Star Wars Minute 119: To Be Continued

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Date

November 14th, 2013

Summary

Part One of the End Credits. That's right - the end credits!

Guests

Christian Dumais

Notes

Film

  • Starts with the credit for Production Designer John Barry and ends with the credit for Wardrobe Supervisor Ron "The Animal" Beck.

Podcast

  • Pete says that John Barry is probably not the movie musical score composer from movies such as The Black Hole, James Bond etc.
  • John Williams and his very significant contribution to the movie is discussed. The orchestral music (as opposed to synthesized or pop) elevates the trilogy films to a much higher level than they perhaps deserve.
  • Listener project: Replace the orchestral score with a synthesized 'sci-fi' version of the same music (for the whole movie!).
  • Unsung hero Marcia Lucas (George's first wife) gets a credit in this minute as Editor.
  • The editing in all seven Star Wars movie - especially in the action sequences - is a strength of the movies.
  • "Sorry Pete" for mentioning the Prequels.
  • Alex lists the increasing number of 'finales' in each movie as follows:
    • Star Wars - 1 finale - Attack the Death Star.
    • ESB - 2 finales - The lightsaber duel (Vader and Luke) and rescue Han in Carbonite.
    • ROTJ - 3 finales -The lightsaber duel, Endor, the Death Star space battle.
    • TPM - 4 finales - Alex can't remember these, and it reduces from there in the later movies.
  • The host makes the point that the reason ESB is such a great movie is that it has multiple stories, running in parallel, that all lead to the same physical location but not necessarily the same conclusion.
  • Unsung hero Ralph McQuarrie and the importance of his artwork is also discussed. He made the Star Wars universe look sci-fi but real.
  • The crawl and credits font is somewhere between a Helvetica and a Franklin Gothic font.
  • The original trilogy and the Prequels use a different shade of blue - lighter in the Prequels and then darker in the original trilogy. Christian says:
    • Sub-consciously, we all knew something was wrong as soon as we saw the different font color in the Prequels.
    • The color going from a lighter blue to a darker blue reflects Anakin / Vader being sad and then getting even sadder as the movies go on.
  • The name of an Assistant Film Editor is Jay Miracle. That's all - Jay Miracle.

Meta Minute

  • 23:03 podcast episode length.
Christian shares his Star Wars memories:
  He saw it when he was young in 1977 at the drive-in with his family.
  He loved it and saw the rest of the trilogy at the cinema.
  Christian didn't watch Star Wars again until 1983 - it was his least favorite up until then.
  However he then understood it and was totally hooked.
  Its a weird film that probably shouldn't work but does.
  Christian says that the SWM hosts do a good job of capturing what is special about the movie.
  He can't watch it now with same sense of wonder that he had when he was a kid.
  Christian's heart goes to ESB (like most people).
  When he was young Christian was obsessed with TV shows that ended "to be continued..." or on a cliffhanger.
  He didn't know that you could do that with a movie as well; until ESB came along.
  ESB ends on a sour note and it took him a long time to wrap his head around that. It was "kind of neat".
The ESB cliffhanger is discussed:
  It's taken for granted now but Lucas had a lot of chutzpah to do this in the 70s / 80s.
  Star Wars was not guaranteed franchise by any means.
  There were other sequels in that era, but none of them ended on a cliffhanger like ESB.
  Referenced: Rocky, Jaws.
  A gutsy move by George Lucas.
Christian finishes his thoughts:
  The ESB ending was mind-blowing.
  The bad guy won. Sure, its in the title but you didn't understand that in 1980 when you were 6 years old.
  He remembers sitting in stunned silence at the end and his father having to explain that its "to be continued..."
  Christian had never seen anything like it and thought is was "really wonderful".
 Christian has some questions for the hosts:
  What did their loved ones say about them doing the podcast?
   Alex: My loved ones are unaware that I'm doing the podcast.
   Pete: Nobody tried to stop him - which is why this is happening. Everyone thought that it was a great idea.
  What has surprised you the most in doing the podcast?
   Alex: How much he learned about the movie and the Star Wars universe in general.
   Pete: Watching it over the course of six months is a fun way to savoir it.
  Do you appreciate the movie more now, or do you just hate it?
   Pete: Yes, more.
   Alex: About the same; we have both always really liked it.
  • Christian is impressed by the podcast and the efforts of the hosts, and assumed that when they called him they were running out of guests. The hosts say that this wasn't the case at all; the minutes went by faster than they expected and the guest slots filled up quickly.
  • Reminder about The Holiday Special live show - December 11, 2013. The hosts discuss their approach to preparing for this show.

Quotes

  • Christian: And I'm Christian Dumais from The Star Wars Minute Minute podcast where I analyse and scrutinize the Star Wars Minute podcast minute-by-minute.
  • Alex: To Christian "So do you have anything for Christian's Movie Minute Moment Memories?"
  • Christian: All I know, Alex, is that I asked you to give me some credit and so you gave me the credits.
  • Alex: It forces you to slow down and smell the space roses.

Link

http://www.starwarsminute.com/2013/11/14/minute-119-to-be-continued/


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