burke) joins them.)
    Blue-Collar Man: Excuse me. I don't mean to interrupt, but what were you talking about?
    Randal: The ending of Return of the Jedi.
    Dante: My friend is trying to convince me that any contractors working on the uncompleted Death Star were innocent victims when the space station was destroyed by the rebels.
    Blue-Collar Man: Well, I'm a contractor myself. I'm a roofer... (digs into pocket and produces business card) Dunn and Reddy Home Improvements. And speaking as a roofer, I can say that a roofer's personal politics come heavily into play when choosing jobs.
    Randal: Like when?
    Blue-Collar Man: Three months ago I was offered a job up in the hills. A beautiful house with tons of property. It was a simple reshingling job, but I was told that if it was finished within a day, my price would be doubled. Then I realized whose house it was.
    Dante: Whose house was it?
    Blue-Collar Man: Dominick Bambino's.
    Randal: "Babyface" Bambino? The gangster?
    Blue-Collar Man: The same. The money was right, but the risk was too big. I knew who he was, and based on that, I passed the job on to a friend of mine.
    Dante: Based on personal politics.
    Blue-Collar Man: Right. And that week, the Foresci family put a hit on Babyface's house. My friend was shot and killed. He wasn't even finished shingling.
    Randal: No way!
    Blue-Collar Man: (paying for coffee) I'm alive because I knew there were risks involved taking on that particular client. My friend wasn't so lucky. (pauses to reflect) You know, any contractor willing to work on that Death Star knew the risks. If they were killed, it was their own fault. A roofer listens to this... (taps his heart) not his wallet.
    • actually..

      there's a shitload of civilians above every bigger imperial vessel.

      or maybe not in lucas's universe. maybe he'll change storm troopers to be robots some day too(like he "meant to do in the first place").

    • The Iraq Kidnappings (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25, 2004 @08:23AM (#10347937)
      The recent spate of kidnappings in Iraq represent a horrific, real-world example of the situation laid out by the parent. A number of friends/associates of mine have been offered exceptionally high paying jobs in Iraq and Afghanistan. None of them have accepted as they regard the risk as too great, but I have found myself wondering:

      * The pay is high because the risk is high - anybody who takes on such a job must realise this. Is it thus their fault if they are harmed/kidnapped/killed?

      * Also, since they are working for/in-the-name-of people whom some Iraq's would regard as the enemy (they do this knowingly) and since by mutual admission of both sides, this is a war - are they legitimate targets?

      I would like to point out that I am referring to people working for western corporations, rather than people performing aid work - the fact medecins sans frontiers and aid workers are being targeted is in my opinion, one of the saddest aspects of this conflict.

      • Re:The Iraq Kidnappings (Score:5, Insightful)

        by cybpunks3 ( 612218 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @09:31AM (#10348246)
        If the Japanese kidnapped and shot at everyone who came in to rebuild that country after World War II they never would have gone anywhere as a country.

        At some point you have to realize that it's in your best interest to lay down your guns and MOVE ON.
        • True, but it must look like you are defeated, not slowly turning the tide of battle against the US. So far, it seems, we are doing a wonderful job of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq. Winning the ground war with troops is not a victory in this case. We have to win the hearts and minds of the people.

          InnerWeb

          • IMO entirely wrong.

            We didn't win "hearts and minds" of the Germans, or the Japanese. We (the allies collectively) kicked the crap out of them, killed millions of them (including, inevitably, a lot of people who didn't deserve it), and levelled their countries.

            Then, when everything is destroyed and the people are exhausted, then we rebuilt the countries.

            This whole idea of "hearts and minds" is Cold War BS implemented because the idea of total war was impossible with an enemy Superpower always willing to
            • Sorry to say, but any conflict which we've fought SINCE WW2 has been a halfassed joke. To put it bluntly, we should have used our whole military, sealed off the country, and levelled every major city, annihilate (not simply defeat) every military formation that existed, and smash their infrastructure entirely, making peace only when something crawled out of the rubble begging us to stop.

              First, the Funny: Ah, the Civ3 answer.

              And now the Troll: Good Final Solution, Hitler. It's too bad:

              1. Iraq didn't ha
          • And this is exactly why warfare in the conventional sense simply doesn't work the way it used to. The US pretty much ran the table against the Iraqi army in what? A matter of weeks? Did it even take that long? The Iraqi army was defeated easily. The Iraqi people though were not defeated in any way, shape, or form. They were inconvienienced. They were without electricity. They were basically put it an bad spot but they weren't beaten.

            Modern warfare, in it's attempt to spare non-combatants from unnecessar
        • Yes, that's true in a conventional war, but the people the Americans are fighting now aren't the same people they invaded a year ago.

          Back in 1998 a World Islamic Front statement justified killing Americians and their allies by stating that America wanted to distroy Iraq and "humiliate their Muslim neighbours" (full text here [fas.org]).

          With the invasion of Iraq these claims seem a lot more credible, and by destabilizing Iraq there is now a convienent battleground for anyone with a bone to pick with the Americans.

        • At some point you have to realize that it's in your best interest to lay down your guns and MOVE ON.


          Is that what you would do when someone invades your country and kills your friends and family?

          Get some balls.
        • (Yeah, yeah, off-topic but you've got to respond when someone asks that kind of question.)

          The US occupiers in post-WWII weren't calling in air strikes on cities and killing innocent men, women and children in the process. If you're American, you hear about every US soldier that dies but how often do you hear about Iraqi deaths at American hands?

          According to some estimates, this war has killed over 25,000 Iraqi civilians so far. Note, those are estimates, because nobody's been keeping an official count of

          • Re:Are you totally stupid? (Score:4, Insightful)

            by servognome ( 738846 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @01:26PM (#10349651)
            The US occupiers in post-WWII weren't calling in air strikes on cities and killing innocent men, women and children in the process.
            That's because Japan/Germany were beaten into submission. Drop 2 atomic bombs on Iraq, and firebomb Baghdad and things might change.
            The US should never have gone into Iraq. You cannot occupy a country without breaking the will of the people, and to do that, you pretty much have to decimate it. The war made no sense to begin with, and there was no coherent strategy post defeat of the standing goverment.
            Unfortunately the US is stuck keeping troops in Iraq, otherwise, the power vaccuum would most likely lead to civil war and there'd be thousands of deaths a week. So now the US is stuck sacrificing money and lives to try and keep the peace in a situation it caused. We have GWB to thank for running our country into a deficit on a war we didn't need, and for alienating the rest of the world.
            • *** Drop 2 atomic bombs on Iraq, and firebomb Baghdad and things might change.***

              and half the iraq would celebrate, and all of them hate americans even more...

              that's the problem, they're not centralised, and neither is it a stabilised region. the only thing holding it together was saddam and his goons. it is not an old 'natural nation. they have a tradition of not getting along.

              if you take a look at the quite recent history anyone with brains would stay the fuck out and let them duke it out and form more
        • At some point you have to realize that it's in your best interest to lay down your guns and MOVE ON.

          If some nation invaded America I don't think I'd be looking at it this way, especially if they'd killed tens of thousands of my countrymen in the process and imposed a military dictatorship with a farcical 'representative government' on top of it.

          Fact is, I think I'd be out there killing the motherfuckers. As often and as brutally as I could. And I'd brand those Americans who refused to fight for their c

    • Re:The logistics of building the Death Star (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Too many errors, bai ( 815931 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @08:25AM (#10347944)
      Sorry to spoil the humor, but the Star Wars Databank says the Death Star was built by Geonosians, which are insect-like hivemind creatures and therefore not individual contractors. :p

    • Re:The logistics of building the Death Star (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Trurl's Machine ( 651488 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @08:28AM (#10347956) Journal
      Randal: Well, the thing is, the first Death Star was manned by the Imperial army-storm troopers, dignitaries- the only people onboard were Imperials.

      Even that is not true - we know that Death Star had lots of prison cells (we know that there are more cell blocks than just the one where Lea is kept. It's safe to assume that on Death Star there were at least dozens (if not hundreds) of prisoners of the Empire. Now, some of them could be also evil, like drunken stormtroopers or a lousy TIE-fighter pilot who scratched paint on Vader's machine while parking, but many of them were probably genuine freedom fighters - the prisoners from blocade runner, for example.

      • Re:The logistics of building the Death Star (Score:5, Funny)

        by Sique ( 173459 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @08:51AM (#10348055) Homepage
        [...] but many of them were probably genuine freedom fighters [...]

        It's terrorist, man. They don't wear uniforms, they are not commanded by a government, they are not for open battle, but doing stealth attacks... So they are terrorists, and any support to them is punishable by the PATRIOT act.

        • Re:The logistics of building the Death Star (Score:5, Funny)

          by henrik ( 98 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:59AM (#10348726)
          I believe the more recent term for them would be "illegal combatants". Terrorists have rights to legal hearing and legal help, the former does not.
    • Well I believe most of the construction in that era was performed by large robots. Timothy Zahn mentions this in his later trilogy when talking about constrution that went on at Coruscant.
    • How could taking part in the creation of a Death Star, especially with the knowledge that the first one was used to destroy the peaceful planet of Alderaan, be a morally defensible position? Especially for the contractors, who weren't even drafted. Anyway, they're aliens, who cares?

      • Re:The logistics of building the Death Star (Score:5, Funny)

        by The Ultimate Fartkno ( 756456 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:27AM (#10348532)
        Don't be silly - they never actually told the contractors that it was a *Death* star.

        "Hey, Frank... what in the heck *is* this thing we're building, anyway?"

        "They told me that once we're done laying down the linoleum the whole outside of this thing gets fitted with reflective tile."

        "You mean...?"

        "Yep. Biggest self-sufficient disco ball in the universe!"

        "But what for?"

        "They gave me a card - here."

        "'Our mission - riding the solar wind and spreading the good news and intergalactic funk from event horizon to event horizon.'"

        "Yeah, isn't that just the wierdest?"

        "Wait, there's more... 'D.V. and The Black Hole Sunshine Band - The Best Bang Since the Big One'. Where have I heard that before?"

        "Dunno, Charlie, but I've got a *bad* feeling about this..."

  • I'm sure (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Misinformed ( 741937 )
    "theoretical logistics of employing janitorial staff"

    I'm sure this is just one of the problems HR staff struggle with every day. Or is he implying that janitorial staff are stupid and unable to follow instructions?

    • Re:I'm sure (Score:3, Interesting)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      I wish I had mod points, I think this is subtlety insightful. The problem with hiring janitorial staff is that these employees need to be trustworthy and responsible but the employer can't really pay them an amount that fully compensates that level of trust. The employee must be inherently honest, or need the job enough not to risk termination by stealing stuff or goofing off.

      Therefore one can't hire the pimply faced teenager as they do at the movie theaters. Theaters get away with this because they wa

      • simple, on the death star there was no issue of trust, anyone caught stealing would be Killed, so nobody stole.
      • Before the fall, most of the East German spies working in West Germany were secretaries.

        plus

        If the deathstar was that advanced, they would have droids to do the cleaning.

        then

        anyone working in personnel or communications - particularly Non Commissioned Officers with a grudge (I seem to recall quite a few USN personnel of this rank being suborned by the Soviets) - would be prime targets for subversion.

        OTOH, you could always suborn then *before* they were recruited into the service - Philby, McLean etc.

        h
      • What about droids? It seems pretty clear that in the Star Wars universe, menial jobs are performed by droids. (and even some non-menial jobs)

        I see no reason why they couldn't just have droids keeping the station clean...

        -Z
        • hmm, i distincly recall some small black boxes driveing around the place all the time. hell, didnt mr furball scare one off?

  • Mark Hamill talking about janitorial staff? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25, 2004 @07:15AM (#10347728)
    So that's what he's doing these days...

  • Meh (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Lisandro ( 799651 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @07:16AM (#10347734)
    "I like the part where Mark Hamill discusses the theoretical logistics of employing janitorial staff for the entire Death Star. Enjoy."

    Well, similar discussions have been had before (http://imdb.com/title/tt0109445/ [imdb.com]). Please, will someone think of the contract workers?!??!!

  • You heard it here first (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25, 2004 @07:17AM (#10347736)
    "How can you be so serious on a film where you are dodging explosions and running away with Sir Alec Guinness on this side and an eight-foot monkey on this side, and the eight-foot monkey is the one flying the spaceship?"


    Luke just said that Chewbacca is a monkey, not a Wookie. That makes it cannon! Oh man, I'm gonna have to go rewrite my fanfic, now that I know he was born on Earth and not on Kashyyyk.

    As Johnnie Cochran once said, "If Chewbacca is a monkey, you must acquit!"

  • Janatorial staff? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Spudley ( 171066 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @07:18AM (#10347742) Homepage Journal
    Janatorial staff? I thought that's why they invented droids.
  • Our Star Wars cup runneth over...and spills to the floor causing a puddle where one could easily slip and get a slight sprain in....well, you get my point.

    Let's move on now...isn't it time we all start seeing tons of reviews and screen-shots to the extended Return of the King about now so we'll all be nice and sick of it by the time it's actually released?

    Hey Pete Jackson, let's keep a little quiet on that ok? Hype can kill something quicker than anything.

    Nuff said...

  • Wookies verses Yoda (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25, 2004 @07:25AM (#10347765)
    All I know is that there are people we all know (generally male) who claim to have a large wookie, but when the time of truth comes it ends up looking like Yoda, small stout and green. Let's see if the not so hidden meanings sneek past the moderators!

  • Overcoverage (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Wingchild ( 212447 ) <brian.kern@gmail.com> on Saturday September 25, 2004 @07:28AM (#10347774)
    I didn't know when Star Wars was being released. I hadn't been paying attention. I know, I know - I'm a bad geek.

    As it turns out, my lack of observance didn't matter at all - I'm a bit oversaturated on news and so I tend to read CNN fairly frequently throughout the day. I guessed something was up after two seperate articles on Lucas (and THX1138) showed up, followed by three more on Star Wars (quote heavy thanks to interviews with Mark Hamill), all posted on the main page and all within a twenty-four hour period.

    I've been swimming in Star Wars news.

    While I don't normally consider this a bad thing it's interesting to see how heavily the tail is wagging the rest of the dog, with respect to CNN; I don't know if they're being paid to be a corporate shill, or if their tech department doing website updates has a strong love of this movie -- whatever the case, it's had better coverage than Iraq this week. :)

  • GoogleWhack (Score:3, Funny)

    by AikenDrumGotWired ( 566948 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @07:30AM (#10347779)
    Now we can all cross the phrase "naked wookie" off the list of possible GoogleWhacks, though it might be interesting to see the GoogleAds served op to match this phrase in a few days.

  • Telling quote... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25, 2004 @07:36AM (#10347795)
    Kershner, who studies Buddhism as a hobby, said the "Star Wars" movies have a homespun wisdom, but that people shouldn't look too seriously to the Force to solve their problems.


    "Yoda's philosophy was quite simplistic. 'If you get angry, you're gonna lose.' 'Don't try, do.' He has a basic philosophy that is very charming. Not very profound, although young people consider it profound. I wish they would read more."[emphases mine]
    AMEN!
    • Perhaps that's because Lucas lifted the whole jedi bit from Joseph Campbell, who documented the mythology of most of humanity

    • Re:Telling quote... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Illserve ( 56215 )
      Thing is, that's not really the philosophy.

      It's more like: if you get angry, you're gonna win, but the price in karma won't be worth it.

      And that bit about "luminous beings, not this crude matter" etc, that's a few steps more sophistiticated than the philosophy of many modern day religions.

  • the extras dvd is impressive... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jpellino ( 202698 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @07:39AM (#10347804)
    for the documentary on the making of the other three movies, it's amazing what had to be done to get these things made. Say what you want abotu Lucas' judgement on recent things, he had the brains and the stones to get star wars done - In some ways it's as compelling a story as any of the films. And as the man says, iit has the added advantage of being true.

    And for the trailers - they are ruly insufferable - hard to believe anyone went to see ANH on the strength of the trailer - the ROTJ trailer is just tolerable by today's standards,

    Also - did I miss something? Wasnt the piece on VH1 last week - with Kevin Smith and lots of others also supposed to be on the DVD set?

    Speaking of minutiae, step thru the draw between Greedo and Han ;-) And can you find the translucent x-wings flying through each other?

    • [The documentaries have] the added advantage of being true.

      One of the featurettes features a whole bunch of directors acting as if George Lucas invented the whole concept of making sci-fi films, singlehandedly invented computer graphics, and a whole bunch of other things. OK, maybe ey did come up with the idea of producing a lot of merchandise for a film, but I wouldn't say that's such a good idea anyway...

      Those documentaries are more like big ego trips than true stories. The main one even starts with

      • seeing as it's the directors saying it... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by jpellino ( 202698 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @09:17AM (#10348176)
        ... there's a bit more credence than if undredentialed fans just gushed for an hour. Granted this is promotional material, and Lucas had this made, but when Ridley Scott and James Cameron can tell you why this opened their minds to doing what they have done so well, you tend to listen. Especially when they're referring to a guy who bucked the system, paid thru the nose to defy the DGA, then eventually quit the DGA and MPAA to retain creative control. He could have pulled an Alan Smithee.

        Again - it's less science fiction, more space opera. Not much in the way of history-changing technology or advanced science uncovering deep truth and human potential. OK , there may be a little of it, but it's secondary to the plot and drama and spectacle.

        In truth, look at the state of science fiction before Star Wars - you had story or realism, but rarely both, and you forgave the missing one. But you still missed it. 2001, Silent Running were two popular exceptions. Star Trek had passable story, cheesy realism, but it was all we had. This had both.

        Ditto the state of computer graphics - like Edison, who didn't invent the light bulb, but did invent the electric *company* - Lucas didn't invent CG but likely invented the CG *shop* as we know it today. And that has changed filmmakiing in a deeper way than we usually realize. The Terminal - a movie about a guy in a couple of rooms - had a visual effects department and hired CafeFx - Ok they did the outdoor parts - but today you don't need to move an entire production company made of meat across the country to shoot 30 seconds of film. You pick up the phone and get the bits moving. To paraphrase Nicholas Negroponte, the movement of bits is easier than asses.

        For everyone under the age of 27, Star Wars always existed, like electricity or clouds. Under 37, probably also true if they started paying attention to movies about age 10... and by age 37 you've covered more than half the people in the US anyway... so they're not far off the mark for most people. And that's only increasing.

    • Re:the extras dvd is impressive... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by madmancarman ( 100642 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @08:30AM (#10347966)
      And for the trailers - they are ruly insufferable - hard to believe anyone went to see ANH on the strength of the trailer - the ROTJ trailer is just tolerable by today's standards,

      It was probably sometime in the late 80s or early 90s when movie trailers began to be tolerable. Often, I prefer watching the trailer to sitting through the actual movie, so I used to try to show up early to the theater to catch all the trailers. Now, of course, they beat you over the head with 20-30 minutes of trailers and stupid MovieTickets.com commercials. It's easier to watch them at Apple's Quicktime movie trailers page [apple.com].

      For a while in the 90s, every movie trailer that I ever saw seemed to be done by the guy who did the voice for Optimus Prime in the original Transformers series, Peter Cullen [imdb.com]. You could pretty much tell whether or not a movie studio took the trailer seriously if they used him for the voiceovers....

      "(rising voice) A time of prosperity.... (lowering voice) A place of peace. (slow, heavily enunciated lower voice) Now.... one man... threatens.. it.. all." Fun stuff, even though there seem to be more trailers now that don't use voiceovers at all but instead rely on screens of text to piece things together.

      My major pet peeve about trailers, though, is when they show the entire movie plot in the trailer. It completely removes any element of surprise, and makes it almost pointless to go see the movie. For example, the new trailer for Flight of the Phoenix [apple.com] does just that - the entire story is compressed down into a two minute version, sort of like a Readers Digest condensed book. It's sort of how trailers for comedy flicks show you the funniest parts of the movie in the hopes that you'll shell out $9 to see it, but then have nothing additional to offer.

      • Re:the extras dvd is impressive... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by puppet10 ( 84610 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:12AM (#10348456)
        or you could just watch the original [imdb.com]

        It looks like it was mostly copied, and judging from the trailer the orignal looks like a considerably better film.

      • My major pet peeve about trailers, though, is when they show the entire movie plot in the trailer. It completely removes any element of surprise, and makes it almost pointless to go see the movie. For example, the new trailer for Flight of the Phoenix does just that - the entire story is compressed down into a two minute version, sort of like a Readers Digest condensed book. It's sort of how trailers for comedy flicks show you the funniest parts of the movie in the hopes that you'll shell out $9 to see it,

  • Having listened to the DVD commentaries for all currently released Star Wars films I have to ask - does anyone else think that the sound guy spends WAY too much time talking?

    Lucas has all these cool little insights, but when the sound guy gets started (and boy can he get started) he's still going five minutes later. This isn't just in Phantom Menace and AoTC, but in all of them! I was hoping for some cool insight into some obscure aspect of the films and this guy is going on about how he got to hold the bo

  • and in self-referential news... (Score:5, Informative)

    by jpellino ( 202698 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @07:42AM (#10347819)
    it's 'minutiae' not 'minutae'

  • Monkeys can fly (Score:2, Interesting)

    by cwebb1977 ( 650175 )
    Quote: As the Skywalker actor put it: "How can you be so serious on a film where you are dodging explosions and running away with Sir Alec Guinness on this side and an eight-foot monkey on this side, and the eight-foot monkey is the one flying the spaceship?" Yeah, monkeys cn fly. And we're taking this too serious. Why do so many people have to overanalyze everything and can't just enjoy a movie?

  • harrison ford? (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    i wanna hear harrison ford tell me who shoots first :p

  • Worn to death (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Oligonicella ( 659917 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @08:00AM (#10347865)
    Je-heee-zuz H. Christ.

    This was a mediocre story which used advanced techniques for about two years and was quickly eclipsed by much better stories using the same and better techniques.

    SW is much like Flash Gordon. Put it on the shelf and relive it with a buzz on every five years or so.

    Elsewise, get a life, get a life, get a life.
    • This was a mediocre story

      In your should-have-been-humbly-stated opinion. Anyone familiar with the writings of Joseph Campbell can see what Lucas was doing and it was sheer brilliance. Even today it stands up surprisingly well whereas the Flash Gordon serials you cite are cheesy and ridiculous. People hate to acknowledge it but there are some very intellectual roots in the Star Wars story.

      Elsewise, get a life, get a life, get a life.

      That's funny. That's usually what I say to people who poke their heads

  • Sorry, you fail... (Score:4, Funny)

    by stevejsmith ( 614145 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @08:10AM (#10347896) Homepage
    I have never in my life heard the word "minutiae" used where it didn't sound contrived. And I haven't ever heard the word "minutae" in my life, period ("minutia" is the singular and "minutiae" is the plural; "minutae" is not a word).
  • Palpadine is Yoda :-)

  • I like the part where Mark Hamill discusses the theoretical logistics of employing janitorial staff for the entire Death Star.

    I thought that was the discussion from Clerks [imdb.com]. IIRC, they had a long discussion about whether the contractors were innocent bystanders murdered by the rebels or were risk takers lured by high paychecks. I wonder if they would have counted the maids and garbage men as responsible risk takers. Then again, maybe all of those jobs were done by droids. That seems the most likely

    • If you listen to the commentary on AOTC, when the Geonosians are shown giving the DS plans to Dooku, Lucas chimes in "Now Jay & Silent bob know who it was that built the Death Star".

  • Chewie's pants... (Score:5, Funny)

    by queenofthe1ring ( 768698 ) * on Saturday September 25, 2004 @09:24AM (#10348212) Journal
    This character has no pants on!' This went back and forth. They did sketches of him in culottes and baggy shorts.

    Clearly Chewbacca needed a nice Hawaiian print pair of bermuda shorts. :-) Or maybe some dockers...

    Leia: "Could somebody get this walking carpet out of my way... Hey, nice pants." ;-)

  • The Dork Side. (Score:5, Funny)

    by macdaddy357 ( 582412 ) <macdaddy357@hotmail.com> on Saturday September 25, 2004 @09:45AM (#10348304)
    Beware of the dork side. Once you step down the dork path, forever will it dominate your destiny. Consume you it will!

    You will live in your mother's basement. You will never kiss a girl. The only girls you will ever see will be prOn on the internet. You will have no outlet but playing with your own light saber.

    Don't cross over to the dork side.

  • William Shatner: I already told them that. It doesn't work...

  • Slightly offtopic, but... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ImTwoSlick ( 723185 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @09:50AM (#10348325)
    Check out the bonus disk in the new DVD set. There's a section showing behing the scenes pictures of all three movies. I was floored when I saw the caption to a picture showing Han and the actor playing Greedo pointing guns at each other in the canteena scene.

    Han Solo (Harrison Ford) prepares to shoot first in the original version of A New Hope.
    The Rodian bounty hunter Greedo was portrayed by actor Paul Blake, shown here sans mask.

  • Microsoft Imperial Death Star XP (Score:5, Funny)

    by inkswamp ( 233692 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @11:45AM (#10348996)
    Something just occurred to me.

    * The Death Star plans were secret, but rebels managed to obtain them anyway.
    * Windows is closed source, but people keep managing to steal bits of code anyway.

    * The Empire was confident that The Death Star was secure and couldn't be compromised.
    * Microsoft is confident that Windows is secure and cannot be compromised.

    * Occassionally, rebellious hackers stumble across Windows vulnerabilities that nobody noticed before or thought was important.
    * The rebels discovered a vulnerability into the Death Star that nobody noticed before or thought was important.

    * Windows slowly positions itself to wipe out the competition.
    * The Death Star slowly positions itself to wipe out the competition.

    * Microsoft analyses virus attacks and discovers that there is some danger... albeit too late.
    * The Empire analyzed the rebel attack and discovered that there was some danger... albeit too late.

    * Script kiddies sometimes take devastatingly accurate shots at these backdoors and weaknesses.
    * Luke Skywalker took a devastatingly accurate shot at the Death Star's exhaust port.

    * Microsoft is attempting to rebuild Windows from the ground up, promising to make it better than before although it looks pretty much the same.
    * The Empire tried to rebuild The Death Star from the ground up, promising to make it better than before although it looks pretty much the same.

    Therefore... we can conclude the following:

    * Luke Skywalker is a script kiddie.

    * The Apple switcher campaign should feature Harrison Ford shouting, "Great shot kid, that was one in a million! Let's blow this thing so we can go home!"

    * When Windows explodes... oooohhh... pretty.

    * Hackers should have medals presented to them by Carrie Fisher.

    * Bill Gates is Linus Torvald's father.

    * And finally: Microsoft should not put too much faith in this technological terror they've constructed... the ability to destroy the competition is insignificant next to the power of open source.

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