Empire Minute 122: Mafia Metaphor

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Cabbel, Lennox, Nemet, Bewil and Venka

Date

July 1st, 2014

Summary

Part One of the End Credits

Guests

G. Jesse Martinez

Notes

Film

• Starts with credit for production designer Norman Reynolds, and ends with the last of the cast credits.
• Co-starring Frank Oz.
• Cinematographer Peter Suschitzky
• Brian Johnson (special visual effects).
• Editor Paul Hirsch.
• Credits for the cast.
• Norman Chancer is the Deck Lieutenant (credited as "Other Rebel Officer").

Podcast

• Referenced: "Muppet Babies"
  • Mentioned: Too Old.
• Suschitzky's career.
• Additional Special Edition-only credits.
• Referenced "Space: 1999"
• George Lucas as Michael Corleone (from The Godfather).
  • He got rid of all who opposed him after Star Wars.
  • Other allusions to the mafia.
• The music changes right before going into John Williams credit. He probably stopped conducting after his credit was over.
• Part of the impact of Yoda's performance was due to the editing.
  • Jesse is a documentary editor in his real life.
  • Now with CG, the editing isn't as crucial.
• Jesse likes the imperfections of the special effects and finds them charming.
  • Alex disagrees, because they weren't seen as flaws at the time, and have only surfaced due to changing technology/age, and movies made today will look clunky in 15–20 years.
• Referenced: "The Cat Came Back ".
• Alec Guinness' credit is not with the other top-billed actors. He was probably the most famous (outside of Star Wars) in the movie, but was embarrassed to be in it.
  • Referenced: Alan Smithee.
• Mentioned: Deck Officer.
• Jack Purvis (Chief Ugnaught).
  • He was in all three of Terry Gilliam's "Trilogy of Imagination" films.
  • Also the only actor to appear in all three of the Original Trilogy films playing a different character in each.
    • Mentioned: Pete the Jawa.

ExpandJesse tells a story about when he was in a band in high school.

  The bassist was the "cool one".
  His pickup line for all the girls was that he had met Peter Mayhew once.
 Jesse's Empire memories:
  Whatever toy he had, his cousin (who was older) always had the next toy better.
  He found Wicket in the mud, but his cousin had Darth Vader. Jesse had 2-1B, his cousin had Boba Fett. That rivalry continues to this day.
 His mom waited in line 12 hours to see Star Wars in '77, saw it, then got right back in line to see it again.
 His 4-year-old niece will ask him to tell her stories that star with "Once upon a time..."
  She asked him if he knew a story about a pirate and a princess...in space.
  He grabbed her out of the pool and ran home with her and showed her Star Wars as fast as he could.
  The pacing was such that he just had enough time for her to ask a question and to have him explain quickly—it was continuous excitement.
  His niece knew immediately that Darth Vader was the bad guy.

Meta Minute

• 30:27 podcast episode length.
• Ad-read: starwarsminute.com/audible
• This is one of those episodes where, if they closed the show as soon as somebody said "Star Wars Minute", the episode would only be one minute long.
• First full minute of the credits.
• Suschitzky was also the cinematographer for Eastern Promises (2007), directed by David Cronenberg.
• Robert Watts was associate producer on this movie and producer on ROTJ.
• The iPad guy (Retwin) is from minute 119

Quotes

• Pete: All of our fans are tops in our book (Aww, thanks!)
• Pete: I wrote <rump> prod...
• Alex: Why wouldn't they just cut off Harrison Ford's head and put it on someone else's body? Pete: Not literally. You mean in CG. Alex: Depends. How far you want to take this, this Mafia metaphor?
• Jesse: "Mom! I need Star Wars now!" Pete: STAT! Jesse: She's like "Oh the DVDs are over there," and I'm like, "Mom I need the REAL Star Wars."

Link

http://www.starwarsminute.com/2014/07/01/empire-minute-122-mafia-metaphor/

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